LIVING AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE

WITH BIG BOB

When we are children, the thought of aging never crosses our minds. We see our grandparents as ancient and yet they could be in their 50’s. We watch them as each decade goes by appear older, slower and grey haired and as we head into our twenties and thirties, the thought of actually being in our sixties and seventies seems far too removed from where we are at the moment.

We have families of our own and all too soon they have grown to their thirties and we are now in our late fifties and sixties with our own grandchildren. It is when we hit the sixties that we realise we have entered “old age”. Up until that time, the majority of us would have been fit and healthy and suddenly a visit to the doctor necessitates all manner of blood tests. If you have kept active and healthy, hopefully these tests are just a formality and any problems won’t show up until you are well and truly into old age.

Unfortunately, our bodies do wear out due to a combination of genetics and the effects of the environment on our bodies. Cells and body tissues are subjected to a range of damage, not least caused by eating the wrong foods and smoking and drinking to excess in our teens and twenties.

Fortunately the cell does have repair mechanisms that will help fix the damage. One of the reasons we do live a relatively long time compared to other animals is that we have very low rates of oxidation, plus powerful antioxidant enzymes, DNA-repair enzymes and an excellent immune system.

However, it’s not perfect and the older we get, the more the cell damage accumulates.

The process of self-destruction that occurs when a cell has sustained too much damage, or its telomeres have shortened to the critical point, is known as apoptosis. Over a 12 to 24-hour period, the cell’s energy powerhouses, the mitochondria, shrink. Its genetic material fragments into pieces, and the remains of the cell are ‘eaten’ by scavenger cells called macrophages.

Organs and tissues vary as to how quickly dead cells within them are replaced. In skin and bowel tissue, for example, cell turnover is fast – cells die early and are replaced quickly. In others, like muscles and the brain, they last a long time but when they do die, they aren’t replaced at all.

We do have powerful enzymes to break these cross-links as they form, but again, they’re not perfect. So tissues designed to give elasticity (as in the artery wall) or transparency (as in the lens of the eye) or high tensile strength (as in ligaments) all degenerate. Muscles lose their strength, the heart doesn’t pump as hard when challenged by exercise, arteries don’t deliver as much blood as they used to, and lungs lose their elasticity. Bones grow brittle.

As they age, the glands that produce hormones also don’t function as well. Hormones are chemicals that have specialised functions in the body – sex hormones, for example, are responsible for sexual characteristics and muscle and bone health. Other hormones, like growth hormones and thyroid hormones, are also responsible for keeping the body’s regular functions ‘ticking over’.

Levels of hormones fall as we age, as do our organs’ abilities to be influenced by them – another reason why some organs lose their function as we age. In women, levels of sex hormones fall off sharply around the age of 50 (give or take 10 years). Ovulation ceases and the uterus and ovaries shrink – the process known as the menopause.

The only people who are spared the process of ageing are those who die before it gets advanced – those of us who die young or in middle age.

For the rest of us, the process is relentless. As our cells, tissues and organs become progressively damaged, we gradually lose our ability to respond to external shocks. We get more and more susceptible to extremes of temperature, infectious diseases, or mutations in our DNA that can give rise to tumours within our body.

Eventually, one or more of these events overwhelms us and we die. The maximum age we can get to before this happens is about 120 – the limit of human longevity.

As we age, we have to come to terms with the fact that our bodies don’t function as well as in early adulthood, when we’re at our peak. Some of the signs are obvious and we’re fully aware of them. For example:

  • Hearing loss– we lose our hearing ability, particularly for higher frequencies;
  • Bones, joint and teeth – our joints wear out – a third of men and half of women over 65 have arthritis; we lose height (due to the bones in our spine losing calcium and shortening); and we may lose our teeth (about half of those aged 65 have lost all teeth);
  • Body shape and size – we lose weight (due to loss of muscle and bone)and we lose muscle bulk, strength and power; fat becomes redistributed from below the skin to deeper parts of the body. Women are more likely to store it in the lower body (hips and thighs), men in the abdominal area.
  • Vision – we have vision difficulties. We get short sighted, with reduced ability to focus on close-up objects. This condition, called presbyopia, may begin in the forties; the ability to distinguish fine details may begin to decline in the seventies. From 50 on, we have increasing difficulty in seeing at low levels of illumination;
  • Sleep disturbances – we sleep more lightly, more frequently and for shorter periods;
  • Sexual function – men lose their ability to get and sustain an erection; women stop ovulating around the age of 50. Their levels of sex hormones fall away drastically, and the changes of menopause set in;
  • Continence– our bladder capacity declines. We urinate more frequently, and there may be other urinary symptoms such as incontinence. Men may having trouble passing urine because of benign prostatic hypertrophy (enlargement of the prostate)

Then there are the changes we don’t notice, or we’re only dimly aware of them. For example:

  • our blood pressure rises because of narrowing of the arteries;
  • the heart grows slightly larger (because it has to pump against higher blood pressure caused by narrowing arteries);
  • lung capacity decreases because of loss of elasticity of lung tissue, so we get puffed more easily on exertion;
  • we lose brain cells. Our reaction times slow and our short-term memory may deteriorate. We may have difficulty concentrating or become confused more easily;
  • our kidneys don’t function as well, becoming less efficient at clearing wastes from the body;
  • our immune system declines – we’re more likely to get ill;
  • our metabolism slows, so we notice the cold more.

What is surprising is that the age at which these changes begin varies so much. In some people they begin in the late forties, while others can reach their seventies without noticing the effects of ageing. This variation has a lot to do with your genes – if your parents aged well, then the chances are that you will too.

Loss of mobility can be another troublesome development. We can’t play sports as well. We’re prone to falls, and when we do, the consequences are more serious (our bones are more brittle and more prone to fracture).

We lose our youthful good looks (assuming we had any in the first place) and we aren’t as attractive to the opposite sex.

Our minds aren’t as sharp. It’s normal to experience some loss of concentration, and of our capacity to retain memories. Depression becomes more common.

Our vices catch up with us. Those bad habits (smoking, drinking too much, eating the wrong foods) that our bodies shrugged off so easily in the past now come back to haunt us. Damage from them accumulates over the years and depending how much we’re at risk from our family history, we’re more prone to cardiovascular disease (heart attack and stroke), cancer and diabetes.

And to make matters worse, we’re also more likely to get degenerative diseases like osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and retinal degenerative diseases.

However, there is some good news – we can do certain things that will help protect ourselves from the ravages of ageing.

  • Exercising – one of the best things we can do is stay active. Exercising slows the rate at which we lose muscle mass and bone mineral, so we stay healthier and live longer. Studies have consistently demonstrated that people who are fit and keep physically active – engaging in pursuits like walking, dancing, gardening, swimming or aerobics – live longer and have reduced rates of diseases like cancer and heart disease. It also protects against dementia. At least 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day – in three 10-minute blocks if you like – is enough.
  • Keep the mind active – again, it’s a case of use it or lose it. Research shows that keeping mentally active reduces the onset of dementia and improves brain functioning in old age. Read newspapers, magazines and books, play ‘thinking’ games like Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit, take up a hobby, do a course or learn a language. Researchers at Stanford University in USA have found that memory loss can be improved by 30 to 50 per cent simply by doing mental exercises.
  • Socialise – another way to ward off the effects of ageing is to maintain good social contacts. Studies have shown that people who are healthy in old age have more established networks of family and friends than those who don’t, and it’s because they keep these networks going that their mental and physical health is better.
  • Eat well – elderly people are often undernourished. Studies have shown that adding protein and energy supplements to the diet reduces the chance of early death in the elderly and improves their health. So it’s important that elderly people eat an adequate, balanced diet – low in saturated fat, with plenty of carbohydrates for energy.
  • Don’t take unnecessary medicines – as we age, and we become susceptible to degenerative illness, the number of medications we take will increase. Sometimes these may interact with each other and contribute to symptoms like mental confusion and feeling weak and faint. So check with your doctor regularly about possible side effects and whether you are able to stop taking some medications.

For now, we can’t reverse or stop ageing – though there are some things we can do to make sure we don’t age faster than we should, allowing us to stay fit and healthy into our eighties and beyond.

 

Much of what determines how fast we age is in our genes – about 30 per cent of ageing is hereditary, experts think. But the rest is due to the environment – the two worst offenders being ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun, and smoking.

Repeated exposure to UV in sunlight causes wrinkles, mottled pigmentation (including freckles and liver spots) and dry, rough and dull skin. Smoking also ages the skin (and other organs), probably by constricting tiny blood vessels and hence reducing blood flow.

So, to give your body the best chance of ageing slowly we recommend you:

  • Don’t smoke
  • Eat a balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables
  • Get seven or eight hours of sleep a night
  • Drink lots of water
  • Moisturise your skin regularly (especially if you have dry skin)
  • Avoid sun exposure – wear a hat, protective clothing and sunscreen
  • Don’t overdo the booze

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