What They Don’t Tell You About Aging (Until It’s Too Late)

A Change of Senses

Did you know that babies have 9,000 taste buds? No wonder everything tastes heavenly as a kid! Sadly, you don’t get to keep those taste buds for long. Aging reduces the number, so you taste flavors less completely. Women begin losing their sense of taste 10-20 years before men.

Next, at 40 years old, you begin squinting a lot more (unless you had glasses all along). Your eyes feel a bit dry, and you might struggle to read the menu in a dimly lit restaurant. The eyes are prone to diseases as people age, resulting in decreased vision. One way to ward off such issues is to protect your eyes from UV damage and schedule appointments with an optometrist once your vision starts declining.

Lastly, your hearing gets fuzzy. You don’t just develop selective hearing—you just hear less. Period. Around 40, your inner ear and eardrum begins degrading. This could also cause balance problems.