Old but Not Frail: A Matter of Heart and Head

The New York Times reports:

It is one of the persistent mysteries of aging, researchers say. Why would one person, like Mr. Bialokur, remain so hale and hearty while another, who had seemed just as healthy, start to weaken and slow down, sometimes as early as his 70’s?

That, says Tamara Harris, who is chief of the geriatric epidemiology section at the National Institute on Aging, is a central issue that is only now being systematically addressed. The question is why some age well and others do not, often heading along a path that ends up in a medical condition known as frailty.

Frailty, Dr. Harris explains, involves exhaustion, weakness, weight loss and a loss of muscle mass and strength. It is, she says, a grim prognosis whose causes were little understood.

“It means that some people spend a long time in a period of their life where they have lost function,” Dr. Harris says. “People find that very distressing, and there is a tremendous health care cost.”

Well worth your time reading the whole long article.