Aging Awareness
The process of aging begins at birth, or conception, depending on your stance, and continues throughout life. This is fact. Whatever your opinion, there is one inescapable certainty; throughout this meticulous process we call aging, comes change-- unsolicited, irrevocable, inevitable change. While many of the changes we face as we age are celebrated and embraced, not all change is desirable, and not all are pleasant. Some of the biggest changes humans experience in their lifetime occurs in late adulthood and into their senior years. It is in this period that the majority of people will start to experience sensory loss to some degree. In an attempt to understand just what it is like to get through a day with less than ideal vision, hearing, and touch, I conducted my own experiments.
As we age, conditions affecting vision become significantly more marked. Common ailments affecting eyesight especially among the elderly include glaucoma, cataracts, complications from diabetes, and macular degeneration. Macular degeneration is an age related condition in which the sharp, central vision needed for reading, driving, and other daily common tasks, is gradually diminished and in essence, destroyed. In order to familiarize myself with this experience, I borrowed a pair of old glasses from a family member. As soon as I put the glasses on, I noticed I lacked all sense of depth perception. After running into any and every wall and stubbing each toe at least three times, I decided I needed to slow down, and regroup; this was going to require a plan. It genuinely surprised me with how frustrated I was when I found myself unable to navigate through my own home because of this haze. Nevertheless, despite my lumber...
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...uffing to race past anyone moving too slowly for their liking. Younger shoppers were reaching out in front of the older ones, completely ignoring that anyone was standing there, to get what they needed because it seems the older customers spent too long trying to read the labels. Fundamentally, it is unfair to assume that all aging and elderly individuals receive poor treatment; though, our society as a whole does very little to refute that assumption.
Works Cited
Caprio TV, W. T. (2010, November 11). Aging Changes in the Senses. Retrieved from Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004013.htm
Dena Kemmet, S. B. (2008, September 13). Making Sense of Sensory Losses as We Age--Childhood, Adulthood, Elderhood? Retrieved from North Dakota State University: http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/famsci/fs1378.html
Life expectancy has increased. With that, individuals’ in late adulthood develop physical changes. Individuals’ in their late adulthood acquire changes in their senses. With vision these individuals’ “lose elasticity in the lens of the eye which causes the individual to adapt to light differently and harder to focus on near objects” (Cacchione) as reading the fine print on a newspaper. They also may develop diseases of the eye such as: Cataracts, Glaucoma, Diabetic Retinopathy, and even acquire a detached retina. My father has Presbyopia which is also a disease that other individuals in late adulthood can receive. My father stated that he couldn’t see the word RED when it was only three feet in front of him, he saw it as a blurred image as for when it was ten feet away from him, he saw it
During late adulthood, which begins around 65, many changes will take place. Death, sickness, and aging are some of the things you go through. Everyone is affected at some point. Individuals deal with these changes differently. Gerontology is the science that deals with the aging process. Vision can show impairment as people age. One of the changes in vision is the loss of accommodation of the lens. Most people 65 and older have hardened eye lens and have lost elasticity if the lens. Cataracts can form and vision becomes cloudy and is significantly impaired. Glaucoma is a serious condition that causes pressure to increase within the eye and it can result in blindness. Often hearing decreases with age. The hair cells in the Corti (inner ear) can cause a decrease in hearing frequencies. The ossicles and eardrum have a decrease in the transmittance of mechanical sound waves. Due to aging many elderly people have hearing impairment. Loss of appetite from connective tissue cells replacing taste buds. Skin can become thin, dry, and inelastic as it ages and the skin can fold and wrinkle from sagging.
Aging is one of those traits which can be influenced by both nature and nurture. There are a lot of people who are very old and still looks very young due to their genetic makeup of their habit or ability to take care of their body with a lot of care .in either way the main aging characters such feeling easily being tired, developing very low vision, hearing disability, not healing fast as the body used to be starts to show up during a middle age. For the interview, I have asked my parents which both are in middle age. My mom Brook Fremouw is 40 and my dad Jason Fremouw is 42 years old. One thing they both hate, but accept is how their body is not acting as it used to be. For instance, my mom now starts to wear a reading glass because of her poor vision ability. She also using anti- wrinkles skin products to get rid of many wrinkles which comes in recent years. Both vision and wrinkles mostly influenced majorly by nature, but nurture also might play a very small
Growing up as a child, I distinctly remember that the elderly individuals in your area or in any area were treated with utmost respect. They were held in high esteem, and their views and advice were cherished. The elderly were individuals that you would go to when you were not feeling well, or when you needed someone to look after your kids. You would never dare pass them in the street and not say “good morning, good evening or good night.” If a person passing time on the road was using explicit language, they would instantaneously stop and express r...
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
When humans were evolving a key to their development was The Five Main Senses that we knew today as Hearing, Sight, Smell, Taste and Touch. The loss of any of these could have affected the survival of our Ancestors, but in modern times, the partial to total loss of any of The Five Main Senses does not carry the same danger. However today, losing one of our main senses can be uncomfortable and isolating, but it does not mean that our useful lives are over. The loss of each of the senses has a different consequence, methods to cope with that loss, and feelings attached to that loss, both by the person affected and the rest of society.
In an attempt to define ageing one must take in consideration the biophysiological together with the psychosocial aspects; these two aspects are intertwined.
As a teenager who has never experienced hearing loss or the loss of physical movement, I have never been very aware of the obstacles that elders face. After carrying out the activity for this week, I have gained a better insight as to what older Americans experience while living in a country that so dearly values youth. Many young citizens in our country see older people as incapable citizens that need taking care of, which makes them seem like a burden to the American ideas of independence and stability. However, it is only once people grow older that they become aware of the struggles that older people fight through in order to seem independent. While temporarily impairing my hearing, I learned more about myself, the people around me, and especially more about the older people in my life and the struggles that they must endure because of their age.
Gradual declines of different bodily functions occur when an individual reaches the age of 70. The autonomic nervous system will begin to perform less well, which will lead to a decrease in the immune system, sleep problems, and sensitivity to temperature changes. In addition, the sensory system will begin to decline. The sensory system controls sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. When it comes to vision, dark adaption becomes harder. Having trouble with dark adaptation will cause me to have a difficult time going from a brightly lit environment to a dim environment. In addition to sight, my hearing will begin to weaken. I will have a difficult time hearing people when I am in loud places. The loss of hearing could cause me to feel lonely because people will not talk to me as much because they do not want to constantly have to repeat themselves. Furthermore, I will begin to lose my sense of taste. Food will no longer have a distinct taste to me, which will cause me to salt and pepper food a lot in hopes of receiving a satisfactory flavor. Along with taste, I will not be able to have a strong distinction in the smell of different items, such as food. Another decline that will occur is the decline of my cardiovascular and respiratory functioning; I will have a greater phy...
What is aging? It is a question that has been puzzling doctors for centuries. In a culture so obsessed with youth, it is not surprising that science asks this question often. It is also not surprising that the anti-aging product market is a booming multi-million dollar phenomenon. We will pay thousands for procedures that make us thinner, stronger, more full of energy and less wrinkled. The new emphasis of the advertising world is not just looking young, but feeling young too. A large importance is placed on energy, vitality and mental awareness. In a time in our society where the 'baby boomer' generation is approaching their mid 50's, and the number of elderly Americans is substantially increasing, we begin to ask ourselves if growing old has to mean being frail, confused, weak, fatigued and depressed. In many elderly people, the neuronal changes of aging are some of the hardest to deal with. Loss of mental acuity, confusion, forgetfulness and depression are some of the most common complaints about the aging process. Is there a way to avoid these neuronal changes, or at least to slow them down? If there is a 'fountain of youth' that medicine can provide then many Americans will be lining up to get a first try at its effects.
Adulthood seems to be the one of the driest part of human development. When entering adulthood, there is a distinct period of development that allows young people to take a quick look and reflect on themselves and explore their role in life. During this time parents had played a major role in helping adults achieving goals whether through education or obtaining a high paid job. However, some people cannot gain the necessary support needed to successfully enters adulthood. During this time, Susan’s physical development starts to peak in early adulthood, which include, sensory, visual and hearing. For example,
During adulthood many changes occur. Your five senses die out slowly, skin becomes fragile, many things tend to slow down like; the individuals reaction to things, there immune system, memory, also muscles weaken, and the person does not sense intimacy. These changes influence the ways adult perceive and interact with the world because there ability to do certain things are impossible. For example my grandma is at the point of her life where she has been diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer's. She wants to be doing things that she has no ability to do. For example she wants to water her plants. To do that she has to walk a flight of stairs, she needs strength to go down and up, but she doesn’t have it. She cant be walking for a long time because
As a person grows old, it is inevitable to have both physical and cognitive changes happen throughout their lifetime. In an average life span, a person’s physical and cognitive changes will normally vary depending on what age group they are in. For example, it is said that from birth to age five, a child will absorb more information including how to talk, language, form relationships, and fine motor skills than any other age. It is also said that that most rapid decline in physical ability is in older adults ranging from a loss in eyesight to severe dementia.
This phase of development is identified with wearing out of energy reserves and muscles mass, decay of cells, deterioration of the immune system, inefficiency of key body systems and organs. Advanced stage of late adulthood, senses become very dull typical of poor distinction of colors, perception of distance, difficult readership, diminishing hearing, and decline in sense of smell. Nevertheless, deterioration in shapes and appearances, and slowing of reflexes (reflex action), and fine motor skills, as well as the degree of response to spontaneous activities.
We are all victims of aging. We can witness our inevitable fates in the elderly with their wrinkled, loose skin and gray hair. You can try and mask the effects of aging, but you can never escape from it. From the moment we are born the natural process of aging begins. Its effects can be seen on our face and body as we grow from a child to an adult. Soon after our bodies have matured into young adults, the degenerative properties of aging begin to negatively impact the body. Aging goes deep beneath the superficial changes like of a balding head, wrinkled skin, or a grey head of hair. These inconspicuous changes occur inside the body affecting cells and organs such as the brain, heart, or lungs. In addition to the deterioration of health of the brain and heart; bones can become weaker and shorter and our vision and hearing impaired or even lost. There are genetic factors and environmental conditions that may contribute to the cause and effects of aging. With age, there is also an increase susceptibility to diseases, cellular damage, genetic mutations, and cancers. Although there have been many advances in medicine and technologies which have allowed us to live longer lives, aging is still an unavoidable natural process.