Predicting resilience to aging with physical stressors

Abstract

The ability to respond to and recover from a physically stressful event is defined as physical resilience. It is an individual trait throughout life but not necessarily to the same degree from young to old. With increasing age, physical resilience declines thereby increasing vulnerability to physical stress. However, response to stress can be heterogenous across lifespan and between individuals within the same age. A deeper understanding as to why some individuals maintain or regain function following an insult, while others do not, may help to characterize protective factors that can be engaged to promote resilience and healthy aging. Examples of clinically relevant physical stressors include cold, sleep deprivation, the chemotherapeutic drug cyclophosphamide, rate of wound healing, recovery from anesthesia, and degree of antibody response to a commonly used vaccine. Research is needed to identify panels of these stressors capable of predicting resilience to aging and those individuals with more accelerated rates of aging requiring intervention approaches.

Keywords: Physical resilience, aging, clinical stressors, aging intervention