Also spelled as ageing, this is generally the process of becoming old. It is the in a way the opposite of immortality. In a broader aspect, it may occur to single cells in an organism also called cellular senescence or the population of a species, known as population ageing. This process primarily affects human beings and fungi. In humans, it signifies the accumulation of various changes which occur over time. The changes include physical, social and psychological changes.
Causes of aging are very uncertain. Besides, there are several factors which predispose an individual to premature aging. Current theories suggest that this process occurs to due to cellular damage such as DNA oxidation by free radicals causing biological systems to
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Old persons are also predisposed to various medical conditions including diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome that may increase the chances of constipation.
The genitourinary system
The bladder and urinary tract depict the epitome of various old age associated conditions. Urinary incontinence otherwise known as loss of bladder control is a common problem associated with aging. Besides old age, diabetes and other conditions also contribute to incontinence. Other common conditions include menopause for women and enlarged prostate for men.
Memory
Advancing age is commonly associated with loss of memory. The inability to maintain both short term and long term memory is serious. Learning new things or remembering familiar words and names can be quite daunting.
Senses-Eyes and Ears
Advancing age is a common hindrance to the proper functioning of the body senses. The eyes will have difficulty focusing on near and distant objects. Adapting to different levels of light is the other common problem. Cataracts, also called clouding of vision is another common condition that results from changes in eye’s lens. Hearing abilities also diminish. With this, you will have difficulties following a conversation or hearing high frequencies.
Teeth
Receding of the gums is a notable condition in this bracket. As mentioned earlier, old age is associated with various medical
As you begin to get older your muscles within your digestive tract can start to become really weak and would possibly start giving you the risk of having a lot of constipation. Also as you get older your heart is beginning to get less efficient and would not be able to pump the blood around your body like what it used to have done. Also the other things that could happen to your organs as you begin to get older are
According to WebMD, nearly 40 percent of seniors in the United States experience at least one digestive disorder each year. The most common of these disorders is constipation, especially in seniors over 70 years of age. Additionally, over half of seniors over 60 will experience diverticulosis, caused by the weakening of the intestinal wall, and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is the most common upper GI disorder among seniors.
The aging process in late adulthood is called senescence. People cannot stop the effects of aging but there are alternatives that can help ease the process. These measures are not always followed because people make poor life choices such as smoking. Aging adults will even spend millions of dollars trying to slow the process of aging. No matter how much money they spend aging will occur.
Aging is a part of life not everyone wants to accept. There are many theories on aging and I would like to focus on the Stochastic Theory. The Stochastic Theory is “based on random events that cause cellular damage that accumulates as the organism ages” (Grossman, S. & Lange, J., 2018, p. 55). Within this theory there are four categories but I am only going to focus on two: Wear and tear theory along with Connective tissue/cross-link theory.
From the very moment that you are born, you begin the process of aging and it is irrevocably unavoidable. As Denham Harman put it within his article The Aging Process, “Aging is the progressing accumulation of changes with time that are associated with or responsible for the ever increasing susceptibility to disease and death which accompanies advancing age” (1). Harman highlights what is often referred to as the two different paths of aging. The most minimalistic approach to categorizing our geriatric population is to divide them either into those “typically aging” and those “atypically aging”,. There are a multitude of factors that must be assessed in order to determine what is occurring
The article Understanding the Odd Science of Aging, characterize aging as “a progressive, generalized impairment of functions, resulting in an increasing vulnerability to environmental challenges and a growing risk of diseases and death.” In the article many theories are mentioned relating to why humans age such as the somatic mutation theory, telomere loss theory, mitochondrial theory, altered proteins theory and waste accumulation theory. Though
Aging is the amount of changes in person overtime. It is a multidimensional process, which can affect a person physically and psychologically. With age, people weaken and affect their memory. There are four types of aging: intrinsic, universal, progressive and deleterious. Intrinsic aging is chronologic aging, it deals with internal factors, and it decreased fat cells size, and damaged fat cells differentiation. Deleterious aging connects with aging will only be considered as part of the aging process if it “poor” for the individual. Universal aging deals with the process of how aging occur differently in all individual of species.
Aging becomes a process for everyone, young and old. As people age over time many factors play into how well each individuals mind will maintain and respond. The ability to be able to store and retrieve memories will vary based on the individual. Forgetting a close friend’s name, details of a favorite movie or TV show may become challenging at times. These moment that surface from time to time in life may be referred to as “senior moments” but in all actuality could be signs of a change in one’s mental state while aging. “But memory is more than brief (short-term) and lasting (long-term) information storage and retrieval. We process bits of data while we keep them in mind—adding a column of figures, thinking of what we’ll say next as we take in the other side of a conversation—with a more fluid faculty called working memory” (Sherman,
Aging is actually the slowing process of cells: using less and less energy or entropy. As we age, our cells don’t regenerate as quickly as they used to. We slow down, our internal systems slow down and we just don’t generate the heat and energy of before. Entropy will envelope our closed system (cell) and it will just not produce as it should.
Why do people age? Over the “ages” people have wondered how do we age? Do our genes determine our lifespan? Does damage to our DNA affect how long we live? There have been many theories answering that one question and few are right and some still have to be proven. People aging isn’t magical, aging is scientific. Chemistry is behind aging.
Aging on the other hand is a process that affects the human and other organisms’ as a whole. It is, therefore, basically, the adding damages of tissues, cells, and molecules during the process of growth and development. It is a process that takes place in a lifetime span. The changes in the psychological process are permanent (Finch, 2007). The changes will, therefore, affect the way the organism balances the homeostasis process in the body. (Finch, 2007) The body then begin to become immune to the stress conditions in the long run. The declining capacity of the body to maintaining a balance in the homeostasis process is a risk condition to the health of the organism (Finch,2007). It is the reason the body becomes prone to diseases and complications. Some of the severe health issues that occur due to
Incontienence in elderlies is mainly cause by the decrease strength of bladder tissue. Study has found that “Aging results in some common bladder changes, such as decrease bladder capacity and bladder elasticity, increased spontaneous detrusor contractions, and decreased ability to postpone micturition, causing more frequent voiding” ( scemons, pg54 2013). Although many elderly experience UI, some particular groups are more at risk than others. First UI is “more common in people living in nursing home than in the community” (scemons, pg53 2013). Second UI is more common in women age 65 or older and in men age 60 or older (scemons, pg 53-54 2013). Women have a higher risk than men and most case of UI in men is due to prostate disease are at risk for UI (scemons, pg 53 2013). third cognitive impairment is another factor that put elderlies at risk for UI. Research has found that “cognitive impairement is linked with a 1.5 to 3.5-fold increase in the risk of UI, especially when the person is more frail” (scemons, pg 53 2013). The intervention of kegel exercise has been proving to help regain strength in pelvic muscles and bladder control after a 3 to 6 weeks period (scemons, pg 59 2013). Patients with UI are advice to do this excersice for “5 minutes , three times a day” (scemons, pg 59 2013). Kegel exercise is very convenient because it is easy to do anywhere and can be incorporate as part of nursing Homes exercise activities. The intervention of having elderly
The way God created us as humans is a life cycle where eventually late adulthood comes with the biology of aging. Santrock (2013) describes five different theories of why humans age (p. 541). The evolutionary theory explains that aging is more of a natural selection process, and diseases occur in the elderly because they “would have been eliminated” if they were in younger people (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Cellular clock theory describes how cells get tired of dividing after they have been reproducing for so long (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Free-radical theory explains when “cells metabolize energy the by-products include unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals” (Santrock, 2013, p.541). The unstable oxygen molecules can damage DNA and other structures inside the cell (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Mitochondrial theory describes how aging occurs because of the mitochondria essentially wearing out and becoming less efficient (Santrock, 2013, p.542). Mitochondria are the cell’s “power house,” and they convert energy inside the cell (Bailey, 2008). The last theory, hormonal stress theory, illustrates the effects of stress, especially long term stress, on aging (Santrock, 2013, p.542). Stress released hormones which depress the immune system making people more susceptible to disease (Santrock, 2013, p.542). There are many theories about why human’s age, and all of them may be true, but regardless aging is inevitable and so are its effects.
Aging is the process of becoming older, as we age, multiple mutations occur that concern all the processes of aging well as it compromising a number of different genes. There are many theories of biological aging, such as the Cellular Aging Theory, Immunological Theory, and the Wear and Tear Theory. The Cellular Aging theory describes the process of aging in which cells slow their number of replication, thus giving each species a “biological clock that determines its maximum life span” and how quickly one 's health will deteriorate(Hooyman, 42). After a certain number of years, each cell which follows an apparent biological clock starts to replicate itself less, thus the specific individual or species slowly deteriorates. This theory gives
Also spelled as ageing, this is generally the process of becoming old. It is the in a way the opposite of immortality. In a broader aspect, it may occur to single cells in an organism also called cellular senescence or the population of a species, known as population ageing. This process primarily affects human beings and fungi. In humans, it signifies the accumulation of various changes which occur over time. The changes include physical, social and psychological changes.