Longevity, Health, and Functioning by Aspen Pashi https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai Made with love en-us 2021-10-07 03:16:29 UTC 2023-05-09 12:33:14 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f341.png What is longevity? aspenpaschke https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798530368 What is longevity exactly?
Well, longevity is a word that is sometimes used to describe "life expectancy". Knowing how long we live is important for many things like government agencies, service programs, the business world, and insurance companies. The length of life has an enormous impact on things like decisions about government healthcare programs and retirement policy and life insurance premiums. seeing that we live longer lives now is also responsible for the increase in the average age of the US population. We also have lower rates of childbirth which also affects the average age.


]]> 2021-10-07 03:18:56 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798530368 Longevity and how we can live longer :) aspenpaschke https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798532602 How can we live longer?
How long we live depends on a lot. Things like interactions among biological, psychological, socioeconomic and life cycle forces all have a factor in how long one may live. 
Genetics is one of the key factors in longevity and living a long life. Research indicates that about 25 % of the variation in human longevity is due to genetics. A very good way to have a greater chance of living a long life is to come from a line of long-lived individuals. Some research in this field focuses on implanting corrected genes into people in hope that it will wipe out any defective genes which will prevent the shortening of telomeres which are compound structures at the end of chromosomes that make sure our DNA gets copied properly when cells divide.
Another factor in living longer is environmental. Some things that will make us live less long are things like diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Alzheimers, one could also run into lifestyle issues like smoking and drug abuse, and last and one of researchers most favourite, environmental toxins, mainly air pollution, water pollution, toxins in fish,bacteria, and cancer-causing chemicals in drinking water. Living in poverty has been shown to shorten longevity. Things like access to goods and services like medical care and a healthy diet all can help increase longevity 


]]> 2021-10-07 03:19:52 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798532602 Differences in Longevity aspenpaschke https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798569632 Ethnic:
People in different ethnic groups don't have the same life expectancy or longevity. An African American life expectancy at birth is about 4 years less for men and three for women than it is for European Americans by 65 it narrows to about 2 and 1 and by 85 African Americans outlive European Americans. Latinos tend to have a higher average life expectancy then European Americans and African Americans of all ages. Both of these groups (African Americans and European Americans) have less access to health care and the explanation as to why they live longer still has yet to be discovered.
Gender:
Man people know that women tend to live longer then men. Women's average life expectancy is about five years longer then men at birth this narrows to 1 year by the age 85. This statistic is more typical for most industrial countries but not so much for for developing countries. Some explanations of this are that men are more prone to infectious disease and fatal diseases and as a result dying prematurely.]]> 2021-10-07 03:36:54 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1798569632 4.2 Health and Illness https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804487045 Health and Illness looks different to everyone. In the textbook, we learn that scientist have not agreed on a comprehensive definition because it has been used in several different context. We can conclude that most agree health is an ongoing process and outcome from a well lived life. 

According to the World Health Organization, health is defined as a state of complete physical, mental,, and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Illness is defined as the presence of a physical or mental disease impairment. 

Rating our health ourselves helps us look at what we can fix and how we can improve our life span. If we see the things we are doing wrong or could improve on, then we can fix them and hopefully change for the better. Research has shown self-ratings of health are very predictive of future health outcomes. (Blazer, 2008). ]]> 2021-10-09 19:37:57 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804487045 Quality of Life https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804497480 What does a good quality of life even mean? 
If you ask older aged people, they usually tend to give us examples of what quality of life is not, because it is hard to think of one good answer. If we ask researchers, we get it broken up into two areas: health-related quality of life and non-health-related quality of life. 

Health-related quality of life refers to all the aspects that are affected by change in our health status. This quality of life would also include mental health and our culture. Health-related quality of life makes us question how illness and treatment can reduce a person's wish to live. It all depends on how much a person is attached to their present life. 

Non-health related quality of life refers to the things in our environment that can affect our experiences. This would include entertainment or economic resources.


]]> 2021-10-09 19:48:44 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804497480 Changes in the Immune System https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804516329 As we know, the immune system changes with age. Not everything goes down hill though, the number of NK cells (natural killer cells) is seen to increase with age, which starts to happen after midlife. These killer cells are our primary defense against things such as cancer, viral infections, and parasites. Researchers are just starting to understand the process of aging and the immune system, so there are large gaps in their knowledge. There are several things that can effect the immune system, so isolating just age alone can be difficult. 
The changes of the immune system have important implications. We know that as we get older, we become more prone to serious consequences from illnesses. 



]]> 2021-10-09 20:08:54 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804516329 Diseases https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804532713 HIV/AIDS is a disease that older adults may be more susceptible too, because of the changes in the immune system. For women, the thinning of the vaginal wall can tear more easily with age. This makes it easier for the HIV to enter the blood stream. "Older African Americans are 12 times more likely than their European American counterparts to have HIV, latinos are five times more likely" (Gay Men's Health Crisis, 2010).

As we age, we will experience conditions that come on slow, but last longer. These may leave you with long-term consequences, an example would be kidney disease. You may also experience illnesses that start out mild but get severe quick and only last a few days, like strep throat. These experiences reflect two types of disease: chronic and acute disease. 

Acute diseases are conditions that develop over a short period of time and cause a rapid change in health. Research shows that the acute diseases decrease as we age. This is because the immune system learns to fight these little illnesses, so we don't catch the cold as much. We know that this diseases, but older aged people may still feel sick more days, because they have more problems fighting these acute diseases. An example is the rate of respiratory infection, it is about the same percent for younger and older adults, but people over 65 account for healthy all the deaths. Thats why it's recommended for older adults to get the vaccinations. 

Chronic diseases are conditions that last longer periods of time (at least 3 months) and may be accompanied by residual functioning impairments that necessitates long-term management. Chronic disease was viewed as just a part of aging until the 1990s. 

]]> 2021-10-09 20:26:11 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804532713 Stress and coping paradigm https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804555347 The stress and coping paradigm views stress not as an environmental stimulus or as a response, but as the interaction of a thinking person and an event (Lazarus, 1984). This means that the event such as being stuck in traffic is what matters, not the event itself or what we do in response. 

There are three types of appraisals of stress: Primary appraisal, secondary appraisal, and reappraisal.
-  Primary appraisal categorizes the events into three groups passed on the significance they have for our well-being, irrelevant, positive, and stressful. This appraisal filters the events that happens. This helps us sort events that are not important/are the problem and helps us see if we read the event wrong. 
-Secondary appraisal evaluates our perceived ability to cope with harm, threat, or challenge. In this stage, you question if there is anything you can do, or if it will reduce your stress. 
-Reappraisal involves making a new primary or secondary appraisal resulting from changes in the situation. This can either increase your stress or lower it. 
These all have to do with stress and show that it is a complex process. 

Coping comes into play in the second appraisal. We can believe that there is something we can do to change how we deal with the event. There are also two types of coping: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. 
-Problem-focused coping involves attempts to tackle the problem head on. This entails doing something directly about the problem. 
-Emotion-focused coping involves deal thing with one's feelings about the stressful event. The goal of this is to feel what you're feeling, not eliminate the problem. 
How we cope can depend on several factors. 

This relates to age because it was shown that older adults are less likely to use active coping strategies and were more likely to use past experiences, which is emotion-focused. ]]> 2021-10-09 20:49:54 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1804555347 Disability in late life allenreb812 https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806738728 What are disabilities and how do they effect the ability of older adults to function later in their lives?

Disabilities are, in short, the effects of chronic illness that specifically impair one's ability to perform the daily tasks that they need to or are expected to perform. Because the chronic conditions that cause these disabilities start at an early age relative to death, the time spent suffering the effects can last anywhere between a few years to decades.

It is theorized that a compression of morbidity is coming into effect in recent years. This means that chronic illness may be starting to develop later in most adults lives, making the time between diagnosis and death shorter. However, there is still very mixed evidence that this is actually happening.]]> 2021-10-11 05:39:54 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806738728 The Disablement Process Model allenreb812 https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806754441 Because the context of chronic illness in the US is changing, researchers have found a few important factors to be considered when modeling the progression of disablement.

The factors that should be taken into consideration under the context of the disablement process model include:  Extraindividual factors, intraindividual factors, and risk factors.

Extraindividual factors are the things in the environment around the individual that affect and aim to improve their quality of life and ability to cope with their disability. This can include social support, physical support (like wheelchair ramps), surgery, etc. 

Intraindividual factors are the things that the individual does themselves that affect and aim to improve their ability to go about their day with their disability. This can include things like prayer, an exercise program, locus of control, and other internal coping mechanisms. 

In this context, risk factors are anything that increase the odds that one might suffer a chronic illness and a disability as a result. This could be something like a genetic predisposition towards a disease, an action that increases the likelihood of a disease, or an environmental factor that increases the likelihood of a disease. ]]> 2021-10-11 05:53:09 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806754441 How is functional health determined? allenreb812 https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806755639 Functional health is determined by what kind of daily activities an adult with a disability can perform as time goes on. Often the loss of these abilities doesn't just come out of nowhere, but progresses over time and starts with the loss of strength and balance. 

There are three main assessments done to determine how well an individual functions: activities of daily living, instrumental activities of daily living, and physical limitations. Activities of daily living are some of the most basic things one might need to do during their day, such as bathing and eating. Instrumental activities are those activities that need more complex planning to complete, like shopping and keeping up medication regimes. Finally, a physical limitation assessment simply observes an individuals ability to move and tries to assess if there are any problems with activities like sitting up for longer periods of time or walking.]]> 2021-10-11 05:54:09 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806755639 Why do functional limitations and disability occur? allenreb812 https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806756444 Research suggests that most disabilities that impair function in the later life of adults can be predicted by risk factors from their early lives. These specific risk factors included smoking, drinking, perceived poor health, not exercising enough, isolating oneself, and depression. 

These risk factors are often further impacted by the culture one lives in and their socioeconomic status. Things like living in the united states and having a poor socioeconomic status have shown to significantly increase the odds that one might participate in risk factors that lead to disability later in life. ]]> 2021-10-11 05:54:50 UTC https://padlet.com/aspenpaschke/ctcodke97qjkdcai/wish/1806756444