Saga Magazines... How does ageing affect you?
MENOPAUSE
The menopause, sometimes known as “the change of life”, is where a woman’s ovaries stop producing an egg every 4 weeks, meaning she no longer has periods and is unlikely to get pregnant. Monthly periods can sometimes stop suddenly when you reach the menopause; however it is more likely that your periods will become less frequent, with longer intervals between each one, before they stop altogether.
In the UK, 51 is the average age for a woman to reach the menopause, although some women experience the menopause in their 30’s or 40’s.
Symptoms
The menopause can cause a wide range of physical and mental symptoms. The first symptom is usually a change in the pattern of your monthly periods. This is called the premenopausal stage, during this time you may have light or heavy periods (menorrhagia).
Other symptoms can include: * Hot flushes and night sweats * Loss of libido (sex drive) * Headaches * Mood changes, such as depression, anxiety or tiredness * Urinary Tract Infections (UTI’s) * Noticeable heartbeat * Vaginal discomfort, pain, itching and dryness
The severity of symptoms and the overall duration of the menopause will vary depending on a number of factors including genetics, lifestyle, diet, stress, and overall health. Although if you experience the menopause suddenly, rather than gradually, your symptoms may be worse.
The menopause is caused by a change in the balance of the body’s sex hormones. Oestrogen levels decrease as you reach the menopause, which causes the ovaries to stop producing an egg each month (ovulation). Oestrogen is the female sex hormone that regulates a woman’s periods.
Psychological Impact
Menopause is a time of transition, and, as with any significant change in your life (going through puberty, getting married, becoming a new parent), it may be accompanied by feelings of increased vulnerability or even insecurity. When women enter menopause, they are confronted with a number of issues that can affect the way they see and feel about themselves. These issues often include physical symptoms, such as weight gain, hair loss, or dry skin, as well as psychological confusion about how to navigate the transition from one stage of life to another. Emotionally, it can also be tough to deal with the negative stereotypes and attitudes that society has traditionally had about aging.
Ways to boost your self-esteem: * Empower yourself * Exercise * Eat a healthy diet * Embrace the positive
Changes to the skin
The skin is much more than just coat for your bones and organs; it is a protector against bacteria, an insulator, a thermal regulator and a sensory receptor. Since these losses cause wrinkling and loss of elasticity, freedom of movement and expression are inhibited. The loss of colour is seen as hair becomes grey and the slowing of circulation results in slower healing.
Symptoms
As the skin ages, it flattens due to the loss of: * Skin cells * Pigment cells * Sweat glands * Hair follicles etc. * Lentigo (senile freckles) occur * blood flow to the skin is decreased * Nerve endings are lost or become less sensitive
As a result of this, the skin loses some effectiveness. Most of the detrimental changes in the skin are cosmetic and are not life threatening, as the drying and thinning, the hair becomes sparser and grey or white, and the fingernails become rigid, more prone to splitting and tend to yellow.
Skin disorders are more common in ageing skin, such as: * Senile Pruritus (itching) * Keratosis (thickening in patches) * Skin cancer * Pressure sores * Shingles
The elderly themselves have a direction for alternatives, biologically; to varying degrees they can avoid excessive exposure to the sun, maintain moisture in the skin, provide adequate nutrition so that the skin can be maintained and repaired, and get regular exercise to maintain circulation in the skin.
Psychological Impacts
The social implications of these effects are based on significant cultural tendencies towards ageism in virtually all of its forms. One’s social life becomes more limited as younger people view elders as “not fun”, “slow”, “grumpy”, and so on. These views spill into the workplace or what might be a potential workplace, as somebody who looks “old” is not considered as having much to offer. The alternatives involve personal effort by the elders in making as much of an effort as they are capable in relating to others, social responsibility by the community to understand the limitations of the elderly and provide a social environment based on actual conditions rather than assumed limitations. Having ‘aged’ skin draws unhappy people to solutions such as cosmetic surgery and Botox, and distancing themselves from others in society.

Muscular Skeletal System
Bone
From the age of 30, the density of bones begins to diminish in men and women. In women, this loss of bone density speeds up after the menopause. As a result of this, bones become more likely to break because they become a lot more fragile, especially in old age.
As people get older their cartilage and connective tissues change which has a great effect on their joints. The cartilage inside a joint will become thinner and components of the cartilage become altered. This may make the joint less resilient and more open to damage. This could lead to Osteoarthritis; a condition which causes the joints to become painful and stiff this can also limit the range of motion in joints.
Osteoporosis is more common in women than in men due to ageing because: * Men do not go through the menopause. Older men have higher oestrogen levels than older women because of the sudden loss of oestrogen during the menopause that women endure. * Men’s bones continue to enlarge slowly as they get older while women’s bones stop enlarging at puberty. * There is more time for women’s bones to age because on average, they tend to live longer.
Bone mass is greatest when women are in their 20’s and 30’s. It stabilizes at around age 35. As you pass your 40th birthday, there is a slow loss of bone density and strength. This process causes no symptoms; that means as you will not know it is happening unless you have special tests, such as a DXA bone mineral density test.
Muscle
Loss of muscle (Sarcopenia) is a process that starts around 30 and progresses throughout life. This happens because the amount of muscle tissue and the size and number of muscle fibres gradually decrease. Sarcopenia results in the gradual loss of muscle mass and strength. This can increase stress on certain joints such as the knees, this may predispose a person to falling or arthritis. This can be overcome by regular exercise and health eating. People who are physically inactive can lose as much as 3% to 5% of their muscle mass per decade after age 30. Even if you are active, you will still experience some muscle loss. Although there is no generally accepted test or specific level of muscle mass for Sarcopenia diagnosis, any loss of muscle mass is of consequence, because loss of muscle means loss of strength and mobility. Sarcopenia typically accelerates around age 75, although it may happen in people age 65 or 80, and is a factor in the occurrence of frailty and the likelihood of falls and fractures in older adults.
Psychological Impacts
Problems with muscle and bone can heavily knock a person’s self-confidence especially as an ageing parent or grandparent as it could result in you not being able to play with, pick up and interact with children. Besides their impact on quality of life, they can result in loss of self-esteem, distorted body image and depression.

Hormones
Your body is made up of organs and tissues which produce hormones; this is called the endocrine theory. Hormones are natural chemicals produced in 1 location, released into the bloodstream, and then used by other target organs and systems.
The endocrine system is made up of organs and tissues that produce hormones. Hormones are natural chemicals produced in one location, released into the bloodstream, and then used by other target organs and systems. The hormones control the target organs. Some organ systems have their own internal control systems along with, or instead of, hormones. As we age, changes naturally occur in the way that body systems are controlled. Some target tissues become less sensitive to their controlling hormone. The amount of hormones produced may also change. Blood levels of some hormones increase, some decrease, and some are unchanged. Hormones are also broken down (metabolized) more slowly. Many of the organs that produce hormones are, in turn, controlled by other hormones. Aging also changes this process. For example, an endocrine tissue may produce less of its hormone than it did at a younger age, or it may produce the same amount at a slower rate.
Psychological Impacts
As you age, and hormones become more active in many different ways, some people will suffer from a surplus or a deficit of the correct hormones, and some incorrect for example some women have an increase in testosterone, causing them to grow facial hair. Women are naturally more susceptible to the psychological effects of ageing hormones then men as these changes become more noticeable as women tend to pay more attention to their bodies.
Cardiovascular System
The main function of this system is the internal transport of cells and dissolved materials, including nutrients, wastes, and gases.
Age-related changes in the blood include a decrease in the volume of packed red blood cells or constriction or blockage of peripheral veins by a blood clot. Also, there might be pooling of blood in the veins in the legs because valves are not working effectively. Age-related changes in the heart include a reduction in maximum cardiac output, changes in the activities of nodal and conductive fibres, a reduction in the elasticity of the heart’s fibrous tissues, progressive atherosclerosis (fatty build up or plaques) that can restrict coronary circulation, and replacement of damaged cardiac muscle fibres by scar tissue. Age-related changes in blood vessels are often related to arteriosclerosis, a thickening and toughening of arterial walls in which the walls become less tolerant of sudden increases in pressure. Aging affects aerobic capacity and cardiovascular performance during exercise. Peak exercise capacity and peak oxygen consumption decrease with age, but there is great variation from one individual to another. Aerobic capacity decreases by 50% between ages 20 and 80. Differences between cardiovascular functioning in older and younger persons have been extensively quantified. However, interactions between age, disease, and lifestyle are often overlooked. Whether the high prevalence of cardiovascular disorders such as hypertension, coronary artery disease, and heart failure is due to an aging process or whether these disorders merely occur more frequently in elderly persons because of a longer exposure to risk is not yet established.
Psychological Impacts
The Cardiovascular system has many other mind-body connections that you should consider. Prolonged stress due to the pressures at home, on the job, or from other sources can contribute to abnormally high blood pressure and circulation problems. As with many other diseases, the effects vary from person to person. Some people use stress as a motivator while others may "snap" at the slightest issue.

The Nervous System
The major function of this system is to direct immediate responses to stimuli by coordinating the activities of other systems.
The aging process affects all body systems, and the nervous system is no exception. Anatomical changes begin shortly after maturity (probably by age 30) and accumulate over time. Although an estimated 85% of elderly over the age of 65 lead relatively normal lives, there are noticeable changes in mental performance and central nervous system (CNS) functioning. Some common age-related anatomical changes in the nervous system include a reduction in brain size and weight due primarily to a decrease in the volume of the cerebral cortex. There is also a reduction in the number of neurons.
Dementia and severe memory loss are not a normal part of aging. They can be caused by brain diseases such Alzheimer's disease, which doctors believe is due to plaques and tangles forming in the brain. Delirium is sudden and severe confusion that leads to changes in thinking and behaviour. It is often due to illnesses that are not related to the brain. Infection can cause an older person to become severely confused. Certain medicines can also cause this. Thinking and behaviour problems can also be caused by poorly controlled diabetes. Rising and falling blood sugar levels can interfere with thought.
Psychological Impacts
Depression and anxiety, Pre Menstrual Syndrome, social phobia, anxiety, aggression, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, violence, gambling, overeating, excess sex, drug abuse, have all been partly linked to low levels of neurotransmitters among other factors. This can cause a person to feel confused and angry due to them not being able to pin-point a contributing factor to this behaviour.
To conclude…
Self-esteem and self-confidence are two things that are heavily influenced by the ageing process you may be experiencing... but what do they mean? * Self-esteem is a person's overall sense of self-worth or personal value. * Self-confidence is a feeling of trust in one's abilities, qualities, and judgement.
Some of the effects of ageing, such as wrinkles and not being able to lift the grand children can seriously damage the way we perceive ourselves and can lessen our self-worth, but you have to remember that being older than you were 20 years ago, doesn’t mean you aren’t the same at heart. In 1963, Erik Ellison created the idea of ‘Ego Integrity’. This is where you hold on to a sense of who you are. For example, you may repeat the same stories about time in the war or the old ‘when I was a boy’ anecdote. If you think this reflects you then you need to remember that growing older doesn’t mean you change who you are, it means you learn a whole lot more from several different experiences.
The media and many other social institutions influence the way people view the ageing population. Many stereotypes have been created such as, ‘old people are bad drivers’, ‘old people are grumpy and boring’ and that they ‘constantly moan about the war’ but as an ageing person who has many other things in life to consider, you should not let people get you down.
You may only see the negatives of ageing, at the moment but there are many countless positives too, * Retirement – not being tied down to any responsibility, being able to travel the world, learn new skills and meet new people can be invigorating not tiring. * Wealth – you don’t need to have lots of money to be wealthy; you can have psychological wealth too, such as good spirits, loving family, a good quality of life.