Good heart health may prevent frailty in old age
London, May 21: Want to prevent frailty when you grow old? If so, then start maintaining good heart health. A new study indicates that low heart disease risks among older people may help them to prevent frailty.
Frailty is a condition associated with decreased physiological reserve and increased vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. The outcomes include falls, fractures, disability, hospitalisation and institutionalisation.
The findings, published in the Journal of Gerontology, found that severe frailty was 85 per cent less likely in those with near ideal cardiovascular risk factors.
The study also found that even small reductions in risk factors helped to reduce frailty as well as dementia, chronic pain and other disabling conditions of old age.
"This study indicates that frailty and other age-related diseases could be prevented and significantly reduced in older adults. Getting our heart risk factors under control could lead to much healthier old ages," said co-author Joao Delgado from the University of Exeter in Britain.
For the study, the researchers analysed data from more than 421,000 people aged between 60-69. The participants were followed up over 10 years.
The researchers analysed six factors that could impact on heart health. They looked at uncontrolled high blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels, plus being overweight, doing little physical activity and being a current smoker.
"Individuals with untreated cardiovascular disease or other common chronic diseases appear to age faster and with more frailty," the researchers said.
"Now our growing body of scientific evidence on ageing shows what we have previously considered as inevitable might be prevented or delayed through earlier and better recognition and treatment of cardiac disease," they noted.
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BJP leader R Ashoka urges CM Siddaramaiah to hand over stampede probe case to CBI
Bengaluru, Jul 19 (PTI): BJP leader R Ashoka on Saturday urged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to hand over the investigation into the stampede outside the Chinnaswamy Stadium here during the RCB victory celebration to CBI so that the real culprits behind the incident are identified and justice is served for the innocent lives lost.
The June 4 stampede outside the stadium led to the death of 11 people, while 56 were injured, as a large number of people thronged to participate in the Royal Challenger Bengaluru (RCB) team's IPL victory celebrations.
In a letter to the chief minister, Ashoka, Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Legislative Assembly, said that this "tragic" incident, which has sparked a statewide debate, has become a "black spot" in the history of Karnataka sports. There have been accusations and counter-accusations between the police and the state government on this issue.
Citing media reports, the BJP leader said that the stampede occurred due to the police's failure in crowd management. However, the government has merely suspended a few police officials and "washed its hands" off the matter.
In connection with the stampede tragedy, Bengaluru Police Commissioner B Dayananda and four other senior police officials, including Vikash Kumar Vikash, were suspended on the charge of dereliction of duty. Later, Vikash moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) challenging the state government's June 5 suspension order.
The tribunal later quashed the Karnataka government's suspension order against Vikash.
Ashoka, in his letter to Siddaramaiah, stated that the tribunal, during a hearing on the suspension of one such officer, also opined that holding only the police officials accountable is not appropriate.
"The question still remains as to who are the real culprits behind this incident that has claimed the lives of innocent people. The people of the state are also seeking answers to the same question," the BJP leader said.
"Therefore, I request you to hand over this case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) without any political interference, so that the real culprits behind the incident are identified and justice is served for the innocent lives lost," he added.
Recently, in its status report on the stampede that was submitted to the Karnataka High Court, the state government blamed IPL franchisee RCB, its event management partner, and the state cricket association for ignoring standard procedures and safety measures during the team's victory march here, leading to a stampede.
