Change in physical appearance
- skin begins to wrinkle and sag because of a loss of fat and collagen in underlying tissues
- hair thins and greys
- pigmentation
Height and weight
- Lose height. 1 inch in men between 30-50 and 50-70; 2 inch in women between in 25-70
- bone loss in vertebrae
- sarcopenia - age-related loss of muscle mass and strength
- progressive loss of bone
Vision and Hearing
- Accommodation of the eye (ability to focus and maintain an image on retina) decreases; sharpest decline between 40 and 59
- Hearing declines 40 onwards; men lose sensitivity to high pitched sounds
Blood Pressure high cholestrol, high bp hypertension
Lungs and sleep at about the age of 55, the proteins in lung tissue become less elastic. wakeful periods are more frequent and there is less of the deepest type of sleep
Cognitive Development
INFORMATION PROCESSING: Reduced speed of information processing Memory decline Expertise problem solving
As we age past emerging adulthood, fluid intelligence decreases crystallized intelligence increases