You can see all these processes: E. Carmeli, “The Aging Hand,” Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences 58A (2003): 146–52.
This is normal: R. Arking, The Biology of Aging: Observations and Principles, 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2006); A. S. Dekaban, “Changes in Brain Weights During the Span of Human Life: Relation of Brain Weights to Body Heights and Body Weights,” Annals of Neurology 4 (1978): 355; R. Peters, “Ageing and the Brain,” Postgraduate Medical Journal 82 (2006): 84–85; G. I. M. Craik and E. Bialystok, “Cognition Through the Lifespan: Mechanisms of Change,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences 10 (2006): 132; R. S. N. Liu et al., “A Longitudinal Study of Brain Morphometrics Using Quantitative Magentic Resonance Imaging and Difference Image Analysis,” NeuroImage 20 (2003): 26; T. A. Salthouse, “Aging and Measures of Processing Speed,” Biological Psychology 54 (2000): 37; D. A. Evans et al., “Prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease in a Community Population of Older Persons,” JAMA 262 (1989): 2251.
Why we age: R. E. Ricklefs, “Evolutionary Theories of Aging: Confirmation of a Fundamental Prediction, with Implications for the Genetic Basis and Evolution of Life Span,” American Naturalist 152 (1998): 24–44; R. M. Zammuto, “Life Histories of Birds: Clutch Size, Longevity, and Body Mass among North American Game Birds,” Canadian Journal of Zoology 64 (1986): 2739–49.
The idea that living things shut down: C. Mobbs, “Molecular and Biologic Factors in Aging,” in Geriatric Medicine, ed. Cassel; L. A. Gavrilov and N. S. Gavrilova, “Evolutionary Theories of Aging and Longevity,” Scientific World Journal 2 (2002): 346.
average life span of human beings: S. J. Olshansky, “The Demography of Aging,” in Geriatric Medicine, ed. Cassel; Kellehear, A Social History.
As Montaigne wrote: Michel de Montaigne. The Essays, sel. and ed. Adolphe Cohn (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1907), p. 278.
inheritance has surprisingly little influence: G. Kolata, “Live Long? Die Young? Answer Isn’t Just in Genes,” New York Times, Aug. 31, 2006; K. Christensen and A. M. Herskind, “Genetic Factors Associated with Individual Life Duration: Heritability,” in J. M. Robine et al., eds., Human Longevity, Individual Life Duration, and the Growth of the Oldest-Old Population (Springer, 2007).
If our genes explain less: Gavrilov and Gavrilova, “Evolutionary Theories of Aging and Longevity.”
Hair grows gray: A. K. Freeman and M. Gordon, “Dermatologic Diseases and Problems,” in Geriatric Medicine, ed. Cassel, 869.
Inside skin cells: A. Terman and U. T. Brunk, “Lipofuscin,” International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology 36 (2004): 1400–4; Freeman and Gordon, “Dermatologic Diseases and Problems.”
The eyes go: R. A. Weale, “Age and the Transmittance of the Human Crystalline Lens,” Journal of Physiology 395 (1988): 577–87.
the “rectangularization” of survival: Olshansky, “The Demography of Aging.” See also US Census Bureau data for 1950, http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbpyr.html. Additional data from Population Pyramid online, http://populationpyramid.net/.
We cling to the notion of retirement: M. E. Pollack, “Intelligent Technology for an Aging Population: The Use of AI to Assist Elders with Cognitive Impairment,” AI Magazine (Summer 2005): 9–25. See also Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Economic Conditions and Emerging Risks in Banking: A Report to the FDIC Board of Directors, May 9, 2006, http://www.fdic.gov/deposit/insurance/risk/2006_02/Economic_2006_02.html.
Equally worrying: Data on certifications in geriatrics from American Board of Medical Specialties and American Board of Internal Medicine.
350,000 Americans fall and break a hip: M. Gillick, The Denial of Aging: Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies (Harvard University Press, 2006).
Several years ago, researchers at the University of Minnesota: C. Boult et al., “A Randomized Clinical Trial of Outpatient Geriatric Evaluation and Management,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 49 (2001): 351–59.
In a year, fewer than three hundred doctors: American Board of Medical Specialties, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology; L. E. Garcez-Leme et al., “Geriatrics in Brazil: A Big Country with Big Opportunities,” Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 53 (2005): 2018–22; C. L. Dotchin et al., “Geriatric Medicine: Services and Training in Africa,” Age and Ageing 41 (2013): 124–28.
The risk of a fatal car crash: D. C. Grabowski, C. M. Campbell, and M. A. Morrissey, “Elderly Licensure Laws and Motor Vehicle Fatalities,” JAMA 291 (2004): 2840–46.
in Los Angeles, George Weller: J. Spano, “Jury Told Weller Must Pay for Killing 10,” Los Angeles Times, Oct. 6, 2006, http://articles.latimes.com/2006/oct/06/local/me-weller6.
3: DEPENDENCE