Author's note: This column is intended for educational purposes only. It aims to highlight gaps in health knowledge, provide support and empower organizations to guide their members in creating …
This item is available in full to subscribers.
Please log in to continue |
Author's note: This column is intended for educational purposes only. It aims to highlight gaps in health knowledge, provide support and empower organizations to guide their members in creating effective health and wellness programs.
Are we treating aging — or treating the diseases that aging creates?
Population aging represents one of the largest healthcare challenges the United States faces today. Yet policymakers largely ignore it. Scientific evidence shows that interventions can target fundamental “aging” processes. Economic evidence reveals that this approach could save the healthcare system enormous sums of money. One possible cause for this inaction is how aging and disease are categorized: the former is viewed as “natural,” and the latter as “abnormal.” Elderly patients experience this when they approach their provider with symptoms that are waved off as part of “getting older.”
A key reason to investigate the aging process, along with interventions that allow older adults to age in relatively good health, is twofold: first, technological advances in medicine mean people are living longer. Second, comorbidities in the elderly population impose very high costs on nearly every component of the healthcare system. This means simply more people with more symptoms and diseases that are expensive to treat. Focusing on fundamental aging mechanisms, rather than “age-related disease,” represents a paradigm shift in medical care.
Throughout history, opinions varied among classical thinkers from the Greco-Roman world and Eastern philosophers on whether disabilities seen in the elderly resulted from disease or the aging process.
Advances in technology are rapidly changing how researchers and clinicians view the biology of aging, chronic disease, metabolic health, lifestyle and clinical treatments. Emerging research asks whether nutrition, physical activity, sleep, metabolic health, inflammation, social environment and other modifiable factors influence the biology of aging itself. This represents a remarkable shift in medicine and is part of preventive care.
Studying the biology of aging is one of the most important shifts in medicine. It focuses on the biological processes that make us more vulnerable to disease. The National Institute on Aging describes the goal as targeting biological changes of aging to potentially delay or prevent several chronic diseases and functional decline over time.
Traditional medicine asks what disease a patient suffers from and then considers how to treat it.
Aging biology asks what is happening biologically that makes a person susceptible to diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, frailty or other conditions.
Additional lines of research are making that question clinically testable:
• Biological age vs. chronological age
An interesting development is the effort to measure biological aging beyond counting birthdays. In a 2024 aging study, researchers identified metabolic dysfunction, cardiac and renal dysfunction and inflammation as signatures associated with aging. They are part of the biological “7 pillars of aging” identified by geroscience researchers to describe the interconnected cellular and molecular processes that drive aging.
• Calorie restriction
The CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long-Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy) randomized clinical trial enrolled adults without obesity and followed them for two years of calorie restriction. Researchers found that calorie restriction slowed biological aging in the metabolic, cardiovascular and immune systems. This leads us to ask, “Can changing energy intake alter biological processes associated with aging?” rather than “Does eating less make you lose weight?”
• Senescent cells
Some cells become senescent, meaning they stop dividing but do not die. However, they can release inflammatory molecules that affect surrounding tissues. Researchers are investigating whether accumulating senescent cells contribute to age-related diseases and whether treatment can improve this process. This concept has moved from laboratory research to human trials. Note: These cells are not “bad cells.” They have useful roles, including wound healing and some protection against cancer.
In conclusion, an article in PubMed (2023) stated that biological aging is the main driver of age-related chronic diseases. In addition, regular physical exercise was found to modulate the effects of aging and maintain functional capacity. In medical parlance, physical exercise remains a priority for a healthy life, especially for healthy aging.
Dr. Cheryl Christy is a Baldwin County resident and registered nurse with nearly 30 years of experience. She holds master's degrees in nursing education and nursing practice and a doctorate in nursing practice. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, Phi Pi Chapter, a certified lay counselor and the author of "Voices for Healthcare," a healthcare blog.
Read her previous column titled "Health disinformation vs. misinformation – Why it matters" on www.GulfCoastMedia.com. Her blog can be found at https://substack.com/@dnprn.
