health

After adolescence, the physical body continues to grow stronger, reaching
a peak or plateau between 25 and 30 years of age. Starting in one’s
thirties, the slow degeneration of the physical body that is part of the
aging process begins. While adults gradually lose physical abilities, overall
mental abilities tend to increase through middle age. In general, overall
mental abilities do not diminish until the age of 65, the common age for
retirement. Whether the reduction in overall mental abilities owes more
to physical changes in the brain or to reduced mental exercise was still
debated as of 2009. The social effects of aging are often seen in how adults
draw satisfaction from their unique experiences rather than from novelty
and excitement, which the young often crave and regard as essential.
Many people like to think they can minimize the decline in physical
ability by maintaining a positive mental outlook. However, professional
athletes, for example, cannot deny that in middle age there is a sharp
decline in physical ability, agility, and endurance when compared to their
earlier peak performance. At the same time, there are middle-aged athletes
who perform better than younger people who have not made a habit of
daily exercise. Exercise and health patterns throughout life play an important
role in the maintenance of physical vigor in the years after the late
20s. After age 35, female reproduction capability decreases more sharply,
but men of comparable age do not have an equivalent decline in their
likelihood of becoming fathers. However, there is a distinct decline in the
number and quality of their sperm cells. Around the age of 50, women
enter menopause, which marks the end of their childbearing years.
While middle-aged people who maintain their health may reduce the
impact of age-related physical degeneration, the decline in sensory acuity
is unavoidable. Vision decline is slow between the ages of 30 and 70 years
of age, but after 70 it is more rapid. There is a similar trend for the sense
of smell where there is virtually no decline in middle age but a sharp
decline in the late 60s. Hearing has a steady decline every ten years from
age 30 to 60 when the decline becomes steeper. The body begins responding
less effectively to stress. The risk of many diseases starts to increase.
In the elderly, there is a higher incidence of dementia*. In many
elderly people, dementia is attributable to brain injury. The dementia may
represent the accumulated effects of alcoholism, the presence of ministrokes,
or a brain tumor*. A common form on dementia is Alzheimer’s
(ALTS-hy-merz) disease*.
From middle age onward, human neural processing starts slowing
down, and in particular, people’s reaction time, perceptual accuracy, and
ability to perform memory tasks. Brain size changes with age, so that an
80-year-old’s brain is on average about 10 percent smaller than it was at age
20. The areas of the brain most affected by this loss are the ones associated
with memory. However, it appears that being mentally active can counter
this trend as it is likely that mental activity encourages the growth of new
neurons and synaptic connections. There is evidence that maintaining a
physical exercise regimen throughout one’s life, just as it contributes to
one’s physical agility, contributes to one’s mental agility later in life.
One popular assumption in the United States is that growing older is
negative and that it is associated with increased difficulties and decreased
intelligence. Conclusive evidence for reduced overall intelligence as part
of the aging process has not been established. When a group of people
take an intelligence test at the same time, the younger test-takers tend
to do better than the older ones, which suggests an inverse relationship
between age and test-taking ability. This would seem to suggest that as
people age, they tend to lose intellectual capabilities. However, in longitudinal
studies, where the same people are given intelligence tests many
times over a long period of time, there is no decrease in intelligence. In
fact, there appears to be an increase in intellectual functioning in middle
age, which only starts to decline at around age 65.
There is some decline in the ability to perform memory tasks for
older people, particularly in recall tasks. If an older person and a younger
person are asked to repeat the name of someone they both just met, the
older person is less likely to remember than a younger person is. However,
in recognition tasks, there is little difference between old and young.
Therefore, if the older and younger persons are given a list of names and
asked which one was the name of the person just met, they are equally
likely to recognize the name. What has been called crystallized memory
stays strong throughout the life of a healthy person. This memory involves
recalling facts and knowledge accumulated over the years. However, fluid
memory declines with age. This kind of memory pertains to quick decision-
making and logic tasks. This decline is slowed, however, in people
who practice logic problems regularly.
With regard to the social aspect of midlife aging, one misconception
needs dispelling: the midlife crisis. Many people expect that middle age
will be a period of bigger problems and less satisfaction. However, there is
no scientific justification for such an expectation. On average, there is no
increased emotional instability in midlife. Also, there is no decrease in the
measure of life satisfaction associated with middle age and old age.
According to the psychologist Erik Erikson (1902–1994), much psychosocial
development continues in adulthood and late life. Typically,
young adults are focused on finding a mate; middle-aged adults, on leaving
something behind for future generations; and people in late life, on
seeking validation that their lives have been meaningful. Those who marry
and have children eventually experience an empty nest, when the children
grow up and begin separate lives of their own. For many people, this transition
is happy, as a new milestone is being passed.
Death is the ultimate effect of aging. People tend to accept death in
different ways based on their personal, religious, and cultural views. Grief
is an individual experience; there is no model for grief that all individuals
follow.