Old age generally covers the period over the age of 65. As age progresses, some findings begin to appear. These include visual impairment, decreased hearing, decreased sense of smell and to some extent taste, impaired fine movements, weakened reflexes, decreased muscle strength, balance and posture disorders, and weakened memory and cognitive functions.
Benign senile forgetfulness Alzheimer's disease. It is a form of forgetfulness that, unlike the disease, increases little or does not change for many years and does not significantly affect the person's work performance or activities of daily living.
Personality Change in the Elderly;
Many elderly people becomes more stubborn, repetitive, self-centered, and rigid and conservative in his thoughts; In some, the opposite characteristics are undue flexibility, indecision, and uncritical acceptance of ideas. Often these changes can be considered exaggerations of lifelong personality traits. Older people tend to become increasingly cautious; many have lost self-confidence and require a strong likelihood of success before undertaking certain tasks.
Effects of Aging on Posture and Gait;
Agility in movements actually decreases at an early age. It begins to decline in adulthood, even in the thirties, and appears to be related to the gradual decrease in neuromuscular control as well as changes in joints and other structures. Steps gradually become shorter, gait becomes slower, and there is a tendency to hunch over. The elderly person is less confident and more careful when walking and is in the habit of holding the handrail when descending stairs to avoid making a wrong step.
Urinary incontinence is a surprisingly common condition in the elderly. The cause of these motor disorders is due to neuron loss in the spinal cord, cerebellum and brain.
Falls in the Elderly;
Falls are an important health problem among the elderly who do not have any significant neurological disease. 30 percent experience one or more falls per year, reaching 40 percent in those over 80 years of age and more than 50 percent in elderly people living in nursing homes. Impairment of rapid postural regulation as a cause of aging may in itself interfere with normal activities such as walking, changing position, or descending stairs. It is the cause of falls that occur during tee time. Generally, some blood pressure medications and antidepressants cause positional low blood pressure, which is another important cause of falls in the elderly. Of course, falling may be a more prominent feature of certain age-related neurological diseases (stroke, Parkinson's disease, normal pressure hydrocephalus, and progressive supranuclear palsy).
Other Limited Movement Disorders in the Elderly;
Repetitive movements are most common; mouth movements, meaningless grimacing, tongue sticking out, head shaking side to side or side to side, sniffing, making strange sounds such as snoring or bleating. In some cases, these disorders resemble tics (semi-voluntary movements to relieve tension), but careful observation shows that they are not actually voluntary.
'When a man begins to hide his age and a woman does not, she becomes old.' Peruvian Proverb
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