Our bodies and minds change over time Looking at any group of people will show you those changes. Babies and children are in the process of growing physically and mentally adults. Adults are fully grown but their bodies and minds still continuously respond to the environment. As we approach our later years, the mental and physical adaptations we have made over our lifetimes continue to accumulate. The normal aging process also influences how we think, how we do physical activities, how we eat, and generally how well we can handle the environment. The metabolism we had kids and young adults slows down as we get older. We might also be taking various medications for various medical conditions.
Because of how we change over time, the way medical professionals approach medical evaluation and treatment also changes over your life.
Any medical condition that we have tends to change over time as we get older. As we get older, medical conditions have had more time to tax our bodies. Even if well controlled, the body continues to experience normal aging. Along with the changes already mentioned, the body also has a more difficult time dealing with any health issue and the treatments that we use for those conditions.
We find that issues that wouldn’t be a major problem in a younger person might need a closer look in an older individual. We might also find that a medication that we have been taking for years is now no longer necessary or is now more risky and helpful. There are also things that don’t change. Healthy eating, physical activity, and the importance of keeping in touch with others continue to be important things that should be maintained throughout our lives.
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American Geriatrics Society Updated Beers Criteria for Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults. (2012). Journal Of The American Geriatrics Society, 60(4), 616-631. doi: 10.1111/j.1532-5415.2012.03923.x
Baeyens, J. (2019). New perspectives in Gerontology and Geriatrics. Acta Biomed, 90(2), 184-186. doi: 10.23750/abm.v90i2.8458
Medications Work Differently in Older Adults | HealthInAging.org. (2020). Retrieved 13 December 2020, from https://www.healthinaging.org/medications-older-adults/medications-work-differently-older-adults
