Chapter 4 Personal Health and Well-Being. Biological Aging: Intrinsic Senescence –Normal...
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Transcript of Chapter 4 Personal Health and Well-Being. Biological Aging: Intrinsic Senescence –Normal...
Chapter 4
Personal Health and Well-Being
Biological Aging: Intrinsic
• Senescence– Normal functional decline over time– Effects differ from person to person
• What causes intrinsic aging?– Why does skin become less elastic?– Why don’t cells live forever?
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Programmed Theories of Biological Aging
• Programmed Senescence– Cell division has a limit
• “Hayflick Limit”
– Why do cells stop dividing?• Structure and function changes
– Produce less energy, make enzymes slowly, allow waste buildup
– The Phase II Phenomenon
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Programmed Theories of Biological Aging
• Endocrine and Immunological Theory– Endocrine system responds to internal and
external body changes– Changes in levels of estrogen and
testosterone– Immune system
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Error Theories of Biological Aging
• Somatic Mutation Theory
• Cross-linking Theory
• Free Radicals Theory
• Population dynamics
• Life history of the organism
• Theory of natural selection
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Effects of Aging: Musculoskeletal System
• Muscle and bone content decrease– Can decrease 50% by age 80
• Age 20 +
• Loss of bone mass in older men & women
• Exercise improves bone strength, health, balance and prevents fractures, falls
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Effects of Aging: Sensory Changes
• Taste– Buds decline in number and decrease in size
• Smell– Some loss with age
• Touch– Decreased sensitivity to touch, temperature,
vibration
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Effects of Aging: Sensory Changes
• Sight– Changes begin as early as age 30– By 55, most need glasses for reading– Functional effects of physical change
• Hearing– Some loss each year after age 50– Forms of hearing loss and causes
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Changes in Health Status: Chronic Disease
• The epidemiological transition– Lower rates of acute illness– Increased rate of chronic illness
• Why?– People are living longer– More chronic disease– Shift from younger to older population
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Figure 4.1 The Four Leading Causes of Death by Age Among People 65+
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Figure 4.2 Chronic Health Conditions Among People Age 65+
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Figure 4.3 Limitation on Usual Activities Due to Chronic Conditions
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Changes in Health Status: Chronic Disease
• Examples of Non-lethal Chronic Diseases– Arthritis; Hearing impairment; Cataracts
• Race and Gender– African American compared with White
American– Older women compared with older men
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Figure 4.4 Activity of Daily Living Limitations
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Figure 4.5 Instrumental Activity of Daily Living Limitations
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ADL and IADL Limitations
• Functional losses Increase with age– 2005 NCHS study
• Medicare beneficiaries aged 65-74
– Racial and ethnic differences in disability from limitations
• Will increase in older population lead to more people with disability in later life?
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Disability and the Future
• Some evidence now that some older people overcome limitations
• Regain functional ability through– Health promotion– Disease prevention– Effective management of disability
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Improvements in Technology
• New medical technologies will keep older people healthy and active longer
• Many technologies today– Drugs– Mobile phones– Adaptive devices and assistive technology– Computers
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Improvements in Technology
• Two groups of older people today– Comfortable using new tech– Uncomfortable using new tech
• Could lead to a “digital divide”
• Suggestions – Web designers should design sites to
accommodate older users
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Table 4.1 Persons Using the Internet in and Outside the Home, by Age
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Improvements in the Environment
• Changes in the environment can also improve the quality of life for older people
• Technology can allow families to monitor older relatives at risk of falling– Can also detect wandering, a problem faced
by Alzheimer’s patients.
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Improvements in Self Care
• Information can enhance self-care– Older people will use it, if on hand
• Self-care lowers health care costs
• Older people in programs benefit from– Encouragement– Contact with good role models– Supportive environment; Social support
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Changes in Life-Style: Smoking and Nutrition
• Life experiences influence later health– Abuse; Poverty; Broken home– Low SES and relationship to self-destructive
behavior
• Lifestyle changes for improving health– Decreased smoking among adult population– Better nutrition
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Figure 4.6 Overweight, Obesity, and Healthy Weight
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Changes in Life-Style: Exercise
• Aerobic exercise improves a whole range of physical conditions
• Overweight body doesn’t work as well
• American focus on weight loss and diet misses the point of successful aging
• Healthy weight must be coupled with exercise and activity
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Changes in Life-Style: Stress Reduction
• Regular practice of tension reduction improves health and well-being in later life– Relaxation techniques– Meditation– Religious retreats
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Compression of Morbidity Hypothesis
• Will longer life expectancy be good?
• Fries (1980, 1987) predicted – Life expectancy increase accompanied by
fewer years of disability– Less suffering from chronic disease– Less need for medical care
• “Rectangularization of the life curve”
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Figure 4.7 Compression of Morbidity
• Compression of Morbidity
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Successful Aging: Rowe & Kahn
• Gerontologists should spend time studying people who age well
• Should include focus on lifestyle choices, psychological, and social conditions
• Should recognize that people differ in rates of aging
• Suggest a “New Gerontology”
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Successful Aging: The SOC Model
• Baltes & Baltes & others
• SOC– Selective Optimization with Compensation
• Anyone can make the most of their abilities– Can live a full and engaged life
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Successful Aging: A Life Course Model
• Successful aging is largely within a person’s power
• One needs to– Preserve the health they’ve got– Do as little damage as possible to their body– Strengthen what they can
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Anti-Aging Medicine and Science
• The anti-aging movement has some beneficial options
• But movement poses some dangers– Wasting money on unproven supplements– Substituting for medical treatment of serious
problems
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Social Inequality and Personal Health
• Later life with different health resources– Socioeconomic differences
• Recommendations– Public policies to improve health in childhood
and middle age– Health promotion programs for poorer older
people
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