Not all facts about aging are bad!
Nowadays, for the first time in history, most of us can expect to live into our sixties and beyond. Just to give you an idea, between 1900 and 2000, life expectancy in the US increased from 48 to 74 for men and from 51 to 80 for women. So, yes, we now live longer than our ancestors.
A longer life represents an important opportunity not just for seniors and their families but for society as a whole too. More years of life offer the chance to pursue new activities, such as a long-neglected passion or further education, while continuing to make valuable contributions to family and community.
But while these can vary from person to person, one thing’s for sure: as you get older, your body changes. Some of these changes can come on gradually and be subtle, while others may seem to just occur overnight.
We’ve rounded up a list of some of the most interesting facts about aging. Check this out!
1. Your brain gets smaller
No. 1 on our facts about aging list is that your brain doesn’t stay the same as you age. Some people believe it can actually grow with age. However, the opposite thing actually occurs.
Multiple studies have discovered that the volume of the brain declines with age at a rate of around 5% per decade after age 40. Experts believe there’s a chance for the rate of decline to increase with age, particularly over age 70.
While they still don’t know how exactly the human brain shrinks with age, it is known that these changes affect memory, especially episodic memory, which comprises information about recent or past experiences and events.
2. You sweat less
Some facts about aging show you that getting older doesn’t actually have to be so awful. Here’s one that proves that: Older people tend to sweat less. You actually just perspire differently, but let’s find out more about this.
The need for underarm deodorant diminishes, and chances are you’ll wish to get a shower instead with a similarly purposed product after hot flashes. But when it comes to sticky armpits, you can easily save money on antiperspirants. While this body part may not stay dry as a bone, there’s definitely less action happening there.
That’s because as you age, your sweat (eccrine) glands shrink, which makes them less sensitive. A study showed that women aged 52–62 sweated less than those aged 20–30, which experts attributed to “a diminished response of the eccrine glands to peripheral and/or central stimuli” and “an age-related structural change in the sweat glands or surrounding skin cells.”
3. You catch fewer colds
We told you that not all facts about aging are bad. Remember when people advised you to put your toddler in preschool so they could benefit from germs and develop healthy immune systems? Well, same idea here.
By the time you reach middle age, you’ve been exposed to more viruses and germs and have therefore developed immunity to them, so you get sick less. We told you that not all facts about aging are bad!
According to the American Lung Association, the average adult catches a cold up to four times a year, while young kids get them six or even eight times a year. Yet, it’s important to know that this doesn’t apply to flu viruses, which are more contagious and tend to mutate easily. Therefore, you still need flu shots every year.
4. Your sense of taste gets weaker
Next on our facts about aging list, we have one that unfortunately can affect your life. As we age, we’re likely to discover that our sense of taste gets weaker, just like our eyesight. We are born with 10,000 taste buds; after we turn 50, that number begins to gradually go down.
Because of that, you may have less interest in eating, which can lead to weight loss and even malnutrition (not getting the vitamins, minerals, calories, carbohydrates, and protein you need from food). If you notice a difference in how food tastes, make sure you talk to your doctor.
While experts don’t have a full understanding of why the sense of taste declines with age, they think it may be related to the fact that aging people produce less saliva, which makes their mouths drier.
Do you know that as you age, you end up having fewer bones in your body? Keep reading to discover other facts about aging!
5. You have less muscle mass
This is one of the saddest facts about aging, but the good news is that our lifestyle choices may have a say in it. But let’s see how aging affects your muscle mass.
Basically, one of the biggest changes due to aging is the loss of muscle tone. Moreover, your body starts losing muscle mass and gaining fat somewhere around the age of 35. After that age, your muscle mass decreases by approximately 3-8% per decade. This rate goes down even more after the age of 60.
But here’s the good news we mentioned earlier: While some facts about aging are pretty common, you can still prevent them from happening. According to experts, muscle loss related to age is actually only around 10 to 15%. The rest is due to a poor diet and lack of activity. Therefore, building or keeping muscle tone is possible, even in your 60s.
6. You have fewer bones
This is one of the most interesting facts about aging. At birth, we’re usually born with about 300 bones in our skeleton. These bones eventually fuse through a process called ossification as we grow and age, forming the 206 bones that adults have.
In other words, we die with fewer bones than we were born with. But how does this happen? At birth, most of your bones were made entirely of cartilage, a kind of connective tissue that’s tough but flexible. That flexibility was necessary so you, as a baby, could curl up in the small space of your mother’s womb.
As you grew into childhood, much of that cartilage was replaced by actual bone. Since many of your bones fused together, the actual number of bones decreased.
7. Your teeth are less sensitive
No. 7 on our facts about aging list: your teeth become less sensitive as you get older. No, the reason why this happens doesn’t have to do with the fact that you may have fewer teeth.
If you’ve been suffering from teeth that are excessively sensitive to cold or hot, the good news is that as you age, more dentin forms between your teeth’ enamel and nerves. Dentin is the layer of the tooth that protects the nerves.
As you may guess, this extra insulation results in a reduced pain response, which means you’re less likely to experience tooth sensitivity. This doesn’t mean that all tooth problems go away altogether; it’s good to know, though, that you’re off the hook with at least one of those problems.
8. Your nails grow slower
Last on our list of facts about aging is that your nails also change with age. On average, fingernails grow about 3.5 mm per month, while toenails grow much slower, at a rate of 1.6 mm per month. However, as a person ages, that growth rate can decline.
According to multiple studies, age-related nail changes begin to happen after the age of 40. In fact, slower nail growth rates tend to occur around this age. Moreover, as early as the age of 25, the rate goes down by around 0.5% per year.
If you liked our facts about aging, you may also want to read Shocking: Now, Ingenious Doctors Can Replace These 10 Body Parts.
