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Are difficult relationships or painful emotions causing you to age?
Inside most old people are young people
wondering how they got there.
Delay, Prevent and Reverse Aging
People are born with an energy for living that, unless
continuously restored, fades with age. After about age 25, unless care is
taken to replenish energy, many people stop growing up and start growing old.
Yet aging is optional and controllable for most motivated adults, and degeneration
may often be delayed, and, sometimes, put on hold or occasionally, even reversed.
The degeneration of aged tissues is far
easier to prevent than to repair.
Degenerated body tissues are
unlikely to be replaced, except perhaps by surgery.
Aging, Anxiety & Coaching
The deterioration of bodily
functions that accompany old age is often considered a one-way street to
suffering and death. Although many theories explain one or two aspects of
aging; no single theory explains all aging phenomena. Yet many changes
associated with old age are not from natural aging - but from diseases
which occur more frequently with increased age. With appropriate care,
most people can delay or prevent many of the problems of old age,
and sometimes even reverse the aging process.
In a society that reveres youth, many people who age
grieve the loss of their former younger selves, and deny their physical
age. They may damage their credibility by wearing tight clothes more
appropriate for teenagers, searching for young friends or lovers or even
cosmetic surgery.
Aging anxiety often includes worrying about declining
health, loss of friends, wrinkles, loss of hair, declining memory and
depleted financial resources.
We help people prevent and
delay the fragmentation and loss of mental resources
associated with aging, and increase motivation to be physically
and mentally healthy.
Biological Aging
As time passes, cellular damage accumulates and impairs
the function of a tissue. If the damage interferes with metabolism, whole
organs may malfunction. A common example is adult-onset diabetes, which
can often be controlled by diet and exercise.
"I thought that aging was something
that would only happen to other people".
One theory of aging assumes that the life span of a cell or
organism is genetically determined. Another theory of aging assumes that cell
death is the result of the formation of enzymes that do not work efficiently.
Another theory assumes that aging is due to the gradual accumulation of mutant
cells that do not perform normally. (Natural mutation may be increased dramatically
by toxins and carcinogens associated with modern lifestyles.)
Old Age & the Cardiovascular system
The heart changes with advancing age, gradually losing muscle,
and reducing in performance. Heart disease and
hypertension are the biggest causes of death after age 65.
- The heart does not contract as rapidly in older people. In response
to exercise, the heart can double or triple the amount of blood pumped, although the
maximum output diminishes with age.
- Arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) is a progressive
disorder and is present in most people by middle age, and increases markedly with age.
- Blood vessels become less elastic with age, with a progressive
thickening of the walls of blood vessels. These changes may increase blood pressure,
increasing the work of the heart.
Old Age & Digestion
The overall digestion of sugars, proteins, vitamins, and minerals are
similar to young people. Most nutritional deficiencies can be avoided if the diet
includes all nutritional elements. Deficiencies are most likely to develop from poor
eating habits, such as excessive sugars and refined flour.
The loss of teeth in elderly people is often a result of long-term neglect.
Old Age & the Nervous System
Human behavior requires the brain to integrate information from the eye
and ear, skin and internal organs. There is only a slight loss of brain cells in old age,
however, brain cells are extremely sensitive to oxygen deficiency. Consequently, it is
likely that loss of brain cells results from heart disease, which reduces oxygen
delivery to the brain.
Old Age & Vision
From about age 50 there is an
accelerated decline in the ability to discriminate detail, that most people
compensate for with spectacles and increased illumination. Aging reduces the
ability to focus the eyes for viewing near objects, so that distant objects
can be seen more clearly than close objects. Sensitivity to darkness and
glare is also greater in the old than in the young, and the incidence of
eye disease, such as glaucoma and cataracts, increases with age.
Premature Aging
A rare childhood disease is characterized by many aspects
of aging, such as baldness and thin skin. Children with this disease can die
of old age - as teenagers. Premature aging is strongly associated with
lifestyle - such as sunlight, smoking, alcohol and overeating.
Radiation & Temperature
People exposed to hard radiation die younger, although the
only definite medical effect of continuous low-level irradiation throughout
life is an increased risk of cancer - diseases such as leukemia increase with
exposure with ionizing radiation from radioactive materials.
Natural ionizing radiation is not a major contributor to aging.
Many organisms live longer at low temperatures. A rate-of-living
theory holds that an organism's life span depends on critical substances that are
used faster at higher temperatures. Some aging may occur as a result of heat
damage to proteins, but this does not seems to be a strong factor.
Psychobiological Aging
The psychological features of aging are impaired short-term
memory and longer reaction times. Some aged people become fearful and depressed,
withdraw from social contact, or behave like children.
Some of these aged people commit suicide or invite death with self-destructive,
unhealthy lifestyle choices.
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If you
identify with an older person, you may
often use gestures, facial expressions and habits of older people. These
unconscious habits may make you appear older than your body age. If so, our
identity coaching can give you a new lease of life. |
Most elderly people can acquire new information and remember it as
well as younger people. Age differences in learning increase with the difficulty of
the material to be learned. It seems that people who age well maintain their
mental alertness by continuing to learn and by contact with younger
people.
Stress
. Depression
. Suicide
. Anxiety
Parenthood and Aging
Human life, including old age and death, focuses on
creating and raising children. Old age is linked to the reproductive
process. Although the onset of old age is gradual, without specific systemic or
environmental cause; an early manifestation of age is a decline in sexual
interest. This can be horrifying to people for whom sex was a preoccupation.
The proportional contribution of an person to a family or community
diminishes as the number of living children increases. This implies some
optimum number of children that reflects the survival of those children
to maturity. In developing countries, the number of living children seems
to mostly reflect the food supply. Before medical advances, an optimum number
of children would balance those who could be expected to die from disease.
In modern industrial countries, the optimum number of children seems to
reflect the beliefs and values of the parents.
Children and grandchildren provide a natural focus
and purpose for older people. In many cultures, there is a special
relationship between grandparents and grandchildren ... the children may
gain indulgent second parents, while most grandparents enjoy
caring for their children's children and the parents can relax for a
while ... and maybe create another baby.
Advantages of Aging
In most traditional cultures, elders represent the
knowledge of the community, and are the teachers of the young. In Western
cultures, old people are often seen as liabilities, and inexperienced young
adults learn subjects instead of the wisdom of experience.
If younger adults feel that their freedom or mobility is limited by older relatives;
then some form of old folks home may be perceived a logical next step.
Older people tend to have more time and patience, and more
experience as family and community mentors. They have seen more of life; they
have solved more problems and they are not easily shocked. They have seen birth
and death, health and disease. They have a perspective of joy and suffering ...
of life and death ... that younger people cannot easily imagine.
Online Coaching &
Mentorship for Aging
Plagiarism is theft. Copyright © Martyn Carruthers
2003-2011 All rights reserved |
