ADESOLA JOSEPH, BTEC LEVEL 3 HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE.
DEVELOPMENT THROUGH THE LIFE STAGES.
P5) Explain the physical and psychological changes which may be associated with ageing.
The ageing process does not begin at a particular age as people age throughout their lives. We start to age from when we are young, but the real aging process does not start until our cells stop to divide and physiological decline sets in. Different older adults age in different ways. Some older adults develop serious problems due to aging in their 60s, while others can be as old as 90 years old and not have any serious problems. There are different theories proposed as to why we age and why we have a limited lifespan. It seems that our body cells have a limited ability to renew themselves. If cells cannot renew themselves then we cannot repair ourselves and stay healthy.
A doctor Hayflick proposed that most body cells can only renew themselves fifty times or so, and when cells can no longer renew themselves, body processes breakdown, body tissue becomes wasted and eventually we die. This limit to cell life is called the Hayflick limit.
A theory that links with the Hayflick limit is one which suggests that cell DNA contains a region at each end called a telomere. Each time a cell renews itself, the DNA inside is copied and part of the telomere is lost. By old age, all the telomere can be used up and DNA can no longer be replicated. This results in cell death.
Hormone production decreases with age and this reduction results in an inevitable breakdown of biological systems.
It is also possible that cell DNA simply becomes damaged with age.
Another theory is that our cells become changed by the build-up of molecules known as free radicals. Free radicals are toxic substances that we breathe or eat and are capable of damaging DNA and disrupting the way body cells work. These are the