What does ageing mean to you?

    Part-I


What comes to your mind first when you hear the word “elderly”? A stooped posture, wrinkled skin, aching knees, graying hair, a stick to carry yourself onto, slurred speech, forgetfulness, loneliness or death?

How you define ageing is your perception of looking at it. Unfortunately, most of us imagine ageing as growing towards death and losing everything you earned along the way one asset at a time (which is true in most cases). Our society has been looking at growing old mostly in a negative way. And the reason behind believing that you cannot teach old men new tricks is a restricted way of thinking which is confined to thinking what society continued to think over decades. This negativity eventually causes the person who is ageing somehow end up negatively (even if he desired positivity) because of lack of awareness about growing old and as a result society imposing continuous pressure of ageing. No, it’s not that simple but do not need to be that complicated as well.

Ageing consists of several components being physical, emotional and social ageing.
Physical ageing: as the name suggests, the physical ageing simply means how a person’s body ages. What are the changes that takes place with each passing day in the lives of elderly? Changed metabolism, weakening muscles, fragile bones, greying hair, wrinkled scaly skin, stooped back, weakening vision, altered balance, deteriorating cognitive changes and more. All these changes normally happens in the body of an ageing person, but the extent of change depends on the fitness quotient of the person who is ageing. Some might have been leading a healthy life with regular exercise, proper nutrition and physical activity. For them it becomes easy to cope up with the bodily changes. In a country like India, there are very few elderly who age healthy and are able to fight these debilitating changes. Most of them fight hunger, poverty and basic enmities and hence age rather terribly.

Mental ageing: this can be looked at positively and negatively depending on the perception of the elderly and people around him/her. A positively ageing person once described himself to me as “free of all duties and living life with no more stress of fighting the rat race.” While, a negatively inclined person described ageing as “not being able to achieve anything anymore.” Loneliness, feeling of being left out, disappointment with life, dissatisfaction are some of the common terms that I heard while speaking to some of the elderly about their perspective of ageing. These descriptions apparently tells how ageing affects mental health of an individual. There are some neurological changes, most common of them being dementia that also contributes a lot to mental health deterioration due to forgetfulness and cognitive changes.

Social ageing: this is how society tells you that you are ageing. The retirement age in India ranges between 60-62 years (recently increased to 62 by 2018) which makes India to have one of the lowest retirement age in the world. A person might be physically and mentally fit to continue working but the society demands him to take a retirement at the specific age. Which has led to increased dissatisfaction with life. As told by most of the elderly “I wanted to do more in life”, “I still want to do something to make a living”, “I can still continue working”, “I am capable enough to continue my work”.

There’s a growth in elderly population which makes it important for us to first:

1.       Learn what is ageing
2.       Highlight the issues faced by elderly around us
3.       Finding a solution

The awareness about the changes in the lives of elderly and issues that they face needs to be spread not only among the elderly for them to identify their problems but among citizens of different age groups from youngsters to middle-aged people so that we can help in whatever possible way we individually can and to understand what they go through. Most of the problems that elderly face are external, i.e. someone else being responsible for the condition from health to financial crisis. That is why it becomes more important for all age groups to identify the needs and problems of elderly so that you are not the one causing harm to your own parents or grandparents (knowingly or unknowingly).




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SUBACROMIAL BURSITIS

Image
WHAT IS SUBACROMIAL BURSAE? Subacromial bursa is a sac like structure filled with fluid found in the shoulder joint. The subacromial bursa separates the rotator cuff muscles, particularly the supraspinatus muscle from the acromion process (a bony structure), the overlying coracoacromial ligament and deltoid muscle. The bursa provides a smooth movement of the shoulder joint and reduce friction. WHAT IS BURSITIS? Bursitis is the inflammation (irritation) of the bursa. The subacromial bursa is the most commonly inflamed bursa in the shoulder joint. Inflammation of the subacromial bursa becomes a cause of pain in performing activities and movements occurring at shoulder joint. It leads to a restricted movement at the joint due to pain while performing the motion. Hence, a restricted range of motion occurs. WHAT CAUSES SUBACROMIAL BURSITIS? ·          Injury to the shoulder ·          Overuse of the shoulder joint ·          Calcium deposition ·          Rot
Read more

SACROILIAC JOINT DYSFUNCTION

Image
WHAT IS SACROILIAC JOINT ? The Sacroiliac joint is the joint formed between the sacrum and the ilium located in the pelvis on each side of the lower spine. The joint is half synovial and half syndesmosis. Syndesmosis is a type of fibrous joint in which the intervening fibrous connective tissue form an interosseous membrane or ligament. Synovial potion of the joint is C shaped, with the convex iliac surface of the C facing anteriorly and inferiorly. The more acute the C the more stable the joint and the less the likelihood of the lesion to the joint. The sacral surface is slightly concave. The size and shape of the articular surfaces vary greatly among individuals. These surfaces are smooth in children.  They become rough in adults which allows them to fit in one another restricting the movements occurring at the joint and adds strength to the joints and transfer weight from lower limb to spine. The articular surface of the ilium is covered with fibrocartilage, the artic
Read more

TESTS FOR SACROILIAC JOINT DYSFYNCTION

Image
·            PROVOCATION TESTS 1.        GAENSLEN’S TEST: The gaenslen’s test stresses the sacroiliac joint, increased pain on the joint while performing the test is indicative of the sacroiliac joint dysfunction. -           The patient in lying on the couch in a side lying position with the affected leg hyperextended (hanging outside the couch). Patient flexes the other leg and holds knee to chest. The therapist stabilizes the pelvis while the extending the hip by holding it from distal thigh. The pain in the sacroiliac joint may be caused due to a sacroiliac joint pathology, lesion or dysfunction. -           The patient is lying supine (this position limits the amount of hyperextension at the hip) the affected leg is hanging out of the couch, the therapist puts one hand on the hyperextended leg from distal thigh and the other hand on the flexed knee of the opposite leg and apply pressure to both the legs (a downwards pressure on the hyperextended limb and a knee to
Read more