With great longevity comes great responsibility. Read why Cardiogeriatrics is becoming more important.

For healthcare professionals, the differences among human bodies determine the type of treatment and care. And these differences are rarely so stark as between bodies of varying ages.

People are often familiar with pediatrics, which concerns the diagnosis and treatment of our young ones. This field is necessary due to the abundance of medical issues that infants and small children face that adults do not.

The same is true for the elderly. When patients start getting up in years, there are a lot of new medical factors introduced.

Due to this, healthcare professionals dedicated a whole field of study to the subject, called geriatrics. This category is further broken down into various portions of the body to ensure all aspects are accounted for. One of these subcategories is cardiogeriatrics.

What is Cardiogeriatrics?

As many healthcare professionals know, “cardio” refers to the heart. Thus, cardiogeriatrics involves the health issues related to hearts in elderly patients.

Cardiogeriatrics is essentially a combination of cardiology with the known repercussions of living a long life. For example, an odd heartbeat in an adult is not necessarily a fatal condition. The same cannot be said for an odd heartbeat in an elderly patient.

Why Cardiogeriatrics is Breaking New Ground

In medicine, knowing what to anticipate is half the battle. The other half is experience in handling the situation.

For the most part, we have a decent understanding on what to look for when evaluating an adult heart. Unfortunately, modern medicine lacks an equal amount of information on that same heart 55 plus years later. This is primarily due to past life expectancy of roughly 70 years old.

These days, however, people are living a lot longer. Some lucky folks live well into their hundreds. Due to this phenomenal achievement, healthcare professionals are breaking new ground when it comes to age-related health issues.

To keep up with the increased longevity, society needs more medical students dedicated to cardiogeriatrics. Especially considering the leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease.

The human heart is a complex, hard-working organ. As time, external factors, and genetic markers take its toll, the heart keeps on beating. But it needs some help in staying fit and healthy.

Cardiogeriatrics gives us a chance to increase the odds of having a healthy, happy life in our golden years.