IT'S DOWNHILL ALL THE WAY!

SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
 Article below from the Daily Mail

 

 

Your incredible shrinking body: From your brain to your heart - almost everything gets smaller as you age

As we get older, we get shorter. But what many people won’t realise is that height is just one thing that shrinks with age: our hearts, facial bones and sex organs all shrink, too.

Such changes often go hand in hand with health problems.

Last week, a U.S. study found the more height you lose, the greater your risk of suffering a fractured hip — and one in three people who suffer a hip fracture die within a year.

Here, LOUISE ATKINSON investigates age-related shrinkages — and how you can protect your body.

Experts believe women appear to lose facial bone structure earlier than men (women in their early 40s, men 10 to 15 years later)

SPINE

Most of us lose at least one-third of an inch (1 cm) in height every decade after the age of 40. By 80, most men will be 2 in (5 cm) shorter than they were in their prime, and women as much as 3.15 in (8 cm) shorter.
Women shrink more than men because levels of the female hormone oestrogen — which helps protect bone health in men and women — fall rapidly at the menopause. Men also tend to have more muscle, which supports their frame.

But even after the age of 35, our bones begin to lose minerals, primarily calcium. As the body’s ability to replace new bone tissue slows, the bones shrink slightly and become brittle, making them more likely to collapse and break — a condition known as osteoporosis.
As well as the bones shrinking, height loss is also caused by the flattening of the discs that sit between the bones of the spine.
The 23 jelly-like discs, which act as the spine’s shock absorbers, are made up of around 88  per cent water. It is normal for them to become compressed during the day as we stand and move around, which squeezes out the fluid.
Then at night, when we lay down, the discs reabsorb fluid and plump up again — which explains why we shrink by as much as half an inch during the course of a day, only to regain the height overnight.
But as we get older, the discs flatten slightly, permanently reducing our height.

As well as the bones shrinking, height loss is also caused by the flattening of the discs that sit between the bones of the spine

Height loss at any age can be a warning sign of osteoporosis, particularly in women, but in men it also appears to be a marker for heart disease.
A large study of British men published in 2006 found that those who lost 1.2 in (2.8 cm) or more over a 20-year period were 46 per cent more likely to have suffered from coronary heart disease.
This, say researchers, is because the common diseases of ageing, including heart disease and osteoporosis, tend to strike together.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: Around a fifth of us successfully avoid height shrinkage as we age. While good genes help, a healthy lifestyle is key.
To help stave off osteoporosis, you should stick to a healthy diet with adequate calcium (from dairy products and green leafy vegetables, or take 700 mcg of calcium supplements a day) and vitamin D (from sunlight or supplements, 10 mcg daily).
‘Smoking, alcohol and excess caffeine (more than eight cups of coffee or tea a day) can affect bone health, too,’ says Claire Bowring, medical policy officer at the National Osteoporosis Society.
Israeli researchers found that people who engaged in moderately vigorous aerobic activity lost only about half as much height as those who stopped exercising in middle age or never exercised at all.
And if you don’t work to keep muscles strong, particularly the abdominal muscles, you can quickly slip into an unhealthy, slumped  S-shape with a projecting tummy and a forward-sloping neck that can knock inches off your height.
Maintaining good posture will also protect ageing discs.

HEART

Heart muscle shrinks by an average 0.3 g per year from middle age, affecting its ability to pump blood through your body.
Using MRI scans of men and women aged 45 to 85, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. found that with every year it takes longer for the heart muscles to squeeze and relax, by around 2 to 5  per cent, while the actual amount of blood pumped out of the heart falls by 9 millilitres a year.
This, in turn, can cause blood pressure to rise. High blood pressure can cause the heart muscles to thicken as they struggle to pump against increasing resistance.
‘A heart enlarged through hypertension will have a poor blood supply and may become fibrotic and prone to failure,’ says Graham Jackson, consultant cardiologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital, London.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: Like all muscles, the heart becomes stronger and less likely to shrink if it  is exercised.
‘Dynamic or aerobic activities that benefit the heart include walking, climbing stairs, gardening, vigorous housework, dancing or using home or gym exercise equipment,’ says Mr Jackson.
‘You don’t have to be Paula Radcliffe — just a good 40-minute walk five times a week is enough to make a difference.’

SEX ORGANS

The male and female sexual organs shrink with age. With men this occurs for two reasons.
First, fatty substances (plaques) are deposited inside tiny arteries in the penis, restricting blood flow (just as they impair blood flow to the heart).
This poor circulation leads to ‘atrophy’ of the tissue within the penis — muscle starts to waste away, leading to loss of length and thickness.
Second, there is a gradual build-up of relatively inelastic collagen (scar tissue) within the stretchy, fibrous sheath that makes erections possible.
‘If a man’s erect penis is 6 in long when he is in his 30s, it might be 5 in or 5½ in when he reaches his 60s or 70s,’ says Dr Irwin Goldstein, director of sexual medicine at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego.
‘Starting around the age of 40, the testicles also begin to shrink’ — by up to a centimetre in diameter between the ages of 30 and 60.
In women, changes are related to reduced levels of oestrogen with the menopause, which reduces blood flow to the area. The uterus also shrinks, returning to the size of that of a pre-adolescent girl, as the body registers that the organ is no longer active and so spares vital resources that other, still active organs can use.
Dwindling oestrogen levels mean mammary glands and milk-producing tissue wither, to be replaced by fat, so the breasts lose their bulk. Natural wear-and-tear on the supporting skin and ligaments makes them more likely to drop.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: For men, a healthy, low-fat diet that is good for your heart will also be good for your sex life — as healthy arteries all over your body mean better blood flow to the penis.
Women can do little about breast changes (apart from wear a well-fitting bra), but Mr Jackson says that for both men and women, regular sex can slow the shrinking process.
‘It really is a case of use it or lose it,’ he says. ‘If you have regular sex, you improve blood flow and oxygen supply to the sexual organs, and they are much less likely to shrink.’

BRAIN

The brain starts to shrink from around the age of 20, by as much as 10 to 15 per cent over the rest of your lifetime

The brain weighs around 14 oz (400g) at birth and grows to 3 lb (1.4 kg) by adolescence, but it starts to shrink from around the age of 20, by as much as 10 to 15 per cent over the rest of your lifetime.
Doctors don’t know why this is, but believe it could be triggered by a build-up of toxins in the brain or simply the result of brain cells that would normally be expected to regenerate, dying off. Studies show the process appears to be accelerated by smoking, drinking alcohol and diabetes.
Being overweight and having high cholesterol levels also appear to have an impact.
Scans show the frontal and temporal lobes (which control thinking, planning and memory) shrink most.
However, contrary to expectation, the shrinkage doesn’t necessarily affect the thinking capacity, and cognitive tests have shown men and women perform similarly despite increasingly different brain sizes.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: Keeping mentally active throughout your life is key.
An Australian study of over-60s measured the volume of people’s hippocampus (the brain’s memory centre) and found that those who scored lowest on a ‘lifetime of experiences’ questionnaire (which measured levels of complex mental activity across their lives) had lost more than twice the volume (8.3 per cent) compared with average.
Avoiding excess alcohol also helps (post-mortems show alcoholics have smaller, shrunken brains), as does getting adequate sleep.

FACE

Scientists used to think loss of muscle tone and gravity led to facial ageing, but more recent thinking is that the facial bones actually shrink in size, sucking in the skin and muscle around them.
The jawbone is most prone to shrinkage — if you lose a tooth, the jawbone that supports it will shrink away.
Experts believe women appear to lose facial bone structure earlier than men (women in their early 40s, men 10 to 15 years later).
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: The key is to practise good dental hygiene to prevent tooth decay and loss.

BLADDER

At the age of 25, the average person’s bladder can hold two cups of liquid, but by 65 its capacity is half that.
‘Capacity and function shrinks with age because of physiological changes to the muscle structure,’ says Zaki Almallah, a urologist at the Bladder Clinic, Birmingham.
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: Avoid excess caffeine or alcohol, which irritate the bladder. Men and women should also do regular pelvic floor exercises to boost bladder control.
‘You shouldn’t necessarily reduce fluid intake as you get older,’ says Mr Almallah, adding that you need to drink enough to ensure your urine is clear and light yellow — not dark.

THYMUS GLAND

The thymus is a tiny organ that sits just above the heart, producing the T cells that protect against infections.
It gets larger throughout childhood, reaching the size of an apple, but starts to shrink after puberty, condensing to the size of a small marble in adults.
Arne Akbar, professor of immunology at University College London, says: ‘After puberty, the body has to maintain the immune system, but its efficiency will drop off.
‘This could be why older people are more susceptible to cancers.’
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF: Professor Akbar says studies indicate a low-calorie diet boosts immunity, but this research is still in its infancy.

...AND THE PARTS THAT KEEP ON GROWING

NOSE AND EARS: Our ears grow by an average of 0.22 mm a year.
The inner part of the ear lobe (the ‘concha’) remains the same size, but most ears become steadily longer.
The traditional explanation has been they are made up cartilage, which continues to grow after bones.
However, gravity is another factor. Cartilage, like skin, becomes thinner and loses its elasticity as we age, with collagen and elastin fibres breaking down.
This allows skin to stretch and sag, the tip of the nose to lengthen droop, and the ears to stretch down.
FEET: Our feet become longer and wider with age, as the tendons and ligaments which link the many tiny bones lose elasticity.
Podiatrists estimate that the over-40s can gain as much as one shoe size every ten years.
Richard Handford of the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists says the tiny joints between the toe bones deteriorate, allowing the toes to spread out, and the arch of the foot to flatten.
The protective fat pads on the heels and balls of the feet also flatten through wear and tear.
He advises wearing a good pair of running shoes as often as you can, to support the feet.

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