Everybody will eventually get older. The majority of the negative effects of aging are related to how our bodies function. However, there are other, less common symptoms that appear as we age, such as white hair on the head and less elastic skin.
And, to be completely honest, some of them sound much more intriguing than how our bodies functioned when we were younger. Since I’m getting older, I’m actually kind of looking forward to how my taste buds will change. Although they aren’t discussed all that much, these ways that your body changes as you age are still pretty cool.
Of course, a lot of what we consider when it comes to how our bodies change as we age has to do with the pressure put on women by a misogynist society, but that doesn’t have to be the case. While beautiful, wrinkles, gray hair, and other “hallmark” signs of aging have little to no impact on how your body functions normally. For reasons that are still being explored, your body’s sleep patterns and reaction to allergies may change as you age. Here are seven unforeseen ways that getting older may cause your body to change.
Body hair on you changes.
Naturally, developing a few gray hairs in your twenties and thirties is completely normal. But few people are aware that as you age, the pigment in your body’s hair will fade. As the follicle stops supplying melanin to the hair, the hair’s natural tint gradually disappears, leaving only the clear hair fiber.
Brittleness Increases in Your Nails.
People who are a little older frequently have either much thicker or much thinner nails than they did when they were younger. This may be something your parents or grandparents have experienced, and it’s especially prevalent in menopausal women because fluctuating hormone levels can have an impact on nail health. However, it can also appear much earlier; nail thinning frequently happens during and after pregnancy for the same hormonal reasons.
Sleeping Patterns Alter.
Be ready: your current sleep schedule, which allows you to exercise, engage in sexual activity, watch three episodes of Game of Thrones, and still wake up feeling rested, is about to change. The idea that as people get older, they need less sleep is untrue. According to the National Sleep Foundation, as we get older, falling asleep takes longer, we don’t get as much REM (rapid eye movement) deep sleep, and we wake up more frequently at night. The older we get, the more prone we are to falling asleep in the early evening and waking up early — and not because we’ve developed a morning habit. We also start to change our sleep patterns.
Allergies you have change.
Our immune systems and allergies change as we get older, just as they do when we’re young. According to recent research, aging populations are increasingly exhibiting symptoms of new allergies and intolerances. There are numerous causes for this, including the fact that as we get older, our immune systems change and we become less able to tell the difference between real dangers and harmless pollen. Additionally, our body’s defenses may become compromised, causing allergies that we had been “hiding” all our lives to manifest. Additionally, allergies seem to be affecting people of all ages, not just the elderly, as a result of increased pollution in our environment and the air. That may also indicate that as this generation ages, allergies typically associated with older age may start to manifest themselves earlier and earlier.
Your posture alters.
You’ll probably notice a change in your posture once menopause is over.
As you get older, the cartilage between your spine’s bones and the bones themselves move, changing how your spine curves and how tall you are. Your spine gradually shortens and tilts forward as a result of the cartilage between its vertebrae becoming harder and thicker. This is why you should always be careful to sit up straight, even when working at your desk in your 30s.
Your feet start to get smaller.
From childhood on, feet carry a lot of fat and cushioning, which gradually dries out with age. We don’t feel the impact of our bones striking hard surfaces when we walk because of the cushioning made of adipose tissue. (This is also how we manage to wear high heels, which is why padding is so useful when wearing stilettos all day. ) As we age, however, the tissue becomes less protective, so we’re more likely to experience sore feet after being on our feet all day.
Your preferences are different.
There is a cause for the taste differences you notice between now and when you were a child. As the rest of the body ages, the taste buds, which are tiny nerve centers on the tongue, do too. As a result, your preferences and your ability to interpret taste signals change. A person’s taste buds can regenerate after being damaged, but as they get older, they do so much more slowly. As a result, some tastes become “dull,” especially if your sense of smell also begins to wane a little after the age of 70. Many elderly people report a preference for sweet foods because they deliver a quick, intense hit of flavor, whereas others report a preference for strong spices or intense savory tastes. Other factors, such as reduced saliva flow with age, also have an impact on how you taste things and what you like.
It turns out that aging, the one biological process that is unavoidable for humans, has more effects than you might have thought. Age would be seen for what it is: a kind of strange adventure, if society focused less on eye bags.
