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Unit IV The Developing Person and Family Unit: Young Adult Through Death
alone. Elderly people who do not have children often have
siblings or friends with whom they live. Other elderly live in
institutions or residences for the aged where they make
friends. The percentage of purposefully abandoned elderly is
small; often the person who is a loner in old age has always
been alone (45, 82, 83).
MYTH 13: RETIREMENT IS DISLIKED
BY ALL OLD PEOPLE AND CAUSES ILLNESS
AND LESS LIFE SATISFACTION
Fact: Many older people look forward to retirement and are
retiring before 65 so that they can continue other pursuits.
More than three fourths of them have satisfying lives. Many
contribute to society (45, 157, 168).
MYTH 14: SPECIAL HEALTH SERVICES
FOR THE AGED ARE USELESS BECAUSE
THE AGED CANNOT BENEFIT ANYWAY
Fact: At age 65 the average person can look forward to at
least 10 to 15 more years of life. The elderly have fewer acute
illnesses and accidental injuries, and these conditions are correctable, although older people take longer to recover than
younger people do. Common chronic conditions are cardiovascular disease, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, sensory impairments, and depression, which can be treated so that the
person can achieve maximum potential and comfort (45, 93).
TABLE 16-1
Theories of Physical Aging
Theory
Definition/Explanation
Applications/Limitations
Nongenetic Cellular Theories
Wear and Tear Theory
Cross-linkage or Faulty
DNA Repair Theory
Accumulation of Waste or
of Senescent Cells
Theory
Body systems wear out because of accumulation of
stress of life and effects of metabolism. Most
general and obvious explanation of aging,
compares body to a machine.
Bonds or cross-linkages develop between molecules
or peptides: these bonds change the molecules’
properties physically and chemically. Thus
collagen in intracellular or extracellular material is
chemically altered and function is affected. When
collagen is cross-linked with other molecules,
changes range from wrinkling, to atherosclerosis, to inelasticity of tissue. When crosslinkages occur with DNA molecules that carry
genetic program, DNA is damaged and repairs
slowly; mutation or death of cell occurs.
Substances, such as metabolic waste materials and
lipofuscins, which interfere with cellular metabolism and cause cell death, accumulate in cells.
Examples of accumulation of metabolic waste
are cataracts of the eye, cholesterol in the
arteries, and bone brittleness. Cells that cannot
divide anymore accumulate in older people.
Little scientific evidence. Theory does not consider
self-repair mechanisms of body or differences of
life span within the human species.
A viable theory.
These substances may be a result rather than
cause of senescence.