Gerontological Nursing: Why Sudden Confusion in Elders Is an Emergency
How bodies and minds age, and how nurses tell normal aging from treatable illness, from falls and frailty to medications, swallowing and end-of-life care.
Try 3 questions
1. What did Leonard Hayflick discover about normal human cells grown in the laboratory?
- They stop dividing after about one week
- They divide forever if given enough food
- They divide only a limited number of times
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Answer: They divide only a limited number of times
Normal cells stop dividing after roughly 40 to 60 doublings, the "Hayflick limit," overturning the belief that cultured cells were immortal.
2. What happens to telomeres, the protective caps on chromosomes, each time most body cells divide?
- They become slightly longer
- They are copied with no change
- They become slightly shorter
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Answer: They become slightly shorter
The copying machinery cannot fully replicate chromosome ends, so telomeres shorten until the cell stops dividing.
3. According to the free radical theory, what drives biological aging?
- Accumulated damage from reactive oxygen molecules
- A gradual loss of water from every cell
- A single gene that triggers death on schedule
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Answer: Accumulated damage from reactive oxygen molecules
By-products of normal metabolism damage DNA, proteins and membranes over time, although antioxidant pills have not been shown to slow aging.
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