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Biosocial Development: Late Adulthood

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WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

How is ageism like racism?
Ageism is the idea that age determines who you are, just as racism is the idea that race determines who you are. Stereotyping makes ageism “a social disease, much like racism and sexism . . . [causing] needless fear, waste, illness, and misery.”
What percentage of older people are in nursing homes?
In the United States, only 3 percent of people over 64 are in nursing homes or hospitals.
Can people slow down the aging process?
The effects of aging that are due to wear and tear or cellular aging can be slowed by limiting exposure to the sun, pollution, and elements, reducing stress, and consuming a healthy diet (perhaps even calorie restriction). The effects of aging that are due to genetic factors and the Hayflick limit cannot be slowed.
Why would anyone want to live to 100?
Those who study centenarians find many quite happy. Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 years old, enjoyed a glass of red wine and some olive oil each day. “I will die laughing,” she said. Everyone agrees that the last years of life can be good ones.

I took Asa, age 1, to the playground. One mother, watching her son, warned that the sandbox would soon be crowded because the children from a nearby day-care center were coming. I asked questions, and to my delight she explained details of the center’s curriculum, staffing, scheduling, and tuition as if she assumed I was Asa’s mother, weighing my future options.

Soon I realized she was merely being polite, because a girl too young to be graciously ageist glanced at me and asked:

“Is that your grandchild?”
I nodded.
“Where is the mother?” was her next question.

Later that afternoon came the final blow. As I opened the gate for a middle-aged man, he said, “Thank you, young lady.” I don’t think I look old, but no one would imagine I was young. That “young lady” was benevolent, but it made me realize that my pleasure at the first woman’s words was a sign of my own self-deceptive prejudice.

Now we begin our study of the last phase of life, from age 65 or so until death. This chapter starts by exploring the prejudices that surround aging. We describe biosocial changes—and what can be done to mitigate them. Then we provide a perspective on diseases, an exploration of the causes of aging, and finally a celebration of centenarians.

This is not a medical textbook, but various ailments that are common in the elderly—insomnia, heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis, erectile dysfunction, poor vision, deafness, hypertension, pneumonia, influenza, and accidental death—are all described in context, as examples of primary or secondary aging, selective optimization, the compression of morbidity, acute or chronic illness, and so on.