Notes

Slower and less efficient
- heart slows down
- vascular network less flexible
-lungs take in less air
-digestive system shuts down
Diseases in Elderly people
Serious Diseases are more prevelant
Diseases grow much more slowly than when the person was young
Cancer is even slower
No nutrition
Need fewer calories- Treats/Diets
(Fresh Fruit, vegetables, complex carbohydrates)
Aspirin- Increases need for vitamin C
Antacids
Caffeine reduces the amount of water in the body
exercise barriers- Weather
No senior sports teams
No Dance partners
More balance leads to less falls
Strength training- Get SWOLE Grandpa
Lifting weights
Needs about 1/2 an hour a day to be healthy
Discuss

1. Wear and tear.
wear and tear- just like a machine
support:
Women who are never pregnant tend to live longer
Overweight tend to sicken and die younger
Breakthrough in medicine
However:
Bodies repair your self
Benefit from use
Atrophy if not used

2. Genetic Aging
- Rats (4 years)
-Cats (30 years)
-Chimps (55 years)
-Humans (122 years)

3. Cellular Clock
Theorized there is a mechanism in the DNA that regulates the aging process- "on and off switch" like for growth spurts
Evidence:
Downs- Develop end of life diseases in mid life
Progeria- Stop growing and begin to wrinkle and bald (die as a teen)
Errors:
Hayflick limit- number of times a cell is capable of duplication
Grandma is getting:
Altzhiemers/ Dementia
Memory Process:
Sensing/ Processing- Not getting the information
Working memory- Short term- mental energy less, cant hold as much at once
Long term memory- good but selective
Control Processes- Ability to give attention, retrieve info, and organize thoughts
Memory Tricks- can help the elderly remember things
"If you believe deterioration is inevitable, you will do nothing about it"
Cognitive decline is not normal
Things that lead to decline:
Smoking
Overweight
High Blood Pressure
What is bad for the heart, is also bad for the brain
Wasn't how long ago we learned something but just how well we learned it
Age relationships:
China- Very well respected
U.S.- Not as much due to studies of no confidence in the elderly
U.S. (Deaf)- Was the mid ground between the other groups
Dementia- Irreversible loss of intellectual function.
may be caused by 70 diseases.
Alzheimer's- Most common form of dementia
Determined by autopsies
Can possibly slow down symptoms
Risk factors:
Sex- more women than men
Age
Genetics
5 stages:
1. Absentmindedness- Losses things
2. Generalized confusion- Repeating speech, Irrational personality
3. Memory loss becomes dangerous- Forgets crucial things
4. No longer can remember family- Can no longer support themselves
5. Unresponsiveness- No longer even talking.... fate worse than death....
Successful ageing:
Have good mental health
Strong cognitive training
Keep close friends.
Death and Dying
Help for the families of the dying
Hospice- They help the dying.
- Must be terminally ill
- Death is anticipated in less than 6 months
- Not trying to save lives, Help with pain managment
- Dosn't include treatment of the disease
Choices
Life support
Living wills
-Different than a will
DEATH
Widows- More likely
- women live longer
- often marry older men
Usually do not remarry
Spend time with other widows and grandchildren
Widowers
- Depended on wife for domestic support (cooking)
- More likely to be ill
Stages of Grief:
1. Denial- Feeling of numbness or shock (this is a nightmare)
2. Anger- Anger towards everyone in area or at god. WHY !?!!?!
3. Bargaining- Trying to negotiate the situation (magical thinking)
4. Depression- Deep sadness, Loss or loneliness (over connection)
5. Acceptance- Time will not heal our wounds (its time to move on)
Do:
Give permission to greave
Talk about your loss
Draw on relationships
Join a support group
Turn to god
Be patient
MY GOAL IS TO DIE YOUNG AT AN OLD AGE.