Ageing

Question 1

Are we getting more older people in the population because we are living longer?

Answer 1

Technically no, we are just getting more people to live out their natural life expectancy

Question 2

What are some social engineering type factors that influence life expectancy?

Answer 2

better living condition, clean water, better nutrition, free from disease, medical intervention, vaccination

Question 3

What is cellular senescence?

Answer 3

the phenomenon where cells lose the ability to divide in response to DNA damage

Question 4

What is organismal senescence?

Answer 4

the ageing of whole organisms

Question 5

Why does the body system need to keep a reserve? How does this reserve change as you age?

Answer 5

the reserve is there to respond to challenges. Every system loses reverse capacity with age, but the speed of deterioration can vary across different systems

Question 6

What is the biomarker of frailty?

Answer 6

low-grade, chronic inflammation with abnormality in endocrine and coagulation systems

Question 7

What is the level of cytokines associated with frailty relative to normal level?

Answer 7

2-4 fold higher than normal

Question 8

what’s the postulated effect of chronic inflammation in frailty?

Answer 8

catabolic effect on muscle mass and strength + related to anorexia

Question 9

What are some inflammatory cytokines involved in frailty?

Answer 9

CRP, IL6, TNF-a

Question 10

What is sarcopenia?

Answer 10

ageing of muscle

Question 11

T/F We lose more type I fibre than type II

Answer 11

False, we lose more fast twitch type 2 muscles with age

Question 12

What’s the function of fast twitch muscle?

Answer 12

fine, precise and rapid movement

Question 13

What’s Fried’s criteria for frailty?

Answer 13

unintentional weight loss (3 or 4 kg in a year in old people), weakness, exhaustion, slow walking speed, low physical activity.

Question 14

How to you define someone as “frail” using Fried’s criteria

Answer 14

the person is frail if he has more than 3 proposed criteria

Question 15

What is co-morbidity?

Answer 15

concurrent presence of more than 2 chronic disease

Question 16

T/F Disability, co-morbidity and frailty are different concepts

Answer 16

True, you can be frail without being having disability or co-morbidity

Question 17

What’s the risk of having fragmented health services

Answer 17

lots of doctors treating a single patient leading to increased risk of drug interaction and a lack of coordination between specialists

Question 18

How is medical syndrome different to geriatric syndrome?

Answer 18

We hypodeduct presenting symptoms to identify disease in medical syndrome, but with geriatric syndrome, we start with the syndrome and find out the contributing factors