About aging: an article that impressed me

packleader

packleader

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aging​


Let’s have an honest conversation about what to expect as you age

Let’s have an honest conversation about what to expect as you age​

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Here are a few of the age-related issues she highlights in her book:
  • Older adults react differently to medications. Because of changes in body composition and liver, kidney, and gut function, older adults are more sensitive to medications than younger people and often need lower doses. This includes medications that someone may have taken for years. It also applies to alcohol.
  • Older adults have reduced energy reserves. With advancing age, hearts become less efficient, lungs transfer less oxygen to the blood, more protein is needed for muscle synthesis, and muscle mass and strength decrease. The result: Older people generate less energy even as they need more energy to perform everyday tasks.
  • Hunger and thirst decline. People’s senses of taste and smell diminish, lessening food’s appeal. Loss of appetite becomes more common, and seniors tend to feel full after eating less food. The risk of dehydration increases.
  • Cognition slows. Older adults process information more slowly and work harder to learn new information. Multitasking becomes more difficult, and reaction times grow slower. Problems finding words, especially nouns, are typical. Cognitive changes related to medications and illness are more frequent.
  • The musculoskeletal system is less flexible. Spines shorten as the discs that separate the vertebrae become harder and more compressed; older adults typically lose 1 to 3 inches in height as this happens. Balance is compromised because of changes in the inner ear, the brain, and the vestibular system (a complex system that regulates balance and a person’s sense of orientation in space). Muscles weaken in the legs, hips, and buttocks, and the range of motion in joints contracts. Tendons and ligaments aren’t as strong, and falls and fractures are more frequent as bones become more brittle.
  • Eyesight and hearing change. Older adults need much more light to read than younger people. It’s harder for them to see the outlines of objects or distinguish between similar colors as color and contrast perception diminishes. With changes to the cornea, lens, and fluid within the eye, it takes longer to adjust to sunlight as well as darkness.
  • Because of accumulated damage to hair cells in the inner ear, it’s harder to hear, especially at high frequencies. It’s also harder to understand speech that’s rapid and loaded with information or that occurs in noisy environments.
  • Sleep becomes fragmented. It takes longer for older adults to fall asleep, and they sleep more lightly, awakening more in the night.
This is by no means a complete list of physiological changes that occur as we grow older. And it leaves out the many ways people can adapt to their new normal, something Leipzig spends a great deal of time discussing.

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Amazon.com

Honest Aging: An Insider's Guide to the Second Half of Life (A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book) Paperback – January 10, 2023 ​

by Rosanne M. Leipzig (Author)​

Part of: A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book (120 books)


 

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You get what you expect. If you view aging as a journey of watching yourself fall apart bit by bit en route to the grave, that's what you'll get. If you see yourself as the one who will buck the trend, you probably will. A person's self concept is more important I think, especially as we age. It's definitely a factor.:unsure:
 

Everybody reacts differently to medical drugs, the reason
that, seniors seem to act differently, is probably because
there are more of us and people notice.

What I remember from previous studies, is, the age of the
human body, our bodies, not counting bones, are only ever,
2 weeks old, the ageing is because we don't produce stem
cells any more.

When cells renew, as we age, depends on how we have lived
and looked after the body, that we have, when cells die and
are replaced, the new cells arrive, a bit like changing the guard
at Buckingham Palace, to change places with the outgoing or
dying cell, that is the only indication that, that new cell is going
get, that tells it what to be, so if you have looked after your body,
then it will look OK, if you haven't, then it will start to look older.

Mike.
 
officerripley said:
I can't find the article now, but there was a study done by the Toyota Motor Co. finding that the peripheral vision of the human eye starts to go downhill about the age of 50. So you know, there's that to look forward to as well.
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I forgot to add: this article also said that the peripheral vision starting to fail at the age of 50 is the reason that any driver over the age of 50 should never try making a left-hand turn in traffic unless they have a left-turn only signal; otherwise you should make 3 right turns to get to where you're going since that failing peripheral vision is going to cause you to turn your head too much and miss oncoming traffic. The study looked at traffic collisions with 50+ drivers who were at fault and in almost every case, the 50+er had been trying to make a non-signalized left-hand turn.
 
officerripley said:
I forgot to add: this article also said that the peripheral vision starting to fail at the age of 50 is the reason that any driver over the age of 50 should never try making a left-hand turn in traffic unless they have a left-turn only signal; otherwise you should make 3 right turns to get to where you're going since that failing peripheral vision is going to cause you to turn your head too much and miss oncoming traffic. The study looked at traffic collisions with 50+ drivers who were at fault and in almost every case, the 50+er had been trying to make a non-signalized left-hand turn.
Click to expand...
It's not just drivers over 50.
"Left hand turns are generally considered unsafe and (fuel) wasteful on right-hand driving roads, such as those in the US."

"A study on crash factors in intersection-related accidents from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Association shows that turning left is one of the leading “critical pre-crash events” (an event that made a collision inevitable), occurring in 22.2 percent of crashes, as opposed to 1.2 percent for right turns. About 61 percent of crashes that occur while turning or crossing an intersection involve left turns, as opposed to just 3.1 percent involving right turns.

"Left turns are also three times more likely to kill pedestrians than right ones, according to data collected by New York City’s transportation planners."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/16/world/ups-trucks-no-left-turns/index.html
On right hand driving roads, left turns exposes vehicles to cross traffic from all sides. Head on, left, right and from behind.
 
officerripley said:
I forgot to add: this article also said that the peripheral vision starting to fail at the age of 50 is the reason that any driver over the age of 50 should never try making a left-hand turn in traffic unless they have a left-turn only signal; otherwise you should make 3 right turns to get to where you're going since that failing peripheral vision is going to cause you to turn your head too much and miss oncoming traffic. The study looked at traffic collisions with 50+ drivers who were at fault and in almost every case, the 50+er had been trying to make a non-signalized left-hand turn.
Click to expand...
The loss of peripheral vision is caused by Glaucoma
 
officerripley said:
I forgot to add: this article also said that the peripheral vision starting to fail at the age of 50 is the reason that any driver over the age of 50 should never try making a left-hand turn in traffic unless they have a left-turn only signal; otherwise you should make 3 right turns to get to where you're going since that failing peripheral vision is going to cause you to turn your head too much and miss oncoming traffic. The study looked at traffic collisions with 50+ drivers who were at fault and in almost every case, the 50+er had been trying to make a non-signalized left-hand turn.
Click to expand...
I used to know a woman.. she would have been in her early 60's at the time.. (about 30 years ago ).. and she had her little car that she used all the time to get out and about, but she would travel miles out of her way to not have to turn right across traffic..

For example, her son lived in the village and she would have to stop in the road, indicators on and turn right into his drive coming from the direction where she lived .. but nope she would never do it... she would drive another 4 miles further on to the first major roundabout, and turn around and come back so she could turn left into his drive..
 
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hollydolly said:
I used to know a woman.. she would have been in her early 60's at the time.. (about 30 years ago ).. and she had her little car tht she used all the time to get out and about, but she would travel miles out of her way to not have to turn right across traffic..

For example, her son lived in the village and she would have to stop in the road, indicators on and turn right into his drive coming from the direction where she lived .. but nope she would never do it... she would drive another 4 miles further on to the first major roundabout, and turn around and come back so she could turn left into his drive..
Click to expand...
That's why I stopped mostly driving; I was having to do stuff like that more and more, going out of my way to avoid intersections, freeway driving, etc.
 

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