What is aging?

Aging is a constant, universal and predictable process that involves growth and development of living organisms. Aging can't be avoided, but we have to take into account that how fast we age varies from one person to another. How we age depends on three factors our genes, environmental influences and life style. Aging can also be defined as a state of mind, which does not always keep the same step with our chronological age. The most important element is the Attitude and how well we face the normal changes, challenges and opportunities of later life may best define our age.
Myths and Facts about Aging Illness Old age means poor health and disability. Perhaps the most common myth about old people is that they are sick or disabled. Many people think that poor health is a very serious problem for most people over 65. They think old people spend the majority of the time on bed because they have poor coordination and feel tired. It forms part of reality that there are some common diseases among older people. However, getting old does not automatically means poor health or that you will be confined to a walker or wheelchair by the rest of your life. There are lots of seniors who enjoy a vigorous health. If we want to have the benefit of a good health there are some good habits to follow such as; healthy eating, exercising and managing stress because they can help to reduce the risk of a chronic disease.

Senses All five senses tend to decline in old age.

It is a fact that all senses are affected when you get old but the level each of them declines is different. First of all it is important to mention that the vision and hearing are the most affected senses.

A. Hearing Youll need a hearing aid. The hearing loss is common with age; as part of the normal aging process, this happens because sensory cells within the ear begin to die off. However, only 35 percent of 80 year olds need a hearing aid on the other hand there are people that in their 90s still have perfect hearing. In this case it is important to remember the element about the environment because if you were exposed to long term noise such as loud industrial machines you would be part of people you will need a hearing aid. But you dont have to be worry because serious hearing handicaps are the exception rather than the rule that you have to do is to obtain regular hearing checkups after middle age. B. Sight The effects of aging are much the same for all visual tasks.

Not all the visual tasks are affected in the same level. For people after middle age it is difficult to differentiate objects that are moving or masked by other stimuli and to locate a target object in a field of distracting stimuli it is hard too.

In general that we need to keep in mind is that the effects of aging are more pronounced on visual tasks that are more complicated.

C. Smell and Taste

It is a fact that the smell and taste senses are less affected in elderly. There are some interesting results about the main causes of the reduction of smell and taste senses in old people. Some studies have concluded that few changes produced in both senses are provoked by the natural process of aging. However other studies support that those changes are related to illnesses such as allergies and sinusitis. Its also taking into consideration cigarette smoking and environmental exposures over life. As was mention before smell and taste are the less affected senses but people cant overlook them because some elderly tend to use more sugar or salt for enhancing the favor of their food that is dangerous for those who have chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure or diabetes.

There are some useful tips for elderly to compensate the reduction of the smell and taste of food for example: Replacing salt and sugar with herbs, spices, and lemon juice. Eating the food when it is warm because it is easier to perceive the smell.

D. Touch and pain

It is a fact that many people experience changes in the touch-related sensations as they age. For an older person could be difficult to differentiate between cool and cold. It is valuable to pay attention to decreased temperature sensitivity because it increases the risk of injuries such as hypothermia and burns. After age 50, many people have reduced sensitivity to pain. For this reason elderly develop problems with walking and they suffer falls because of the reduced ability to perceive where their body is in relation to the floor.

Impotency People begin to lose interest in sex after 55

Another very common myth is that most elders do not have any sexual activity even sexual desire and those who have are abnormal. The majority of people over 65 have both interest in and capacity for sexual relations. This is possible because the market offered a variety of alternatives such as products base on herbs and supplements for example: Passion Rx, Maca and Tribulus. Major longitudinal studies have found that sex plays an important role in men and women throughout their seventies. People reported that sex after 60 is satisfying as when they were younger or even more. Regarding the aspect mentioned before the lifestyle factors are relevant, because a low or moderate amount of exercise can increase sexual desire. Smoking can reduce genital blood flow.

Ugliness

Old people are ugly

Another very common stereotype is that old people are not beautiful. Through the years beauty has been associated with youth especially in the case of women for this reason they fear the loss of their beauty as they age. They begin to be worry when they note the presence of a wrinkle or a gray hair. While occidental culture tends to associate the old age with ugliness and beauty with youth in others part of the world such as Japan admires features of the old age. In this country silver hair and wrinkles are seen as signs of wisdom, maturity, and long years of service. The example mentioned before shows us another part of the complex definition of aging in this case when the factor of culture interfere it makes the meaning of aging subjective, because it depend on each peoples perception. According to the example it is possible to say that ugliness is in the eye of the beholder because peoples perceptions about beauty are conformed by cultural standards. Isolation Most old people are isolated and lonely. Its a fact that during old age can result difficult to maintain social networks due to retirement, illnesses, death and moving of friends and relatives. However the majority of elders are not socially isolated. About two-thirds live with their spouse or family. Only about 4% of elders are extremely isolated. Most elders have close relatives easy to visit, friends, neighbors and family to stay in contact. The majority of seniors do not like to be in isolation and they need to have social networks for health and well-being. Social networks also help to avoid depression. Some tips for helping elderly to keep their social networks are following: Connecting regularly with friends and family. It is worthy to seniors to spend a good time with people that they can feel happy or comfortable they could be an old friend, a neighbor or even relatives. Making an effort to make new friends. Elderly people have to do an effort to do new friends because it is common to lose friends in unexpected moments also it is a good option to them to be open to young friends because they can help them to recover the vitality of life.

 Find support groups in times of change. It is better for seniors to find a help group in order to obtain the necessary support in the moments they could need it for example, in a loss of a friend, but also it can function for sharing anecdotes or simply for having someone to talk and being listened.

Useless Most elder workers cannot work as effectively or efficiently as younger workers People think that elderly are unable to continue working as a result of those myths that say that most of old people are disabled by physical or mental illnesses and few who continuing working are not productive. This miss conception has contributed to discrimination in hiring, retraining and promotion at work. It is a fact that the majority of older workers can work as effectively as young people do. Despite declinations in perception and reaction speed studies of employed old people have shown that they under optimal conditions work as well as, if not better than younger workers do. Some positive points of having old people as part of the workforce are that there are less jobs turnover, few accidents and less absenteeism. .

Bibliography

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