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HOW NORMAL AGING AFFECTS US
The losses that do take place affect how we function in a special way. As we get older our ability to perform at top physical capacity gradually declines. Luckily, each of our body systems has a capacity greater than needed for normal living, so what is happening is noticeable only if we must stretch ourselves to our physical limit or if the changes have progressed so far that they interfere with daily life.
For example, to an athlete the small physical losses that happen early on are painfully apparent. At thirty-five he curses his \"age\" for making him lose the race to a younger man. Most of us are aware of these internal changes only years later. In our forties it is harder to play a strenuous game of tennis; - we don\'t bounce back as fast from surgery. The physiological losses aging causes become a daily fact of life only when they have progressed even further. In our seventies we may have to take our bodies into account in planning our day. Normal aging has finally permeated ordinary life.
We instinctively understand what is happening when at about age fifty we start avoiding the extremes of life: \"Should I run for that bus a block ahead?\" \"Should I go out in that hundred-degree heat?\" \"Maybe I should stay in bed, even if it is just a cold.\" Intuitively, we know. The words \"everything in moderation\" have begun to ring personally true.
But understanding that growing older means living a more temperate life does not mean taking to a wheelchair in the name of moderation. The old saying \"the less we do, the less we can do\'\' is just as valid a phrase to live by. When we act as if we cannot do something, although we can, eventually that physical function really does go. In fact, the best way to react to physical aging is to view what is happening as a challenge - a chance to use creativity to rearrange your life so that what has occurred does not keep you from living fully.
Let\'s first look briefly at how aging affects the cardiovascular and respiratory systems (where the words \"the less we do, the less we can do\" are especially true), then explore how we might apply this environmental engineering to three other important body systems - vision, hearing, and digestion. What specific changes can we expect as we grow older? How can we arrange our lives to minimize the effect of these minor losses?
Because we all differ physically, the changes I describe below may be either more or less pronounced for you, depending on your unique rate of aging. And compensating totally on your own makes sense only when dealing with normal aging, not with disease. Since only a doctor can judge what is indeed normal, take the conservative course. Visit your physician when you notice any physical problem or change.
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GENERAL HEALTH
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