Wrinkles, gray hair and worsening eyes - are signs that the body is aging.
It's a slow process that starts surprisingly early.
What exactly happens when we age?
Running a marathon at 80?
Most seniors can only laugh about it.
They are happy when they can take long walks.
Or maybe a hike.
But run?
That's something for the boys: they have strong muscles and staying power.
You, on the other hand, often get out of breath after just one landing.
The joints don't work either.
"That's just how it is with old age," many people say to themselves: It can't be stopped.
But that is only half the truth, as Associate Professor Dr.
Michael Drey knows from experience.
The geriatrician heads the acute geriatrics department at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) in Munich.
None of his patients are under 65, most are well over 80. But the age in their medical records does not always match the condition of their bodies.
"The chronological and the biological age often differ massively," says Drey.
“There are 70-year-olds who look like they are 90, but there are also people in their 90s who are as fit as they are 70.” Reason enough for us to investigate what happens in the body as we age.
And: How to stay fit and mentally fit for as long as possible.
Why does muscle strength decrease?
There are actually people who still compete in a world championship at the age of 80 - but at one especially for elderly athletes.
No matter how hard they train, they can't keep up with the boys.
Muscle mass decreases over the years.
"This process begins in our mid-thirties," says Drey.
You lose about 1% of your muscle mass every year.
This is initially of little importance and is not noticed for a long time.
As you get older, muscle atrophy progresses faster.
This "sarcopenia" can be caused by a lack of sex hormones such as testosterone.
The latter promotes muscle building.
Do bones really become more brittle with age?
If the muscle breakdown is very pronounced, seniors not only lack strength.
The risk of falling also increases.
These, in turn, lead to fractures more often in old age.
Because the bones also lose substance, particularly in women after the menopause.
From around the age of 50, the body produces hardly any estrogen - the hormone slows down bone loss until then.
Anyone who moves a lot and eats a balanced diet can slow down the degradation.
Drey also recommends vitamin D in tablet form.
The body needs it for strong bones.
In this country, however, many people lack it – most of the older people aged 65 and over are affected, says expert Drey.
He therefore recommends compensating for an existing deficiency.
The body can also produce vitamin D itself, it is formed in the skin.
To do this, however, it needs sunlight – and many people don’t get enough of it.
This is especially true in the cold season, and for some seniors even in the summer.
How do organs like the brain and kidneys age?
Blood vessels change with age.
Your walls lose elasticity.
They often narrow too.
Then many organs are poorly supplied - this also applies to the heart, the brain and the kidneys.
If a large vessel becomes blocked, an infarction occurs: then a lot of tissue dies, and the affected organ functions less well afterwards.
If this happens in the brain, it is called a stroke.
Much more frequently, however, tiny vessels become clogged.
However, such "mini infarcts" are often not noticed.
However, they can also reduce the performance of the organ if they accumulate.
For this reason, the kidney function in most seniors also decreases, explains Drey.
His tip for protecting the blood vessels: foods that are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, such as oily sea fish such as salmon.
Movement keeps the heart and blood vessels in good shape – but also the brain.
If you want to stay mentally fit, you should not only solve puzzles, but above all cultivate your social contacts.
Because even those who do not suffer from dementia lose brain cells in old age.
The links in between don't work that well either.
But this process can often be slowed down.
And: Learning new things is possible even into old age.
Does the immune system also weaken?
The body produces fewer immune cells and antibodies as we age.
The immune system is therefore no longer as powerful as it was when we were young.
This is one of the reasons why some vaccinations are particularly recommended for seniors.
This currently applies to influenza, for example, the flu epidemic is still rolling through the country and often hits older people hard.
Vaccination against pneumococci is also useful for seniors to protect against pneumonia.
Especially since many suffer from all kinds of previous illnesses in old age.
They make it more difficult for the body to successfully fight pathogens.
How do wrinkles and gray hair develop?
Wrinkles have several causes.
On the one hand, the subcutaneous fatty tissue decreases, the skin loses protein fibers and is therefore less elastic.
In addition, the composition of the body changes.
Muscles become less and the proportion of fat tissue increases in proportion to this.
Overall, however, there is a “loss of substance,” explains Drey.
You can see that in the skin, which loses its elasticity.
It is also drier and thinner, the water content of the body decreases.
Seniors should take extra care to stay hydrated, especially as many feel less thirsty.
Gray hair is also a typical sign of aging.
In young people, cells at the root of the hair produce the pigment melanin, which gives the hair color.
With age, these cells gradually stop working.
Instead of the pigments, air bubbles are then stored in the hair, which now appear white.
The mix of pigmented and white hair then makes the lock appear gray.
Unfortunately, this cannot be prevented: when the pigment-forming cells retire is a question of genes: in some, they stop working at the age of 25.
Why are eyes and ears weakening?
At around the age of 60, most people need reading glasses: they suffer from “presbyopia”.
The lens begins to harden as early as around the age of 40.
Then the eye finds it increasingly difficult to focus at short distances.
In addition, as we age, the structure of the proteins in the lens changes, which means that it becomes increasingly cloudy.
It comes to the "cataract".
The lifelong noise is also annoying.
A lot of people hear worse as they get older.
"It's a gradual process," says Drey.
Many seniors hardly even notice that their hearing is deteriorating.
"You really forget how to hear," says the expert.
Anyone who decides to buy a hearing aid at a late stage will take much longer to get used to it.
Drey therefore advises not to wait too long.
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Privatdozent Dr.
Michael Drey heads the department for acute geriatrics at the hospital of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
© Hospital of the LMU Munich
Andrea Eppner