Objective 11-2 (II)

1. Objective 11-2 (II) “..Discuss changes in sensory abilities and health (including frequency of dementia) in older adults

2. Health • Good • news • Bad • News the body's disease-fighting immune systemweakens (which means elders are more susceptible to life-threatening ailments). • 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.

3. Quickie Facts About Aging • Aging slowsour 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.

4. “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”

5. 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