Why do your bones crack when you stand up? What are those red spots on your skin? Why is your chin drooping?
Now that you are past middle age, you truly know what 'thick' means - middle aged spread has laid it on and no matter what you do you can't move it.
Explore the effects of aging on the human body and learn how people try to fight back!
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Thursday, 12 April 2012 23:46 |
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Getting older has many interesting twists and challenges. Easy bruising is yet another of those. Some folks, including me, just wake up in the morning and find a big ugly bruise on their arm, hand or leg – with absolutely no pain and no idea how the bruise happened!
Walking around with big ugly purple spots on your skin seems to be yet another hallmark of those lucky enough to age. Bruises DO make us look old.
A bruise (contusion) is the result of tiny blood capillaries bursting on impact and bleeding into the skin. Typically a bruise will go from red to blue/black to green to yellow and back to normal skin color in a couple of weeks.
Apparently we become more susceptible to bruising after the age of 55 because our capillary walls weaken, and our skin gets thinner. We also lose collagen support in the dermis skin layer (where the capillaries are). Years of sun exposure, smoking and lessening production cause breakdown of collagen.. In addition, some of the medicines we take (those like aspirin, fish oil, garlic, ginger and others) interfere with blood clotting – allowing the blood to spread further in the bruised area.
So what's an older person to do to control easy bruising?
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Sarcopenia: Are You Wasting Away?
By Gregg Ghelfi
If you are past the age of twenty-five, you are probably shrinking. Don't celebrate yet. You are not losing weight; you are losing muscle. On average we lose 18% of our muscle mass between the ages of twenty and fifty and an additional 20% between the ages of fifty and eighty.(1) Unfortunately, this does not lead to weight loss. We gain about one pound of fat and lose about a half a pound of muscle between the ages of thirty and sixty.(2) In other words, your increased girth is simply increased fat. Sarcopenia is the term used for the loss of muscle as a result of aging.
Even if your weight remains the same, you may still be overweight or even obese. If you still weigh the same but you lost twenty percent of your muscle mass, guess what happened to the weight? That's right! It turned to fat. Sarcopenic obesity is the term used for people who are not obese by the BMI index but whose body fat percentage makes them overweight or obese.
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Thursday, 20 October 2011 18:32 |
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About 3 years ago, when I was 60, I started noticing that my chin and neck were starting to droop. Oh no, not me! I can't get a saggy neck! But I am.
What Causes a Saggy Neck?
Pretty much all sources agree – age and factors related to it. Gosh I hate having to repeat that. Shouldn't age be a disease and not a condition?
Anyway, the skin beneath the surface loses collagen and elastin fibers aren't as elastic anymore – taking away the supporting framework for our skin. Gravity takes over and pulls it down. Sun exposure also plays a role – as does smoking. Skin Care Physicians.com says “Scientific studies have shown that repeated ultraviolet (UV) exposure breaks down collagen and impairs the synthesis of new collagen. The sun also attacks our elastin. Sun-weakened skin ceases to spring back much earlier than skin protected from UV rays.”
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Saturday, 15 October 2011 18:49 |
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I'm the same me I was at 30 or 40. I eat the same way, do the same exercises and activities and yet my body is changing! What's going on?
Based on what is happening to me, I did some research to see what some of the typical changes are as we age – here is the cliff notes version.
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