Doctors say that already a few years after the completion of the formation of the body, we begin to lose growth. However, too rapid a “shortening” process may be a signal of the onset of a serious illness - an imperceptible development osteoporosis.
The human body is made up of fat, muscle tissue (muscles and organs), bone, water and other substances. As we age, the amount and distribution of these materials will change. Fat tissue may increase toward the center of the body, including around the abdominal organs. The amount of fat in the body can increase by as much as 30%. At the same time as fat increases, lean body mass decreases. Muscles, liver, kidneys and other organs may lose some of their cells. This process of muscle loss is called atrophy. Bones lose some of their nutrients, particularly calcium, and become less dense (a condition called osteopenia, or, at a later stage, osteoporosis). Reduces the amount of water in your body. This is due to age-related changes in bones, muscles and joints.
As a person ages, they may become shorter. The downward trend in height occurs among all races and both sexes. After 35 years, people begin to gradually become shorter in stature - the average rate of such decline is about 1.3 cm every 10 years. So, by the age of 60, human height decreases by 2-3 cm, and by 80 years by 5-6-8 cm. Doctors consider this process to be quite “physiological”: the intervertebral discs wear out, the joints in the joints are “erased”, and, finally, the muscles lose tone and become flabby, and, in addition, their mass decreases.
However, too rapid a decrease in height may be the first symptom of the onset of osteoporosis, a disease that leads to a decrease in bone density and, as a result, is fraught with serious fractures, in particular a hip fracture.
American scientists from Harvard Medical School claim that if an elderly person aged 70 years or older, regardless of gender, has lost 5 cm or more in height over the past two years, then he is at risk of developing a hip fracture in the next two years increases by 54% compared to its peers, which did not “shorten” so quickly.
Moreover, in men this dependence can be seen even more clearly than in women - as study leader Professor Marian Hannan explains, this is due to the fact that men have more muscle mass than women and their loss of bone density occurs more slowly.
Professor Hannan believes that something as simple as regularly measuring height and recording these measurements in a patient's medical record could be an additional means of early diagnosis of osteoporosis. However, the decrease in height is dependent. Physical activity, proper nutrition, and treatment for osteoporosis can help reduce height loss.
Men often gain weight until about age 55 and then begin to lose weight. This may be due to a decline in the production of the male sex hormone testosterone. Women typically gain weight until age 65, then begin to lose weight. Weight loss, in particular, is caused by loss of muscle tissue. Of course, weight loss or weight gain varies from person to person, too. Diet and exercise play a big role in these changes.
Changes in the total amount of fluid in the body can make older people more likely to become dehydrated. Pay attention to how much liquid you drink.
How your body reacts to the medications you take also plays a role in your body shape changes. Medication dosages may need to be adjusted as you age.
Loss of muscle mass in the legs and changes in body shape can affect overall balance, leading to poor coordination and frequent falls.
People's personalities continue to change constantly, not only as they grow older, but also into adulthood. Foreign scientists came to this conclusion as a result of a full-scale survey in which 4,000 people from 20 to 80 years old took part. It turns out that we tend to constantly change our views on life under the influence of experience and other factors.
It is generally accepted that a person’s personality is finally formed around the age of 20-25 under the influence of natural data and the environment - family, school, friends... It is by this time that all the main character traits are formed. After this, if we change at all, it is only slightly... Therefore, we are convinced that what a person has become by the age of 25, he will remain the same for the rest of his life. Meanwhile, life itself proves that this is far from the case.
There are plenty of examples. For example, they say that money spoils people. And this is not an empty phrase. Suppose two people with the same innate inclinations were born and raised in exactly the same environment, received the same education... But it turned out that one of them became an ordinary hired employee, and the second went into business. Or, let's say, he became an official. After some time, he revealed such traits as harshness towards other people, disdain for his previous circle of friends, the desire to achieve his goals by any means, even unethical... If this person holds a post in the civil service, he may fall into corruption and start taking bribes. Nothing like this happens to the first friend, since he has no opportunity to get close to big money.
Research shows that wealthy people are more likely to break laws and regulations than less wealthy people. Many of them are less decent in their relationships with friends and in their personal lives.
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Of course, it is not at all necessary that a rich person will act badly and dishonestly, and a poor person will act well and honestly, nevertheless, such cases are not at all uncommon...
Or another example. A person who was previously known as kind and trusting, as they say, “got burned” - found himself in a situation where he was deceived, robbed, “thrown away”, etc. There may be options - an unsuccessful marriage, undeserved condemnation, lack of help with serious problems... After this, our hero can change his attitude towards people, become less sociable, stop trusting others and generally adopt a negative view of the world. Sometimes, when we reproach someone negatively, we hear in response: “The teachers were good” or “Life taught us.”
Sometimes it is difficult for us to be objective about people who were once considered nonentities in our youth. Having learned that such a person has achieved success, we simply do not want to admit this fact and convince ourselves that success is accidental or the result of patronage: “I know him, he was always an empty place!” We can’t wrap our heads around the fact that this character could have changed a lot over the years...
During the study, experts surveyed volunteers every two years. They were interested, in particular, in such personality traits as honesty, conscientiousness, compliance, and the level of neuroticism. It turned out that if these indicators are formed by the age of 30, then by the age of forty they reach their peak.
And yet changes are constantly happening in us. Over the years, we can change our beliefs if we see that they are untenable. So, we can become more tolerant or, on the contrary, more intolerant of some people and situations, change our opinion about them under the influence of some newly discovered circumstances or factors.
Age-related changes also contribute to changes in personality. And often not for the better. In old age, due to brain disorders and physical discomfort, people often become overly touchy and suspicious; they may suddenly develop qualities such as unreasonable greed, anger... It seems to them that everyone around them is treating them unfairly, trying to give them something less, to deceive in some way or simply do not show due respect... It is because of these extremely unpleasant traits that representatives of younger generations often avoid older people: not everyone can treat such things with understanding. However, this is a natural process from which absolutely no one is immune...
However, it also happens that people change for the better over time. Perhaps because life circumstances have become more favorable... Psychology helps some. If a person were not subject to change, then psychologists would simply remain without work. They help the client get to know himself better, look at himself from the outside and realize his internal problems, which can push him to change... In general, the mechanism of the latter is quite simple: “If you sow an action, you will reap a habit, if you sow a habit, you will reap character, sow character, reap destiny.” Sometimes changes begin with just small details, and only over time we realize their global nature...
How does a person's character change with age?
All qualities of character a person’s behavior influences how he behaves in the family, in society, and even how he perceives himself. But with age certain things happen change of character. This is most noticeable in children as adolescence begins.
If you have carefully read articles about human temperament types, you know that there are only four characters: phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric And melancholic. There are few pure sanguine people or, for example, phlegmatic people.
Most people have a mixed type of temperament, which is very good. Why? It's very simple: each character type has both positive and negative traits. If this is not so noticeable in childhood and adolescence, then dramatic changes can occur with age. And close people will not always be happy with such changes in the character of a husband or wife.
Have you already taken a short test and found out what your personality type is? If not, now is the time to do so and then return to reading this article.
Why do we need to know the character of ourselves and our loved ones? In order to better understand ourselves and the people around us, then misunderstandings and conflicts that are completely unnecessary for family life will disappear. Why be nervous or angry if your husband (wife) is acting a little strange?
This is from your point of view. But your spouse does not understand what lies at the basis of your actions and often gets irritated, which is not welcomed by you. You begin to grumble under your breath or even loudly express your dissatisfaction. The husband doesn’t like this, and everything begins to move in a vicious circle. Over the years, irritation can accumulate and family relationships deteriorate.
How can this be avoided? Try to understand your spouse and find out why he does this, what underlies his actions.
If you begin to understand your husband, you can help him. Conversely, he will be able to help you, advise you and lend a helping hand when things get difficult for you.
Why does character deteriorate with age? There are many reasons for this. Unfortunately, our life is structured in such a way that after starting a family, difficulties begin that we did not even suspect about. You probably remember the conversation between two friends:
How's life?
It hits you hard, mostly on the head.
Few people's life's path is strewn with roses; for some reason, most of us get thorns. We have to make our way in life, struggle with circumstances, and at the same time we change, this is normal.
Vovochka asks:
Mom, why does dad have so little hair on his head?
Because he is very smart.
Why do you have so many?
Shut up and eat!
But some qualities of our character, which seemed funny in our youth, can turn into such that they simply begin to poison our lives. And not only for us, but also for our loved ones. What happens to a person after 30 years?
Consider this type of temperament as choleric.
These strong and energetic people can change a lot as they age. Change so much that you won't even be able to recognize them if you haven't seen them for a long time.
What can happen to a choleric person if life turns its back on him?
Remember, I told you who this person is and how to communicate with him?
The choleric person loves to keep everything under his control; he definitely needs to dominate other people, lead and constantly move towards a new goal.
But over the years, changes may occur that prevent such a person from realizing his abilities. It’s good if this doesn’t happen, but life is so unpredictable...
The choleric suddenly loses power, if a younger employee is appointed in his place, then his authority falls, and he takes all this very hard.
The respect that he has always enjoyed disappears, and the choleric person quickly reacts to such changes. You could even say that he is breaking down inside, and this is understandable. After all, he no longer has the influence and power to which he was accustomed.
A choleric person may lose his temper, start drinking, talk to his wife and children in a raised voice, and even shout at them. The challenge that this person needed in the best of times begins to exert strong pressure from within.
The consequences can be dire. Therefore, the wife should help her husband, inspire him to new exploits, or even set a goal for him. The main thing is to notice in time the changes that occur in his character and take action.
If from the very beginning of the family the husband was an unquestioned authority, and the wife did not want to argue with him and did not contradict him in anything, then in such a situation the husband can turn into a despot and tyrant for his loved ones.
Do you understand why it is so important to develop the traits of the other character types that you have? If a choleric person has the traits of a phlegmatic person inside, then he will begin to help other people, and in this way he will be able to overcome the crisis.
I will write about one more, in my opinion, the most striking change that can happen to a choleric person if life gives him an unpleasant surprise. It’s hard to believe, but these strong people can start collecting old junk and gradually turn into a kind of “Plyushkin”.
Imagine a situation where a choleric person suddenly lost his job, where he received a high salary, or simply went broke. The ground suddenly disappeared from under his feet, the world turned upside down, and there were no close people nearby who could help him.
And such a person begins to accumulate things at home, he puts them in piles and brings them back again, filling the entire living space.
So far he doesn’t get confused at all, but he still can’t stop it on his own.
I used to lead a very active life: I played tennis, football, played chess, and took part in auto racing. But it all ended when the computer died.
Do you know why he does this? He needs the same control that drove his actions before. And the only thing that this control returns to him is collecting trash.
That’s why the help of loved ones and their understanding are so important. If suddenly your husband is choleric and is going through a period of crisis, help him understand that this crisis is simply challenging him. Set a goal for your husband, talk to him in his language, which he understands. And this unpleasant moment in life will end.
Just don’t leave your loved one to fight with himself alone, be there and tell him where to go next and what difficult task needs to be solved in the very near future. Help and support are very, very important, remember this.
What happens to phlegmatic when his age becomes 30 years or more?
Changes in character may not be as bright and noticeable as in a choleric person, but they also exist. Every phlegmatic person with age begins to fear change, because he feels so good and calm when everything flows smoothly and nothing new happens.
Therefore, some people with this type of temperament try to make sure that no one and nothing bothers them. Remember how an ostrich hides its head in the sand and how frogs croak in a swamp with standing water?
The principle: “my house is on the edge, I don’t know anything” can become the main thing for a phlegmatic person. Agree that it is difficult to put up with such behavior, because in life something is constantly changing, you need to move forward, and there is no escape from it.
This approach to life can have a very bad effect on loved ones, because they are accustomed to the fact that a person with such a character always came to the rescue before.
The desire for peace of mind can lead to a complete change in lifestyle: TV becomes your main friend.
Phlegmatic people like to sit near the TV in the evenings, watch the news, begin to be afraid of everything and gradually withdraw into themselves. You meet such a person, and he begins to tell you all sorts of horrors: who was killed and where, where the catastrophe happened, and the like.
At the same time, he intimidates himself even more, but in the evening he sits down in front of the TV again and watches everything. And at the same time he believes what he hears, because such a person is very trusting.
This is, of course, an extreme, but it occurs quite often.
If troubles start in the family, it is very difficult for a phlegmatic person to cope with the problems. After all, it is difficult for him to overcome fears. But everything can be fixed, especially if there are close people who are ready to help.
There are also people of this type of temperament who, because of their desire to help, can greatly harm their loved ones. If suddenly the husband develops a bad habit of drinking, the wife will endure it for a long time, not daring to take extreme measures.
A phlegmatic person tries not to offend anyone, he is a little naive, which, for example, children can take advantage of. They can completely shift all responsibility for their children to grandparents who are ready to help. They simply abandon their children, refusing to raise them. And they motivate this by the fact that they are too tired at work.
Grandparents take their grandchildren with them and take care of them until they become adults. Of course, my health is no longer what it used to be, and the burden is too heavy, but what can you do? We need to help everyone! You probably know such stories.
Sanguine.
Everything is simple here. If you have a mixed personality type, then the positive traits may outweigh the negative ones. You will always remain a cheerful and cheerful person and live a very happy life.
If you are a pure sanguine person by temperament, then you need to be especially attentive to your loved ones and appreciate their love and care. It may take all their patience and good attitude towards you. Why?
The carefree nature of such a person changes greatly at some point in his life. This happens according to approximately the same scenario. At first everything is fun, everything is wonderful. Friends with whom there are constant meetings, new acquaintances, and so on.
Such a person always sits at the head of the table and tells jokes and all sorts of funny incidents. And this happens all the time until these people simply get tired of him.
With age, a sanguine person begins to talk a lot about himself and at the same time does not listen to other people at all. He is absolutely not interested in your life, because other people are of little interest to him.
You meet such a person, and he tells you everything and tells you about his life, without letting you get a word in. Then you leave, full of other people’s problems, although none of this concerns you at all.
No, no and no! To buy arsenic, you need a prescription. I really sympathize with you, but one photo of your mother-in-law is not enough.
What will a sanguine person do if they don’t appreciate him and make it clear? He will go looking for another company and a new family. Very often, a person with this type of temperament has a second, third, and even fourth family.
But at the end of his life he may be left alone, abandoned by everyone and completely useless to anyone.
To prevent this from happening, control yourself and often ask your wife what she doesn’t like in your relationship. Remember that approval and popularity do not have to be sought outside. After all, it is much better to be a bright and significant person in your own family.
You just need to learn to take responsibility and not shift it onto the shoulders of other people.
Melancholic.
For some reason, I always write about melancholic people last. But I think that people with this type of character will not be offended by me. After all, they know their own worth and almost always expect quality answers and accurately plan every day of their lives.
The main thing is to understand everything in order, without jumping from place to place.
What can happen to a person who strives for perfection? Oddly enough, melancholic people are prone to depression. They constantly worry about everything: about their children, about their husband or wife, about their parents, about the weather, and even about their pets.
These thoughts that constantly spin in your head become the cause of real depression, from which it is difficult to get out.
If a melancholic person lives alone, the character can deteriorate so much that the person even stops smiling. And he will turn into a rather unpleasant person, become such a bore.
In the animal world, rhinoceroses have this character. These animals are always in a bad mood, very suspicious and ready to attack when in danger.
But this is again an extreme.
Melancholic people love tasks; they receive them from their loved ones or come up with them themselves. For example, they study new areas or immerse themselves in something interesting that can completely captivate them and give them a lot of positive emotions.
A melancholic person must learn to be tactful towards other people and not express their remarks in a harsh tone, so as not to hurt the feelings of other people. Try to enjoy life so that your character does not deteriorate. (Don't let the rhino come out of the bush).
Just look at your life from a different angle, you will definitely see the blue sky above your head, the bright sun and hear the birds singing in the trees. And then any change your character With age it will only get better.
And if you try to figure out what kind of birds sing so well, you will find a new and completely unexplored area in which you can acquire new knowledge. You can study anything, because melancholic people have a very inquisitive mind. For example, take up painting, as I did myself, or scuba diving or something else.
Melancholic people understand what I'm talking about.
There is much more to write about qualities of character, about how a person’s character changes with age, about phlegmatic, sanguine, choleric And melancholic. But the article ends, so I'm calling it a day.
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As people age, they not only gain weight, but also become shorter. This phenomenon is a normal process that occurs as we age and can be explained by three main reasons.
As we approach old age, we become shorter. First, it occurs due to dehydration of the discs between the vertebrae, causing them to become flatter and the overall length of the spine to decrease. The second cause of height loss is flattening of the arch of the foot. And the third is loss of muscle mass, especially in the abdominal area. This significantly worsens our posture, causes us to hunch over, and we become more and more like our grandparents, who once seemed short to us.
On average, a person loses about 0.6-0.8 centimeters in height every year after age 40. By the age of seventy, men become 3-4 centimeters lower, and women – 5 centimeters lower. This effect is less noticeable in men because they tend to have stronger bones and more muscle mass.
If you are losing height faster than normal, it may be a sign of osteoporosis, where your bones become too fragile. In addition, bad habits such as smoking, alcohol and coffee abuse, and lack of physical activity increase the effect of age-related height loss.
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It turns out that the brains of obese people are different from their counterparts that control the nervous systems of thinner peers and even people ten years older.
It is generally accepted that teenagers are touchy and hot-tempered, adults are calm and reasonable, and old people are conservative. All these are age stereotypes. In principle, we all already know about the attitudes that are widespread in our society. What about others? Maybe in Asian countries, with their traditional cult of ancestors, everything is different and older people, on the contrary, are considered the ideal of calm and wisdom?
A group of scientists decided to find out what age stereotypes prevail in different cultures. For this purpose, a large-scale survey was conducted in 26 countries, including Russia.
It turned out that stereotypes are the same everywhere. Russians, Americans, Koreans, Swiss, Argentines, Australians and representatives of other countries think the same about age-related changes in character.
And this is what they think:
- Teenagers - emotionally unstable, extroverted, open to new things, anxious, aggressive, impulsive, vulnerable and gullible. They reflect more than others, become emotionally excited more easily and are more susceptible to the herd instinct. Actions, values, feelings, fantasies and positive emotions are more important to them than to other age groups. They are also the most incompetent, undisciplined and intractable, usually do not say what they think, and are not inclined to altruism.
- Adults - conscientious, persistent, competent, distrustful and disciplined. They value aesthetics more than others and have a stronger desire for personal achievement. They are also the least vulnerable and less likely to reflect than others.
- Elderly people the most benevolent, altruistic, compliant, kind, introverted and accommodating. At the same time, they are susceptible to depression, more often than others they say what they think, value order more strongly and are more attentive to the sense of duty. They are less open to new things than other age groups.
To check how true these stereotypes are, we need to compare them with studies of the real character of people of different ages. When conducting such studies, scientists resort to psychometrics - the “measurement” of character traits.
How to “measure” character
When talking about the character of another person, we, as a rule, express our subjective opinion. It is clear that the same person may seem rude and angry to some, but to others, on the contrary, good-natured and open. It all depends on personal perception and the circumstances in which we communicated with him. Of course, these kinds of descriptions are not suitable for scientific character studies. Otherwise, their results would depend each time on the subjective opinion of a particular scientist. To avoid this, experts have been developing various psychological tests for many years that make it possible to more or less objectively “measure” character.
On the Internet, everyone has come across “psychological” tests more than once and probably even took them a couple of times out of boredom. But most of these tests have little to do with science - they are invented by amateurs.
Today, the scientific community most widely used to “measure” character is the “Big Five”: a personality model consisting of five relatively independent traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (the opposite of emotional stability) and openness to new things.
To measure these traits, psychologists create special questionnaires; out of curiosity, you can take one of them. Such questionnaires are the most scientific psychological tests currently existing. It is on them that scientists rely when trying to determine a person’s character.
How character and age are really related
Numerous studies confirm that character traits are not stable and actually change with age. Over the course of several decades, a person can change beyond recognition: a desperate adventurer in his youth in old age can turn into an inveterate conservative who almost never leaves home.
But do age-related changes in character correspond to social stereotypes? In short, yes, almost completely. Here's what scientists found about the correlation between the Big Five personality traits and age:
- Extraversion consistently decreases with age. Accordingly, people under the age of 30 are most open to communication. Among older people, introverts predominate, preferring solitude to communicating with others.
- Goodwill increases with age. The most noticeable jump in agreeableness occurs when people emerge from puberty—around age 20. Teenagers, as is commonly believed, are much less accommodating than adults and old people.
- Consciousness
on average increases until a person reaches retirement age. After the age of 50–60, people become less conscientious on average. Perhaps this is due to retirement: when you are no longer burdened with work responsibilities, you can finally relax and be a little disorganized and loose.
The biggest leap in consciousness occurs among twenty-year-olds, which is easily explained: at this age people go to work and start a family or enter into a serious relationship. Although after 60 years of age, conscientiousness decreases slightly, old people are still more responsible than teenagers. The difference in this indicator between 70-year-olds and 40-year-olds is smaller than between 30-year-olds and 20-year-olds. - Emotional stability . Here, real changes in character are also quite consistent with stereotypes: the older a person is, the more stable he is emotionally. It was not possible to record any sharp jumps in this indicator: emotional stability simply consistently increases with age.
- Openness to new things . And there are no surprises here compared to the stereotypes: old people turned out to be the most closed and conservative, the most open were teenagers and 20-year-olds. After reaching age 30, openness begins to gradually decline. But the researchers did not find a significant difference between teenagers and 20-year-olds on this indicator.
Of course, all these patterns reflect only a general trend - they are based on average survey data. Although people, on average, become more introverted and more closed with age, this does not mean that you personally in old age will suddenly turn into a grouch who, more than anything else, loves to sit alone in his room and doesn’t care about human communication and new experiences.
And yet, what is striking is the almost complete correspondence of age-related character changes to common stereotypes. Scientists have an explanation for this.
Why stereotypes reflect reality
An important role in character changes is played by a change in social roles and the desire to conform to them. There can be several such roles, for example, one person can simultaneously play the role of spouse, parent and employee. There are certain stereotypes about each of them in society: for example, parents should be responsible and caring. We internalize these attitudes and then, often unconsciously, strive to conform to them. Deviation of behavior from what the social role prescribes is fraught with public censure. With age, social roles change and we try to adapt our character to them. This is how we unconsciously adapt our own character traits to the rules of behavior ingrained in society.
Scientists have found that when trying to predict the character of another person, we take into account both his age and his social role.
Moreover, changes in character traits when changing roles coincide with social expectations. For example, when a person stops being a student and starts working, others expect more responsibility from him, and he actually becomes more conscious.
At the heart of our desire to conform to stereotypes is the desire to be “normal”, like everyone else. But no one forbids you to come up with your own “norm” and refuse to “grow up” in accordance with social guidelines. You can join the anti-ageist movement that fights against age stereotypes, or organize your own quiet rebellion and try not to lose adventurism, maximalism and curiosity with age, if you so want. The main thing is to realize that to do this you need to stop going with the flow and start molding yourself into the person you like, no matter what society, your mother and your partner think about this.
