Healthy Aging

What’s Normal, What’s Not?

The picture of healthy aging—Darrel Fritzinger, 66, of New Tripoli, is an avid skier and bike racer. As he demonstrates, staying physically fit is one of the best ways to look and feel younger than your years.

If you live long enough, odds are you’ll face a few health challenges. But all too often, people assume that chronic illness and even disability are inevitable parts of growing older. Not so, says geriatrician Catherine Glew, M.D., of Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network. “Changes do occur with aging,” she says, “but some of the changes people think of as normal are not. Most day-to-day functioning problems come from disease, not old age.”

So how do you decide whether those memory slips and achy knees are par for the course or something more serious? “It’s a question of degree,” Glew says. “If a symptom impacts your quality of life, it’s time to look into it.”

Bones/Joints

From your mid-30s onward, bones may become more brittle and you may experience some muscle weakness or joint stiffness. Your metabolism slows, and extra weight creeps on unless you trim calories and stay active.

• What’s normal: Needing to shift to low-impact exercise and gaining weight more easily.
• What’s not: Resigning yourself to a sedentary lifestyle and growing overweight or obese.

Appearance

Declining hormone levels can make your hair thin and fade, your skin lose elasticity and get more sensitive, dry or fragile, and your nails appear more brittle.

• What’s normal: Gray hair, easier bruising, wrinkles, age spots, skin tags (a small flap of tissue on a stalk).
• What’s not: Excessive hair loss and irregularshaped moles.

Hearing

Exposure to loud noises damages the tiny hairs in your inner ear, the main reason for hearing loss.

• What’s normal: Difficulty hearing the highest pitched tones.
• What’s not: Significant hearing loss at any age.

Emotional Well-being

There’s a tendency to gradually grow more isolated as you age. Living longer and healthier has a lot to do with your attitude.

• What’s normal: Rethinking your goals and needing to find a new focus for your life.
• What’s not: Living depressed and alone, lacking a sense of purpose.

Eyesight

Starting around age 40, changes in your lenses make it harder to focus up close. Night vision and visual sharpness may diminish, and you may have trouble adapting to changing light.

• What’s normal: Needing reading glasses and being sensitive to glare.
• What’s not: Vision loss, blurring or the appearance of shadows and cobwebs.

Brain Power

As you age, common brain changes usually mean slower thinking and some difficulty recalling names quickly. Multitasking or learning something new takes longer and can be frustrating at times.

• What’s normal: Occasionally forgetting where you parked.
• What’s not: Forgetting that you own a car.

Body Systems

As long as they’re free of disease, organs like your heart, liver and kidneys will continue to work well but may lose some efficiency over time. As a result, you may experience new side effects from certain medications.

What’s normal: Needing extra time to bounce back from an illness, surgery or stressful event.

What’s not: Persistent fatigue, pain or chronic illness.

Want to Know More about healthy aging? Call 610-402-CARE.

Published from Healthy You Magazine, November-December 2007

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