-
-
Actually it looses pigmentation that made it
look different colors before.
-
Skin
“Age spots” begin to appear.
-
- Due to
- accumulation of decades of exposure to the sun (especially on face, arms etc).
More common on light skin people
-
Teeth
Become yellower
-
- Accumulation of coffee, tobacco etc.
- Better dental hygiene prevents tooth loss.
-
- Even today 20% of Americans have lost all their
- teeth by age 65.
-
Leads
to Cataracts.
- ·
- Thickening of the lenses, vision becomes
- cloudy and distorted.
- ·
- Starts in Middle adulthood.
- ·
- 25% of people in their 70’s and 50% of people in
- their 80’s.
- ·
- Biological changes, but smoking and sun exposure
- increase the risk.
-
Macular
Degeneration
- ·
- Lots of clarity in the center of the visual
- field.
- ·
- Due to aging, but smoking increases it and
- healthy diets lowers it (green leafy veggies and fish)
- ·
- 4% of 65-74yr olds and 15% of 75 and over.
-
Glaucoma
- ·
- Loss of peripheral vision. The vision outside
- the center. Build up of fluid.
- ·
- May be treated with medicated eye drops.
-
All 3 of these conditions may lead to blindness
Smoking increases the risk
-
Hearing
- Most hearing problems occur due to aging, but
- smoking increases the risk.
-
- Affects daily life in some aspects – Unable to
- communicate.
-
- Hearing loss associated with depression and
- loneliness.
Hearing loss associated with Cognitive decline.
-
Taste
and Smell
Due to aging, but smoking increases the risks.
-
- ¼ of adults 65 of older report some impairment,
- but at age 80, 60% of adults.
-
- Food becomes less appetizing, therefore, less
- food consumption.
May lead to malnutrition.
-
Sleeping
Problems may be caused by
Depression, Anxiety, Arthrtis, osteoporosis
(physical) Restless leg. (Invluntary leg movements)
- Some
- reccomandations to avoid problems:
- Less Caffeine or Alcohol, Regular bedtime, Moderate Exersise, Avoid naps.
Medications are available.
-
Arthritis
Treatment
-
- Medications to ease the pain.
-
- Surgery to insert artificial joints.
-
- Exercise (Studies have been made. 3 groups/ 8
- weeks: 1 did aquatic exercise, 2 did land exercise, 3 didn’t do any.
- Participants were able to do more activities without pain.)
-
-
Risk for broken bones (the bad news, 15% of
women who suffered a broken bone die within 1 year.)
-
Exercise
Reduces the risk for:
Osteoporosis
-
- The symptoms for arthritis and diabetes
-
Brain shrinks up
to 10% by the time they reach 80 yrs old
This affects
-
- the hippocampus
- (controls the transfer of information to long term memory)
-
- The cerebellum (balance and coordination)
-
- The frontal lobes (Planning and judgment)
-
Memory
- Selective
- attention-The ability to tune out irrelevant information
- Divided
- attention-the ability to keep track of more than one thing at a time.
- Sustained
- attention-The ability to stay focus on one task for a long period of time
- Working
- memory-information that is in focus of your attention during this time
- Long
- term memory-Adults are just unable to retrieve information.
- Episodic
- memory-Scenes, When trying to remember, one goes back in time to picture a
- certain “scene”
- Autobiographical
- memory-People remember things that make them feel good about themselves.
- (marriage, having children, etc.)
- Source
- memory-Where did the information come from?
-
Alzheimer’s
- Severe loss of memory for recent events and
- familiar names and tasks (grandchild’s name, route to the bank, pharmacy etc).
- Ultimately even awareness of the people, places,
- events and facts most familiar and most valued is lost.
-
- Personality changes – Now more aggressive
- because of stress less interest in other of favorite activities.
-
- May have paranoid behavior and possible
- hallucinations.
-
Life expectancy for people with Alzheimer’
-
Causes of Alzheimers
- Diet
- People in Yoruba had lower rates of the disease eventhough they possed the gene. The difference was in their diets
-
Constant care
- ·
- People with the disease will eventually stop
- feeding, groom themselves. They may lose control of their bodily fluids
- ·
- Unfortunately, caregiver will become physically
- and psychologically exhausted. In some cases they may suffer depression.
-
Preventing/delaying cognitive decline
- Seattle
- Longitudinal Study-Participants 65 years and older receive 5, 1 hr traning sessions in spatial
- orientation and reasoning skills.
- 2/3
- or the participants improved their performance significantly.
- 40%
- matches the level of performance they had shown on task 14 years earlier.
- When
- assesed 7 years later, they
- out performed age mates who had not receive the intervention.
- Optimization-
- perfromance in the remaining
- activities becomes more likely because all the person’s energy and attention
- can be focused on them.
- Compensation-find
- ways to compensate for physical and mental declines by developing new
- strategies or technology.
-
Selective
Optimization with Compensation
- Selecting valued activities that can still be
- done well enough and that can still be enjoyed
-
- Optimization- Performance in the remaining
- activities becomes more likely because all the person’s energy and attention
- can be focused on them.
- Compensation- Find ways of compensate for
- physical and mental declines by developing new strategies and/or technology
-
¨Socioemotional Selectivity Theory.
- §
- As people get older, they have a shifting time
- perspective of their future, limited in length and less flexible when compared
- to younger adults. According to SST, this shifting time-perspective contributes
- to the positivity effect where older adults regard positive events more
- significantly than negative events. A change in motivation or goal-orientation
- is suggested to accompany the shift in time-perspective. That is, younger
- adults focus on goals related to knowledge acquisition, like meeting an author,
- and older adults focus on goals related to emotion regulation[4] .
- Fung and Carstensen (2004) successfully manipulated individual's
- time-perspective experimentally and observed corresponding changes in
- goal-orientatio
-
Family relations
- Parents often live
- with children, usually older son.
- Children offer
- emotional support as well as financial support
In Western cultures
- Older adults live
- apart from children. When they have to live with children they will live with
- daughters.
- Children offer
- emotional support but parents continue to provide financial support.
-
Living Arangements
Assisted living
- Independent
- apartments but with care. Meal services, housekeeping, workers offer driving
- them to doctor appointments, errands, etc.
- More common in US and
- Canada more than anywhere else in the world.
Nursing homes
- Facilities for people
- with severe cognitive or medical conditions.
- Same as assisted
- living but also provide extensive medical care.
- More common in US and
- Canada more than anywhere else in the world.
- One of the problems
- with nursing homes is that they offer limited choice of what things to do.
Other Programs
- Other cases where
- someone refuses to live in a home. Relatives may hire a person to help older
- adults with everyday things.
-
Love relations
Marriages
- (They managed to
- surpass all the problems, together)
- They have less
- stressful compared to young marriages because they don’t have to worry about
- children, work responsibilities, money problems etc.
- Only 1% of marriages
- of people 65 and older will divorce.
- Older couples have
- more quality time in late adulthood because of retirement.
- Older couples don’t
- fight as much because they tend to be more peaceful.
Sexuality
- whether they have a
- partner, still married, have a romantic relationship)
- Women tend to lose
- vaginal lubrication (making it more painful than enjoyable)
- Men lose testosterone
- (making erections last longer)
- However, medications
- are available
-
Love relations
Widowhood
- They had spent a life
- time together.
- Children have moved
- out, therefore they are alone in the house.
- In many cases, the
- remaining person will die shortly after their spouse passed.
Men are more likely to become depressed.
Remarriage
- Avoid children’s
- negative reaction
- Simply want to stay
- independent
-
¨Part time employment
- It will keep the busy, physically, cognitively
- and socially active.
On the down side, employers may discriminate.
-
¨Leisure activities
- People may want to try different things but more
- likely, they will usually spend their time doing things they use to enjoy.
-
- Take a few classes (Many colleges now offer
- senior programs)
-
- Travel (if they can afford it)
-
- Exploritas- a program that mixes travel with
- cognitive stimulation. (travel to France and study art, Italy study
- arquitecture)
-
- Other activities may include reading, cooking,
- tv/movies gardening.
-
Community Involvement
Highly involved in community.
-
- Book clubs, gardening clubs, religion, politics
- etc
-
- “Across countries, people 65 yr old and older
- are the group that votes the most”
-
Volunteer
Meals for poor, clothe drives etc
In the US, 40% of volunteers are in their 60’s (annually)
-
- Then it declines to 10% for 75yr olds.
-
Religion
Attend weekly religious centers
Not only in practice but also in their beliefs.
Women tend to be more religious than men
-
- The more religious they are the less likely they
- are to become depress (they will be less lonely and less afraid of dying)
-
- Health benefits of religion
- ·
- Better functioning of the immune system and
- lower blood pressure (Atcheley, 2009)
- ·
- Lowers the risk for physical disabilities and
- extends life expectancy (Hill, 2008; Roff et al.,2006)
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