For some people, aging is a very painful process. But there are 60 years old young people around us. This means that a person with total replacement of teeth, fading eyesight and fading memory can be young, depending on their outlook and way of live. In other words “people who accept the physical and mental changes with time are considered to be young, whatever the physical age” (Hayflick, 1996). Old age is the time when many people have to face limitations that the physiological changes bring about. Knowledge of the elderly is essential to good nuclear medicine practice as the elderly have special needs. The human body undergoes normal physiologic and anatomic changes as it ages. These changes do not occur uniformly in every person. Life styles as well as hereditary factors contribute to the aging process.
In the Integumentary System the skin wrinkles, becomes thin, fragile and easily broken loss of subcutaneous fat atrophy of sweat glands hair loss on scalp and other body areas.
Characterizing the affect of the normal aging process on the respiratory system is a complex concept as it is difficult to separate the changes associated with age from those attributable to diseases of the aged. In fact, age-related disease has far more impact on the respiratory system and the conduct of an anesthetic than do age-related respiratory changes. The respiratory system can provide a young adult with adequate gas exchange at many times beyond resting requirements even in the face of both major reductions in pulmonary function i.e., a 40 - 50 percent loss of maximal ventilation, as well as a significant increases in metabolic rate.
The magnitude of this reserve will easily see an otherwise physically fit patient through the convalescence of a major procedure even if complicated by major pulmonary morbidity without pulmonary mortality. However, aging inexorably reduces the capacity of all pulmonary functions.
