Middle Adulthood - Physical Development Flashcards
Age range in middle adulthood:
40 - 65 years old
Nature of Middle Adulthood:
- Time of declining physical skills
- Expanding responsibility: A point when individuals seek to transmit something meaningful to the next generation; generativity
- A period in which people become more conscious of the young-old polarity and the shrinking amount of time left in life
- Reach and maintain satisfaction in their careers; professional peak
- Influenced more heavily by sociocultural factors
Visible physical changes include:
- Skin begins to wrinkle and sag due to loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues (lose moisture; not elastic)
- Small, localized areas of pigmentation in the skin produces aging spots
- Hair becomes thinner and grayer
- Decline in melanin production
- Start to lose teeth
- Fingernails & toenails develop ridges and become thicker and more brittle
In middle adulthood, loss of height and weight gain are caused by ______
Bone loss in vertebrae
To maintain bone density, one must:
- exercise
- good physical activity
- weight control
- changes in diet
Obesity increases presence of other ailments such as:
- Hypertension
- diabetes
- digestive disorders
- The chemical reactions in the body’s cells that change food into energy
- It decreases as you get older
Metabolism
What happens to strength, joints, and bones in middle adulthood?
- muscle loss
- decrease in muscle and bone mass
- more prone to chronic joint disease or lower back pain due to reduced muscle strength
- Obesity is a risk factor for _____, which is the loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength
- Musculoskeletal disease in which muscle mass, strength, and performance are significantly compromised with age
Sarcopenia
Vision and Hearing in Middle Adulthood:
- Vision and hearing decline
- Accommodation of the eye, which is the ability to focus and maintain an image on the retina, weakens
- Begin to have difficulty viewing close objects
- Men usually lose their sensitivity to high-pitched sounds sooner than women do
- hearing condition that develops; ringing in the ear
Tinnitus
- A waxy substance found in your blood to build healthy cells
- In middle adulthood, its levels in blood increases and begins to accumulate on the artery walls, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease
- fatty deposits develop in your blood vessels because of high levels
Cholesterol
- aka “bad” cholesterol
- when the level is too high, it sticks to the lining of the blood vessels (lesser passageway, higher blood flow)
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL)
LDL causes _____, which is the thickening or hardening of the arteries
Atherosclerosis
- “good” cholesterol
- when it is high the risk of cardiovascular disease is lessened
- Get rid of excess cholesterol
High-density lipoprotein (HDL)
High blood pressure or _____ appears
Hypertension
It is having hypertension despite using at least 3 hypertension drugs
Resistant hypertension
- A condition that includes a cluster of risk factors specific for cardiovascular disease.
- Characterized by hypertension, obesity, insulin resistance
- Leads to development of diabetes and cardiovascular disease
Metabolic syndrome
Types of diabetes:
Type 1 (inborn) or type 2 (acquired but can be genetic)
Lungs in Middle Adulthood:
- Protein in lung tissue becomes less elastic which decreases lung capacity””
- Lung capacity of smokers drops precipitously
Sleep in Middle Adulthood:
- Amount of time spent lying awake at night begins to increase
- Sleep-disordered breathing and restless legs syndrome become prevalent
- 8 hours and more sleep is necessary to function optimally
- being unable to breathe while sleeping
- observable in men because they snore more and breathing suddenly stops while sleeping
Sleep apnea
Health, Disease, Stress in Middle Adulthood:
- Chronic stress or prolonged exposure to stressors can have damaging effects on physical functioning
- Immune system functioning becomes less effective
- Leading cause of death: chronic diseases, heart disease, cancer
- Men have higher mortality rates
It is the most important modifiable factor to delay the onset of diseases:
A sense of control is linked to many aspects of health and well-being
The leading chronic disorder in middle adulthood
Arthritis
Mortality rates in middle adulthood are linked to these three diseases:
- Infectious disease - The main cause of death until the middle of the 20th century
- Chronic disease - Now the main causes of death for individuals in middle adulthood
- Heart disease - The leading cause of death in middle adulthood
Term used to describe the midlife transition in which fertility declines
Climacteric
- Transitional period from normal menstrual periods to no menstrual periods at all
- Occur during 40s- early 50s but can occur in the 30s
- Symptoms: depressed feelings, headaches, moodiness, palpitations
Perimenopause
- Women’s menstrual period ceases
- Production of estrogen by the ovaries decline dramatically
- Produces uncomfortable symptoms in some women: Hot flashes, nausea, fatigue, rapid heartbeat
Menopause
Latter menopause (late menopause) is linked with increased risk of _____
Breast cancer
- A treatment for unpleasant side effects of menopause
- Augments the declining levels of reproductive hormone production by the ovaries
Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)
Condition when vagina becomes very dry
Myoma
Hormone Changes in Middle-Aged Men
- Decline in sexual hormone level and activity
- Testosterone production declines by 1% yearly
- Prostrate glands become bigger which is the main cause of cancer and have trouble peeing at night
- Married man (normal, regular ones): heart activity during sex is equal to 2 flights of stairs
- Extra marital affairs: heart activity is 2x the married people (risky in terms of moral)
The condition in which the body does not produce enough testosterone
Male hypogonadism
- Difficulty attaining or maintaining penile erection to attain satisfactory sexual performance
- Treatment is focused on Viagra, Levitra, and Cialis that increase blood flow into the penis
Erectile dysfunction
