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by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.
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Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

As Aging Proceeds, More Than Appearance Changes

Tuesday January 14, 2003

To better understand aging, be aware of the physiological changes you want to mitigate as the years go by. Short of dying, you can't stop such changes, but the rate at which they occur can be affected for the better by a spirited wellness lifestyle. It's not easy, wellness is a full time commitment, but the rewards are considerable.

Two systems of concern (and what parts of your body would NOT be a concern if they started to deteriorate?) are bones and muscles. In time, bones become less dense and lose mass and minerals. (This, of course, weakens the bones and makes them vulnerable to fracture.) Muscles also lose mass and strength, in part due to less water in the tendons and ligaments, leading to added stiffness. The cardiovascular system is affected because the size of the heart increases a little, as does blood pressure. More important, your maximal heart and heart recovery rates diminish.

Unlike your bones and muscles, the decline of other body parts or systems with advancing age are less responsive to vigorous wellness lifestyle practices. That is to say, these systems are going to deteriorate whether you stand on your head, run marathons, eat a perfect diet (whatever that is) and do absolutely everything as well as it can be done. These systems include:

Hearing -- the cells of your inner ears are damaged by normal wear and tear of sounds over time. The auditory canal walls become thinner, eardrums thicken and it becomes more difficult to hear higher frequencies.
Brainpower -- The number of brain cells (neurons) diminish with age, though the number of connections between cells increase in some areas of the brain.
Kidneys -- The size of your kidneys and bladder capacity are reduced. The kidneys become less efficient at removing wastes from the blood.
Reproduction -- Men produce fewer sperm and suffer loss of testosterone; women produce less estrogen, progesterone and testosterone, for starters.
Eyesight -- There are losses in ability to produce tears, the retina gets thinner and the lens yellows. Almost everyone over forty learns the meaning of the word "presbyopia," a visual condition in which loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye causes defective accommodation and inability to focus sharply for near vision.
Skin - You really do become "thin skinned," or at least your skin thins even if you don't become quick to take offense. Also, your sweat and oil (sebaceous) glands are less active and skin moisture decreases
Nails - Grow half as fast as they used to. Who cares? I suppose some women do, but of all the inevitable changes, this is one I won't mind in the slightest.

The bottom line, if there is such a thing about the nature of aging, is how well and how long can/will you live. If you could know how long, would you even WANT to know? No worries, since there is no way of knowing, despite the fact that doctors often make predictions and statisticians offer generalities (for example, estimates about general life expectancy.) How well you live, the extent of life quality is another matter. That is very much subject to lifestyle actions, though of course the ratio between birth and death will always be one to one. Self-management for lifestyle artistry is all about how well we live regardless of how long life lasts.

What is the limit? Some say 120, other longer. Who knows, really? What does it matter how long some farmer in a remote village on a mountaintop subsisting on goat yogurt might have lasted, anyway, as far as your lifespan goes? He probably never had a "Big Mac" attack, or lived in a manner remotely similar to your experience. Living a healthy lifestyle will affect the quality of your years, however many you have to go. Clearly, old isn't what it used to be. As your own aging proceeds and more than your appearance changes, at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing you stayed younger in all the important ways as long as possible. You will have to settle for that. It's the best a wellness lifestyle can provide, and it's worth a lot, it seems to me.

While all this is not a great comfort, it's enough to sustain a continued orientation of always looking on the bright side of life.

Domain: physical
Subdomain: appearance and aging

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