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Biomedical subjects

A Comfort

Publications and source records attributed to A Comfort.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1979

The myth of senility. Diagnosing nonspecific major illness in the elderly.

In the elderly, physical and mental concemitants of chronic and explainable ill health are often masked by the diagnosis of senility. The presentation of major illness in the elderly is commonly nonspecific, and a full physical examination and tests with special attention to infections and to the signs of endocrine and metabolic disorders should be carried out. Symptoms such as confusion and memory loss, hostile or difficult behavior, and dementia point to different probable causes, and the physician should carefully search for the underlying pathology.

Aged↗
PubMed1979

Alzheimer's disease or "Alzheimerism"?

Recognition that chronologic age is not per se a cause of dementia opens the way for a more active approach to Alzheimer-type dementias as a specific disease syndrome. "Alzheimerism" in many respects is to the cholinergic brain system what Parkinsonism is to the dopamineragic. Whether cell loss or choline acetyltransferase deficiency comes first is still unclear, as is the role of vasopressin. There is a real possibility that research might produce a palliative for ACh-based defects similar to the action of L-dopa in dopaminergic defects.

Aging↗
PubMed1979

Space gerontology.

The initiation of the shuttle program, with the possibility of flying older persons and persons other than trained astronauts, makes it necessary to examine the effects of the weightless environment throughout the life cycle. The model of a hypothalamic clock as the timing mechanism for lifespan suggests that weightlessness and hypergravity may prove useful tools in the investigation of aging processes. For these reasons geriatrics and gerontology enter into the field of aerospace biology, both practically in crew selection and in the development of clinically useful data on the nature of human age changes and their control.

Aerospace Medicine↗