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Cardiovascular consequences of the aging process
1Coronary Care Unit, John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Insights
Aging affects the cardiovascular system, causing impaired diastolic filling, reduced adrenergic response, and increased arterial stiffness. These changes impact cardiovascular disease in older adults.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Science
- Gerontology
- Physiology
Background:
- Studying normal aging of the cardiovascular system presents challenges, particularly due to the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the elderly.
- Age-associated cardiovascular changes are common, affecting both animal models and healthy human populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline key age-associated changes in the cardiovascular system.
- To discuss the influence of lifestyle on these changes.
- To highlight how these changes affect cardiovascular disease presentation and treatment in older adults.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on cardiovascular aging in animal models and humans.
- Identification of three primary age-associated cardiovascular changes.
- Consideration of lifestyle factors and their impact.
Main Results:
- Three significant age-associated cardiovascular changes identified: impaired left ventricular diastolic filling, reduced adrenergic responsiveness to catecholamines, and increased arterial stiffness.
- Sedentary lifestyles are suggested as a contributing factor to these age-related cardiovascular alterations.
- These physiological changes influence how cardiovascular diseases manifest and respond to treatments in the elderly.
Conclusions:
- Cardiovascular aging is characterized by specific physiological changes that impact overall cardiac function.
- Lifestyle modifications may play a role in mitigating age-associated cardiovascular decline.
- Understanding these age-related cardiovascular changes is crucial for effective management of cardiovascular disease in older populations.
Abstract:
There are many challenges in the study of the normal age-associated changes that occur in the cardiovascular system, the most important of which is the fact that cardiovascular disease is so common in the elderly. In animal models and healthy humans, three age-associated changes with increasing age include (1) impaired left ventricular diastolic filling, (2) reduction in the adrenergic responsiveness to catecholamines, and (3) an increase in arterial stiffness. These changes likely are influenced by the increasingly sedentary lifestyle in the elderly. These age-associated changes also influence the manifestations of cardiovascular disease in the elderly and the response to therapy.