Why Does Reduced Grip Strength Correlate with Chronic Lung Disease in Aging?

In this open access paper, researchers speculate on the common mechanisms underlying the correlation between reduced grip strength and chronic lung disease in old age. The many, complex, and diverse manifestations of aging emerge from a much smaller, simpler set of root causes. Simple forms of damage applied to a very complex system necessarily produce very complex outcomes. Nonetheless, the incidence of many of those outcomes, even when very different from one another, will correlate because they depend to a sizable degree on the same forms of underlying damage. The term "sarcopenia" was first introduced to describe the progressive age-related loss of muscle mass and is correlated with poor health-related quality of life. In this context, the handgrip dynamometer (HGD) is a useful tool to evaluate muscle strength because it provides simple, fast, reliable, and standardized measurements of total muscle strength. In addition, handgrip strength (HGS) is considered an important measure to diagnose dynapenia because low HGS is a robust predictor of low muscle mass and a clinical marker of poor physical performance. In the respiratory system, the incidence of chronic lung diseases (CLDs) is comparatively higher in individuals aged 65 and older. HGS is an indicator of overall physical capacity. It is not limited to assessing the upper limbs and is a good predictor of morbidity and mortality, indicating that the HGD is a potentially useful instrument for evaluating d...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs