Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

The reality of getting old

Life expectancy around the world has increased steadily for nearly 200 years. This Focus Issue of Nature Reviews Cardiology features five insightful Review articles that describe numerous facets of the latest research on cardiovascular ageing.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Hoffmann, P. M. Life’s Ratchet: How Molecular Machines Extract Order from Chaos (Basic Books, New York, 2012).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Lakatta, E. G. So! What’s aging? Is cardiovascular aging a disease? J. Mol. Cell. Cardiol. 83, 1–13 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ferrucci, L. & Fabbri, E. Inflammageing: chronic inflammation in ageing, cardiovascular disease, and frailty. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0064-2 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Gude, N. A. et al. Cardiac ageing: extrinsic and intrinsic factors in cellular renewal and senescence. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0061-5 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Picca, A. et al. Mitochondrial quality control mechanisms as molecular targets in cardiac ageing. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0059-z (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Ungvari, Z. et al. Endothelial dysfunction and angiogenesis impairment in the ageing vasculature. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0030-z (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Fontana, L. Interventions to promote cardiometabolic health and slow cardiovascular ageing. Nat. Rev. Cardiol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0026-8 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Lopez-Otin, C. et al. The hallmarks of aging. Cell 153, 1194–1217 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Lloyd-Jones, D. et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics—2010 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 121, e1–e170 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Wang, M. et al. Proinflammation: the key to arterial aging. Trends Endocrinol. Metab. 25, 72–79 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward G. Lakatta.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lakatta, E.G. The reality of getting old. Nat Rev Cardiol 15, 499–500 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0068-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-018-0068-y

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing