Aging Parents and Cognitive Decline

I noticed a consistent pattern where people over the age of 60 are easily irritable over the smallest things. This observation makes me wonder, why are they so uptight?. why aren't they satisfied with their lives? According to health insights, it's because of their cognitive decline that makes them cause conflict within their families. This involves changes in the memory, thinking and daily functioning that go past normal aging. This reminds me of when I took cognitive psychology we had to learn about the memory of elderly people, what makes them act out and how to de-escalate the situation. The dissatisfacation of how they see the world affects their daily moods and makes them want to fight over a pointless disagreement. For Example; my grandfather is always brooding and upset that he doesn't have money. Even though he's retired and has a pension. He considers his pension is not enough and that he's entitled to have more from my mom. This grandiose entitlement makes me question even though he's my mom's father....what makes him entitled to her money? My mom constantly talks about how her parents didn't financially support her and she had to make it on her own. His diagnosis makes me believes that he one lacks boundaries, but also that his uptightness and irritability comes from cognitive decline. Common signs that affect the elderly include, forgetting recent events, trouble managing money and mood shifts. This connects back to how my grandfather has these symptoms. Common causes; Alzehemiers, Parkinson, and vascular damage from small strokes. Health issues related vitamin B12 deficiency, thyroid imbalances, or sleep apnea. Lifestyle factors may include lack of physical activity and poor diet. Healthy habits include eating healthy/ good foods aka your vegetables, exercising such as going for a walk, learning and reading new information. Improving cognitive function and memory involves quality sleep and mental stimulation. Aerobic exercise increases blood flow to the brain while getting more hours of sleep improves the memory. Mental challenges; learning a new language, playing chess, figuring out sudoku. Practicing cognitive flexibility will improve cognitive imbalance. Meditation and yoga can improve speech, attention, and memory. This can potentially increase cognitive capacity. The life expectancy of a person with cognitive decline depends on age, sex, and the underlying cause, with average survival ranging from 3-10 years after a dementia diagnosis. Younger individuals and women tend to live longer after diagnosis than older individuals and men. The impact of age and sex is a crucial component, after 65 women live an additional 8 years on average and men live about 5.7 more years. After 85 women live about 4.5 more years, men live about 2.2 more years. Declining cognitive function is associated with changes in the nervous system. Most commonly disadvantages would be overall slowness in thinking, difficulty sustaining attention, and multitasking. A coping skill would be to have a routine, try to do different tasks at the same time everyday to improve cognitive memory.