Life is a continuous process: a roller coaster ride with ups and downs and changes of direction. Some parts are tranquil; some are exhilarating; some are frightening. Many people fear old age.
Middle age and old age have no definite boundaries. Middle age is generally taken to be from 45 to 65 years, though you may wake on your 65 th birthday feeling no different or even better than you did on your 50th. If you’re over 65, you’ll be counted in the statistical category of ‘elderly’ because you’re over retirement age, but you may feel just as good at 75 as you did at 65 years of age.
We’re always hearing that people are living longer these days. Since the start of this century, the mean human life span in developed countries has been prolonged by 27 years. However, there has been no change in the maximum duration of life. All living things have a finite life span, and biologists have estimated that human cell lines are unlikely to last much longer than around 90 years. In a population free of accidents, suicides, nutritional shortages and infectious diseases, the majority of people would live into their eighties before cancer, heart disease or stroke eventually carried them off.
The physical changes that progress during any life are inevitable. Our human bodies go through many changes over the years, though their rate and sequence car be different from one person to the next.
Some physical changes that are programmed into our genes (particularly those associated with reproduction such as puberty and the menopause) have profound physiological consequences that develop over a relatively short time span and around the same age for all people.
Other normal changes of ageing happen very slowly and gradually so that we barely notice them. Most of the change: of ageing don’t spoil our enjoyment of life because we can adjust and live comfortably with them, or because they are, to a certain extent, correctable.
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