Key result
Loss of physiological complexity associated with aging and disease may reduce the ability to adapt to stress and lead to the syndrome of frailty.
The paper conceptualizes how the loss of complex physiological dynamics due to aging and disease can reduce adaptability and lead to the syndrome of frailty.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Suggests complexity loss underlies frailty; hypothesis-generating for dynamic monitoring before clinical adoption.
Healthy physiological processes require the complex interaction of multiple control systems operating over multiple time scales. The output of these processes (for example, heart rate, blood pressure, hormonal rhythms, or postural sway) demonstrates complex variability that can be quantified using the concept of fractals, derived from the field of nonlinear dynamics. Complex physiological dynamics enable an organism to rapidly respond to the internal and external perturbations of everyday life. Aging and disease are associated with a loss of complexity in the dynamics of many physiological systems. This loss of complexity may reduce the ability to adapt to stress and lead to the syndrome of frailty.
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Lewis A. Lipsitz (2004) conducted a review in Aging and frailty. Loss of physiological complexity associated with aging and disease may reduce the ability to adapt to stress and lead to the syndrome of frailty.
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