Adjuvant Treatment in Elderly Patients With Periodontitis Through the Administration of a Supplement Rich in Oleuropein From the Olive Leaf

Life expectancy has dramatically increased in the last century, although this process has not been always accompanied by an equivalent increase in healthy life expectancy. However, extending longevity without decreasing the risk of age-associated pathologies would not be desirable since non-communicable diseases can diminish seniors' quality of life, raise health-care costs, and increase pressure on family members who are responsible for their care. Maintaining a good health would help to ensure independence, security, and continued productivity in the later years helping both health systems and pensions lower costs. Thus, many scientific studies have tried to delay the age of onset of major age-related chronic diseases. In other words, research has been more focused on extending healthspan rather than lifespan. Actually, numerous experimental studies have shown that the extension of lifespan by modifying risk factors is usually accompanied by delayed or reduced morbidity, including cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, and tumors. In the dietary context, modifications of the diet energy and/or macronutrient balance has shown to contribute to healthy aging, increasing healthspan and probably lifespan. Likewise, some foods would be able to supply a significant amount of compounds to the human diet, including non-nutrients which are thought to exert effects in the same sense. Thus, adequate nutritional intervention would be considered geroprotective interventions that would positively influence health by slowing basic biological processes of aging, such as cellular senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction, age-related decline of stress resistance, dysregulated cellular energy sensing/growth pathways, impaired proteostasis, deteriorated stem cell function/bioavailability, as well as inflammation/oxidative stress. The use of nutraceuticals and functional foods from olive products and by-products can be useful in the treatment of pathologies associated with aging, su