Is This Normal?: The Essential Guide to Middle Age and Beyond - Softcover

Whyte, John, M.D.

 
9781609614508: Is This Normal?: The Essential Guide to Middle Age and Beyond
Softcover
ISBN 10: 160961450X ISBN 13: 9781609614508
Verlag: Rodale Press, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

A collection of vital information that answers readers' most pressing questions about how age impacts their bodies.

Many people are embarrassed to bring their everyday health anxieties to their physicians or even to ask for advice from family and friends. They might think that depression, failing eyesight, memory loss, and other difficulties that change their quality of life are normal because of their age. This is where Is This Normal? steps in and lets readers know whether or not these changes should be a concern or an expected part of aging.

With compassion, reassurance, and friendly guidance, Dr. John Whyte, chief medical expert at the Discovery Channel, provides the essential tools for dealing with the common health issues that arise as we get older, proving that you can stay active and healthy at any age.

"Using soothing language and a gentle sense of humor, Whyte . . . tries to separate fact from rumor." —The Washington Post


"All your embarrassing aging questions answered—finally!"—Vital Juice

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

JOHN WHYTE , MD, MPH, is the chief medical expert and vice president of health and medical education at the Discovery Channel. He lives in Washington, DC.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1

ON THE OUTSIDE

True or False

There's nothing you can do to improve the look of wrinkles.

As you age, you don't sweat as much.

You don't need sunscreen as you get older.

Everybody loses some hair with age.

(Answers at end of chapter)

What do you know about your skin? I bet you didn't know it is the body's largest organ! (I'll let you in on a secret: Medical school professors always ask medical students, "What's the body's largest organ?" There's always a lot of giggling and even some blushing until they hear the answer.) On one level, the role of skin is pretty simple: It helps protect your internal organs from the outside environment. It also allows you to handle many things that are dirty or dangerous--like a baby's soiled diaper or that scary container in the back of the fridge--without worrying that germs will get into your bloodstream.

There's a lot more to your skin, though, than just keeping the germs out. For instance, skin helps you maintain your body temperature. It contains your sweat glands, which cool you down in the summer and keep heat in on a chilly winter day. Your skin plays a big part in maintaining fluid balance, too. You might have heard that burn victims need huge amounts of fluid to keep them alive; that's because their skin has become so damaged that it can't keep enough water inside their bodies to maintain organ function.

Skin also alerts us to what's going on in the outside world. You might not have eyes in the back of your head, but I bet you know when someone is standing behind you and literally breathing down your neck. The nerve endings in your skin also warn you when the stove is hot, let you know that your drink needs ice even before you taste it, and tell you when it has just started to rain.

As you age, your skin undergoes a lot of changes. Some of these changes are inevitable, but others are preventable or can at least be delayed for a while. When it comes to age-related skin changes, wrinkles are the first issue that comes to mind for most people. But wrinkles are only one effect of our skin's aging process; as we approach middle age and beyond, our skin will undergo changes in texture, strength, and resilience. You're going to see some new spots and bumps. Some of these are more bothersome than dangerous, while others should send you right to the doctor. In other words, some changes are a normal part of aging, and some are not.

Don't panic. While wrinkles may be inevitable, getting older doesn't have to be a disaster for your skin. Knowing what to expect can help you take steps to protect your skin and keep it healthy as it ages with you.

STRUCTURE OF THE SKIN

Your skin is made up of three layers:

Epidermis

Dermis

Hypodermis

Knowing a little bit about the functions of these layers and what they contain will help you understand the normal changes that come with aging as well as what you can do to keep your skin looking and feeling healthy.

Epidermis

The epidermis is the top layer--the one you see every day. The cells in this layer are renewed constantly, with the whole cycle of renewal taking about a month. That's right--you basically get a whole new layer of skin every month. Most of the cells in your epidermis are keratinocytes, which are largely dedicated to protecting the more sensitive, deeper layers of skin. These cells create a barrier against the elements, holding in fluids and protecting us against dangerous bacteria and viruses. The epidermis also contains melanocytes, the cells that give your skin its color.

Dermis

The next layer is the dermis. It holds blood vessels that feed the skin and nerves that carry sensations from it. Pressure, pain, and temperature are all recognized here. It also contains your oil glands and hair follicles. The dermis contains an important molecule called hyaluronic acid, which holds on to water to keep skin looking full and even. (We'll come back to hyaluronic acid in a little while.)

The dermis also contains collagen and elastin, two molecules that are essential to the appearance of your skin.

Collagen allows skin to withstand physical stress without breaking or tearing. It also makes up most of the skin's mass. Without collagen, your skin would be a lot thinner and more easily damaged.

Elastin does what it sounds like: It contributes elasticity to the skin. It lets skin "bounce back" from pressure and from everyday bumps and collisions. Think of elastin as a new crisp, tight rubber band.

Hypodermis

Underneath the dermis is the hypodermis. "Hypo" is derived from Greek and usually means "low" or "insufficient." But in anatomical terms, "hypo" means "below" or "under." Therefore the hypodermis is below the dermis. This layer contains a lot of fat cells to help cushion your skin and protect you from injury. These cells also serve as insulation, to help keep your body warm.

Why Wrinkles?

When it comes to wrinkles, everyone's different. Your genetic background has a big impact on how your skin will age. If your parents and grandparents had wrinkles in their fifties and sixties, chances are you will as well. I know America is all about fairness, but some people are just genetically gifted!

Genes aren't the only reason you get wrinkles, though. One of the biggest factors for premature aging is the amount of time you've spent in the sun over the years. When we were younger, of course, we thought a suntan made us look healthy and sexy. But as we get older, we pay a price for that mistaken belief. Sun-related aging, which doctors call photoaging, is superimposed on top of your natural aging process. So if you spent a lot of time at the beach working on your tan in your younger years, you will develop wrinkles sooner than your friends who stayed in the shade.

You might have noticed that people with naturally dark skin often seem to have fewer wrinkles than those with fair skin. That's because high levels of pigment protect their skin from sun damage. Naturally dark skin, however, is not the same as dark skin from tanning.

Did you ever wonder why your face seems to be the main place wrinkles appear? It feels like a cruel joke, but there's a reason your face ages first: Your facial muscles move your skin around a lot, causing folds and creases to appear and disappear. All of that folding and creasing puts stress on your skin, and eventually those temporary creases become permanent (so your mother was right--if you make "that expression," your face really will freeze that way). Aging and sun damage contribute to the process by decreasing the skin's ability to rebound. Most other muscles in your body serve to move your bones, like when you bend your knees or pick something up with your hands.

Though we all worry about gaining fat, as we get older, we actually lose fat in the hypodermis. Along with changes to collagen and elastin, this loss of fat contributes to the sagging of skin that used to look smooth and resilient.

THE SURFACE OF THE SKIN

In addition to gaining a few wrinkles, the look and feel of your skin changes as you age. Aging skin contains less water and lipids than younger skin. Lipids consist of fats, oils, waxes, and similar substances produced in your body. Without them, your epidermis could not do its job as a barrier to the outside world. As we get older, we have fewer lipids in the outermost layer of our skin, which means we cannot hold on to water as well, and therefore we develop drier skin. Certain lipids in the top layer of the epidermis help prevent unwanted bacteria from multiplying.

Our skin also produces less sebum as we age--the stuff that clogged your pores as a teenager and caused you to break out. At the same time, the renewal of skin cells in your epidermis no longer works as smoothly as it used...

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Verlag
Rodale Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2012
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
160961450X
ISBN 13 
9781609614508
Einband
Taschenbuch
Auflage
1
Anzahl der Seiten
264
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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