“It’s worth a fortune to be thin in old age”? Not necessarily! Being thin in old age does not mean you are really healthy

There is an old Chinese saying: "A slim body in old age cannot be bought with money"!

The general idea is that the thinner the elderly are, the healthier they are.

Many elderly people believe this

So I usually control my diet. I dare not eat eggs or even eat more meat than necessary, for fear that I will not lose weight if I eat too much.

They even gave this sentence a new meaning: as long as you control your weight, chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, high blood lipids and diabetes will disappear.

Uh, that’s too arbitrary and unscientific!

Being thin in old age does not mean being healthy!

We all know that being fat is bad for you. Obesity is closely related to many chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

But the thinner you are, the healthier you are!

Many elderly people feel tired, exhausted, and lose weight. They go to the hospital and have all the tests done, but the results show nothing obviously abnormal.

In fact, I was suffering from asthenic syndrome.

This silent killer of health specifically targets thin, elderly people.

Professor Fried of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine proposed the diagnostic criteria for frailty syndrome by combining multiple easily measurable factors:

Among the five indicators of weight loss, fatigue, decreased grip strength, slower walking speed, and decreased physical activity , if three or more of them occur at the same time, the person is assessed as frail.

If 1-2 of these indicators are met, it is the early stage of frailty syndrome.

What is frailty syndrome?

Frailty syndrome refers to a series of problems such as complications, adverse events, and sudden illnesses that occur in the elderly due to the weakening of the body's physiological reserve function and multi-system dysfunction when exposed to external stimuli.

Elderly people with frailty syndrome often react strongly to minor external stimuli (such as new drugs, minor infections, minimally invasive surgeries, etc.) and present with symptoms that are inconsistent with the degree of stimulation, such as:

· The ability to live suddenly changes from being able to take care of oneself to needing to rely on others;

· The ability to move from flexible to stiff - the risk of a decline in daily activities in patients with frailty syndrome is 2.05 times that of those without the disease;

· Change in posture from normal balance to prone to falling;

· Clear thinking becomes confused.

In clinical treatment, frailty syndrome will significantly increase the hospitalization time of elderly patients; increase the incidence and mortality of postoperative complications. The risk of death in elderly people with frailty syndrome is 2.34 times that of those without the disease; and at the same time, it affects the ability to recover after surgery.

In short, once you are diagnosed with the disease, the incidence of a series of adverse events in the later stage will increase significantly.

Although being too thin does not necessarily lead to frailty syndrome, being underweight in the elderly can lead to malnutrition and anemia, causing osteoporosis and fractures; it can also lead to a decrease in the body's resistance and an increased risk of infection.

In a word, “It’s worth a lot of money to stay slim in old age” is not a good idea!

Early intervention can effectively reverse

For frailty syndrome, active prevention and treatment are very important! Especially in the early "window period", it can be effectively reversed.

How to do it specifically?

● Scientific rehabilitation exercises

The elderly can perform appropriate aerobic and resistance training under the guidance of a doctor.

Remember: Only individualized exercise prescriptions that vary from person to person can effectively prevent frailty syndrome.

Nutritional supplement

The elderly should take in enough high-quality protein, such as fish, lean meat, poultry, eggs, etc. In addition, some essential amino acid mixtures rich in leucine can also improve the frail state.

In addition, you can take appropriate vitamin supplements such as vitamin D, C, E, etc. under the guidance of a doctor.

● Hormone supplementation

For elderly men with hypogonadism, appropriate testosterone supplementation combined with exercise intervention can more significantly improve frailty syndrome.

● Management of polypharmacy

Elderly people with frailty syndrome often have multiple diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, cognitive dysfunction, etc. These elderly people often take multiple medications at the same time.

Reasonable drug management is also particularly important for the prevention and treatment of frailty syndrome.

Remember, being too fat or too thin is not good.

Maintaining a healthy weight is a wise move