Question

Mr.John confides in the nurse that his 86 year old mother was diagnosed with the same illness three weeks ago but did not exhibit all the symptoms he was experiencing and had to be kept in hospital for an extended period of time. Explain why his elderly mother did not possess his symptoms but was much more ill?

Answer 1

From the given example we can observe that the age of John's mother and the development of the symptoms towards the illness varies between the mother and John. As we know today, as the age progresses day by day body becomes weak and along with the immunity, healing capacity of the body and response towards the treatment also decreases. In case of john, he is younger as compared to his mother and young body displays the symptoms or hides the symptoms of the very same disease in different age group populations and behaves differently. At the age of 86, the octogenarian mother need not necessarily display the same symptoms to be affected by the diseases as the body type, immunity level, recovery towards the illness varies drastically. This absence or presence of a fewer symptom is indicative of the fact that the disease has impacted differently in the geriatric population but the impact has varied a lot as his mother was hospitalized for almost 3 weeks long and a quicker recovery in John was seen. Therefore, being asymptomatic towards the same disease can be in correlation to the resistance offered by the body, immunity levels, age, genetic makeup of the body, propensity towards sickness and body's ability to recover from an ailment. These are some of the possible explanations regarding the difference why John's elderly mother did not possess his symptoms but was much more ill.