Aging and Your Health

Aging is the process in which your cells change function or die, causing your body to decline. This happens because of both natural limits on our cells’ lifespans and damage from living our everyday lives.

But most of us don’t think about aging in terms of what’s happening in our cells. We think of the aging experience: the lines in your skin that record a life’s worth of emotions. The increasing streaks of gray that paint your hair. Aches and pains that you never had before. The realization that you don’t get most pop culture references anymore.

No one is immortal. But there are ways you can reduce aging’s impact on your life.

Why do we age?

No one really knows the exact purpose of aging. But the reason our bodies decline with age starts with our cells’ biological clock.

Cell aging is called senescence. This is when a cell stops dividing and making more copies of itself. It happens when the protective ends of your chromosomes (telomeres) get too short (they get a little shorter every time the cell divides). Generally, senescent cells don’t die — sometimes, people call them “zombie cells.” If your immune system doesn’t clear them, they can accumulate. This can lead to inflammation and damage to your tissues.

But senescence isn’t the only reason our bodies age. Here are some other factors:

• Mitochondria — the part of your cells that give you energy — don’t work as well anymore.
• Stem cells stop replicating, which means there are fewer to help repair damaged tissues.
• Cells have a reduced ability to detect and repair DNA damage. They’re also more likely to produce faulty proteins. This leads to damaged cells and faulty proteins accumulating in your body.
• Your body changes which genes are turned “on” or “off” as you get older (epigenetics). This can affect everything from hormone levels to immune function.
• Cells have a reduced ability to properly communicate, so messages between parts of your body don’t work as well. For instance, your immune cells might constantly get signals to cause inflammation without reason.

These cellular changes eventually happen in all of us. But some things can affect how you age, including:

• Biological sex: Some effects of aging are more common in females than males and vice versa.
• Environmental damage: This can include increased exposure to the sun, loud noises, radiation, harmful chemicals and air pollution.
• Genetics: Genes determine how your body works — including things like how it responds to environmental damage and whether you’ll inherit your dad’s receding hairline.
• Health conditions (comorbidities): Common conditions that can impact aging include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
• Smoking: Smoking increases your risk of many health conditions, including those related to aging.
• Participating in exercise: Regular exercise has a positive impact on aging by reducing senescent cells. It’s been shown to slow the aging process.

Side effects of medications, stress and changing social, family and work conditions — among other factors — can also aggravate many of the signs of aging.

Effects of aging

Effects of aging include things that you see (like wrinkles, dark spots or gray hair) and things you experience (like vision or hearing changes). Some you’ll start to see in your 30s, and others aren’t an issue until you’re in your 60s or later. All of them start with changes in the cells and molecules that make up all your body’s parts.

Visible signs of aging

Some of the first signs of aging we often notice are the ones we can see in the mirror. You might notice:

• Wrinkles: As skin loses elasticity and collagen (a protein that gives your skin structure), you might notice wrinkles, especially around your eyes or on your forehead.
• Changes in skin tone: Your skin might be lighter and more transparent overall. You might develop dark spots in places.
• Other skin changes: Your skin might be dry, become slack (hang loosely) or be more fragile.
• Gray hair: Many people find their first gray hairs in their 30s. This is thanks to reduced melanin, the pigment that gives color to many parts of your body.
• Thinning hair: People can experience thinner hair, patchy hair and/or a receding hairline (when your hair starts farther back from your forehead and face than it used to) regardless of sex. Beards and mustaches can thin, too.
• Hair texture changes: You might notice that your hair is a different texture — like more coarse or wiry — or that you can’t style it quite the same way you used to.
• Eyebrow and eyelash changes: Hormone changes can cause your eyebrows and eyelashes to thin. Your eyelashes might be shorter and fall out more easily. On the other hand, some males get thicker eyebrows, along with thicker ear and nose hair.
• Changes to your face: Skin changes, plus loss of fat, bone and cartilage can eventually cause the structure of your face to look a little different. Some features may become more prominent or sunken in.

Aging and your vision

You might notice changes in your vision sometime in your 40s. You might move your phone out to just the right distance because it’s difficult to focus close-up. It could also get harder to read things that are far away. Your eyes might be slower to adjust to lighting changes (like bright headlights coming toward you while driving at night). You may also find yourself dealing with dry, irritated eyes, eye floaters and other conditions that prevent you from seeing as well as you used to.

Reasons for these changes include:

• The lens of your eye becomes less flexible and discolored
• The parts of your eyes that detect color (photoreceptors) become less sensitive
• You have less mucus and fewer tears
• The muscles that change your pupil size weaken
• Your vitreous humor (a gel-like part of your eye between the lens and the retina) changes to liquid and shrinks

Aging and other senses

You might notice your other senses are dulled, and your voice is different, too. Changes may affect your:

• Taste: Food can taste blander thanks to fewer taste buds.
• Smell: You might not be able to smell as much, or you might be less able to tell the difference between smells. This is due to loss of nerve endings in your nose.
• Hearing: Hearing loss happens as you lose nerve endings and cilia (hair-like structures that transmit sounds) in your ears. People might sound like they’re mumbling, or you might not be able to hear certain sounds or in certain situations. Your ears might also ring for no known reason.
• Touch: You might not be able to feel objects or surfaces as well with your hands or feet. This is due to fewer nerve endings in your skin and reduced blood flow to those nerve endings. It can lead to dropping things or difficulty moving.
• Voice: Your voice might be softer, breathy or a different pitch due to your vocal cords becoming stiffer and weaker.

Aging and mobility

As you approach middle age, you might start noticing changes in how you move. Your joints may get stiff from staying in one position for too long. Or physical activity causes aches and pains that weren’t there before. You might not feel as strong or as coordinated as you once were.

Causes for mobility changes with age include:

• Changes in your sense of balance or knowing where your body is in space
• Hormone changes, which cause mineral loss and reduced bone density
• Lower levels of physical activity
• Loss of lubricating fluid and cartilage in your joints
• Loss of muscle mass
• Loss of sensation in the nerve endings in your feet
• Slower reaction times (for instance, being unable to catch yourself if you trip)

These changes can put you at risk for:

• Osteoarthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Falls and broken bones

Aging and digestion

Your eating and digestion can change with age. You might notice:

• You’re not able to eat the same foods you used to
• You’re gaining or losing weight
• Alcohol, caffeine and medications affect you differently
• You have an increase in acid reflux, indigestion or constipation

Reasons for these changes include:

• You have fewer digestive enzymes
• Your liver doesn’t work as efficiently, slowing down your metabolism
• Hormones that affect your appetite, metabolism and fat storage change
• Your intestines move more slowly
• Changes in your taste buds and tooth and gum issues can make eating less enjoyable

Your body’s resistance to insulin can increase, which can lead to Type 2 diabetes. You’re also at increased risk of tooth decay and gum disease as you lose tooth enamel and gum tissue. These can lead to tooth loss or infections.

Aging and your reproductive system

With fewer and lower-quality sperm and eggs as time goes on, you’ll have a decline in fertility. This usually starts in your 30s or 40s. Females will eventually stop having their periods — usually in their 50s. Sometimes, you’ll go through years of perimenopause — with symptoms like hot flashes, sleep disruptions and period changes — before entering menopause.

Changes in reproductive hormones as you age can cause:

• Decrease or increase in sex drive
• Vaginal dryness
• Erectile dysfunction
• Increased prostate size (benign prostatic hyperplasia/BPH)
• Vaginal yeast infections

Aging and your urinary tract

Your bladder gets smaller and its muscles get weaker as you age. You might notice:

• You need to pee a lot more
• It’s harder to hold in your pee (incontinence)
• It’s harder to start the flow of urine when you need to go (especially if you have an enlarged prostate)
• You can’t fully empty your bladder

Not being able to empty your bladder, plus a less effective immune system, can put you at a higher risk for urinary tract infections (UTIs) as you age.

Aging and your heart and blood vessels

As you age, your heart valves, heart walls and arteries thicken and stiffen. Your blood vessels narrow, reducing blood flow in your body. Your body might have a harder time regulating your heart rate and blood pressure. These changes can put you at risk for:

• Abdominal aortic aneurysm
• Abnormal heart rhythms
• Atherosclerosis
• Blood clots
• Coronary artery disease
• Heart failure
• High blood pressure
• Heart valve disease
• Orthostatic hypotension
• Stroke

Aging and fighting off illness

The number of immune cells you have to fight off illnesses decreases as you get older. Your body also can’t clear out germ-trapping mucus from your lungs as easily. At the same time, malfunctioning cells send faulty messages that can cause constant, low-level inflammation (some people even call it “inflammaging”).

All of this means:

• Wounds take longer to heal or don’t heal
• You’re at higher risk for autoimmune diseases, where your immune system attacks and damages your own tissues
• You’re at a higher risk for cancer, since your immune system doesn’t get rid of faulty cells as well as it should
• Your body can’t fight off infectious diseases as easily

You’re more likely to get sick and are at a higher risk for severe illness and complications. This is why doctors recommend a few more vaccinations after the age of 50.

Aging and mental health

As you get older, you might notice that you’re slower to remember things like names or words. You might not be able to learn or recall information as easily. Chronic conditions, isolation, medications, loss of loved ones and other factors can make you more likely to develop anxiety or depression.

Older adults are also at a higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Changes in your brain that contribute to these age-related issues include:

• Inflammation
• Loss of brain volume (your brain shrinking)
• Loss of nerve cells
• Build-up of amyloid, a substance nerve cells create when they die
• Reduced blood flow to your brain

Aging and your sleep

Sleep patterns change over time, especially after age 60. Changes in hormone levels and circadian rhythms (sleep-wake patterns) can mean you’re getting less sleep or sleeping at different times. Conditions like sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and sleep disorders are also more common as you get older. These can keep you from getting a good night’s sleep.

Can I prevent aging?

No one can avoid aging altogether. And its effects are easier to prevent or slow down than they are to reverse once they happen. But there are ways you can reduce the impact of aging. You can:

• Wear sunscreen or cover up your skin when you’re outdoors: The sun can damage your skin even if you don’t get a sunburn.
• Keep active: Physical activity isn’t just about working out your arm and leg muscles. It keeps your heart and lungs healthy, too.
• Wear ear protection if you have to be in noisy environments: This could be on job sites, at concerts or sporting events, and even while mowing the lawn.
• Practice Kegel exercises: This can help with bladder control and sexual function.
• Protect your lungs: Don’t smoke or vape — it’s never too late to quit if you do. Wear a respirator mask if you have to be around harmful chemicals or smoke.
• Eat a variety of healthy foods: Limit how much alcohol you drink.
• Take care of your teeth and gums: Schedule regular checkups with a dentist.
• Keep your brain active: This could include participating in hobbies or learning new skills.
• Stay connected to others: This isn’t limited to family and friends. Participating in your community or attending local events can give you a sense of belonging.
• See a primary care provider or family doctor regularly: Let them know about anything that’s concerning you, even if it’s small or subtle. Recommended vaccinations can reduce your risk of getting seriously ill with infections.

These won’t bring aging to a halt. But they can increase your health span — the number of years you can live without health issues severely impacting your life.