Park Kyung Sik
Department of Internal Medicine, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea.
Korean J Gastroenterol. 2011 Jul;58(1):3-8. doi: 10.4166/kjg.2011.58.1.3.
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.
虽然很难就“衰老”一词达成共识性定义，但在医学领域，它通常意味着导致内稳态丧失的不可逆退行性变化的渐进性积累。可以推测，几个消化器官的结构和功能也会有适度衰退。然而，关于这个主题的数据并不充分。研究衰老消化器官的主要问题在于，将器官的原发性衰老变化与继发于其他衰老疾病的变化区分开来并非易事。也就是说，许多会严重影响消化功能的非消化系统疾病的患病率会随着年龄增长而上升；例如，糖尿病、恶性肿瘤等。要证明某种现象是纯粹衰老变化的结果，就有必要排除继发性变化，但这个过程非常复杂且困难。尽管存在这一局限性，在此，我将结合文献综述，从胃肠功能的角度探讨几个消化器官随年龄增长而发生的衰老变化。
