Coping with an aging world population
Unafraid of Aging
By KAREN PENNAR, NYT
The signal public health achievement of the 20th century was the increase of the human life span. Now, as that achievement helps raise the proportion of the aged around the world, what once seemed an unalloyed blessing is too often regarded as a burden — a financial burden, a health care burden, even a social burden.
“It’s nuts,” said Dr. Linda P. Fried, an epidemiologist and geriatrician who is dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. “To assume defeat from what every one of us as individuals wants suggests we’re not asking the right questions.”
Findings from the science of aging, Dr. Fried said, should “reframe our understanding of the benefits and costs of aging.”
She broke new ground in defining frailty in the elderly, developing a simple assessment tool that uses five criteria to test for frailty. She also developed the concept of a “frailty syndrome,” and continues to guide younger colleagues in studies exploring how the frail respond to various stressors
[snip]
Indeed, the frailty syndrome that Dr. Fried describes is at once simple in its constituent elements and complex in the manner in which those elements interact. In a sort of negative synergism, insufficient nutrition can lead to loss of muscle mass, which can reduce strength and walking speed, which in turn reduces overall activity and energy. All of these factors interact to dysregulate the immunological, endocrinological and other systems in the body. Many of Dr. Fried’s papers on frailty have a schematic with arrows showing the negative feedback loops and how they work.
By KAREN PENNAR, NYT
The signal public health achievement of the 20th century was the increase of the human life span. Now, as that achievement helps raise the proportion of the aged around the world, what once seemed an unalloyed blessing is too often regarded as a burden — a financial burden, a health care burden, even a social burden.
“It’s nuts,” said Dr. Linda P. Fried, an epidemiologist and geriatrician who is dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. “To assume defeat from what every one of us as individuals wants suggests we’re not asking the right questions.”
Findings from the science of aging, Dr. Fried said, should “reframe our understanding of the benefits and costs of aging.”
She broke new ground in defining frailty in the elderly, developing a simple assessment tool that uses five criteria to test for frailty. She also developed the concept of a “frailty syndrome,” and continues to guide younger colleagues in studies exploring how the frail respond to various stressors
[snip]
Indeed, the frailty syndrome that Dr. Fried describes is at once simple in its constituent elements and complex in the manner in which those elements interact. In a sort of negative synergism, insufficient nutrition can lead to loss of muscle mass, which can reduce strength and walking speed, which in turn reduces overall activity and energy. All of these factors interact to dysregulate the immunological, endocrinological and other systems in the body. Many of Dr. Fried’s papers on frailty have a schematic with arrows showing the negative feedback loops and how they work.
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