Since january 1st of this year, people over 65 years old had a fall in Europe, sometimes with serious consequences.
| | This website conforms to the HONcode principles. Check here. |
Our organs do not all age in the same way; they are sensitive to the more or less important constraints undergone over the course of life. Heart and lung tissues are modified as a result of ageing.
The respiratory system enables the storing of oxygen, which is to be transmitted to our organs thanks to red blood cells. With time and the loss in tissue elasticity, lung and thoracic compliance capacities are reduced, as is the volume of respiratory muscles: this leads to a reduction of the ventilatory capacity. In the same way, the reduction of the gauge of bronchi leads to reduced expiratory flows. This decrease in functional reserves induces a reduction of the body's capacity to adapt to physical effort.
The effects of ageing on the cardiovascular system are responsible for a decrease in cardiac output and heart rate during physical effort, because of a thickening of the ventricular wall. Heart muscle tissue, as we get older, also becomes more sensitive to heart rhythm impairments. Lastly, among elderly people, the elasticity of arteries diminishes, and the system regulating tension becomes less effective (hypertension, orthostatic hypotension).