The challenge of aging Research on aging
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The following program is produced by the University of Michigan broadcasting service under a grant of
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aid from the National Educational Television and Radio Center in cooperation with the National
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Association of educational broadcasters.
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The challenge of aging. Today's program. Research
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in aging. A program from the series human behavior
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social and medical research. Produced by the University of
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Michigan Broadcasting Service. With special assistance from the National Health
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Council and the National Health Forum. These programs have
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been developed from interviews with men and women who have the too often unglamorous
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job of basic research. Research in medicine the physical
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sciences social sciences and the behavioral sciences.
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Occasionally you will hear what may seem like strange or unfamiliar sounds. These
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are the sounds of the participants office his laboratory or his clinic where the
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interviews were first conducted. You will hear today Dr. Nathan W.
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Shah who is chief of the Gerontology branch of the Baltimore City
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hospital. And my name is Glenn Philips.
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My first question to Dr. shock was what do you consider to be the greatest
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recent advance in the field of gerontology.
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He answered Well I think the.
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Most significant advance is.
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The recognition of gerontology as an area
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for research and the increasing degree of support that
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has been given to problems in this in this whole field of aging.
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Ten years ago or so you could find very few
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people who were making studies of
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various problems in this field. And when the
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Gerontology branches first. Set up back in
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1941. We found it
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very difficult at that time to find anyone else really to talk to with
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regard to research in this area. But now it's there.
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There's been a marked change there are a number of laboratories.
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Some of them set up within the last year for example a
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the Gerontology Council of the
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Duke University the Albert
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Einstein Center are both new developments
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in terms of a support of research and
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aging process a broad front.
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Isn't it true that in order to get true answers to what aging really
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is what happens in this phenomenon of aging but you're going to have to started very
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early life to find out what happens through the whole lifespan before you can have the
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true answer to this is going to take Indeed certainly longer than 15 years it's going to take a
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entire lifespan.
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Well I'm thinking we can get some some.
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Preliminary answers by looking at and
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studying of different people at different ages
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as you point out these answers must be regarded
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as as preliminary. There's another.
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There's another possibility that we might not have to right
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for they in the entire lifespan of a given individual that is
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to consider studies it might last
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80 or 90 years. Perhaps we could find out a good idea if
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we were able to. Follow some individuals let us
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say with repeated measurements between the
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ages of say 20 to 35
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and other individuals from 30 to 45 and and so on
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with with. Overlapping age groups we could put these
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in the total the total functions together and and get an
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answer more quickly than that and that is 70 to 80
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years of the human lifespan. We have
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initiated some studies of this kind
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of a gerontology branch at Baltimore City hospitals and we hope
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that we can have some some preliminary answers. But there's another
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major problem that confronts they are a searcher
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and gerontology and that's the problem of the
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selective factor is that. AND OR and
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his choice of subjects amounts to what we know about
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aging at the present time is based on observations
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made on individuals and on people's homes and hospitals
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places where you have brought together a fairly
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large number of older people. All of these people have
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for the most part been selected on the lower ends of the
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social economic scale. What we really need is
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observations on either the what Beth
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the more competent members of our society can do
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at varying ages but also what about the average
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individual can do. Well we can never get information of this
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kind is to sample from the total
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population. In other words every every
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individual is a potential subject for study.
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This is rather recognized and medical schools and universities
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are. All kinds of studies are carried out
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using the students graduate students medical
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students young physicians that are attached to hospital
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staff and I actually had a good share of what is
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in the textbooks of physiology really ought to be labeled the
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physiology of the medical student. But when individuals leave
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the school situation than get out in the community they're not
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available. Or subject material. So we just really don't
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know anything about the physiology or the psychology of
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the adult that is living in the community that is
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working and is taking care of himself and his family. And certainly
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we will be able to.
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Entice members of this population to give of
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their time and effort to serve as subjects for
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scientific study that we're really going to know what aged as to
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performance.
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Anyway in the normal human individual we have we
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have a group here just just been just just getting started
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really of highly
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successful people living in the community who come into the
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city hospitals here spend 200 days during which they're
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given our kinds of physiological and psychological tests
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as individuals. They really don't get anything out of this
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detailed examination. There are making a
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contribution to scientists. These people are committed to
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return to the laboratory every 18 months for the remainder of their
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lives. The age group or the age of the group
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ranges from thirty two to ninety nine.
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They are selected from the upper
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levels up or educational levels most of them are
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scientists professional people those who have. Have a real
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interest in finding out something about what happens with a judge
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and individuals.
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And I suppose all of the problems are answered or at least a good
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number of the problems are answered What is foreseen by the gerontologist.
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Do they hope to extend the life span up to into the hundreds of in a hundred
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years here. Hundred and twenty hundred and thirty hundred forty What have you.
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What is their hope an aim.
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Well they the grower of research and German heritage is
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certainly not simply to increase lifespan. As such
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our hope is that by knowing more about
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ageing as a biological phenomenon and knowing what
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factors influence age changes once once we identify
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them that we were blessed to
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minimise the disability and the
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frustrations that occur with a greater
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frequency in the older people.
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What we rock people too we write
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people who retain their capability is as free from
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disease as we can manage to write ever
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of Rife's bad they're there capable out.
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Obviously if you minimize and reduce disease
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incidence a byproduct of this is going to
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be an increasing lifespan.
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As you know nearly the figures that are often quoted about how
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the Rife's battle has increased from an average of about
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30 years in nineteen hundred to an average of 70 years at the present
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time. Is is really a reflection of
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a reduction in infant mortality that actually
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65 the individual who reached the age of
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65 reaches the age of 65.
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Today has only about two
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more years Marar of
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life expectancy than the 65 year old did in 1900.
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Obviously as we learn more and more about the diseases which
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are the primary cause of death in order people we're going to
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increase this margin more and
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more. But the striking changes in
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what we call life expectancy has really been a reflection of
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the improvement in both medical care and general
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level standards of living that have greatly reduced infant
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mortality.
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Has the research gerontology advanced far enough has it been
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recognized long enough that it's been possible to draw any kind of conclusion or theory
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for example is it thought maybe that old age is the
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deterioration of cells or is it the other hand the deterioration of.
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The emotional outlook on life.
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Or is it a combination of both Just what is so governed in our
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laboratory we have.
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When arrested and when. And two kinds of
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questions were are as right as the basic
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biology of aging.
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The second is how do you humans
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change with age in the performance
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capacities of various organ systems or in terms
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of their total abilities.
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Now the studies on the cellular changes with age of course have to
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be carried out on out of those. Other than that and for
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this we've used the white rat
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a right rat at the age of two years is about
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equivalent to the 70 year old man we've studied
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a large number of the basic
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physiological processes that go on inside of ours.
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Comparing the 12 month and the 2 year old
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rat now there are some changes that occur
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in specific enzymes. Right of the
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factors that we know changes with age
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is that in many tissues of the body
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such as in the kidney and the nervous system
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that as time progresses there is a dropping out
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of individuals from these tissues. And so
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part of the impaired function in the older
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individual can be ascribed to this
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death and the loss of individual cells particularly and in key
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tissues the changes that we have been able
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to detect in the internal workings of
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Sal's. However it is only of their order of
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10 to 15 percent reduction.
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This is not enough to explain a
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40 to 50 percent reductions in some
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physiological measurements. As for example a
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kidney function.
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So that part of the total change in the individual must
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be related to a loss of cells
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in these tissue. But here again this won't
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explain everything particularly when you get into areas of
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behavior because of the
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performance capacity is all wrapped to show
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reductions even greater than we can find
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and individual organ systems so that undoubtedly
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the there is some kind of a of a factor that I
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would like to think of as the ability to coordinate and
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adjust to the stresses and strains of
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the environment.
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Then do you make all of the organ systems in the body work together.
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Now in times of behavior many of the difficulties that are
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encountered by older people extend to
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the to the to the general social environment.
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Some of the problems of the world are people we now call ours out of
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the way that society as a whole reacts to
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aging the demands and the restrictions that our
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society places on individuals of given
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ages must also contribute to their
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behavioral characteristics. 1. One prize
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example of course is the demands of our society that
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when the individual reaches his sixty fifth birthday he is no longer
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capable of holding down a job that is retired. This is an
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imposition by society as far as we can town.
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This program has been transcribed using automated software tools, made possible through a collaboration between the American Archive of Public Broadcasting and Pop Up Archive. Please note that no automated transcription is perfect nor is it intended to replace human transcription labor. If you would like to contribute corrections to this transcript, please contact MITH at mith@umd.edu.