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Frailty Syndrome
Frailty or frailty syndrome refers to a state of health in which older adults gradually lose their bodies' in-built reserves and functioning. This makes them more vulnerable, less able to recover and even apparently minor events (infections, environmental changes) can have drastic impacts on their physical and mental health. Frailty can have various symptoms including muscle weakness (reduced grip strength), slower walking speed, exhaustion, unintentional weight loss, and frequent falls. Older people with certain medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and dementia, are also more likely to have frailty. In addition, adults living with frailty face more symptoms of anxiety and depression than those who do not. Frailty is not an inevitable part of aging. Its development can be prevented, delayed and its progress slowed. The most effective ways of preventing or improving frailty are regular physical activity and a healthy diet. The prevalence of frailty varies based on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walker (mobility)
A walker (North American English) or walking frame (British English) is a device that gives support to maintain balance or stability while walking, most commonly due to age-related mobility disability, including Frailty syndrome, frailty. Another common equivalent term for a walker is a Zimmer (frame), a Generic trademark, genericised trademark from Zimmer Biomet, a major manufacturer of such devices and joint replacement parts. Walking frames have two front wheels, and there are also wheeled walkers available having three or four wheels, also known as rollators. Walkers started appearing in the early 1950s. The first US patent was awarded in 1953 to William Cribbes Robb, of Stretford, UK, for a device called "walking aid", which had been filed with the British patent office in August 1949. Two variants with wheels were both awarded US patents in May 1957, and the first non-wheeled design that was called a "walker" was patented in 1965 by Elmer F. Ries of Cincinnati, Ohio. The fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
DHEA
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), also known as androstenolone, is an endogenous steroid hormone precursor. It is one of the most abundant circulating steroids in humans. DHEA is produced in the adrenal glands, the gonads, and the brain. It functions as a metabolic intermediate in the biosynthesis of the androgen and estrogen sex steroids both in the gonads and in various other tissues. However, DHEA also has a variety of potential biological effects in its own right, binding to an array of nuclear and cell surface receptors, and acting as a neurosteroid and modulator of neurotrophic factor receptors. In the United States, DHEA is sold as an over-the-counter supplement, and medication called prasterone. Biological function As an androgen DHEA and other adrenal androgens such as androstenedione, although relatively weak androgens, are responsible for the androgenic effects of adrenarche, such as early pubic and axillary hair growth, adult-type body odor, increased oiliness ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major Depressive Disorder
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive depression (mood), low mood, low self-esteem, and anhedonia, loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this syndrome, symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM-III), and has become widely used since. The disorder causes the second-most years lived with disability, after low back pain, lower back pain. The diagnosis of major depressive disorder is based on the person's reported experiences, behavior reported by family or friends, and a mental status examination. There is no laboratory test for the disorder, but testing may be done to rule out physical conditions that can cause similar symptoms. The most common time o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xerostomia
Xerostomia, also known as dry mouth, is a subjective complaint of dryness in the mouth, which may be associated with a change in the composition of saliva, reduced salivary flow, or have no identifiable cause. This symptom is very common and is often seen as a side effect of many types of medication. It is more common in older people (mostly because individuals in this group are more likely to take several medications) and in people who breathe through their mouths. Dehydration, radiotherapy involving the salivary glands, chemotherapy and several diseases can cause reduced salivation (hyposalivation), or a change in saliva consistency and hence a complaint of xerostomia. Sometimes there is no identifiable cause, and there may sometimes be a psychogenic reason for the complaint. Definition Xerostomia is the subjective sensation of dry mouth, which is often (but not always) associated with hypofunction of the salivary glands. The term is derived from the Greek words ξηρός (' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Obesity
Obesity is a medical condition, considered by multiple organizations to be a disease, in which excess Adipose tissue, body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it can potentially have negative effects on health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's weight divided by the square of the person's height—is over ; the range is defined as overweight. Some East Asian countries use lower values to calculate obesity. Obesity is a major cause of disability and is Obesity-associated morbidity, correlated with various diseases and conditions, particularly cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea, certain types of cancer, and osteoarthritis. Obesity has individual, socioeconomic, and environmental causes. Some known causes are Western pattern diet, diet, low physical activity, automation, urbanization, quantitative trait locus, genetic susceptibility, medications, mental disorders, Economic policy, economic pol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cognitive Impairment
Cognitive impairment is an inclusive term to describe any characteristic that acts as a barrier to the cognition process or different areas of cognition. Cognition, also known as cognitive function, refers to the mental processes of how a person gains knowledge, uses existing knowledge, and understands things that are happening around them using their thoughts and senses. Cognitive impairment can be in different domains or aspects of a person's cognitive function including memory, attention span, planning, reasoning, decision-making, language (comprehension, writing, speech), executive functioning, and visuospatial functioning. The term cognitive impairment covers many different diseases and conditions and may also be symptom or manifestation of a different underlying condition. Examples include impairments in overall intelligence (as with intellectual disabilities), specific and restricted impairments in cognitive abilities (such as in learning disorders like dyslexia), neurops ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malnutrition
Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues and form. Malnutrition is a category of diseases that includes undernutrition and overnutrition. Undernutrition is a lack of nutrients, which can result in stunted growth, wasting, and being underweight. A surplus of nutrients causes overnutrition, which can result in obesity or toxic levels of micronutrients. In some developing countries, overnutrition in the form of obesity is beginning to appear within the same communities as undernutrition. Most clinical studies use the term 'malnutrition' to refer to undernutrition. However, the use of 'malnutrition' instead of 'undernutrition' makes it impossible to distinguish between undernutrition and overnutrition, a less acknowledged form of malnutrition. Accordingly, a 2019 report by The Lance ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polypharmacy
Polypharmacy (polypragmasia) is an umbrella term to describe the simultaneous use of multiple medicines by a patient for their conditions. The term polypharmacy is often defined as regularly taking five or more medicines but there is no standard definition and the term has also been used in the context of when a person is prescribed 2 or more medications at the same time. Polypharmacy may be the consequence of having multiple long-term conditions, also known as multimorbidity and is more common in the elderly. In some cases, an excessive number of medications at the same time is worrisome, especially for people who are older with many chronic health conditions, because this increases the risk of an adverse event in that population. In many cases, polypharmacy cannot be avoided, but 'appropriate polypharmacy' practices are encouraged to decrease the risk of adverse effects. Appropriate polypharmacy is defined as the practice of prescribing for a person who has multiple conditions or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Multimorbidity
Multimorbidity, also known as multiple long-term conditions (MLTC), means living with two or more chronic illnesses. For example, a person could have diabetes, heart disease and Depression (mood), depression at the same time. Multimorbidity can have a significant impact on people's health and wellbeing. It also poses a complex challenge to Health system, healthcare systems which are traditionally focused on individual diseases. Multiple long-term conditions can affect people of any age, but they are more common in older age, affecting more than half of people over 65 years old. Definition The concept of multiple long-term conditions is not clearly defined and may be referred to by various names. Difference from comorbidity Multimorbidity is often referred to as comorbidity even though the two are considered distinct clinical scenarios. Comorbidity means that one 'index' condition is the focus of attention, and others are viewed in relation to this. In contrast, multimorbidit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Respiratory Disease
Respiratory diseases, or lung diseases, are pathological conditions affecting the organs and tissues that make gas exchange difficult in air-breathing animals. They include conditions of the respiratory tract including the trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, pleurae, pleural cavity, the nerves and muscles of respiration. Respiratory diseases range from mild and self-limiting, such as the common cold, influenza, and pharyngitis to life-threatening diseases such as bacterial pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, tuberculosis, acute asthma, lung cancer, and severe acute respiratory syndromes, such as COVID-19. Respiratory diseases can be classified in many different ways, including by the organ or tissue involved, by the type and pattern of associated signs and symptoms, or by the cause of the disease. The study of respiratory disease is known as pulmonology. A physician who specializes in respiratory disease is known as a pulmonologist, a chest medicine specialist, a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heart Failure
Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to Cardiac cycle, fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF typically presents with shortness of breath, Fatigue (medical), excessive fatigue, and bilateral peripheral edema, leg swelling. The severity of the heart failure is mainly decided based on ejection fraction and also measured by the severity of symptoms. Other conditions that have symptoms similar to heart failure include obesity, kidney failure, liver disease, anemia, and thyroid disease. Common causes of heart failure include coronary artery disease, heart attack, hypertension, high blood pressure, atrial fibrillation, valvular heart disease, alcohol use disorder, excessive alcohol consumption, infection, and cardiomyopathy. These cause heart failure by altering the structure or the function of the heart or in some cases both. There are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bone Fractures
A bone fracture (abbreviated FRX or Fx, Fx, or #) is a medical condition in which there is a partial or complete break in the continuity of any bone in the body. In more severe cases, the bone may be broken into several fragments, known as a ''comminuted fracture''. An open fracture (or compound fracture) is a bone fracture where the broken bone breaks through the skin. A bone fracture may be the result of high force impact or stress, or a minimal trauma injury as a result of certain medical conditions that weaken the bones, such as osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone cancer, or osteogenesis imperfecta, where the fracture is then properly termed a pathologic fracture. Most bone fractures require urgent medical attention to prevent further injury. Signs and symptoms Although bone tissue contains no pain receptors, a bone fracture is painful for several reasons: * Breaking in the continuity of the periosteum, with or without similar discontinuity in endosteum, as both contain mult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
