Anorexia of ageing: a key component in the pathogenesis of both sarcopenia and cachexia

Abstract

The anorexia of aging was first recognized as a physiological syndrome 30 years ago. Its major causes are an alteration in fundal compliance with an increase in antral stretch and enhanced cholecystokinin activity leading to increased satiation.This anorexia leads to weight loss in aging persons and is one of the component causes of the aging related sarcopenia. This physiological anorexia also increases the risk of more severe anorexia when an older person has an increase in inflammatory cytokines such as occurs when they have an illness. This results in an increase in the anorexia due to cachexia in older persons.

Muscle wasting and sarcopenia in heart failure: a brief overview of the current literature

“…33 Anorexia is likewise very prevalent in patients with HF as assessed using a 6-point Likert scale. 39 This goes hand in hand with the appearance of malnutrition. Hajahmadi et al found in 55 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy that muscle wasting was prevalent in 47.3% of all patients.…”

Geriatrics in the 21st century

“…The MEALS-ON-WHEELS mnemonic provides the major reversible causes of weight loss (123). Cachexia is predominantly due to inflammatory cytokines (124,125). It can be recognized, using the Glasgow Cachexia Scale, by finding a low albumin and an elevated CRP (126).…”

Metabolic disorders in heart failure and cancer

“…[36][37][38][39] Registries also allow us the unique possibility to examine the wide-range of co-morbidities of heart failure patients. [70][71][72][73] Fulster et al 74 has shown in data from the SICA-HF trial that 20% of CHF patients are affected by muscle wasting. 58,59 These rather new areas of research are a common problem in chronic diseases, gaining growing attention from the scientific community.…”