Everyone fears and dreads aging mainly because of not living up to the expectation of the environment. When we age, we feel left out from the current trend and are no longer able to compete with the younger generation. There is more! People love their smooth and shiny skin which will get wrinkled over time. And, there is also proof that older people are more prone to catching a disease and having memory loss. But there is more to know about aging than just getting scared about it. So here we present some positive and a little not so positive things to know about aging that no one tells you.
The body shape changes
As we become old, there will be a gradual decline in hormones such as testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone. As a result of this, the fat begins to deposit around and the belly region. The muscle tissue and skin will be lost and gets smaller even though the fat percentage increases. This causes your body to change in shape. It can be mitigated with exercise and proper diet, but not completely. So expect to see some changes in our body soon.
The mind gets wiser
It is not scientifically proven though, but most of the aged people tend to be wiser than the younger ones. You can use our age calculator to check your actual age. You will care less about what people will think and think of you. You’ll know the virtue of patience. You will also learn the absolute truth that there is no point in telling anyone what to do. You’ll also probably have fewer cravings for things, and begin to want less. You will also learn not to judge quickly. A lifelong experience will definitely give you the knowledge to become wiser. But what you are going to do with that knowledge solely resides upon you.
The body becomes weak
You probably saw this coming but we had to write about it anyway. A long life with wear, tear, and regeneration, makes your body weak. All the essential functions of the body like balancing, breathing, and digestion becomes disturbed. You’ll probably have a fall due to the lack of balance. You may quickly become short-breathed by just walking. The best of all is the digestion. You may not be able to eat all the delicacies as you used to be as aged people are prone to digestion problems. It also can be mitigated to an extent with a healthy diet and regular exercise.
You may feel less thirsty
As you age, the body’s certain physiological control systems associated with thirst gets altered. So you may feel less thirsty than you used to be. But this condition puts you at the risk of dehydration as water plays various roles in our body such as aiding in digestion, regulating temperature, ridding of waste, etc. So failing to drink less than 2 liters of water daily may put you at unnecessary risk. Even if you are not parched all the time, make sure that you get enough amount of fluids every day.
First, you will hate and then you will appreciate wrinkles
The wrinkle-free face is the desire for every woman. But it not possible with aging. As you age, the body’s skin tends to soften and begins to form wrinkles. You will dread the day you see the first wrinkle on your face. But a wrinkle-free face has been falsely deemed as a prerequisite of beauty in our society. As you continue to grow old, the wrinkles on your face will stand as a testimony to your experiences. It shows that you have come a long way. So later in your life, you will start to appreciate that you are grown old enough to have wrinkles.
The body will shrink
You might have noticed that older people become smaller in height as they age. It is universal and it happens because of your spinal discs. These discs are made of fluid and act as a cushion to your vertebrae. But as you age, the fluids in the disc start to dry up. So the disc gets compressed causing the space between your joints to narrow. As you grow old, space gets further reduced and you’ll start to shrink further. Usually, this process starts to happen after the age of 40.
Your kids will be your friends
This may be weird for some of you, but you’ll be closer to your kids more as you get old. It may be hard to think as they are dependent on us first, and then, they become rebellious during the teenage years. But as your children grow into adults, they will be matured enough to have huge respect for their parents. They grow into their own lives to fulfill their dreams and parents take on a different role. The bond between the parent and a child will last even after human life perishes.
You will have more respect for your parents
This is the opposite of the last statement. As you grow old and get matured, you will have huge respect for your parents. Not only your parents, but you will also respect all the elderly persons too. This personality of respecting parents and the elderly automatically becomes a part of you as you grow old. The reason is that now you would’ve experienced the challenging life, you will respect others who had gone through all the experiences of life like you.
You’ll have better decision making capability
The human brain learns constantly. Some research has shown that some aspects of the cognitive function will peak in the years up to the age of 68. All the years of making mistakes, taking the right decision, and the bad decision will leave you with abundant knowledge of making better decisions. From all the lessons that you have learned during your life, you will have the capability of predicting the outcome. This capability of better decision making grows as you get older.
The Confidence grows
As a child, or teenager, or even as an adult, there will be a time where our confidence will be lacking to do something. But as you get older, you would have overcome all the life challenges, so it automatically will boost your confidence level. You can observe this confidence in you as you do more things alone in your life without assistance as you get older.
The immune system weakens
Don’t get feared reading the title. Yes! Your immune system will get weaker as you grow old. The immune system is responsible for making cells and antibodies that kill the harmful microorganisms entering your body. But the aging process alters the immune system function and weakens it. So you will be at a higher capacity to catch a disease. But you can partially mitigate this effect by staying on a healthy diet, exercising regularly, drinking more water, etc.
The healing process weakens
Like the immune function, the wound healing process also becomes weak as you grow old. Though the elderly can heal most of the wounds, they will have a slower wound healing process. This is due to the fact that aging affects all the phases of the wound healing process. The inflammatory and the proliferative response phase, which are the main two phases in healing wounds get decreased or delayed. The final healing phase is the remodeling. This phase occurs but to a lesser degree. So be careful with the physical activities that you are doing as you get older.
The memory becomes weak
It is a normal process. The hippocampus region of the brain is associated with the formation and retrieval of memories. It gets deteriorated with age. So you will forget common things like a shopping list, phone numbers, address, etc. Don’t be afraid. It can be mitigated to an extent by doing aerobic exercises as it will increase the blood flow to the brain and keep it functioning. A balanced diet and lifelong learning also helps you in your concentration and remembering ability.
You will be thankful for growing old
Let’s stop with all the negative points of growing old and end this post on a positive one. Look, aging can be scary but not all the people are fortunate enough to grow old and lead a full life. Many die before reaching their natural time. So with aging, you will be grateful and feel gratitude for living your life to the fullest.
Conclusion
Don’t think about growing old. It happens to everyone and you cannot escape it. Just live in the present and make your life happy. We hope you got some knowledge about aging from this post.