The Truth behind Aging: The Facts from the Fiction

Aging is very complex and highly individualized process which begins at conception and end with death. Variables such as physical or cognitive impairments, socioeconomic aspect, cultural values, and beliefs make an aging process unique to each individual. I interviewed an elderly woman using a set of guided questionnaires on the topic to further explore her aging experience. For the purpose of this assignment, I will refer to the client interviewed as a D.L., a changed name for a reason of privacy and confidentiality. During the interview, we explored a D.L. strategy to stay healthy, significant accomplishments of her life, hobbies and activities, retirement, and finally the goals for the future.

Gerontology as a field of scientific study can be traced back to the late 1800s; a time when research primarily focused on the negative attributes of aging, such as health decline. It wasn 't until the introduction of social gerontology in 1983 that researchers began to more rigorously study the psychological and social aspects of aging. In recognizing that “successful aging depends not just on the prevention of disease and disability, but also on the attainment of peak physical and psychological functioning,” (Quadagno,

Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.

1. In her speech, Jane Fonda spoke about aging and the effect that it can have on a person. Fonda talked about “Life’s Third act” or the last three decades of a person’s life. Fonda explained that the advances in medicine and technology enabled the human race to live longer than before (Fonda, 2012). According to Fonda, humans are living on average, thirty years longer than past generations. The human life span has been extended and humans are spending a great deal of their lives in older age (Fonda, 2012). Fonda explains that we should not accept aging as a decline to our mental and physical capacity. According to her, our spirits do not age but mature over time which explains why people over the age of fifty are generally happier, less

In an order to gain a better understanding how the process of aging affects older adults, I interviewed my neighbor, a sixty-seven year old man. For the purposes of this paper, I will refer to him as Pat. Pat lives with his wife of forty-three years. They currently live in a home in Mounds View, which they have owned for twenty-four years. They receive no home services. He views aging as inevitable. He added that, although there are plenty of negative things that are associated with aging, there are definitely perks that come along with it. He believes that maintaining a healthy lifestyle, carrying a positive attitude, and accepting changes as they come, has helped him adjust to growing old. Pat has been retired for nearly three years. Pat appreciates retirement because he gets to watch his two year old grandson during the week. On the weekends, he gets together with family and friends. He enjoys fishing, hunting, reading, and cheering on his favorite sports teams. Pat has a primary doctor that he has seen for several years. He had a myocardial infarction in 2001, and has since been on two prescribed medications for his heart. In addition, he has arthritis, and has been living with chronic pain for nearly a year. The majority of the pain is in his lower back. He stated that the pain will come and go, but it hurts the most in the morning when he gets out of bed, and when he stands or sits for long periods of time. At the time of the interview, I asked on a scale of 0 through

Life is a chronological process filled with transitions and relationships. The purpose of this paper is to delineate an understanding of an older man’s journey through later life from a gerontology perspective and define real-life learning of an older adult as it was presented in the film “Up”. By reviewing the life events of the main character Carl Fredricksen a retired balloon salesman and how he fulfills a lifelong dream of a great adventure to South America.

When I was reading the article Myths of Aging, I found it very interesting. Almost all of the stereotypes that our society has on elderly is basically covered in this article. The first myth that was covered is my favorite, and this myth states, “All old people are the same.” Reality is there is more variety among older people than among any other age group. I think that this makes a great statement for the elderly because it shows that they are not afraid to be themselves, and that they probably don’t worry about what other people think of them. Also, this article goes on to talk about the myth of the elderly being incompetent, but the reality is that many elderly people, even in the early stages of dementia,

A quick Google search for common myth about aging will yield about 12,000,000 results. The magnitude of the number leads you to believe that, as a society, we are completely disillusioned by the process of getting older. We are assume, as a society that as you age your brain shrinks, you will be cranky and unhappy, dementia, weight gain, muscle loss and loneliness are unavoidable. The picture painted by these myths is ugly and possibly reinforce the idolization of youth and beauty in American culture. No one want to volunteer for the possess of getting old if it is so stigmatize, let’s face it no one wants to turn into the grumpy, old, deaf blind, intelligent oaf that is described by the media.

When most people think of aging, the only thing that comes to mind is frail, weakly and wrinkled. In fact, a lot of people associate aging with disease prevalence. These myths and stereotypes about aging have been brought about by the media, jokes we hear and even the films we watch. Some of these you hear are blown out of proportion and exaggerated.

This paper will discuss the relationship between the aging process and key diseases associated with aging. Examples of aging-associated diseases include cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases (López-Otín, Blasco, Partridge, Serrano, & Kroemer, 2013, p. 1194). Of these, we will discuss in-depth recent studies that have linked aging with Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. These diseases affect a significant proportion of the population over the age of 65 and place a considerable burden on the American health care system. Therefore, a better understanding of how they are related to aging and each other can result in the adoption of innovative treatments and declined risk for older adults.

You CAN grow younger and one of the best anti-aging action steps is exercise. But 'use it or lose it' doesn't apply only to muscle fitness or sex. It also applies to the brain.

Another supporter of changing the way aging is conveyed is author, Margaret Cruiksbank, of the book, Learning to be Old. In her book she is a proponent of changing the way the aging process is described. Her position is that the underlying meaning of popular terms to describe aging weakens its value. She denotes that the term “successful aging” is a false phrase for the elderly as it “masks both the wish to continue mid-life indefinitely and the white, Middle-class, Western values of researchers, causing them to emphasize productivity, effectiveness and independence” (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 2). She also concludes that the term “productive” aging symbolizes “economic usefulness and social conformity” (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 2), especially for the female gender. More importantly, these terms can be used to measure. This ability to measure is subjective to the questioner and an individual’s self-worth. She suggests the term “aging comfortably” as it signifies easiness, and a “faint hint” of pleasurable self-indulgence which may not have been possible in younger years (Cruiksbank, 2009, p. 3).

The biological theory of aging is connecting the process that caused organism to develop by a process of evolution. It is belonging to the essential nature of aging such as decreases body function like lung capacity or loss of brain cells. These could lead people to become lower in physical function including putting the person’s life at dangerous illness and makes easier to death. The error theory is the cause of aging in the normal function of the body which is staying over time. Moreover, these biological and error theories are related both two main categories and those theories might interact with each other in complicate way. Because programmed and error theories had been proposed to describe the process of aging, but none of them appears

As aging is a stage of development that cannot prevented, the question of “can one’s aging be more successful than another?” is posed my many. Researchers continually consider the differences between aging successfully, and aging unsuccessfully. As researchers work to complete their studies, many find a reoccurring basis of successful aging. A basis of successful aging can be set including: physical health disease free, chronic illness free, mental health disease free, among many others. The only problem with this basis is the difference from person to person in terms of what makes aging successful. As individuals age, their mental state is a large predictor of how the person will age. A positive mental state about aging, will have a more positive effect on a person’s aging process. Many factors may influence the positivity of aging, such as negative aging stereotypes and discrimination because of older age. These negative aging stereotypes include but are not limited to: older adults are not as smart, older adults are angry all the time, older adults are bad drivers, older adults are isolated and never socialize. In adult aging and development, having a positive outlook on aging will lead to better mental and physical aging.

Knowing and having an understanding of what ageing stands for, remains an important step, growing-up or growing older and ageism are theories about older individuals. Ageism includes preconceptions that elderly are categorized for their age and perceived as weak, and incapable of performing tasks and needy of others (Quadagno, 2014). Another view about elderly individuals is the way they are looked down on by the younger society, i.e. elderly are not as intelligent as their younger competitive working force. People fear what they do not know and do not understand. Age transpires as something that must be lived through in order to understand what ageing means; looking back on one’s life and seeing accomplishments made,