Middle Adulthood

• Age-related visual problems


  • Near vision
  • Dynamic vision
  • Sensitivity to light
  • Visual search
  • Speed of processing visual information
• Presbyopia


  Difficulty focusing on near objects
• Presbycusis


  Gradual hearing loss
• Men


  Experience hearing loss more quickly than women
• Noise experienced at the work site
• Sensitivity to taste and smell also declines in midlife
• Some loss of muscle strength is usually noticeable by age of 45
• Basal Metabolism


  Minimum amount of energy that your body needs to maintain vital functions while resting
• Manual Dexterity generally becomes less efficient with age
• Aging brain works more slowly and have difficulty juggling multiple tasks
• The ability to ignore distractions declines with age
• Decrease in the volume of gray matter and myelin begins to break down with age
• Physical activity and fitness

  Associated with higher white and gray matter volume
• Meditation affords cognitive benefits to middle aged adults and may help offset declines
• Skin may become less taut and smooth as the layer of fat below the surface becomes thinner, collagen molecules more rigid, and elastin fibers more brittle
• Blood sugar levels rise because the cells lose their ability to use insulin
• Type 1 Diabetes


  Juvenile-onset, or insulin-dependent, in which the levels of blood sugar rises because the body does not produce enough insulin
• Excess weight in middle age increases the risk of impaired health and death
• People with low socioeconomic status tend to have poorer health, shorter life expectancy, more activity limitations due to chronic disease, and lower wellbeing than people with higher SES
• Women


  Have a higher life expectancy than men and lower death rates, may be due to genetic protection given by the second X chromosome and before menopause, to beneficial effects of estrogen on both cardiovascular and cognitive health
• Women report being in fair or poor health than men
• Osteoporosis


  Bones become thin and brittle as a result of calcium depletion (due to falling of estrogen levels)
• Good lifestyle habits can reduce risk of osteoporosis, if started early in life
• Breast cancer is responsible for the largest number of cancer-related deaths among women
• Risks for breast cancer

  • Overweight
  • Alcoholism
  • Early menarche and late menopause
  • History of breast cancer in the family
  • No children
  • Did not breast-feed
  • Late pregnancy
• Breast cancer is treated by removal of part or all breast and chemotherapy
• Mammography


  Diagnostic x-ray of the breasts
• The most troublesome physical effects of menopause are linked to reduce levels of estrogen and hormone therapy
• Hormone Therapy


  Treatment with artificial estrogen
• Stress


  The damage that occurs when perceived environmental demands or stressors exceed a person's capacity to cope with them
• Stress in midlife may come from role changes, career transitions, grown children leaving home, and the renegotiation of family relationships
• Women experience more stress than men and to be more concerned about stress
• The classic stress response – fight or flight – may be more characteristic of men, activated in part by testosterone
• The brain interacts with all of the body's biological systems, feelings and beliefs affect bodily functions, including the functioning of the immune system
• Midlife Crisis


  Changes in personality and lifestyle during middle forties
• Many people realize that they will not be able to fulfill the dreams of their youth, or that fulfillment of their own mortality
• People who do have crisis at midlife generally also have crises at other times in their lives as well
• Midlife crisis is a manifestation of a neurotic personality rather than developmental phase
• Turning Point


  Psychological transition that involves significant change or transformation in the perceived meaning, purpose, or direction of a person's life
• Turning points are triggered by major life events, normative changes, or a new understanding of past experience