Physiology, Aging

Excerpt

Although aging is an almost universal truth that we all experience throughout our lives, it is vital that clinicians understand both the clinical and epidemiological relevance of this process. Senescence brings a variety of changes across the spectrum of the body’s systems, which require special care and management. Estimates are that the number of adults older than 65 will reach upwards of 88.5 million by 2050, which will surely place a higher demand for healthcare providers and hospital systems.

While technology has allowed for a massive expansion of the capabilities of modern medical science, many side effects have appeared over time, of which not all have developed at the same rate as medical science in general—not the least of which is our overall prolonged life expectancies. This implies a particular impetus to develop new screening methods, cope with protracted management of disease, which might have proved fatal quite quickly before the advent of certain biomedical technologies, and promote and develop health and wellness lifestyle measures at an early age to avoid the pitfalls of chronic illness and disease later in life.