Aging And Age Related Disorders

Features that characterize the aging process include the gradual accumulation of cell damage after prolonged exposure to oxidative and inflammatory events over a lifetime. In addition to the accretion of lesions, the intrinsic levels of pro-oxidant and aberrant immune responses are elevated with age. These adverse events are often further enhanced by the chronic and slow progressing diseases that characterize the senescent brain and cardiovascular system. The incidence of some disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and vascular diseases are sufficiently prevalent in the extreme elderly that these disorders can arguably be considered "normal". Aging and Aging-Related Disorders examines the interface between normal and pathological aging, and illustrates how this border can sometimes be diffuse. It explores and illustrates the processes underlying the means by which aging becomes increasingly associated with inappropriate levels of free radical activity and how this can serve as a platform for the progression of age-related diseases. The book provides chapters that examine the interactive relationship between systems in the body that can enhance or sometimes even limit cellular longevity. In addition, specific redox mechanisms in cells are discussed. Another important aspect for aging discussed here is the close relationship between the systems of the body and exposure to environmental influences of oxidative stress that can affect both cellular senescence and a cell’s nuclear DNA. What may be even more interesting to note is that these external stressors are not simply confined to illnesses usually associated with aging, but can be evident in maturing and young individuals. A broad range of internationally recognized experts have contributed to this book. Their aim is to successfully highlight emerging knowledge and therapy for the understanding of the basis and development of aging–related disorders.

Ageing has become a great problem for many countries. Due to world-wide life prolongation the number of people over 6o years old has grown rapidly into a ten percent piece of the world population. The growing age of the world population raises many social, economical, and medical problems. The proportion of people in the economically active age groups to those who are over 65 is constantly decreasing. A major consequence of the increasing numbers of individuals in advanced age groups is increasing numbers of patients suffering from age-related diseases. The aim of this book is to present the basic data on human ageing as well as on age-related diseases.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the two important issues relating to disease in elderly: the age-related changes and the pathophysiology of the diseases. The book contains 19 chapters that are arranged by organ system and structured to cover the specific areas for a quick but in-depth understanding of diseases in aging patients. Unlike any other book on the market, this text is concise and yet thorough in approach to the stipulated areas. This book includes multiple-choice questions that reinforce the concepts that are most vital to understanding and treating geriatric patients, making it an outstanding resource on its own or as a companion to larger geriatric texts. Diseases in the Elderly is the ultimate resource for geriatricians, medical students, primary care physicians, hospital doctors, geriatric nurses, and all other medical professionals treating and diagnosing diseases in elderly patients.

This book offers a broad-ranging assessment of current efforts of the molecular, cellular, hormonal, nutritional and lifestyle strategies being tested and applied by biogerontologists in the search for effective means of intervention, prevention and treatment of age-related diseases, and for achieving healthy old age. Employing a semi-academic style, the book presents data from experimental systems, while focusing primarily on their applications to humans in the prevention and treatment of age-related impairments.

Aging of unicellular and multicellular eukaryotic organisms is a convoluted biological phenomenon, which is manifested as an age-related functional decline caused by progressive dysregulation of certain cellular and organismal processes. Many chronic diseases are associated with human aging. These aging-associated diseases include cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, stroke, neurodegenerative diseases (including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntington’s diseases), and many forms of cancer. Studies in yeast, roundworms, fruit flies, fishes, mice, primates, and humans have provided evidence that the major aspects and basic mechanisms of aging and aging-associated pathology are conserved across phyla. The focus of this International Journal of Molecular Sciences Special Issue is on molecular and cellular mechanisms, diagnostics, and therapies and diseases of aging. Fifteen original research and review articles in this Special Issue provide important insights into how various genetic, dietary, and pharmacological interventions can affect certain longevity-defining cellular and organismal processes to delay aging and postpone the onset of age-related pathologies in evolutionarily diverse organisms. These articles outline the most important unanswered questions and directions for future research in the vibrant and rapidly evolving fields of mechanisms of biological aging, aging-associated diseases, and aging-delaying therapies.

This volume of the subcellular Biochemistry series will attempt to bridge the gap between the subcellular events that are related to aging as they were described in the first volume of this set of two books and the reality of aging as this is seen in clinical practice. All chapters will start from the biochemistry or cell biology, where the data is available and work up towards the understanding that we have of aging in the various areas that are related to the subject. Key focus points for this volume are nutrition, external factors and genetics on aging. There will also be chapters that will focus on various organs or tissues in which aging has been well studied, like the eyes, the muscles, the immune system and the bones. The aim of the book project and the book project that is published in concert with this volume is to bring the subcellular and clinical areas into closer contact.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of a new scientific discipline termed Geroscience. Geroscience examines the molecular and cellular mechanisms that might explain why aging is the main risk factor for most chronic diseases affecting the elderly population. Over the past few decades, researchers have made impressive progress in understanding the genetics, biology and physiology of aging. This book presents vital research that can help readers to better understand how aging is a critical malleable risk factor in most chronic diseases, which, in turn, could lead to interventions that can help increase a healthy lifespan, or ‘healthspan.’ The book begins with an analysis of the Geroscience hypothesis, as well as the epidemiological underpinnings that define aging as a candidate main risk factor for most chronic diseases. Next, each chapter focuses on one particular disease, or group of diseases, with an emphasis on how basic molecular and cellular biology might explain why aging is a major risk factor for it. Coverage in the book includes: cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementias, stroke, Parkinson's and Alzheimer’s diseases, osteoporosis, arthritis, diabetes asthma, emphysema, kidney disease, vision impairment, and AIDS/HIV. It finishes with a chapter on pain in the elderly and an overview of future steps needed to bring the newly acquired knowledge into the clinic and the public at large.