Geriatrics

As our population expands, and as life expectancy increases, the number of people in the geriatric age group rises too. All over the world elderly people, i.e., men and women aged more than 65years, constitute a rapidly increasing proportion of the human population.

The two most common endocrine diseases that affect the elderly are diabetes mellitus and thyroid disease. By age 75, about 20% of the population has developed diabetes. 10 As stated previously, diabetes mellitus has known effects on the cardiovascular system, but it also can affect most other organs, most notably the kidneys, peripheral nervous system and, of course, the eyes. Adult hypopituitarism, hypothyroidism, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, adrenal insufficiency, various forms of hypogonadism, and endocrine malignancies are all more frequent in old age.