Aging and Health: Key Factors

Physical and Internal Senescence

• Aging involves a reduction in the body's efficiency, both physically and internally.

Menopause and Andropause

• Menopause is the cessation of menstruation in midlife, associated with hormonal shifts, hot flashes, and mood changes.
• Andropause is the gradual decline in testosterone levels in men, leading to reduced libido, energy, and muscle mass.

Diet and Lifespan

• The Mediterranean diet, rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, healthy fats (olive oil), and lean protein, is linked to a longer lifespan and reduced morbidity (illness and impairments). It is low in meat and dairy.

Cognitive Abilities in Adulthood

• The Seattle Longitudinal Study tracked cognitive abilities over decades. Most mental abilities improve in adulthood, peaking in middle age, with declines later in life.
• Cohort effects are important, as different generations experience different cognitive aging patterns due to factors like education and healthcare.
• Fluid intelligence (quick, flexible problem-solving) tends to decline earlier than crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge), which often remains stable or improves.

Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC)

• Individuals can successfully age by focusing on and optimizing key skills, while compensating for declines. For example, practicing fewer but well-selected musical pieces.

Expertise and Multitasking

• Expertise develops through practice, enabling automatic and adaptive thinking in specific areas.
• Repeatedly switching between tasks is inefficient.

Erikson's Stages in Adulthood

• Integrity vs. Despair: Adults reflect on their life, seeking meaning and connection.
• Intimacy vs. Isolation: Adults seek close, mutual relationships.
• Generativity vs. Stagnation: Adults contribute to society and find meaning, or feel unproductive.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

• Humanism emphasizes basic needs for all, including physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Parenting and Parenthood

• Elderspeak, a condescending communication style characterized by simplified grammar and repetition, can be harmful to older adults, potentially reducing self-esteem.

Adjusting to Aging Changes

• Micro-system: Sexual satisfaction can remain high.
• Macro-system: Optimize driving to compensate for vision or hearing changes ; slow down.
• Exo-system: Sensory changes (vision/ hearing) may necessitate adaptations.

Types of Aging

• Primary aging: Universal, irreversible biological changes.
• Secondary aging: Age-related changes due to lifestyle, environment, and diseases.

Cellular Aging

• Cellular function declines over time, affecting tissues and organs.

Brain Aging

• Neuronal and dendritic growth continues slowly throughout adulthood, but brain volume decreases and neurotransmitter transmission disrupts.
• There is increased neuroplasticity even in later adulthood.

Step-by-step Processing in Aging Brain

• Input: Sensory loss impacts interaction and expression.
• Memory: Processing slows, with decreased explicit memory.
• Prospective memory: Remembering future tasks fades; can be aided with routines.
• Control processes: Executive function and attention decline. Impaired retrieval leads to cognitive challenges.
• Output: Mental ability declines; verbal modifiers and health can affect test outcomes.

Neurocognitive Disorders (NCDs)

• NCDs include Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer's disease, vascular disorders (stroke), and frontotemporal NCDs.
• NCDs involve persistent memory loss and deterioration.
• NCDs are severe brain disorders with symptoms possibly treatable, but often cannot be reversed.

Polypharmacy

• Polypharmacy (use of multiple medications) can cause NCD symptoms due to side effects of medication combinations.

Coping and Wisdom

• Cognitive reappraisal (reframing situations) helps manage stress effectively.
• Wisdom arises over time, but older age does not automatically equate to wisdom.

Retirement and Work

• Retirement can be part-time, self-employment, or a bridge job to transition into a different work style.
• Retirement may offer relief from stressors associated with previous jobs, but can also result in loss of socialization and status.

Religious Involvement

• Religious involvement in later life correlates with emotional and physical well-being.

Frailty

• Frailty is vulnerability to stressors causing weakness, fatigue, and mobility issues.
• ADLs (activities of daily living): basic self-care tasks; IADLs (instrumental ADLs) are more complex activities.

Integrative and Palliative Care

• Integrative care combines diverse approaches, including hospice, modern medicine, and honest conversations.
• Palliative care focuses on comfort for patients and their families.

Death and Dying

• Death anxiety typically peaks in adolescence and early adulthood, then decreases.
• Cultural norms and perceptions heavily influence how people experience death.
• A "good death" is often characterized by peacefulness and the presence of loved ones.

Ethical Issues Surrounding Death

• Decisions regarding euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are often complex.

Grief

• Prolonged grief is persistent intense grief and distress that doesn't subside over time.
• Complicated grief involves persistent and intense grief impeding future life.
• Absent grief is a lack of outward grieving.
• Disenfranchised grief is grief not acknowledged publicly.
• Incomplete grief is limited or hindered circumstances.

Mourning and Post-traumatic Growth

• Mourning involves rituals and cultural expressions of grief.
• Resilience and meaning-making can lead to post-traumatic growth.

Bowenian Family Systems Theory

• Bowen focused on the multigenerational transmission process.
• Genograms are tools to map family dynamics.
• Increasing differentiation (separating thoughts/feelings from family) reduces anxiety.
• Emotional patterns within a family can impact subsequent generations.
• Cultural norms and development stages influence intergenerational relationships.
• Grandparent-grandchild relationships vary across families.

Healing Through Relationships (Child Trauma-Related Chapters)

• Strong, consistent relationships help heal trauma-related effects.
• Connecting & regulating, meaning-making, are critical elements of healing.
• Repeated positive experiences help rewire the brain.
• Every age group has potential and room for healing.
• Caregivers play critical role in safety and predictability.
• Self-care is important for caregivers.

Explore the various factors influencing aging and health, including physical senescence, menopause, and dietary impacts on lifespan. This quiz delves into cognitive abilities in adulthood and the significance of generational influences on mental performance. Test your knowledge on how these elements interconnect.