aging related changes
Life expectancy increased from 50 years in the early 1900s to over 80 years at present. Factors contributing to this development may include advances in medical care as well as the creation of cleaner, safer, and healthier environments for people to live in. Although this represents a great achievement for human societies, the growth in both the size and the proportion of the elderly population also comes with critical challenges
Aging is a condition in which a person gradually loses the ability to maintain homeostasis, due to structural alteration or dysfunction. Aging is a major risk factor for most chronic diseases. Total number of the people aged 65 or more was recorded at 524 million people, equivalent to about 8% of the total global population .It is expected that the elderly population will exceed the 1.5 billion person or 16% of the total population in the world
All cells within the human body undergo changes related to advancing age, although different cell groups are affected differently. The ageing process affects the liver on a molecular, cellular, tissue and macroscopic level and has implications for both the healthy and the diseased liver
In the next thirty years the number of elderly population that more than 60 years of age will double, increasing by over a billion individuals and the number of individuals over age 80 may increase by as much as 300 million people. This will lead to a significant increase in age-related diseases. Aging has emerged as one of the greatest and most prevalent risk factors for the development of cardiovascular disease
Aging defined as hallmarks that impact all aspects of cellular function, influencing the physiological performance of different organ systems, which induces a decline in immune resilience, with increased susceptibility to mortality. Aging has effects on many cellular processes. Cardiovascular disease and cancer are strongly age-associated. Elderly people with specific comorbidities have a higher risk of infection at that organ site (i.e endocarditis with a damaged heart valve). Being elderly than 85 years of age can be an independent risk factor for admission to the intensive care unit (ICU) and hospital mortality
Age related changes
Aging is the main risk factor for many common diseases, such as cancers, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and others that severely compromise the quality of life of affected elderly populations
Physiological changes occur with aging in all organ systems. The cardiac output decreases, blood pressure increases and arteriosclerosis develops. The lungs show impaired gas exchange, a decrease in vital capacity and slower expiratory flow rates. creatinine clearance decreases with age although the serum creatinine level remains relatively constant. Functional changes, largely related to altered motility patterns, occur in the gastrointestinal system with senescence, and atrophic gastritis and altered hepatic drug metabolism are common in the elderly population. Elevation of blood glucose occurs with age on a multifactorial basis and osteoporosis due to a linear decline in bone mass. The epidermis of the skin atrophies with age and due to changes in collagen and elastin the skin loses its tone and elasticity. Lean body mass declines and this is due to loss and atrophy of muscle cells. Degenerative changes occur in many joints combined with the loss of muscle mass, inhibits elderly patients' locomotion
In the elderly populations the dynamic homeostasis is lost and this loss is associated with decreased physiologic reserve after the dysregulation of multi-systems. Chronic inflammation is an established contributing factor for frailty with elevated circulating level of proinflammatory cytokines (e.g. interleukin-6 [IL-6]) and inflammatory markers (e.g. C-reactive protein [CRP], tumour necrosis factor-α [TNF-α])
