TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Geroscience: The Biology of Aging as a Therapeutic Target A1 - Newman, John C. A1 - Justice, Jamie N. A2 - Walter, Louise C. A2 - Chang, Anna A2 - Chen, Pei A2 - Harper, G. Michael A2 - Rivera, Josette A2 - Conant, Rebecca A2 - Lo, Daphne A2 - Yukawa, Michi PY - 2021 T2 - Current Diagnosis & Treatment Geriatrics, 3e AB - The past 30 years have produced a revolution in the scientific understanding of the biologic processes that underlie aging. The mechanisms of aging can be elucidated, categorized, measured, manipulated in the laboratory, and, now, targeted in clinical trials to improve the health of older adults. Why consider aging itself as a therapeutic target? Simply put, aging as a risk factor for disease and disability dwarfs all others on a population level. For a litany of chronic, “age-related diseases,” including heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and Alzheimer disease, age is by far the dominant risk factor, and with each decade of life over 50 years, the risk increases exponentially. Moreover, the impact of any specific disease pathophysiology is projected through the lens of aging. A broken bone is a temporary inconvenience for a young adult, but a life-changing and often fatal event for a frail older adult. Loss of independence and geriatric syndromes, such as falls, immobility, frailty, and incontinence, are rarely due to a single disease process but rather to the accumulation of physiologic dysfunctions in multiple systems for which biologic aging is the common underlying factor. Treating or preventing any one individual disease without addressing aging can often have only a limited impact, because one disease or problem will be exchanged for another. The practice of geriatric medicine targets aging at a clinical level; now the complementary field of geroscience is emerging to target aging at a biologic level. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/03/28 UR - accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1180015099 ER -