Transcript Objective 11-2 (Part 2)

Objective 11-2
(II)
“..Discuss changes in sensory
abilities and health (including
frequency of dementia) in older
adults
Health
Good
news
Bad
News
Older people less often suffer
short-term ailments, like
the common flu and cold
viruses. This is because they
have collected a lifetime’s
accumulation of
antibodies.
the body's disease-fighting
immune system weakens
(which means elders are more
susceptible to life-threatening
ailments).
Quickie Facts About Aging
• Aging slows our neural process
• Older people take a longer time to
react, to solve perceptual puzzles, and
even to remember names.
• When a task is more complicated it
takes longer for elders to complete it.
• Fatal accident rates per mile increase
sharply after age 75.
• By 85, they exceed the 16-year-old level.
• But elders only account for less than 10
percent of crashes, because they drive
less.
• As people become older, their memory
begins to go away.
• From the time your a young adult, a
small gradual net loss of brain cells
begins.
• Loss of brain cells continues to the age
of 80; the brain loses about 5 percent of
its original mass.
• Women's brains shrink more slowly
than men's, and they live four years
longer.
• If a person is to remain active, their
brain will feed off of it.
• Exercise helps compensate for the cell
loss.
• Elders that are more active tend to be
more mentally quick.
• We are more likely to rust from disuse
than to wear out from overuse.
use it or lose it.
“This is madness!”
“THIS
IS
DEMENTIA!”
• Dementia – mental
erosion
• Caused by a substantial
loss of brain cells
• First memory, then
reasoning…
• Finally, mental vacancy
– “living death”
Alzheimer’s Disease
• A progressive and irreversible brain disorder characterized
by the gradual deterioration of memory, reasoning, language,
and finally, physical functioning.
• NOT the same as normal aging
• About 3% of the world’s population will be afflicted by this disease
by the time they’re 75
• Causes: loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that
produce acetylcholine
• Physically active, nonobese people are less at risk for the disease