By Boomeryearbook.com

What is Aging?

One researcher says, “The biological crystal ball is very cloudy when we come to aging. No one fully understands it”. Even so, scientists who study aging have attempted to define it by saying, “it is the chronological time that someone has existed”. But aging is more than the passing of years. One does not normally speak of an aging child because aging has a connotation of deterioration of vitality. Aging is the toll that the passing years take on an individual.

What are the possible effects of aging?

Senior depression

Depression in the aged shows up in a different way from that in younger people. Rather than manifesting itself as anguish or anxiety, such depression is “characterized by loss of cognitive abilities – memory, concentration, and thinking ability.” Aging boomers lose interest in what they used to do or what used to give them pleasure. Such symptoms are sometimes mistakenly regarded as just part of old age, yet it is very important that people have constant contact with elderly family members.

Trouble in sleeping

About 30 percent of older people complain they have trouble sleeping, yet some who think they have sleep problems may simply be experiencing the normal changes in sleep patterns that accompany aging. While a child of four sleeps an average of ten hours nightly, teenagers nine hours, and young adults seven or eight, the baby boomers normally sleep four to six hours, and many get along fine on just three or four hours each night.

How can early aging be prevented?

“People adapt houses for children. Why not adapt them for baby boomers?” asks a scientist. Besides safer homes for the elderly, they should exercise to strengthen the muscular system in order to reduce the risk of falling. One should get rid of the early aging enemies that include a sedentary way of life, unbalanced nutrition (especially diets rich in fat), smoking, excessive use of alcoholic beverages, stress, and lack of sleep. Extreme stress weakens the immune system which is intimately related to the onset of various diseases and consequently also of old age.

Do you know any secret in the prevention of Aging? Others people might need your help in Boomer Yearbook.

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Tags: baby boomer generation, Elderly Problems, Psychological Articles

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