Age is the single best predictor of illness and death. Explain illness changes with age.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Age is the single best predictor of illness and death. From birth through elementary school, children have health problems over which they have no control. Many adolescents have health problems because of their own choices, like smoking, abusing alcohol and other substances, and texting while driving. Health problems emerge and increase during one's late thirties because of genes, lifestyle choices, and because physical decline is normal and inevitable as one ages. No matter how well tuned one keeps one's body, the parts start wearing down: Reflexes slow, hearing and eyesight dim, and stamina and muscle strength decrease. After age 65, chronic rather than acute diseases comprise the majority of health problems, including disability. Chronic diseases increase as people age. Dementia, a loss of mental abilities, most commonly occurs during one's 70s.