Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Frailty is a common and clinically significant grouping of symptoms that occurs in aging and older adults. These symptoms can include decreased physical abilities such as walking, excessive fatigue, and weight and muscle loss leading to declined physical status.
Cases of severe muscle atrophy or destruction may render the muscle too weak to show any reflex and should not be confused with a neuronal cause. [citation needed] Hyporeflexia may have other causes, including hypothyroidism, electrolyte imbalance (e.g., excess magnesium), and drug use (e.g, depressants). [1]
Ageing – Biological process of getting older; Cachexia – Syndrome causing muscle loss not entirely reversible; Dynapenia – Loss of muscular strength not caused by neurological or muscular disease; Frailty syndrome – Weakness in elderly person; Geriatrics – Specialty that focuses on health care of elderly people
Some signs and symptoms of malnutrition in older adults may include unintended weight loss, tiredness and fatigue, muscle weakness or loss of strength, constipation, dizziness, syncope, gastritis, peptic ulcers, paleness of the skin, poor wound healing, depression, problems with memory, a weak immune system, and anemia.
Assessment of older patients before elective surgeries can accurately predict the patients' recovery trajectories. [19] One frailty scale uses five items: unintentional weight loss, muscle weakness, exhaustion, low physical activity, and slowed walking speed. A healthy person scores 0; a very frail person scores 5.
The fatigue must have lasted for 6 months or longer, and be present at least 50% of the time; Other symptoms are possible, such as muscle pain, mood problems, or sleep disturbance; Conditions known to cause severe fatigue and some mental conditions exclude a diagnosis. Post-infectious fatigue syndrome also requires evidence of a prior infection ...
In a person who does not tolerate exercise well, physical activity may cause unusual breathlessness , muscle pain , tachypnoea (abnormally rapid breathing), inappropriate rapid heart rate or tachycardia (having a faster heart rate than normal), increasing muscle weakness or muscle fatigue; or exercise might result in severe headache, nausea ...
However, the tool requires that patients be awake and cooperative, which is often not the case. Also, the screening tool is non-specific, because it does not identify the cause a person's muscle weakness. [citation needed] Once weakness is detected, the evaluation of muscle strength should be repeated several times.