Low Psychological Resilience in Older Individuals: An Association with Increased Inflammation, Oxidative Stress and the Presence of Chronic Medical Conditions

Abstract

The term resilience, which has been present in science for almost half a century, stands for the capacity of some system needed to overcome an amount of disturbance from the environment in order to avoid a change to another stable state. In medicine, the concept of resilience means the ability to deal with daily stress and disturbance to our homeostasis with the intention of protecting it from disturbance. With aging, the organism becomes more sensitive to environmental impacts and more susceptible to changes. Mental disturbances and a decline in psychological resilience in older people are potentiated with many social and environmental factors along with a subjective perception of decreasing health. Distinct from findings in younger age groups, mental and physical medical conditions in older people are closely associated with each other, sharing common mechanisms and potentiating each other’s development. Increased inflammation and oxidative stress have been recognized as the main driving mechanisms in the development of aging diseases. This paper aims to reveal, through a translational approach, physiological and molecular mechanisms of emotional distress and low psychological resilience in older individuals as driving mechanisms for the accelerated development of chronic aging diseases, and to systematize the available information sources on strategies for mitigation of low resilience in order to prevent chronic diseases.

Patterns of the physical, cognitive, and mental health status of older individuals in a real-life primary care setting and differences in coping styles

“…As indicated by lower number of disorders, members of cluster FUN are much healthier than those of cluster DFUN. As the evidence also suggests, individuals in this cluster use health-promoting coping mechanisms, such as active problem-solving strategies (of borderline signi cance) and positive emotional and/or cognitive appraisal of stressful situations (indicating by positive reframing), which can render them capable of diminishing the hazardous effects of emotional distress on the body and mind and of slowing down the development of comorbidities [5]. In the literature, positive reframing is mentioned as the coping mechanism that can help individuals develop psychological resilience -the one`s capacity to adapt in the face of adversities [33].…”

“…In this regard, the presence of negative emotions was shown to be associated with worsening the course of chronic physical conditions and accelerated development of poor health-related outcomes [4]. This effect is thought to be mediated by both, the adoption of negative health behaviors and chronic activation of the neuroendocrine stress axis, which altogether may elicit multiple pathophysiological responses [5].…”

Social environment as a modulator of immunosenescence

“…104) and showing less ability to maintain homeostasis (Ref. 105). Besides, there is some evidence showing an association between low social support and shorter leucocyte telomere length (Ref.…”

Neuroinflammation: A Possible Link Between Chronic Vascular Disorders and Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…Psychological disturbances are part of the “sickness syndrome” triggered by episodes of inflammation ( Dantzer et al, 2008 ) and their occurrence has been correlated with increased morbidity in elderly people ( Majnaric et al, 2021 ). Aging is commonly associated with increased inflammatory tone at the systemic level, which is summarized in the modern concept of inflamm’aging and is a risk factor for cognitive decline pathologies in aging ( Fülop et al, 2018 ).…”