Effect of Aging on the Heart and Cardiovascular System

Growing older results in the various changes in the anatomy and physiology of human cardiovascular system. This affects in both healthy patients and patients with hypertension. The heart gets a less powerful pump, and needs to bring more to do the same job.

Human heart and blood vessels change its normal function with the age, even in the absence of disease process. The heart muscle loses its elasticity, and the metabolic processes of the body may be less of the energy needed to produce through the heart. Besides these changes in your heart, blood vessels become less elastic with age. In healthy people, the actual function of the heart muscle and the inotropic response to calcium are mediated by receptors and other non-inotropic effects relatively unchanged with age. It is therefore necessary to work your heart harder, more resistant to blood vessels through the network of the pump. However, there is a significant increase in the speed of the pulse wave, increased left ventricular hypertrophy, diminished response to beta-adrenergic stimulation and decreased healthy heart rate during exercise.

The reaction to stress in elderly patients with hypertension is due to decreased heart rate, inotropic and vasodilatory response. However, cardiac output is not not changed. End systolic volume, stroke volume and an increase in systolic blood pressure with exercise, but there is a reduced increase in ejection fraction.

Despite the general deterioration associated with aging, such as heart and circulatory system are connected, your heart is strong enough to meet the needs of your body. However, as your body overcome your cardiovascular system reserve capacity at much lower injury or improper handling of requests to it by stress or illness. Exercise programs should be phased out to avoid injury. The explosion of the aging of the world, the development of the affected patients, especially those with heart disease. For example, many more patients were admitted with acute myocardial infarction, but can be found with heart failure with age. The degree of activity and nutrition play an important role in keeping your cardiovascular system healthy. Your body responds to the demands of the movement by increasing its ability to pump blood.