Aging and Digestive Diseases: At the View of the Functional Change of Gastrointestinal Tract

Kyung Sik Park

doi:10.4166/kjg.2011.58.1.3

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Park: Aging and Digestive Diseases: At the View of the Functional Change of Gastrointestinal Tract

Review Article

Korean J Gastroenterol 2011;58(1):3-8.

Published online: 4 October 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4166/kjg.2011.58.1.3

Aging and Digestive Diseases: At the View of the Functional Change of Gastrointestinal Tract

Kyung Sik Park

Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Correspondence to: Kyung Sik Park, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Dongsan Medical Center, Keimyung University School of Medicine, 194, Dongsan-dong, Jung-gu, Daegu 700-712, Korea. Tel: +82-53-250-7088, Fax: +82-53-250-7088, E-mail: seenae99@dsmc.or.kr

^∗ The essentials of this article was presented as a lecture in Korean Society of Neurogastroenterology and Motility meeting, 2010.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Although it is difficult to define the term “aging” consensually, in medical fields, usually it means the progressive accumulation of irreversible degenerative changes leading to loss of homeostasis. It is supposable that there is also modest decline in the structure and function of several digestive organs. However, data about this subject are not enough. Main problem in studying aging digestive organ is that discrimination of primary senile change of the organ with secondary one from other senile diseases is not easy. That is, the prevalence of many non-digestive disorders which can badly affect the digestive functions is increasing by aging; for example, diabetes, malignancy, etc. To prove that some phenomenon is as result of pure senile change, it is necessary to exclude secondary one, but, the process is very complicated and difficult. In spite of this limitation, here, I will discuss the senile change of several digestive organs by aging, especially at the view of the gastrointestinal functions, with review of literatures.

Keywords: Aging, Digestive system diseases, Gastrointestinal tract, Physiology

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Table 1.

Age-related Changes in Rectoanal Structure and Function

Type of change	Direction of change
Anatomical changes
Internal anal sphincter thickness	Increase
Internal anal sphincter echogenicity	Increase
Internal anal sphincter fibrosis	Increase
Internal anal sphincter elasticity	Decrease
External anal sphincter thickness	Decrease
Neurologic changes
Mucosal electrosensitivity	Decrease
Sensation of rectal distension	Decrease
Pudendal nerve terminal motor latency	Increase
Motor changes
Anal canal resting pressure	Decrease
Anal canal squeezing pressure	Decrease
Pelvic floor descent	Increase
Rectal reservoir function	Decrease
Internal anal sphincter inhibitory threshold	Decrease
Defecation of 18 mm sphere within 20 sec	Decrease

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