Aging with Grace - what we now know.
Headstrong - Fri, 20 Apr 2007
Aging and Aging well has as much to do with physical issues as it does mental.
Everyone knows that age brings with it various health-related issues. What often gets forgotten is that as we get older there are social and psychological issues that arise as well. Having a support network of friends, family and medical professionals can help provide peace of mind.
Most people suffer some niggling physical problems as they age, and often some serious illnesses as well. But many older adults also suffer some social and psychological problems. Some mental illnesses do have a genetic and hereditary component. On top of this, there are social and cultural differences on how people meet the challenges of aging. Because there are social, biological and psychological differences between men and women, aging can affect them in different ways. Women live on average longer than men, and therefore often have to cope with the grief of losing their lifelong partners.
Many people fear loss of cognitive function as they age. But the actual fear of losing our quality of life can be self-fulfilling. If you fear loss of mental function you may become withdrawn from others and suffer low self-esteem. However dementia does not become quite common until after age 80 when it is 1 in 4 people affected to some extent; prior to this it is much rarer.
Lifelong learning is enriching for people of all ages. Older people are just as capable of learning as younger people, but often need more time and effort to absorb new information. Adult educators need to be aware of this and show some patience, and encourage older people by telling them that they can learn and pick up skills. This is particularly true of older adults learning how to use a computer for the first time. It is such a useful skill that trainers should try to persist with their older students. Also the older person may have poor eyesight or hearing, which curtails their ability to learn, but a trip to the doctor can assist.
| “Many people fear loss of cognitive function as they age. But the actual fear of losing our quality of life can be self-fulfilling” |
All people have declining short-term memory with age, but this is not so common with long-term memory, which may be more related to the information we absorb over the years. Very long-term memory, from months to years is really permanent, consisting of our education and experiences.Research suggests that long-term memory increases between age 20-50 years, and then remains constant into the 70s. Most people learn to adapt to their changing memories. We do things more slowly and carefully, thinking about what we are doing. Avoiding strange or new settings may assist in remembering people or things. This is why memory loss often occurs after a major life event such as a spouse’s death or selling the house and moving.
People’s reaction time, including the reflexes, slow with age. This can result in older people taking longer to gain an understanding of a new problem and decide on a strategy to fix it. This slowing of reaction time is associated with age-related changes in the nervous system, which means older people need to give complicated tasks more thought than younger people do, but because of this the older person tends to make fewer mistakes.