Age is the mirror of disease.

 Age is the mirror of disease

In France, there are currently (60s) 6,500,000 residents over 60 years of age. Statistics indicate that in France in 1945 one person over 60 years old accounted for 3.4 inhabitants, respectively in the USA in 1940 - one in 5.3, in Belgium - one in 3.9.

In an extremely impoverished world after the two world wars of our century, the interests of states, the interests of nations, imperatively demand that older people be able to earn a living instead of being an unproductive burden on society. The states  has been   faced with the problem of increasing the working capacity of older people, the problem of postponing the retirement age. Why should millions and millions of elderly people live on their meagre benefits as their only source of livelihood, or live on so-called savings, which practically do not exist?

In France in 1948 there were 138,000 hospital beds, of which 75,000 were for the elderly. How ridiculous this figure is when you think of 6.5 million inhabitants over 60 years old. Every effort, every proposal to maintain and increase the activity of these economic pariahs must be closely scrutinized by governments, sociologists, economists, and above all by doctors. An elderly person should be viewed not as a soldier, an official, a worker, a taxpayer, not as a nameless number, a statistical unit, but as a being with a sick body and soul without illusions.

You have to die at 90 years old. It is necessary to preserve the social value, human dignity to the last breath. We must give the old man the opportunity to earn; for the state and for taxpayers, this is the healthiest economy; for an old man, this is the only possible life worth living for.

Let us now consider this problem from the point of view of a physiologist and a doctor. Let's balance the creative forces of our poor human machine and try to find the most effective and least expensive solutions. First, old age means increasing fatigue. Calcium in combination with phosphates and carbonic salts moves from bones, from organs where it is useful, to organs where it is harmful, resulting in senile osteomalacia, senile osteoporosis, hyperostosis, deforming rheumatism, fragility of bones, senile fractures that do not heal.

Released and wandering calcium has been  deposited in tendons, ligaments and other organs. The formation of periarticular nodes has often been observed, leading to a hardening of the spine. The skin becomes dry and loses its elasticity. All surgeons know the slow healing of postoperative wounds in the elderly, the impossibility of making them transplants. According to Carrel, the rate at which a wound heals is proportional to the degree of cell proliferation. Healing is faster in children than in adolescents, faster in a young man than in an old man. The degree of cell proliferation is the true measure of the degree of aging. So, in the second place, we can say that the histophysiological substrate of old age is cellular aging. Is it possible to influence such cellular senility, is it possible to stop it, is it possible to achieve cellular rejuvenation? Modern physiology and clinics are sceptical and restrained about these issues, especially after attempts at rejuvenation undertaken by Brown-Sekar, Steinach, Voronov, Bogomolets. This scepticism has been  quite  justified, especially if you think about the role of capillaries, which carry nutrients to each cell (oxygen, amino acids, glucose, electrolytes, vitamins) in their arterial loops, and about metabolites, cellular metabolic products that are removed from the body by venous capillary loops. If the capillaries around the parenchymal cells was been  blocked, then there is no supply of nutrients; the accumulation of metabolites interferes with the work of cells and reduces or even stops the exchange between micelles. Here is the histophysiological substrate of cellular senescence. Why does this phenomenon occur? They talk about self-combustion of cells, talk about fatty, mucous, pigmentary degeneration and replacement by connective tissue. Fatty degeneration has been  localized mainly in organs and areas of the body that are poorly irrigated with blood, poorly nourished, and spreads in case of anoxemia. When a cell has fulfilled its role as a producer of digestible micelloids, it dies, giving way to a younger cell. All metabolites of these colloidal micelles enter the bloodstream and are excreted through the liver, kidneys, skin; if there are too many of them, they are released into the extracellular fluids. It can be assumed that in 5-7 years, all cells of the human body are renewed at a rate of 5 to 7 billion cells per day (an exception must be made for nerve cells, in which only part of their cytoplasm is able to recover, but the entire nerve cells cannot be renewed for the entire period of its existence). Thus, it becomes clear the huge role of intact excretory organs: liver, kidneys, skin, intestines. The key to the so-called senile cellular sclerosis, as well as the key to all cellular transformations in general pathology, is the lack of capillary irrigation in the body. Even partially restoring capillary blood circulation, thereby automatically restoring blood supply to all tissues in general. The half-dead cells resume normal metabolism. They are freed from toxic metabolic products, from metabolites that clutter and suppress cell micelles; metabolite-free cells are then again able to take in nutrients. The action of cellular enzymes has been  resumed, the life of cells has been revived again. Cellular enzymes are born, live, act and die in a very short period of time. For example, the conversion of glucose to carbon dioxide and water requires at least half a dozen aerobic and anaerobic reactions, but the whole chain takes place in the striated muscle in less than 1/10 s. Rejuvenation of the body begins with the skin, which becomes smooth, elastic and better supplied with blood. Skin temperature rises, joint movements become more flexible, breathing becomes more intense, peripheral blood circulation has been  revitalized. Increasing the blood supply to the coronary arteries improves myocardial nutrition. The activity of the heart has been  normalized, the rhythm has been  restored. Thanks to the improved blood supply, the brain becomes more receptive again, the associations become faster and more defined, the intellectual and emotional life has been  revived. Senile numbness, indifference has been  replaced by an awakened interest in life. Each breath introduces into the body, especially in the inhabitants of large cities, several billion microbes. To destroy them, additional effort  has been  required from the body. An old man with shallow, poor breathing, with progressive fatigue of the respiratory muscles, is not able to destroy the countless microbes that have fallen into him. Senile bronchitis occurs, foci of pneumonia spread, emphysema appears. The expansion of the pulmonary capillaries, the lumen of the bronchioles and alveoli restores gas exchange, strengthens the muscles of the chest and bronchi, breathing becomes deeper and more intense, the former pale or bluish face becomes fresh, acquires a pink tint.

 In older people, infectious diseases often end fatally, as they develop imperceptibly in a worn-out body; cellular and humoral activity that could defeat microbial aggression is greatly reduced. Awakening a cellular response through capillary therapy, for example, in the treatment of advanced renal failure, creates conditions in the elderly that allow them to tolerate infectious diseases well and significantly shorten the slow recovery period so characteristic of them. Speaking of arteriosclerosis, the role of vase-vasorum, feeding the walls of arteries and arterioles, is forgotten. The use of capillarotherapy opens these vase-vasorum and thus in most cases avoids circulatory disorders in elderly patients. An elderly person should always remain under medical supervision. If left unattended, mild malaise can lead to death. The old man should rest before he gets tired, not just after he gets tired. “It is rare to find 75-year-olds who can actively work,” asserts Charles Richet in his excellent book Keeping Young People (Richet, 1959, p. 164). It is not uncommon, if methodically applied capillarotherapy and a small reasonable gerontotherapy. Along with cellular aging, there is humoral aging caused by renal failure. We are talking about the accumulation of metabolites in extracellular fluids, lymph and blood plasma. To eliminate this humoral aging, extracellular fluids must be freed from excess metabolites. It is possible to purify these liquids with a dietary regimen, enemas of soda and small doses of diuretics (we never use mercury preparations). When they talk about old age as a disease, they think first of all about arteriosclerosis, damage to coronary arteries, damage to heart valves, a decrease in the elasticity of arteries, a relative atrophy of their muscular layers, a gradual decrease in arterial contractility, etc., while forgetting about the role of vase-vazorum. Also, they do not take into account the fact that organs and large vessels contain only 10% of the amount of circulating blood. Arteriosclerosis, even in the intraparenchymal branching of the arteries, if it acts on tissue nutrition, it is very weak, without causing senile changes in the morphology of organs. But it is quite logical to fully subscribe to the opinion of Bastai and Dogliotti (Bastai, Dogliotti, 1938) regarding the role of feeding vessels, i.e. blood and lymphatic capillaries. The capillary system itself in conjunction with the paracapillary (pre- and postcapillary), in a word, the capillary network is so much longer than the arterio-venous network that pathologists would have to pay more attention to the capillary network when explaining disease processes. Anatomical studies usually do not go further than arterioles. Changes in the walls of the capillaries should become the basis for the pathological physiology of the future. Research by Rondelli, Vassi, Salvioli showed that in old age the capillaries thin, wriggle, weaken. The blood flow slows down accordingly. The most constant and important phenomenon observed in the elderly is an almost general decrease in the diameter of the capillaries. Capillaroscopy shows that the capillary loops in old people are sometimes expanded, sometimes strongly compressed. Their circulation is less affected by heat and massage than young people; in old people, the blood flow to the nail bed is much slower than in young people; red blood cells move with difficulty, stop and even reverse movement are often observed. There is a sufficient amount of data to assume that in old people, regardless of all obvious arteriosclerotic processes, there is a change in the structure of the capillary walls, which occurs simultaneously with aging. Senile capillaropathy can cause ectasia or stenosis or blockage of the capillary lumen. The latter should be considered as the main factor in biochemical and metabolic disorders of blood circulation in the region of the capillaries. The blood circulation rate is an important element in the regulation of the exchange between blood and tissues. In old people, the blood flow rate is reduced by one third (Winternitz). After the wonderful work of Lewis, Hocker, Klungmuhl, there is no longer any doubt about the ability of capillaries to actively contract. Capillaroscopic observations of Bastai and Doliotti, Moreau and Bartolini and observations of the formation of histamine "bubbles" indicate that changes in capillary diameter in old people are more limited and occur more slowly. The relative atony of capillaries in old people, their partial blockage cause an increase in resistance in the peripheral circulation. 

 
Atrophy of numerous nephrons in the kidneys, especially in nephritis, should be considered not as a specific renal disease, but as the spread of general capillaropathy. Glomeruli are an integral part of the circulatory system: they filter blood and regulate the composition of extracellular fluids. A decrease in capillary contractility, a slowdown in blood flow, a decrease in the number of open capillaries, and an increase in resistance in the peripheral circulation cause essential hypertension. The increase in pressure is caused either by increased activity of the adrenal glands (which is rare), or (in most cases) by a significant general decrease in the capillary network. When capillaropathy affects the glomeruli, renal pressure increases. We are talking here not about renins, vasopressins, etc., but about the general capillary, about a massive decrease in capillary current by tens of thousands of kilometers due to the temporary closure of blood vessels or their final blockage. From the point of view of hemodynamics, changes in the circulation in the capillaries should be considered as the main factor of senile circulatory disorders. Insufficiency of countless peripheral hearts is of paramount importance for the development of various pathological conditions, other factors - myocardial insufficiency, reduced metabolism at rest - are of secondary importance. A decrease in the capillary blood supply to the brain causes disorders of blood circulation and nutrition of the nerve centers (hypothalamus, centers of sleep, speech, higher brain centers).