18:55 EST, 12 May 2014
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02:21 EST, 13 May 2014
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Turning
50 is when we start to worry about our health declining, according to a
recent survey.
But it’s not all downhill from now on – there are some
things about your body that actually get better as it ages.
Your teeth will be less painful
If you’ve suffered from sensitive teeth over the years, you might be able
to spend your twilight ones eating ice cream without grimacing.
Sensitivity is usually the result of receding gums or loss of enamel
exposing the tubules of the tooth – these are the tiny holes in soft
parts of the tooth under the enamel.
It’s not all downhill from now on – there are some things about your body that actually get better
This in turn exposes the nerve deep inside the tooth, which is why cold food and drinks in particular, can be so painful to eat.
‘But
if you look at an X-ray of a 70-year-old tooth and compare it to a
17-year-old’s, you’ll notice that with age the nerve of the tooth
shrinks in size, making it harder for this to have an effect,’ says
Professor Andrew Eder, specialist in restorative dentistry at the London
Tooth Wear Clinic.
‘On average, it’ll shrink by 30 to 40 per cent over the years, but in some people it can almost disappear entirely.’
These
changes may be observable on X-rays from your 40s or 50s. Professor
Eder adds: ‘On top of this, over time the tubules themselves can
actually narrow as they become naturally blocked, making it harder for
things to cause discomfort.’
One of the downsides of this is it can be harder to feel damage – such as the formation of cavities – occurring in the tooth.
You sweat less…?
The good news is that you can start wearing light-coloured tops without worrying about tell-tale sweat marks.
When
W. Larry Kenney, a professor of physiology and kinesiology at Penn
State University in the U.S., compared perspiration rates of women in
their 20s and 30s with those in their 50s and 60s, he found the older
women sweated less under the same circumstances.
The good news is that you can start wearing light-coloured tops without worrying about tell-tale sweat marks
‘It happens to men,
too,’ he says. ‘We activate the same density of sweat glands whatever
our age, but, as we get older each simply produces less sweat when body
temperature rises.’
On the downside, this can make it harder for us
to stay cool in hot temperatures – one reason why the older we get, the
more careful we must be in intense heat.
The fall in collagen (a
substance that keeps our skin firm) that occurs as we age is thought to
be key. Not only does this give us wrinkles, it alters the structure of
the pores and sweat glands reducing their output.
…and have fewer colds
While children get up to ten colds a year, someone in their 70s may only get one or two.
This
may in part be down to mixing with fewer people, but predominantly it
is because by this time you’ve probably had around 200 colds in total.
This
means you’ve probably met the particular cold virus making younger
people around you sick at some point earlier in your life and have
antibodies fighting it.
‘Our immune system learns how to deal with
more and more viruses each time we have a cold,’ says a spokesman from
the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University.
But a new strain is
likely to make you sick. And, as with any respiratory infection, colds
can bring more complications as we age.
We might build up a biological tolerance to alcohol that slightly lowers hangover risk
Hangovers will be less severe
It might not seem it when your head is pounding the day after a bottle of
good red wine. But when psychologist Dr Richard Stephens at Keele
University analysed the statistics, he found people aged 18 to 29 were
ten times more likely to experience a hangover after a session of five
or more alcoholic drinks than those aged 60 plus were.
Contrary to
popular perception that hangovers are worse with age, he says we might
build up a biological tolerance to alcohol that slightly lowers hangover
risk – though he adds wisdom also helps.
‘With experience, you learn
to manage hangovers by drinking less – younger people’s binges tended
to contain an average of nine drinks, while older people stopped at an
average of six.
‘But natural selection may also play a part – those
susceptible to severe hangovers might simply quit binge drinking as
they get older.’
Hangover headaches may also become less of a
problem for some people. The headaches are the result of alcohol
damaging the brain, causing it to swell temporarily and crash against
the skull. But as we age our brains shrink, so in theory there is more
room for it to swell before it hits the bone.
It’s easier to quit smoking
Many
studies show older smokers are more successful at quitting – in a trial
from Canada’s Addiction Research Foundation, fewer than 20 per cent of
17 to 24-year-olds smoking more than 25 cigarettes a day succeeded at
their attempt to quit, while more than 70 per cent of 65-year-olds
managed it.
Similar patterns were shown from those smoking fewer
than 25 a day. Part of this is likely to be down to having tried to quit
before (studies estimate smokers attempt to quit eight to 11 times
before succeeding). But it might also be down to the ‘finite future’
concept – as we realise our time is limited, we’re more likely to make
sensible decisions about our health.
‘It really is never too late to give up,’ says Amanda Sandford, research manager at Action on Smoking and Health.
A
study at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford, found quitting at 50 gives
you potentially six more years of life; quitting at 60 adds three years.
You’ll have fewer verrucas…?
‘It’s something chiropodists
definitely notice in patients,’ says Michael O’Neill of the Society of
Chiropodists and Podiatrists.
Verrucas are caused by a virus, and
it’s likely your body has encountered the virus before and so mounts
less of a response to it, meaning the warts don’t form, he explains.
That’s
not the only benefit you can look forward to. The reduction in sweat
that affects the armpits also benefits the feet – ‘meaning they don’t
smell as much’.
Also toenails grow more slowly as we age, which could be handy if a creaky back stops you bending forward to cut them.
‘Circulation
in the feet slows down, which reduces nutrients reaching the nail cells
– sadly, it does also make feet a bit colder, too,’ says Mr O’Neill.
…and allergies won’t be as bad
Levels of the antibody IgE that trigger allergic reactions fall as we age, making reactions less likely
The
good news for allergy sufferers is that, as you get older, you probably
won’t be so badly affected. Researchers at Germany’s University of
Hamburg Eppendorf found levels of the antibody IgE that trigger allergic
reactions fall as we age, making reactions less likely.
The antibody primes the body to release chemicals such as histamine when they come into contact with the allergen.
However,
the study found that people with very high IgE levels – probably those
with the worst allergies – didn’t experience any drop. It’s not clear
why the antibody levels change, but may be part of a slowing of the
immune system that occurs with age.
One allergy bucking this trend,
though, is hay fever. If you’re in your 50s or over and are wondering
why you’re suddenly free of sneezes, be thankful – you might be one of
the last generation for a while to see this normal age-related decline.
‘Hay
fever always used to have a fairly simple pattern,’ says pollen
specialist Dr Jean Emberlin, scientific director of Allergy UK.
‘You’d
develop it around ten to 15, then it would start to disappear once you
reached your 30s. But increasingly we’re seeing this happening less and
many people are suffering for life – they’re also developing it in
adulthood, too.’
It could be the heavy use of antibiotics in
children now reaching their 30s and 40s perhaps altered immune systems,
keeping them hypersensitive to pollen for longer.
Two third of women say past menopause, migraines start to disappear
Fewer migraines – if you’re a woman
A survey on migraine sufferers found 67 per cent of women said that, past menopause, their migraines started to disappear.
‘It’s
not surprising as we know hormonal fluctuations can be a trigger for
migraine in many women – a lot only get migraine just before their
menstrual cycle,’ explains Dr Fayyaz Ahmed, a neurologist from the
Migraine Trust.
‘It’s one of the reasons why two times more women suffer them than men.
‘As oestrogen falls after menopause, though, this trigger is removed from the list of things that can start an attack.
‘If
before it was one of a woman’s major triggers, this can mean she
doesn’t suffer at all any more. For other women it can mean they don’t
reach the threshold as often.’
You’ll sleep better
It’s often said that sleep declines as we get older, but a recent U.S. study found the opposite.
The
researchers asked different age groups about how well they slept and
found that, once they’d removed people with obvious health problems,
past the age of 59 both men and women said they were sleeping better
than ever, with 80-year-olds sleeping best of all.
‘These results
contradicted our initial study hypothesis that aging is associated with
increased sleep complaints,’ said the researchers.
They suggest a
number of potential reasons, including less stress with advancing age
but also technology: older adults are less likely to use computers late
into the night and it’s now known that blue light emitted from devices
such as smartphones can disturb sleep.
‘Turn these off at least an hour before bed,’ says sleep specialist Dr Neil Stanley.
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Comments (8)
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The comments below have not been moderated.
SamanthaAngelique,
Brighton,
moments ago
milder hangovers, I assure you those do no get better with age, it only takes two glasses of wine and I wake up with one of those bad boys.
Rufus McDufus,
London,
13 minutes ago
I largely agree with this. I got terrible hangovers when i was young, but now it’s unusual to get one at all. Also I can sleep for England now (in my 50s).
Reubenene,
Victoria, Australia,
3 hours ago
I’ve never met anyone who claims sleep improves as you age…quite the reverse in fact.
arrian,
manchester,
3 hours ago
woke at 3 30 this morning, couldn’t get back to sleep, sat here reading this article and i’ve already gone through one box of tissues due to the stinking cold i’ve got! recently had a very severe allergic reaction to medication i was on, as for alcohol? don’t dare touch it now, not since i showed myself up recently after just two cocktails. sore teeth? mine come out every night, so wouldn’t know about that. started smoking at age 63, so will have a go at stopping again if it’s going to be easy. anything else? who knows? my blasted memory keeps letting me down!!
hatcult,
toronto, Canada,
4 hours ago
Women sweat way more as they go beyond menopause, your hangovers will be worse because your liver is now old and can’t deal with alcohol, but you’ll drink less. As for sleep, older people don’t sleep very well at all, that’s very well known.
L.G.,
Kent,
16 minutes ago
carolineharrisme,
Malaga, Spain,
moments ago
usednurse,
Scottish Borders United Kingdom,
4 hours ago
Sleep improves – what time am I reading this? As for women sweating less, they clearly didn’t find any of the many women still enjoying excessive sweats years after menopause!
Graham,
London,
4 hours ago
The brain softens and we over 50s spend more time reading and responding to junk like this
Old School,
Edinburgh,
5 hours ago
Yeah right. That’s why aged 60 I’m on here wide awake at 2.30 a.m.
carolineharrisme,
Malaga, Spain,
moments ago
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