Lecture Slides Flashcards
_______ or _______ in many physical functions
occur very gradually through the 40s and 50s
Changes ; declines
Define middle adulthood
the developmental
period for adults ranging 40 to 45 years of
age to 60 to 65 years of age.
A full evaluation of age requires consideration
of:
- Chronological age
- Biological age
- Psychological age
- Sociocultural age
- Perceived age
Exercise capability
declines
1% per
year beginning
between 35 and 40
Late midlife (55 to 65) is likely to be characterized by:
- Death of a parent.
- The last child leaving the parental home.
- Becoming a grandparent.
- Preparation for and actual retirement.
Visible signs of physical changes:
• Skin wrinkles and sags. • Age spots appear. • Hair thins and grays. • Nails thicken and become more brittle. • Teeth yellow.
Maximum oxygen
uptake (VO2 max):
a measure of the body’s ability to take in and transport oxygen to various body organs
As adults become older, their age _____ is
younger than their ________age.
identity ; chronological
Lung tissue becomes
___ _____ around
age 55, decreasing
lung capacity.
Less elastic
Sarcopenia:
an age-related loss of muscle mass
and strength.
\_\_\_\_\_\_-\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ improves with practice at almost every age
weight-training
Strength is at its peak in the \_\_\_ and \_\_\_ and then \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_
20s; 30s
declines
How much sleep is necessary for optimal
performance the next day?
8 hours or more
Ineffective immune system
functioning is linked to ___ _____
Less sleep
White matter volume ________ until middle adulthood and then _________
Increases; decreases
Crests
Grey matter volume ________ from childhood and then ___________ at the end of middle adulthood
declines; levels off
________________ increases at a regular rate across the lifespan
Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
The general rule of
brain maturation is:
the areas of the brain that develop last are the ones that begin to decline first; • Namely areas located within the frontal and parietal lobes
The brains of alcoholics differ in _________ and ________.
Electrical activity; grey matter volume
Adults with serious mental illnesses, such as
depression and schizophrenia, have brains with
distinct brain structure variations. Did these brain variations happen before or after the onset of the mental illness?
It is not yet known if the brain differences happen before or after the onset of the difficulties
Presbyopia:
Normal loss of visual acuity with aging, especially the ability to focus the eyes on near objects (ie, things get blurry) • The ability to focus on near objects deteriorates rapidly in the 40s and early 50s
At what age can hearing start to decline?
Forty
decline accelerates after age 55
Which type of sounds are typically lost first?
High pitched sounds
Normal loss of hearing with aging,
especially of high-frequency or very low-frequency tones
Presbycusis
Climacteric
the adult period during which
reproductive capacity declines or is lost
Climacteric in men
extremely gradual, with a
slow loss of reproductive capacity
• High degree of individual variation; men have been
reported to father children as late as age 90
• Probably due to a slow decrease in testosterone
levels
Effects of decreased testosterone levels
- Gradual muscle loss (and strength)
- Increased risk of heart disease
- Increased sexual dysfunction
Erectile dysfunction;
difficulty attaining or maintaining
erection occurs in approx. 50% of men aged 40-70 years
Which are the only five mammals that experience menopause?
- Humans
- Orcas
- Pilot whales
- belugas
- narwhals
Menopause
The cessation of monthly menstrual
cycles in middle-aged women
Due to a decline in key sex hormones (Estrogen
and progesterone)
What is the average age of menopause?
51 years;
ranges from 39-59 years.
What are the three phases of menopause?
- premenopausal phase
- perimenopausal phase
- postmenopausal phase
the stage of menopause during
which estrogen levels fall somewhat, menstrual periods are
less regular, and anovulatory cycles begin to occur
– Premenopausal phase
the stage of menopause during
which estrogen and progesterone levels are erratic, menstrual
cycles may be very irregular, and women begin to experience
symptoms such as hot flashes (75% of women experience)
Perimenopausal phase
the last stage of menopause; a
woman is postmenopausal when she has had no menstrual
periods for a year or more
Postmenopausal phase
Menopause symptoms include:
nausea fatigue rapid heartbeat irritability hot flashes
Hot flashes
sudden sensations of feeling hot; core body temperature drops • skin temperature can rise by up to 4 degrees C • can occur 1/day or 3X/hr • results in sleep deprivation
Psychological Effects of Menopause
– Menopause has been viewed as a time of
emotional upheaval
– But research shows that most women do not have
major psychological or physical problems
– Experts have reported no connection between
menopausal status and major depressive disorder
– Negativity during menopause may stem from a
woman’s overall negativity and life stressors
before entering menopause
– Individual differences: Women with significant
symptoms, and whose symptoms last the longest,
experience the most depression and negative
moods
Sleep deprivation from menopause symptoms may result in:
– emotional lability – mental confusion – difficulty with everyday memory tasks – and be misdiagnosed as depression or generalized anxiety disorder
Pros and Cons of hormone replacement therapy
• Most of the physical symptoms and effects of menopause can be dramatically reduced by taking estrogen and progesterone
• But then research suggested that the risk of endometrial cancer increased three- to ten-fold in women taking replacement estrogen
• More recent research investigating the relationship
between HRT and cancer have not confirmed a cancer
risk when women take HRT for less than 5 years
• A combination of estrogen and progesterone at quite
low doses:
– has the same benefits as estrogen alone, but
without the increased risk of endometrial cancer
– Decreases some other important health risks while
increasing others
The decline of sexual activity in middle age is more likely to be from the demands
from _________, rather than the result of declining
_________
other roles; hormones
Main cause of death for individuals in middle adulthood
chronic diseases
• Cancer continues to be the number one cause,
followed by cardiovascular disease.
• Men have higher mortality rates than women for all
the leading causes of death.
a chronic, non-communicable disease
characterized by uncontrolled growth of cells,
which form masses of tissue called tumours.
Cancer
The lifetime probability of Canadians
developing cancer is
45% for men and 42% for women; 2 out of 5 Canadians will develop cancer in their lifetime In Canada, men have a 29% and women have a 24% probability of dying from cancer
which caner is the number one cause of
cancer deaths in Canada
Lung cancer
2 in 3 cancer deaths are the result of two
controllable factors:
Smoking and diet
Infectious agents that cause cancer
– HPV is a sexually transmitted infection linked
with several different cancers
– Epstein-Barr virus is linked with several cancers
– H. pylori bacteria is linked with several cancers
also
Cardiovascular disease (CVD)
A set of
disease processes in the heart and circulatory
system; causes a variety of physical problems,
especially in the arteries - the key problem is in
the arteries
Atherosclerosis
narrowing of the arteries
caused by deposits of a fatty substance called
plaque
• eventually arteries may become completely
blocked
• Significant arterial blockage in the coronary
arteries results in a heart attack
• Significant arterial blockage in the brain results
in a stroke
CVD decreased by __ between___ and
___
70%; 1956-2002
CVD remains a leading cause of death among
middle-aged adults in Canada, accounting for:
– 20% of all deaths among those ages 45 to 54
– 24% among those ages 55 to 64
_____ of Canadians >___years old have
three or more risk factors for CVD
one-third; 20
– These risks are cumulative, not just additive
▪High cholesterol is more serious for a diabetic
than for a non-diabetic
Cardiologists that described a connection between heart disease and personality in the 1970s?
Drs Friedman &
Rosenman
Three key traits of type A personality
• Strongly
competitive
orientation
• Impatience and
time-urgency
• anger and hostility
Three key traits of type B personality
• Relatively relaxed,
patient, easy going
and amicable
• Less hurried and less
competitive
• Less easily angered
Type A
personality and Coronary
Heart Disease
• Decades of research show a modest correlation between Type A personality and Coronary Heart Disease
• A stronger link emerged:
hostility/anger and CHD.
• Hostility may be the
critical factor.
Stress and cardiac events
• Stress can elicit a cardiac
event in 30-70% of CHD
patients
• Angry outbursts are
particularly dangerous
• 2hrs after an angry outburst patients have an elevated risk of heart attack (5X) and stroke (3X).
Heart disease and depression
• Studies show elevated
rates of HD in people who
are depressed.
• Studies further show that it
is not HD that causes
depression - depression
may cause HD
Type D
personality
exhibit a chronic pattern of emotional distress combined with a tendency to suppress negative emotions; at higher risk of death following a heart attack
The Framingham Heart Study
-a long term
epidemiological study
• began in 1948 when participants were 30-59
years old
- 5209 adults tested repeatedly
- identified characteristics that predicted CVD
cancer and heart disease risk factors from smoking
Cancer
Substantially increases the
risk of lung cancer; also
implicated in other cancers.
Heart Disease
Major risk; the more you
smoke, the greater the risk.
Quitting smoking reduces risk.
Blood pressure and risk of heart disease
Systolic pressure above 140 or
diastolic pressure above 90
linked to higher risk.
Weight and risks of cancer and heart disease
Cancer Being overweight is linked to increased risk of several cancers, including breast cancer, but the risk is smaller than for heart disease.
Heart disease Some increased risk with any weight above the normal range; risk is greater for those with weight 20% or more above recommended weight.
Cholesterol and heart disease risk
Clear risk with elevated levels
of low-density lipoproteins.
Cancer and Heart disease risk factors related to inactivity
Cancer
inactivity is associated in
some studies with higher
rates of colon cancer.
Heart Disease
Inactive adults have about
twice the risk as those who
exercise.
Cancer and heart disease risk factors related to diet
Cancer Results are still unclear; a highfat diet is linked to risks of some cancers; high-fibre diets appear to be protective for some cancers.
Heart Disease High-fat, low-fibre diet increases risk; antioxidants, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, or beta-carotene, may decrease risk.
Alcohol and risk of cancer and heart disease
Cancer
Heavy drinking is associated
with cancers of the digestive
system.
Heart Disease Moderate intake of alcohol, especially wine, is linked to decreased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk; heavy drinking can weaken the heart muscle.
Hereditary risk factors for cancer and heart disease
Cancer
Some genetic component with
nearly every cancer.
Heart Disease Those with first-degree relatives with CVD have seven to ten times the risk; those who inherit a gene for a particular protein are up to twice as likely to have CVD.
Nearly __ times as many men as women die of
heart disease between the ages of __and __
3; 45 and 54
The Seattle Longitudinal Study
• Initiated by K. Warner Schaie, the study involves an
extensive evaluation of intellectual abilities during
adulthood, assessing participants at seven-year
intervals from 1956 to 2012.
5 intellectual abilities studied in the Seattle Longitudinal Study
- Verbal comprehension.
- Verbal memory.
- Spatial orientation.
- Inductive reasoning.
- Perceptual speed.
Four strategies that, within their domain, distinguish
experts from novices:
• Relying on accumulated experience.
• Processing information automatically and analyze it
more efficiently.
- Better strategies and shortcuts.
- More creativity and flexibility
memory for general information
Semantic memory
Example: What is the capital of BC?
Memory made up of chronological, or temporarily dated,
recollections of personal experiences. It is a record of things you’ve
done, seen or heard.
Episodic memory:
Examples:
Your 8th birthday
• eating breakfast this morning
Three memory basics
- Encoding; forming a memory code
- Storage; where memories are kept (neural web)
- Retrieving; pulling information out of longterm
memory
Encoding
involves forming a memory code.
Encoding is heavily influenced by attention:
You need to pay attention to something if you want to remember
it.
