New cell therapy shows promise to treat frailty among elderly

In many Indian homes, ageing unfolds quietly. A grandfather who once walked to the local market now pauses every few steps. A grandmother takes days to recover from a minor fall. Such changes are often dismissed as “normal ageing”. Medicine, however, increasingly recognises these signs as part of a condition called frailty, which is a state of accelerated biological ageing marked by lower endurance and slower recovery.

Frailty affects up to one in four people over the age of 50 worldwide. In India, where the population aged 60 and over is projected to rise to nearly 20% by 2050, the condition is likely widespread but rarely diagnosed. Unlike diseases such as diabetes or hypertension, frailty has no standard treatment protocol as well as is under-visible in policy.