How Your Body Ages From Head to Toe | WIRED

Summary

This script delves into the aging process of human organs, highlighting how each part from the brain to the feet undergoes wear and tear over time. It discusses common age-related issues like brain atrophy, hearing loss, vision problems, and joint deterioration, and emphasizes the importance of maintaining vascular health. The speaker also addresses the psychological impact of aging, such as loneliness and depression, and concludes by valuing the wisdom that comes with age.

Takeaways

• 🧠 The human brain starts to atrophy around the age of 30, losing about 5% of its volume per decade due to cell loss and degeneration of neural tracks and fibers.
• 👂 As we age, all parts of the ear can deteriorate: the outer ear cartilage droops, middle ear bones can develop arthritis, and inner ear hair cells die leading to sensorineural hearing loss.
• 👀 Presbyopia, or age-related vision decline, affects the eye's ability to focus on close objects, and conditions like glaucoma and floaters become more common.
• 👃 The sense of smell diminishes with age due to a loss of specialized cells in the olfactory nerve and less mucus production, which can also affect taste.
• 👄 The skin's collagen and elastin decrease, causing sagging and wrinkles, and exposing individuals to more sun damage and negative social perceptions.
• 🦳 Hair thins and grays starting in the late 30s due to the loss of melanin and follicles, leading to male pattern baldness and the Androgen Paradox.
• 🦷 Gland secretions in the mouth decrease, leading to a higher risk of gum disease and tooth decay, and the loss of teeth can affect jawbone health.
• 💔 The heart's efficiency decreases in the 50s and 60s due to hardening arteries and reduced oxygen supply, highlighting the lack of collateral blood flow in the heart.
• 👩‍⚕️ After childbearing years, the female uterus and ovaries can become dangerous due to hormonal changes and abnormal cell growth, increasing the risk of ovarian cancer.
• 👨‍⚕️ The prostate often enlarges with age, blocking the urethra and causing frequent urination, and requires careful monitoring for signs of cancer.
• 🏃‍♂️ Joint deterioration can start as early as the 30s and 40s, especially from activities like running on hard surfaces, leading to conditions like arthritis.
• 👣 Proper foot care is crucial as aging can lead to reduced blood flow and sensation loss, increasing the risk of falls and injuries.

Q & A

What happens to our brain as we age?

As we age, our brain atrophies, losing about 5% of its volume per decade starting from the 30s. This decrease is due to the loss of cells and degeneration of tracks and fibers. Certain factors like vascular problems can contribute to brain atrophy.

How does aging affect our hearing?

Aging affects our hearing in several ways. Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, can occur due to arthritis between the ear bones or the death of hair cells in the inner ear, leading to sensorineural hearing loss. High-frequency sounds are typically lost first.

What is presbyopia and how does it relate to aging?

Presbyopia is the aging of aspects of vision, where the eye's ability to focus on close objects diminishes over time. It's due to the hardening of the eye's lens, making it difficult to focus on close objects.

Why do we start to lose our sense of smell as we age?

As we age, we lose many of the specialized sensory cells in our olfactory nerve and produce less mucus, which is necessary for catching odorants. This results in an altered sense of smell.

How does the skin change with age?

The proteins collagen and elastin in the skin start to decrease with age, leading to sagging of the skin all over the body and a downturn in facial features, which can give a sad or negative appearance.

What is the Androgen Paradox mentioned in the script?

The Androgen Paradox refers to the phenomenon where men experience hair loss on the top of their heads while simultaneously seeing increased hair growth in other areas like the ears, beard, and nose as they age.

Why is it important to take care of our teeth as we age?

As we age, the secretions from salivary glands decrease, leading to a higher risk of gum disease and tooth decay. Additionally, when teeth are removed, the bone supporting them can disappear, potentially leading to sinus infections if it's the upper dentition.

How does the aging process affect the larynx?

The joints of the larynx can age, muscles become thinner, and the vocal folds start to shrink. This can lead to problems with voice formation and is known as presbyphonia.

What is the impact of aging on the heart's ability to receive oxygen?

As we age, particularly in our 50s and 60s, the heart muscles can lose oxygen due to hardening and narrowing of the arteries, which reduces the oxygen supply to the heart.

How does aging affect the prostate in men?

The prostate tends to enlarge as men age, which can block the urethra and lead to difficulties in urination, such as needing to get up multiple times during the night to pee.

Why are our feet considered the most important, least appreciated part of the human body?

Feet are crucial for circulation and overall health. Reduced blood flow can lead to loss of sensation and increase the risk of falls and injuries, such as broken hips.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Aging of the Brain and Senses

The first paragraph discusses the aging process of the human body starting with the brain. As we age, the brain atrophies, losing about 5% of its volume per decade, which can lead to speech disorders and diseases like Alzheimer's. Vascular problems are highlighted as a cause of brain atrophy, emphasizing the importance of monitoring vascular health. The paragraph then transitions to discuss the aging of the ears, explaining how the outer, middle, and inner ears are affected by aging, leading to conditions like arthritis and sensorineural hearing loss. The importance of high-frequency sounds is noted, as they are often the first to be lost with age.

05:01

👵 Physical Signs of Aging

The second paragraph delves into the visible signs of aging, starting with the skin, which sags due to a decrease in collagen and elastin. The face is particularly affected, leading to a 'sad face' appearance. The paragraph also covers hair loss, with a focus on male pattern baldness and the Androgen Paradox, where hair is lost on the top of the head but grows in other areas. The oral cavity is discussed next, with a focus on how glands produce substances to fight bacteria, and how a decrease in secretions can lead to gum recession and tooth loss. The aging of the larynx is also mentioned, with its impact on voice and the ability to lift heavy objects.

10:04

💔 Aging of Internal Organs and Joints

The third paragraph addresses the aging of internal organs and joints. It starts with the heart, explaining how heart muscles can lose oxygen due to arterial hardening and narrowing, and how the heart's limited collateral blood flow can lead to issues. The paragraph then moves on to discuss the uterus and prostate, detailing how hormonal changes in women can make the ovaries dangerous and how an enlarged prostate in men can obstruct the urethra, leading to frequent urination. Joints are also covered, with a focus on how articular cartilage can deteriorate, leading to arthritis, and the importance of proper joint care to prevent early aging.

Keywords

💡Atrophy

Atrophy refers to the wasting away of an organ or part due to the degeneration of its cells. In the context of the video, brain atrophy is discussed as a part of the aging process where the brain loses about 5% of its volume per decade starting from the 30s. This is due to the loss of cells and degeneration of neural tracks and fibers, which can lead to speech disorders and conditions like Alzheimer's.

💡Presbycusis

Presbycusis is age-related hearing loss that occurs as the specialized hair cells in the inner ear die, leading to sensorineural hearing loss. The video explains that this type of hearing loss starts around the age of 30, with high-frequency sounds being lost first, while low-frequency sounds are retained.

💡Presbyopia

Presbyopia is the loss of the eye's ability to focus on close objects, a common condition that occurs with aging. The video mentions that as the eye ages, it begins to exhibit signs of presbyopia, affecting vision and often necessitating the use of reading glasses.

💡Glaucoma

Glaucoma is a group of diseases that can damage the eye's optic nerve and result in vision loss and blindness. The video describes it as a condition where the eye's fluid pathways become blocked, leading to increased pressure within the eye, which can damage the optic nerve.

💡Vitreous humor

Vitreous humor is the clear, gel-like substance that fills the inside of the eye. The video discusses how, as we age, the vitreous humor can become stiffer, leading to the perception of floaters in the field of vision. Floaters are usually harmless but can be a sign of more serious issues like retinal tears.

💡Olfactory nerve

The olfactory nerve is responsible for the sense of smell. The video explains that as we age, we lose cells in the olfactory nerve and produce less mucus, which can lead to a decreased sense of smell and altered perception of tastes, affecting the enjoyment of food.

💡Collagen

Collagen is a protein that provides structure and strength to various connective tissues in the body, including skin. The video discusses how the decrease in collagen and elastin as we age leads to sagging skin and a 'sad face' appearance, which can have social implications.

💡Androgen

Androgens are male sex hormones, such as testosterone, that play a role in male characteristics. The video describes the 'Androgen Paradox,' where hair is lost on the top of the head but grows more abundantly in other areas like the ears and nose as men age, due to declining androgen levels.

💡Submandibular glands

Submandibular glands are salivary glands located beneath the tongue. The video mentions that as we age, these glands, along with sublingual and parotid glands, start to decrease their secretions, which can lead to a dry mouth and an increase in oral bacteria, affecting dental health.

💡Presbyphonia

Presbyphonia refers to age-related voice changes, such as a weaker, breathier voice. The video explains that the muscles and vocal folds in the larynx can weaken and shrink with age, leading to changes in voice quality that can be indicative of an individual's age.

💡Articular cartilage

Articular cartilage is the smooth, white tissue that covers the ends of bones in a joint. The video discusses how the loss of this cartilage can lead to joint deterioration and arthritis, which can begin as early as the 30s and 40s, especially if joints have been subjected to abuse or overuse.

Highlights

Our organs were not built to last into our 70s or 80s.

By the time we're in our 40s to 50s, we start to encounter health issues.

Our cells and organs suffer from gradual wear and tear as we age.

The brain starts to lose about 5% of its volume per decade, probably starting in the 30s.

Brain atrophy can be caused by vascular problems.

We have six ears, and we age in all of them, including cartilage and tissue degeneration.

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, can be due to arthritis between the ear bones.

Hearing loss can be due to the death of hair cells in the inner ear.

Presbyopia is the aging of vision, which starts as we age.

Glaucoma is caused by blocked fluid in the eye.

Floaters in the eye can be a sign of the vitreous humor hardening and shifting.

As we age, we lose cells in our olfactory nerve, leading to altered smells.

Decreased sense of smell can affect the enjoyment of food and lead to overuse of salt.

Skin starts to sag due to a decrease in collagen and elastin proteins.

Hair starts to become thinner in the late 30s due to the loss of follicles.

Male pattern baldness is linked to changes in androgen levels.

Submandibular, sublingual, and parotid glands decrease their secretions as we age.

The larynx can develop arthritis and muscle weakness, affecting voice and diaphragm function.

The heart muscles start to lose oxygen in the 50s and 60s due to arterial problems.

The uterus and ovaries can become dangerous as women age past childbearing years.

The prostate can block the urethra as it grows, causing frequent urination.

Joint deterioration can begin in the 30s and 40s, especially if joints have been abused.

The foot is the most important, least appreciated part of the human body, and proper circulation is essential.

Wisdom is the reason species keep us around despite the aging process.

Transcripts

- Our organs were not built to go

into our 70s or 80s.

By the time we're in our 40s to 50s,

we run into problems.

Going from head to toe,

I'd like to talk about how organs and body parts age,

and what we can do about it.

Over the years, our cells, our organs,

suffer from gradual wear and tear.

We age, but we're not defenseless.

Let's start with our brain.

As we age, our brain atrophies.

It's not problematic

unless things pop up that become problematic.

Speech disorders, you've all heard of Alzheimer's.

Many of the causes of these are not particularly clear.

Our brain starts to lose about 5%

of its volume per decade,

probably somewhere in the 30s.

It decreases because of loss of number of cells,

degeneration of the massive tracks and fibers.

Certain things can lead to brain atrophy.

One of them is vascular problems.

As we age, make sure we are on top of

and checking our vascular systems.

Our ears.

You probably think you have two of them.

In actuality, we have six ears, three on one side,

three on the other, outer, middle, and the inner ear.

We age in all of them.

In our outer ear,

our cartilages and our tissues start to droop.

It didn't devolve for hanging Christmas tree ornaments.

By the time you're well into your years,

you'll be able to wipe your chin with it.

The middle ear has tiny little bones.

Whenever you have bones, they come together at joints,

and you know what joints can get,

can you say arthritis?

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss,

can be due to arthritis between your little ear bones.

We get to our inner ear.

We have specialized hair cells,

and they send signals to our vestibular cochlear nerve.

That's how we hear, that's how we sense balance.

As we age, hearing loss can be due to death

of the hair cells, what we call sensorineural hearing loss.

We start to lose high frequency sounds

probably around 30 plus.

We do retain most of all low frequency sounds.

[ship horn blasts]

What'd you say? I can't hear you.

Eyes.

As we age, we start to get aspects

of what's called presbyopia,

which is aging of aspects of vision.

The eye is largely a fluid sack.

When fluid vehicles are blocked, this is called glaucoma.

The fluids can become stiffer,

what we call a vitreous humor, can start to harden, shift,

pull away, and you start to see floaters.

Oh, I'm seeing one now. There's another one.

They really bother me. Yeah, I'm seeing...

Look. There's, I got floaters.

They're usually harmless little things.

They don't cause any problems,

but if you see them, you should check them out.

Maybe it's a tear in the retina.

The eye is a direct window onto the brain.

Nose.

These are little bones that come off the nose,

they're called turbinates,

lined with specialized sensory epithelium.

As we age, we're losing many of those cells

in our olfactory nerve.

We lose the smallest cells in the covering of the mucosa.

We do produce less mucus. It's there to catch odorants.

Less mucus, less cells, altered smells.

As our smell decreases,

think of what happens when you have a nose cold

and both your nostrils are blocked.

A potato and an apple will taste the same.

What happens if you can't appreciate the flavor of food?

We try to pull more stuff onto it. More salt.

Oh god, you don't want to put more salt on things.

that's throwing off all your vascular systems.

If you don't eat, you start losing weight.

That's a dangerous thing for many of the elderly.

You stop wanting to go out to dinners,

you don't socialize as much.

Removing that can lead to loneliness

and can lead to depression.

By the way, many medications can change your smell.

If you are noticing

that the pizza doesn't taste like the pizza,

don't be passive.

Skin.

Skin is our biggest organ.

We have proteins in the skin that are called collagen

and elastin, giving structure to aspects in our skin.

Elastin gives us the ability to move.

What happens when we age?

These proteins start to decrease.

Skin all over the body starts to sag,

underneath your arms, breast issues,

your scrotum starts to sag.

What is that? What's happening?

Skin starts to sag on features of our face.

We get a downturn. We get the sad face.

This is giving signals to our other primates that say,

"Whoa, distance, unhappy, angry, sad, bad."

They are negative clues.

If I knew stuff when I was 25,

I wouldn't have sat there and baked in the sun for hours.

Now we know moisturize use blockers.

Hair.

Starting in the late 30s, we lose our follicles

and hair starts to become thinner.

This bone, the side of my head is called a temporal bone.

Temporal means time.

When you look on the side of your head,

that's where you can first see hair color starts to change.

The gray comes because we lose melanin.

That's a major signal to some 20 year old that I'm old.

You can knock me over

and you can take my piece of dinner to eat.

Male pattern baldness.

As our androgen starts to go down, we're losing the top,

we're gaining it elsewhere.

On our ears and our beard and our nose hairs,

some of us start looking like Chia Pets.

It's called the Androgen Paradox.

It's a multi-billion dollar business

to figure out how to save the follicle.

It's not the easiest thing to do.

This is really a natural part of life.

You don't have to have the same hair you had

when you were 18.

But be careful

about lots of potentially dangerous chemicals.

Teeth.

So it's in our oral cavity, our tongue,

and also lots of glands.

These glands are producing things that kill bad bacteria.

As we age, submandibular, sublingual glands,

parotid glands start to decrease their secretions.

When bacteria is allowed to spread,

it starts to affect the gums.

They start to recede. We lose the enamel of teeth.

What happens when teeth are removed? The bone disappears.

If you have problems with your upper dentition,

you can get a sinus infection.

Don't disregard your teeth.

Next, the larynx.

The joints of the larynx can age.

The muscles become thinner.

The vocal folds start to shrink,

and the mucus coverings start to desiccate.

We can have arthritis in some of them.

Vocal folds when they're closed together,

they create an ability to stabilize our diaphragm.

When you're constipated,

what you do is close your vocal folds.

They enable you to use the muscles of your abdominal wall

to help nature do its duty.

If these age and the muscles weaken,

we get problems lifting heavy objects,

and we start to have problems with formation and voice.

This is known as presbyphonia.

You can hear somebody

and you can gauge whether they're elderly

just by the sounds coming from their voice.

Heart.

As we get into our 50s and our 60s, the heart muscles,

what we call our myocardium, start to lose oxygen.

It's usually because of problems with the arteries.

We get a hardening of the arteries. They become narrowed.

As they narrow, we have less oxygen going to the heart.

We have a feature in our body

that's called collateral blood flow,

where a structure or an organ gets blood

from various sources.

This is to make sure that the structure

is getting sufficiently nourished.

Our heart does not have a lot of collateral flow.

If we have the death of tissue of the heart,

the overlap of blood supply to the heart

is usually not sufficient to help that heart muscle.

Why not? How come evolution glitched?

Our species, homo sapiens

came about quarter of million years ago.

Life expectancy for our earliest ancestors,

even of our species, 40 plus years would've been maxing out.

Our heart seems to run into problems in the 50s and 60s.

As anybody who's built a house can tell you,

you don't put in extra plumbing if you don't need it.

Uterus.

a female has to carry with her uterus, ovaries,

connecting uterine tubes.

When females age past childbearing years,

hormones are going to change.

Estrogen is going to shift.

The cells are continuing to grow in abnormal ways.

The ovaries become dangerous.

It can't assess ovarian cancers that easily.

Prostate.

The prostate is extremely important early on

in giving help and fluid to sperm.

As you get older now, it blossoms, and as it grows,

the urethra that goes through it becomes blocked.

This starts to happen well into the 30s, into the 40s.

Those of us that are older, we know what it is

to get up three, four times a night to pee.

That's because this prostate is not allowing urine

to have a healthy flow.

This is normal aging.

Prostate exams, I can tell you, are not the most fun to do.

Doc is trying to feel hardness,

which is an indication of cancer.

Joints.

These are beautiful structures.

Here's a patella. Here's a femur.

Here's a tibia. Here's a fibula.

Along these areas are magnificent structures

called articular cartilage.

When we lose it, we can't replace it.

Joint deterioration can begin in your 30 and 40.

If you have abused your joints, stuff will start earlier.

Running is a very, very important part of our evolution.

To get away from some lion that wanted us for Sunday brunch

on the savannas of East Africa.

This didn't evolve for playing football.

It didn't evolve for pounding on concrete.

When we've lost our little discs inside

that are called menisci, we develop all sorts

of inflammation of joints.

That's called arthritis.

Wanna run, find a nice patch of grass.

Try swimming. Get off the concrete.

Don't send me hate letters.

Foot.

Arguably the most important,

least appreciated part of the human body.

When you age, we start to have the issues with vasculature.

The foot and hands are the most distal parts of our body.

Proper circulation is essential.

When I go visit my physician,

he revealed my feet to see if they were warm,

to see if there was good circulation.

Blood flow is a key to so much.

When we start to get reduced blood flow,

we start to get losses of sensation in the skin.

If that occurs, you can fall.

You often hear about people breaking their hip

because they lose sensation often on the bottom of the foot.

By the way, for some of you that have worn high heeled shoes

for years, are you crazy?

Because the end product is gonna be pinched toes,

decreased blood supply, damaged nerves.

Remember your feet.

These are key puppies if we are to remain healthy and alive.

Things change. We have to deal with that.

I still have problems realizing the Dodgers left Brooklyn.

They're not coming back.

I'm old. I'm expensive.

But why do the species keep us around?

It's called wisdom.

And I'll trade in my knee

for the hug of one of my granddaughters any day.

[playful music]