Ailments to Expect As You Get Older

Ailments to expect as you get older

When it comes to ageing, we expect certain things to happen to our health. But what’s normal and what’s not?

Here are some conditions commonly caused by the passing of the years.

YOU’LL GET SHORTER

Men tend to have lost around 2cm in height by the time they get to 70, while women may lose as much as 4cm by then. This can be due to several reasons. The cartilage between your joints can wear out and push the vertebrae of your spine together, resulting in a loss of height.

Muscles can become weaker too, meaning they don’t hold you up as well, making you appear shorter. Bones can also shrink in size and density, so you shrink too. This is more likely to happen if you have not done enough to build strong bones in your younger years, such as eating enough calcium, spending time in the sun and doing weight-bearing exercise.

While weaker bones can be a fact of life when you’re elderly, what shouldn’t be accepted as normal is suffering repeated fractures or breaking bones easily. This may mean you have the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis. If you suspect you have it, medication can help, as can lifestyle changes, so be sure to see your doctor.

YOU’LL FIND IT HARDER TO HEAR

Age-related hearing loss is known as presbycusis and happens to most people as they get older.