The numerical evidence we have on record as it pertains to an aging population, their trends and general demographics across the United States in pretty remarkable, not to mention factual. At the turn of the twentieth century, the average adult could look forward to an average life span of forty seven years of age. At that time there were only about three million individuals alive over the age of sixty five years or more.
People alive today can expect to live for about seventy five years or so and we have a senior population that is more than thirty six million strong! Diseases took most people’s lives in the year 1900; illnesses such as TB, pneumonia and gastroenteritis were the primary life takers. These days the major killers are cancer and heart disease. People in this day and age have much better odds of survival.
If an individual today is age sixty five, statistically they have on average another seventeen years of living to look forward to. If genetics are on your side, your genes have provided you with even more time upright. Females get a pretty good deal since the average American women will outlive the average guy by about eight years.
Currently, a man’s life expectancy hovers around seventy one years and for the ladies it’s about seventy nine years. The ratio of women to men in the over sixty five age group is four to three respectively. Within the next twenty years it is said that there will be fifty eight million individuals in the sixty five year plus group making up approximately seventeen percent of the total population.
In the majority of developed nations, the age of sixty five is the age of obligatory retirement. It was a policy begun by the Prussian leader, Bismarck, as a means of setting up social reforms upon his population. Reaching the “retirement” age was thought to be remuneration from the government for the worker’s years of hard work. At this time of course, a person’s life span was much shorter than it is these days.
Obviously there were not a whole lot of retirements “awarded” for a person’s hard work and slogging. Mandatory retirement today is illegal in many countries but it still is the benchmark age recognized today for retirement as many countries seek a method to supply goods and services to its senior citizens so they can relax and enjoy the time remaining to them.
A specific civilization could be defined as a compilation of official and unofficial assemblies of people who came together for shared continued existence. A family being the core group in our civilization that is in charge of raising children within society and with decency. Families convey positions as well as rank to individual elements within the family supplying numerous honors, support and vetos that give our lives direction.
Our civilization gives preference and favor to its youth. Our youth are highly ranked in societal status, warranting years of nurturing, educating and concern. Our elderly, on the other hand are neither held in esteem in the way the youth is represented nor are they productive as those in mid age tend to be. Therefore, based on their treatment by our society, they are made to feel useless and troublesome.
Even the elderly in question begin to believe the same thing about them, either subconsciously or giving into the belief intentionally. These prejudices come from the Puritan society’s working standards – idle hands or mind is the devil’s workshop” and all of that! What is strange is the biggest boosters of work ethic are the elderly citizens themselves. This kind of thinking makes it even more difficult to handle the difficulties occurring from the retirement itself, whether it was forced or intended.
The elderly also experience further intolerance on top of this. If indeed they look for work out of necessity, many companies will pass them over due to their age. Research has revealed that those who work or provide care elder people would much rather be working with younger individuals, apart from when a life is at risk.
Elderly people that are fairly well attuned are better able to stare down the dismal truth that is their life situation provided they are able to continue to be sociable and unrestrained. Some entering retirement see it as an opportunity to take part in things they never had the chance to do earlier in their lives. There is some depression and isolation during ordinary age advancement when handling the eventual losses.
For millennia no, there has been many published accounts of the cognitive functionality of the elderly individual. Research has displayed that our populations older people are just as competent as anyone when it comes to utilizing long term memory in the decision making process. It may just take them a bit longer due to the numerous memories they have stored over the years.
With such a vast warehouse of experience to draw upon means the elderly have a unique viewpoint that younger people just cannot match. For n nonsense reasons, this means that elderly people are quite capable of doing nearly anything to the same standards or better that a more youthful person could do, if only they were allotted the time to do so.
A quite common theory about seniors that is put out there is that they remain overly dependent upon others for care. The proof required to back up the dependent hypothesis is established using three criteria – relying on someone else for living conditions, healthcare and financial support. This just does not fly in most cases. Investigations have shown that seventy five percent of elderly people still own their own homes.
They reside usually in an urban location and the mortgages are paid off. This means they are cheap to own for the most part. There are some realistic issues that come into play certainly for instance, problems climbing up and down stairs and a lack of transportation. Most regions are instituting programs offering assistance to the elderly when most practical issues begin to arise after the age of seventy five years and over.
Seniors are actually healthier than we give them credit for. Of course the elderly will suffer from chronic ailments like hypertension, diabetes mellitus and heart problems but they have less instances of acute health trauma than younger people have. Acute health crisis as a rule are more serious when they occur.
There is a hypothesis having to do with the failure of reserve power or more commonly known as “second wind” or a lack of it. This is more prevalent when people speak of feeling older. In actuality it is stress and day after day wearing on the body instead of age that is impinging upon the body’s homeostatic, or self balancing systems. However, age gets the goat horns when we feel slow or out of sorts. We can do something about this energy loss and reduce its effect upon us. Getting regular physical activity, better eating habits, meditation for stress relief and avoiding tobacco will help improve the circulatory system and make us feel better overall.
Throughout North America the loss of income equals a loss of social rank and foreshadows the departure of our independence. This means that a loss of income is a viable and pragmatic area of trepidation. Senior citizens have four real means of income and they are social security or government pension, personal pension, salaries and social assistance programs. More than eighteen percent of men and eight percent of women still remain employed.
In the previous three decades, the valuation and numbers of pensions has dramatically increased for those reaching retirement. The elderly however, when times are difficult are amazingly prideful and autonomous. There really is no true financial independence, for most it is just a fable.
In some other societies, the elderly are revered as sage givers of insight and looked upon with the greatest reverence. In our society, the perspective has got to shift from its devotion to youth to one of valuing its senior population and all they have to give us. Attitudes must change and once they do, people in general will begin to look forward to growing older rather than being alarmed by the notion.
Tue, Aug 17, 2010
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Theories, Gerontology, Longevity