Middle adulthood Flashcards
(4 cards)
Describe how vision and hearing decline in midlife and explain the reasons for these declines
Overall, for most people, vision is the sense that declines most. The lens of the eye enlarges and becomes less flexible and less transparent, making it more difficult to perceive images in sharp focus and to see in dim light. The number of rods (light receptors) and cones (colour receptors) in the eye diminishes to about half by age 60, further limiting vision.
In monovision correction, one eye is corrected for near vision and one eye is corrected for distance vision. The brain automatically figures out which eye to rely on most, depending on whether near vision or distance vision is necessary. However, even with a monovision correction, most people need reading glasses by age 60.
Just like the hair on the head, the tiny hairs in the inner ear, known as cilia, which transmit sounds to the brain, thin out during middle adulthood. The eardrum and other structures in the inner ear become less flexible, making them less sensitive to sounds, and the auditory cortex in the brain becomes less efficient in processing information from the inner ear.
Compare and contrast the reproductive changes in midlife for women and men.
For women the climacteric is especially notable because it culminates in menopause, the end of monthly ovulation and menstruation. In contrast, the climacteric for men is more gradual and steadier, and they continue to produce sperm throughout life.
Oestrogen is crucial to memory, so menopause may also lead to disruptions in memory abilities. Menopause tends to occur earlier among women if they smoke cigarettes or have never given birth. It occurs later among women who exercise regularly.
hot flushes are reported by the majority of women in most world regions (with Africa highest at over 80%), but by only 15% of Japanese women. Few women in India and few Mayan women in Mexico report hot flushes. Among Indonesian women, 93% experience body and joint aches, and only 5% report hot flushes. Within the United States, African American women are more likely than women in other American ethnic groups to report hot flushes, and Latino women are more likely to report heart palpitations.
One reason for fewer menopausal symptoms among Japanese women is that their diets are high in soybean-based foods, and soybeans contain plant oestrogen, which compensates in part for the oestrogen decline the women experience.
Name the major health problems of middle adulthood and identify the variations in their rates by gender, culture, and ethnicity.
Sleep problems become more common after age 40. Specifically, many people have more trouble sleeping through the night. In Australia, it has been reported that 4 in 10 Australian adults experience inadequate sleep.
Bone mass begins to decline gradually in their late 30s for most people. Oestrogen strengthens bones, so for women, the decline in bone mass becomes steeper after the decline in oestrogen levels that accompanies menopause. Sometimes the loss of bone mass is extreme enough to result in osteoporosis, a condition in which the bones become thin and brittle. From middle adulthood onwards, women lose about 50% of their bone mass, with over half of that loss coming in the decade following menopause. About 80% of people with osteoporosis are female. People who are small and thin are at risk for osteoporosis because they start out with less bone mass than others. People of African origin have lower risk of osteoporosis than people of other groups because of their higher bone density.
Coronary heart disease (or CHD) is the second most common cause of death among midlife adults worldwide. It is the leading single cause of disease burden and death in Australia. Risk for CHD is the result of high-fat diets, smoking and daily routines that include little physical activity. Over the years, this lifestyle contributes to atherosclerosis, a condition where plaque builds up in the coronary arteries, causing the passage of blood through the arteries to become constricted. Rates of heart disease are highest in countries like Denmark, where a high-fat diet is common, and in countries like Russia that have high rates of smoking, which is extremely damaging to the cardiovascular system (WHO, 2017f3116). Rates are lowest in countries like Japan, where a low-fat diet is common, and in countries like France, where the custom of drinking a glass or two of wine or beer per day protects against CHD.
Worldwide, cancer is the second-leading cause of death among adults. Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer among men, whereas breast cancer is the most common type among women. For both men and women, the second and third most common types are lung cancer and colon cancer.
