Very old health

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It seems that those who are at least 85 years old fair well in their indicators

of health. That

the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythrocyte_sedimentation_rate (ESR) should be

so much correlated

with longevity and health appeared to be due to conditions such as arthritis and

rheumatism,

etcetera. Zinc was a focus, and lower levels were found to associate with long

aging. The below

paper is pdf-availed.

Kanoni S, Dedoussis G, Manios Y, Malavolta M, Mocchegiani E.

Health status, blood and anthropometrical indices from Greek old and

nonagenarian subjects.

Biogerontology. 2006 Sep 5; [Epub ahead of print]

PMID: 16953333 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] http://tinyurl.com/zu8bo

... ZINCAGE project, 249 old (60–85 years) and nonagenarian Greek subjects

(=/>85 years old)

.... 214 of them were characterized as healthy (136 female, 78 male), while those

characterized as

non-healthy were excluded from the statistical analysis. The findings indicated

an 88.4%

prevalence of overweight and obesity in elderly (91.2% in women, 83.3% in men),

while a

significant decrease in body mass index with age was recorded.

Hypercholesterolemia was observed

in 75.3% of elderly women and in 69.2% of men. Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

value was increased

in 27.6% of all healthy elderly, while zinc deficiency was observed in 18.7% of

elderly. Over

85.0% of all healthy elderly were within normal range for all other

hematological analysis. Blood

analysis confirmed the good health status of the elderly recruited as healthy,

except for the high

prevalence of obesity and hypercholesterolemia.

Table 1 Cut-off points for BMI and blood lipid values

=============================

Reference values Classification

=============================

BMI (kg/m2)

<18.5 Underweight

18.5–24.9 Normal weight

25.0–29.9 Overweight

30.0–34.9 Obesity

=/>35 Severe obesity

Total cholesterol (mg/dl)

<200 Desirable

200–239 Borderline high

=/>240 High

HDL-C (mg/dl)

<40 Low

=/>40 Desirable

LDL-C (mg/dl)

<130 Optimal

130–159 Borderline high

160–189 High

=/>190 Very high

Plasma zinc (ìM)

</=10 Deficiency

>10 Normal

Table 2 Comparison of selected variables within healthy subjects by sex and

adjusted for age

===============================================

Males Females P

===============================================

Number of participants 78 136

Age (years) 75.5±7.9 72.0±7.5 0.002

Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 143.3±15.9 137.5±17.9 0.055

Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 81.2±8.7 79.0±8.8 0.036

BMI (kg/m2) 28.8±4.3 31.3±5.2 0.003

Biochemical and blood indices

Total cholesterol 215.7±37.6 230.6±38.0 0.015

HDL-C (mg/dl) 54.6±12.1 60.5±12.9 0.002

Triglycerides (mg/dl) 133.4±83.8 128.1±56.1 0.536

LDL-C (mg/dl) 134.3±34.6 144.5±34.0 0.069

LDL/HDL ratio 2.6±0.8 2.5±0.9 0.637

TC/HDL ratio 4.1±1.1 4.0±1.1 0.355

Fasting glucose (mg/dl) 97.3±17.9 95.7±28.9 0.854

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) (mm/h) 15.7±13.1 24.6±16.7 <0.001

Plasma zinc (ìM) 11.2±1.7 11.4±1.5 0.634

===============================================

Table 3 Prevalence, expressed as percentage respect to cut-off points, of

underweight, overweight,

obesity and dyslipidemia in healthy male and female elderly

===============================================

Males % (N=78) Females % (N=136) P

===============================================

BMI (kg/m2)

Underweight 1.3 (1) 0.7 (1) 0.014

Normal weight 15.4 (12) 8.1 (11)

Overweight 48.7 (38) 31.6 (43)

Obesity 25.6 (20) 43.4 (59)

Severe obesity 9.0 (7) 16.2 (22)

Total cholesterol (mg/dl)

Desirable 30.8 (24) 24.6 (33) 0.171

Borderline high 41.0 (32) 34.3 (46)

High 28.2 (22) 41.0 (55)

HDL-C (mg/dl)

Low 7.7 (6) 2.2 (3) 0.078

Desirable 92.3 (72) 97.8 (131)

LDL-C (mg/dl)

Optimal 48.7 (38) 34.3 (46) 0.209

Borderline high 28.2 (22) 32.8 (44)

High 16.7 (13) 23.1 (31)

Very high 6.4 (5) 9.7 (13)

Plasma zinc (ìM)

Deficiency 24.4 (19) 15.4 (21) 0.144

Normal 75.6 (59) 84.6 (115)

===============================================

Values are presented as mean±SD

Table 4 Comparison of selected variables within healthy subjects by age group

and adjusted for

gender

=================================================

60–70 years 71–84 years =/>85 years P value

=================================================

Number of participants 91 103 20

Systolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 138.0±16.8 140.0±17.9 146.2±16.6 0.349

Diastolic blood pressure (mm Hg) 80.8±7.8 79.1±8.9 79.0±12.6 0.276

Biochemical and blood indices

HDL-C (mg/dl) 59.9±13.2 56.8±12.7 59.0±11.7 0.671

TG (mg/dl) 130.7±73.1 131.6±65.6 119.0±49.0 0.616

LDL-C (mg/dl) 145.4±34.9 139.4±32.8 126.0±38.1 0.153

LDL/HDL ratio 2.6±0.8 2.6±0.9 2.2±0.8 0.138

TC/HDL ratio 4.0±1.1 4.1±1.1 3.6±0.9 0.142

Fasting glucose (mg/dl) 96.5±26.4 95.6±25.3 99.4±21.4 0.816

ESR (mm/h) 17.5±13.1 23.5±17.7 27.4±15.7 <0.001

Plasma zinc (ìM) 11.7±1.7 11.3±1.5 10.8±1.5 0.404

=================================================

Values are presented as mean±SD

-- Al Pater, alpater@...

-- Al Pater, PhD; email: old542000@...

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