ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how the interactions between nutrition and immune function are modulated by aging. The interactions between intrinsic factors such as aging and extrinsic factors such as nutrition impact on physiologic systems (e.g., immune function) in a complex way, making the effects of each particularly difficult to separate. Every review of nutrition in the elderly has to deal with the thorny issue of the benefits of caloric restriction. Thus, most investigators of nutrition in the elderly would agree with two statements relative to life extension by caloric restriction: Caloric restriction is by far the most powerful and best-described means of increasing life span in experimental animals. As such, it is a powerful tool for studying the aging process. The data from investigations of caloric restriction have no relevance to clinical geriatric nutrition. Prolonged caloric restriction in humans, for whatever reason, is associated with increases in morbidity and mortality.
