Erschienen in:
07.09.2018 | Editorial
Autonomic Neuropathy and Cardiovascular Disease in Aging
verfasst von:
A. Shams, John E. Morley
Erschienen in:
The journal of nutrition, health & aging
|
Ausgabe 9/2018
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Excerpt
Similar to any other systems in the human body, the nervous system undergoes functional decline with aging. These changes have been identified in both central and peripheral components of the nervous systems including the somatic and autonomic branches. Some of the well-known neurological deficits which are associated with aging are hyperopia, presbycusis, diminished sense of taste and smell, loss or impairment of vibratory sense in ankles, and toes, and reduced number of motor end units (
1). The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the nervous system which maintains homeostasis by regulating the function of the heart, the endocrine and exocrine glands, the abdominal viscera, the smooth muscles throughout the body, and the immune system (
2) (
Figure 1). The ANS is divided into two divisions: the sympathetic thoracolumbar chain outflow and parasympathetic craniosacral outflow (
3). Multiple hypotheses have been proposed about changes which occur to the ANS secondary to aging. These appear to be predominantly due to a decline in receptor functionality (
4,
5). …