The New York Times reports on a push in medicine: Age-related muscle loss is as bad as bone loss and should also be labeled and treated as a disease.
In addition, geriatric specialists, in particular, are now trying to establish the age-related loss of muscles as a medical condition under the name sarcopenia, from the Greek for loss of flesh. Simply put, sarcopenia is to muscle what osteoporosis is to bone.
“In the future, sarcopenia will be known as much as osteoporosis is now,” said Dr. Bruno Vellas, president of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics.
I welcome the labeling of every aspect of aging as a disease because only diseases get research and treatment. General aging does not get attacked head on. So by all means, label every change we experience while aging as a vile disease. How about hair graying and hair loss? Surely diseases. Ditto all other changes in appearance.
Don't feel as flexible as you used to? That's a disease. Don't have the energy of a 17 year old? Disease, horrible malady. Needs a cure. Finding yourself needing reading glasses in your early 40s? Don't kid yourself. That's a disease. Demand a cure. Stem cells, gene therapy, nano repair bots, whatever it takes.
Am I missing any other important changes that come with age that have not yet been labeled as diseases?
| Share | | Randall Parker, 2010 September 06 09:22 AM Aging Trends |
"Am I missing any other important changes that come with age that have not yet been labeled as diseases?"
Death.
And the inability to attract hot, nubile 19-year-old girls.
You missed one. An aging disease that results in an increase in expressing sarcastic hostility towards ideas you don't agree with 100%.
I do have the energy of a 17-year-old. I do hope he doesn't mind.
That muscle loss is treated any differently than bone loss underlines the criminality inherent in the medical industry.
Yes, other diseases like menapause in women, erectile dysfuntion and lower sexual virility with age in men are two obvious ones.
Slower hangover recovery is really beginning to get to me. I am diseased--help!
I know this seems silly but being designated a disease has real world significance. 'Aging' itself is not considered a disease and only diseases get funding by NIH.
my doctor tells me I have the body of an 18 year old... and to give it back because I'm getting it all wrinkled
Kurt9 said: "That muscle loss is treated any differently than bone loss underlines the criminality inherent in the medical industry."
How so?
Hmmm... a little messing with Google Translate yields:
Hair loss: malliapenia
Greying hair: xethoriasma (literally "fading", sounds scary too)
The second disease WJ Walden mentions: giratos agamia ("old-age celibacy")
How about getting cranky and expecting the whole world to fix what ever is bothering you
"Am I missing any other important changes that come with age that have not yet been labeled as diseases?"
What do they call excessive fear of death?
All this emphasis on extending life span ignores the huge amount of scientific evidence that there is an afterlife:
http://sites.google.com/site/chs4o8pt/summary_of_evidence
It is a normal part of human existence to end the earth life and move on to another existence. Why delay it?
The inability to attract nubile pneumatic 19-year-olds is easily remedied by Vitamin $. Vitamin $ grows back hair, removes back hair, remedies giratos agamia, removes fat, and interestingly enough, can cause an improvement in your personal transport mode. The problem is that Vitamin $ is depleted by college-age children and alimonium, a toxic by-product of marriage.
Duh. Have you tried to lift weights to regain muscle mass?
Muscle mass is the ONE thing that has improved as I age (64), since I began to lift weights. It takes very little time to lift weights. Just be sure it is strenuous, without hurting yourself. All these idiots jogging, and wondering why their bodies are sore and they don't have good upper body musculature.
This sounds like the great medical/scientific puzzle of obesity.
This ain't rocket science.
Grampa has it right. I'm 48 and have been doing Crossfit for about 18 months. Lost 15 lbs and added muscle mass while doing so.
Eat real food, pick up heavy things, run occasionally. It's really not that complicated.
I'm sure that this designation as a disease will cause the pharmas to come up with a drug to treat this horrible affliction. Not necessary.
Grampa,
Sorry to burst your bubble, but, after sometime in your mid-40's, you cannot build muscle mass.
You can de-fat your body, tone and sculpt what muscles you have left but, you have what you have & it ain't gonna grow!
At your age, I'm a decade older, reps are more important than weight and lotsa non-impact cardio is even more important (elliptical/stairmaster/etc.)
Okay, I am about to turn 80 next month. I can lift most everything I need to, muscle-wise. But deterioration in the lower spine says for me to do so gently, and rarely. Why do I want to look like Charles Atlas? (You kids won't get that reference). I would look like a prune stuck on top of a Muscle Magazine cover shot.
I now drive a Buick and obey the speed limit. Is that a disease of aging? Can I get disability check for it?
The FDA's refusal to permit treatments for aging on the ground that "aging is not a disease" (!!!!!!!) is a very significant roadblock to development.
Darren at 11:00 AM, you have not understood the post. There is no sarcasm at all in it.
Fiftyville:
ROTFLMAO!!!!!
Perhaps of interest -
Old muscle given a shot of youthful vigour
- muscles in the old mice whose stem cell "aging pathway" had been dampened showed levels of cellular regeneration that were comparable to their much younger peers, and that were 3 to 4 times greater than those of the group of "untreated" old mice
http://www.topnews.in/health/old-muscle-given-shot-youthful-vigour-23041
Probably, though, even if effective, any anti-aging therapy would face decade of FDA delays.