What Does senescence Mean
The Latin word senectus came to our language as senescence . It is about the stage that the human being lives after maturity . Senescence, therefore, is old age or old age .
However, it is important to point out certain differences that exist between the three terms, even if they are not much more than nuances. By age usually understood the period starting at a certain age, which varies according to the characteristics of each era: for example, there are dictionaries that set 70 years as the line that separates youth. Old age, for its part, comes after old age, and it is the last stage of our life. Neither of these two words denotes a pronounced deterioration in the organism, and that is the point at which they are distinguished from senescence.
For example: "My father is entering old age, so he will need to be closer to me" , "I am already living old age, but you are young: take advantage of the time and enjoy yourself" , "Luckily, grandfather Pablo has old age. full, without major health problems ” .
It is often said that senescence is the third age : the first age is childhood and the second age , adulthood . There are no exact biological parameters that determine when a person leaves one age and enters the other, since vital development is a progressive and continuous process. For this reason, in certain contexts, the limits of each age are socially set.
Thus, it is often said that senescence begins at age 65 . At that age, people can already access their retirement and become, economically, taxpayers: they stop producing and receive a pension (retirement) for the work they did in the past. This allows them to have free time, which they can take advantage of to a greater or lesser extent according to their health status .
Is that senescence, for biological reasons, leads to a deterioration of the body. Problems such as osteoporosis , osteoarthritis and Alzheimer's disease are linked to the advanced age of people and, therefore, to the stage of senescence.
Many times, the discomfort of an elderly person is worsened by the perception that the environment has of its supposed deterioration; For example, when a young individual shows difficulty in remembering something, the normal thing is that nobody worries, while if the same happens to someone of advanced age, their relatives may be alarmed at a potential sign of senility.
In this regard, it should be noted that there is a lot of research that shows a very slight connection between memory loss and old age , much lighter than people think. On the other hand, there is a deterioration in the speed with which the elderly process concepts and this explains why they take longer and longer to react to the events that surround them. If old age is normal, without serious health complications, it should not be so different from youth, in that all the elderly should have enough autonomy to live alone.
One of the most common problems of old age is the difficulty of adapting to new situations and inevitable changes . For example, it is normal for people who have begun to experience a deterioration of their body to be reluctant to new technologies, to currency exchanges or to the way young people speak; this resistance and seemingly self-centered attitude are nothing more than attempts to reaffirm his personality, to cling with all his might to life.