We'd always associated the idea of someone being frail with much older people.  This New Scientist article makes the case that you can actually be pre-frail by the time you hit 40. Pre-frail meaning you're set up for frail sooner rather than later.

It's interesting and well worth a read. It's also paywalled, but the link at the end should work for you. We'd recommend giving it a skim over as there's a lot of good, practical ideas and advice for making sure you swerve the Frail state.

It flags 5 indicators of frailty. Hit 2 and you're pre-frail. 3 And you're in Frailsville. The 5 indicators are: unintentional weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, low physical activity, slow walking speed and weak grip strength. With walking speed being the most indicative as it required multiple systems (strength, cardio, balance) in order for you to walk at a reasonable speed.

It also covers the increase in senescent cells as we age, which are cells that have ceased to divide and replicate, and their link to a frailer body.

From here it was interesting to see some of the areas they're looking into as promising include: 

• Increased levels of inulin (which we include in the BIOME block ) leading to a better gut microbiome. This links to frailty as a less than healthy microbiome leads to inflammation which fuels frailty.
• Supplementing with creatine (which we include in the FORM block) for cognitive benefits. This is one we've been seeing crop up a lot lately. Hopefully we'll see some studies soon. 

Predictable it all comes back to the same 3 pillars. Diet, exercise and sleep. Everything we've read in the past 2 decades seems to, basically, boil down to those 3 elements. But this article is no less interesting for expanding on how they relate to frailty and how to help avoid it. 

Read it here.