Metabolism Changes in the Elderly

With age, your body undergoes a number of changes, such as changes in the metabolism, which slow down. This can lead to other health issues. Beneficiaries of energy workers and defense workers programs may be eligible for free home health care and that can help you keep a closer eye on your senior loved one.

Metabolism slows with age

Metabolism changes over time. While there is no pre-defined age when metabolism starts slowing down, it’s a progressive change that occurs gradually. Now you cannot completely avoid the changes in your metabolism, you can delay them by changing your lifestyle.

The calories you burn, at rest, is referred to as the BMR or basal metabolic rate. Even at rest, the body is burning calories to breathe, digest food, repair cells, and so on. This rate differs from one individual to another, based on your body’s composition, genetics, age, gender, activity levels etc.

In women, the most significant changes in metabolism occur around the time of menopause. Since hormones play an important role in regulating metabolism, the decrease in estrogen has a huge impact on metabolism.

The pituitary gland produces a growth hormone, which reduces with age and affects your metabolism. This hormone is responsible for building muscle mass, utilizing fat stores, and aiding protein production. When the production of this hormone reduces, the body doesn’t maintain muscles well, which also affects how the body processes calories.

Prevent slowing down of metabolism

To delay or prevent your metabolism from slowing down, here are a few things you can do.

• Resistance Training: Resistance training, or weight lifting, can help to preserve muscle mass while exercising. Both affect metabolism.
• Adequate Sleep: Insufficient sleep can have a huge negative impact on your metabolism. Adequate, restful sleep can help delay slowing metabolism.
• Adequate Diet: Since many seniors aren’t active, they reduce how much they eat. This may trigger ‘starvation mode’ in the body, causing muscle mass loss which will slow down metabolism. High protein foods prevent your metabolism from slowing down by preserving muscle mass as well as burning additional calories when eating and absorbing high-protein foods.

To learn more about energy worker home health care or defense worker nursing care, call CNS (Critical Nurse Staffing) at 877-259-9001.