However, it adapts by increasing the number of synapses and by regrowing dendrites and axons that carry messages in the brain. They gradually become less efficient at extracting wastes from the blood. Bladder capacity declines. Urinary incontinence, which may occur after tissues atrophy, is common but can often be managed through exercise and behavioral techniques. The body does not lose fat with age but redistributes it from just under the skin to deeper parts of the body.
Women are more likely to store it in the hips and thighs, men in the abdominal area.
Exercise can prevent this loss. From 50 on, there is increased susceptibility to glare, greater difficulty in seeing at low levels of illumination, and more difficulty in detecting moving targets. It becomes more difficult to hear higher frequencies with age. Hearing declines more quickly in men than in women. After about age 30, personality is stable.