Abstract
Aging during the senior years is part of the normal process of life span development. We are born, mature, and if we are fortunate, we grow old before we die. Unfortunately, the process of growing old is associated with declining status in many respects, physical and cognitive. These declines can be related to the concept of reserve: the greater the reserve the longer the organism will be able to avoid any functional deficit. Disease processes, by and large, appear to diminish our reserves. Therefore, in persons suffering from various diseases, age-associated functional impairments are observed earlier and the life span may be shortened.
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Wisniewski, H.M., Silverman, W. (1998). Aging and Dementia of the Alzheimer type in Persons with Mental Retardation. In: Ehrlich, Y.H. (eds) Molecular and Cellular Mechanisms of Neuronal Plasticity. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 446. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4869-0_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4869-0_13
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