Intro To Ageing And Disease

Question 0

What is ageing?

Answer 0

A progressive generalised impairment of function resulting in loss of adaptive response to stress and a growing risk of age related disease

Question 1

What factors are involved in “squaring the rectangle of survival”?

Answer 1

Decreased infant mortality 
Increased standard of living 
Improvement in public health 
Improvement in sanitation 
Improved diet

Question 2

What is frailty?

Answer 2

Physiological syndrome characterised by decrease reserve and diminished resistance to stressors resulting from decline across physiological systems and causing vulnerability to adverse outcomes

Question 3

What is physical frailty?

Answer 3

The combination of weight loss, fatigue, impaired grip strength, diminished physical activity if slow gait

Question 4

What is Strehler’s concepts for a true ageing process?

Answer 4

1. Universal –> identifiable in all members of a species (loss of calcium in bone)
2. Intrinsic –> changes in endogenous origin (hairloss)
3. Progressive –> changes continue with age (greying of hair)
4. Deleterious –> eventually harmful (refused visual acuity)