Introduction
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
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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 conditions. Medications used to
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.
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.
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 is natural. Every species ages on Earth. Humans seem to be one of the rare species on Earth that works so adamantly against aging, rather than
(1) The theory that best support my current views on aging is the Wear-and-Tear Theory. The theory is “the idea that changes associated with aging are the result of chance damage to the body that accumulate over time”. (2) As many of us know, the body is constantly renewing itself. The cells in you is constantly creating new ones to replace the old, just like a boat. You are constantly restoring all the parts, where the boat will basically be almost all new parts. I think our body is like a built boat, car, or even a house, you must keep repairing it. Some people would literally get a new body part. A blood transfusion, heart replacement and a leg replacement are some examples of the theory. But just like a used car, boat or house, we stop
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 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.
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.
Age as gradual deterioration is a self-fulfilling prophesy. The concept itself however, is mistaken. Ancient wisdom offers a more realistic view. It maintains that disuse, not "age," is the cause of deterioration. In this view: "that which is used
Aging process will lead to decline of biological functions and the ability to adapt to metabolic stress. Since the percentage of mortality increases rapidly with aging, it is clear that all of the body systems will changes in the individual which make him or her more vulnerable to disease. Among the systems that get affected by aging process are endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and reproductive
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
Almost all life on earth blossoms with youth, until it has reproduced and passed its genes on to the next generation. After that, the flowers wilt and die, and we humans began to age. Yes, we begin to age while we are still in our
The purpose of this news is to notify us that scientists now understand better why aging occurs, researchers from the Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) in Mainz, Germany found out that the genes which cause aging belong to a process called autophagy which boosts health and fitness in youth but drive the process of ageing later in life. It also demonstrates that ageing is something humans can not avoid. To do this research the researchers shut down autophagy in old worms and they saw there was a strong improvement in neuronal and subsequent whole body health. In the article of The tech museum of architecture they state that there are two theories of why we age, one is that our genes decide how long we live, and the other one says that as we live our DNA gets damaged until we can no longer function as we are supposed to do. They also talk about the experiment with the worms and how by mutating certain genes they can expand their lifespan up to 4-fold, which for humans would be the same as 300 years. There is another article were their research is about trying to prove that ageing is universal and is the same for all living things, however they found that is has many variables depending on the animal.
Telomeres shorten after each cell division, until senescence marks the point, where they cease to divide. Once cells divide at a reduced rate and then no longer divide at all, the effects of ageing become visible. It should be noted that this is not the inevitable fate of every biological organism. As we reach the heights of sentience, our evolution would be reflected in our extended lifespan. From a scientific viewpoint, the human race has the capacity to expand their lifespan from 150 to 300 years in less than a century. Therefore, we have far from lived up to our full biological
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