Growing up as the youngest in a three-generation
household, I always looked forward to growing older.
I can hardly wait
To see you come of age
But I guess we'll both just have to be patient
'cause it's a long way to go. . .
But in the meantime . . .
Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
To see you come of age
But I guess we'll both just have to be patient
'cause it's a long way to go. . .
But in the meantime . . .
Life is what happens to you
While you're busy making other plans
– “Beautiful Boy,” by John
Lennon
But I didn’t look forward to living forever,
which seemed like an exhausting prospect.
Instead, I preferred that others outlive myself, so I wouldn’t have to be
the one left behind having to deal with loss, grief, sadness, etc. However, according to Howard S. Friedman and
Leslie R. Martin of The Longevity Project, my exceptionally high conscientious personality is a strong predictor of longevity. So onward, I go forth growing older and
aging in my conscientious manner . . .
According to The Living to 100 Life ExpectancyCalculator and Northwestern Mutual Lifespan Calculator,
my life expectancy is 100 years and 96 years, respectively.
I was amused and somewhat alarmed about these
predictions. Because my grandparents
lived past 90 years old before succumbing to pneumonia, I’ve been using age 90
when making retirement calculations so now I’m alarmed that I may have to build
a larger nest egg for my retirement!
The Living to 100 feedback indicated that I could
increase my life expectancy by making the following lifestyle
changes: taking an aspirin every day to
improve heart and brain health could add 1 year, and minimizing sun exposure to
reduce skin cancer risk could add a quarter of a year. However, I have no intention of following
these recommendations because I don’t really desire to live an additional 1.25
years beyond age 100.
I see no reason to take aspirin daily to prevent a heart attack/stroke when I don’t have disease risk factors, and when risk of gastrointestinal bleeding may outweigh any benefits. I am skeptical of daily aspirin advice, which sounds like pharmaceutical marketing, when tastier food can be medicine such as DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension, which prescribes lots of fruits and vegetables, less sodium and fat).
I also don’t plan to minimize sun exposure if it merely adds 3 months to my life expectancy. I use UV rays to make sunshine vitamin D, which is needed to properly use calcium and phosphorus to strengthen bones. If out in the sun for more than 30 minutes, I take reasonable precaution like wearing a wide-brimmed hat and covering up my skin.
The Living to 100 feedback also suggested the following nutrition and physical activity changes to increase my life expectancy: add more dairy products or take calcium supplement to add half a year; increase exercise to 30 minutes, at least 4 days a week to add 1 year; and being more active in my leisure time could add half a year.
I often wonder if the dairy and pharmaceutical industries have teamed up to market this idea that the best sources of calcium for bone health come from dairy and calcium supplements. According to Amy Lanou’s Building Bone Vitality, high animal protein (dairy) diets are associated with high hip fracture rates because they increase calcium loss due to high renal acid loss (kidney stones); instead, highly alkaline, cruciferous greens are better sources for calcium absorption.
If my busy schedule permits, I would like to increase my physical activity, which is also recommended for bone health. However, my motivation for making changes would be to reduce pain and suffering (potential bone fractures) and to balance my introspective activity, rather than to extend my life (as I might not be able to afford to live longer).
Northwestern
Mutual’s question on blood pressure didn’t provide a response for low blood
pressure (hypotension) so I responded with “best” answer that my blood pressure
reading is normal. In fact, I have low
blood pressure, which is not really a problem unless it causes symptoms like dizziness
and faintness that can increase the risk of falls and thereby shorten longevity
if fatal.
(Photos taken from Tulipmania at Pier 39. Tulip blooms for two weeks: die young, stay pretty.)
The Science of Older and Wiser
ReplyDeleteBy PHYLLIS KORKKI
MARCH 12, 2014
. . . if you define wisdom as maintaining positive well-being and kindness in the face of challenges, it is one of the most important qualities one can possess to age successfully — and to face physical decline and death. . . .
cognitive functioning slows as people age. . . older people have much more information in their brains than younger ones, so retrieving it naturally takes longer. And the quality of the information in the older brain is more nuanced. . .
. . .Elkhonon Goldberg,. . . says that “cognitive templates” develop in the older brain based on pattern recognition, and that these can form the basis for wise behavior and decisions.
According to Dr. Clayton, one must take time to gain insights and perspectives from one’s cognitive knowledge to be wise (the reflective dimension). Then one can use those insights to understand and help others (the compassionate dimension).
. . .Monika Ardelt, . . .felt a need to expand on studies of old age because of research showing that satisfaction late in life consists of things like maintaining physical and mental health, volunteering and having positive relationships with others. But this isn’t always possible if the body breaks down, if social roles are diminished and if people suffer major losses. . . Wisdom . . .can help even severely impaired people find meaning, contentment and acceptance in later life. . . . those who showed evidence of high wisdom were also more likely to have better coping skills . . .more active than passive about dealing with hardship. . .
. . .Ursula M. Staudinger, went on to distinguish between general wisdom, the kind that involves understanding life from an observer’s point of view (for example, as an advice giver), and personal wisdom, which involves deep insight into one’s own life. True personal wisdom involves five elements . . . self-insight; the ability to demonstrate personal growth; self-awareness in terms of your historical era and your family history; understanding that priorities and values, including your own, are not absolute; and an awareness of life’s ambiguities. Wisdom in this sense is extremely rare, Professor Staudinger said, and research has shown that it actually declines in the final decades. As a coping strategy, it is better to be positive about life when you are older, she said, and the older people skew that way. They are more likely to look back on their lives and say that the events that occurred were for the best; a wise person would fully acknowledge mistakes and losses, and still try to improve.
. . . Wisdom is characterized by a “reduction in self-centeredness,” Professor Ardelt said. Wise people try to understand situations from multiple perspectives, not just their own, and they show tolerance as a result. . .
In the final years of life, “Even the simple activities of daily living may present difficulty and conflict,” Joan Erikson wrote . . .“No wonder elders become tired and often depressed.”. . . “To face down despair with faith and appropriate humility is perhaps the wisest course.”
“One must join in the process of adaptation. With whatever tact and wisdom we can muster, disabilities must be accepted with lightness and humor.”
. . . Settling for less and simplifying is not the same as giving up. In fact, when older people lack challenges, self-absorption and stagnation may take over, the Eriksons said. The key is to set goals that match one’s current capacities.
Continuing education can be an important way to cultivate wisdom in the later years . . . because it combats isolation . . . humanities that help people make sense of their lives, Professor Ardelt says. . . recommend classes in guided autobiography, or life review, as a way of strengthening wisdom. . .
Dr. Clayton says there’s a point in life when a fundamental shift occurs, and people start thinking about how much time they have left rather than how long they have lived. . . . http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/business/retirementspecial/the-science-of-older-and-wiser.html
‘There is No Cure for Aging’ — So Embrace It
ReplyDeleteThis video inspires us to age well and celebrate growing old
April 30, 2014
A TV ad is circulating an important message: “Aging isn’t an illness, but a way of life.”
Age UK’s “Love Later Life” ad aims to reshape society’s view on aging. The video features a poem by Roger McGough that encourages people to seize the day and enjoy the adventure of aging.
http://www.nextavenue.org/article/2014-04/%E2%80%98there-no-cure-aging%E2%80%99-%E2%80%94-so-embrace-it
Secrets That Can Help You Live Longer
ReplyDeleteMay 26, 2014
After investigating the blood of a woman who lived to 115 years of age, researchers suggest stem cell exhaustion may explain why people eventually die at an advanced age despite being in good overall health
Other recent research confirmed that low-intensity daily exercise leads to less disability in old age and a longer, healthier life
Being conscientious and striving to do things well is a personality trait that most of the people who live the longest share
A processed, high-sugar diet is probably the quickest route to an early death as it promotes insulin resistance, which is a primary driver of chronic disease—from premature aging to heart disease and cancer
There’s compelling evidence suggesting that having a calm mind and active body are two important ingredients for longevity. Education, and being a perpetual student, is also strongly correlated with a longer life
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/05/26/secrets-longevity.aspx
Giving Birth Later in Life Is a Sign of Longevity
ReplyDeleteBy Elise Solé, Shine Staff | Parenting 06.26.2014
Doctors often discourage women from delaying childbirth, but a new study published this week in the journal Menopause found a surprising perk to late motherhood: a longer life expectancy.
Researchers at Boston University and Boston Medical Center studied women who lived to the age of 95 or older and compared them with 151 women who died at younger ages. What they found was interesting: Women who gave birth naturally (without fertility assistance, such as IVF) after the age of 33 were twice as likely to live to the age of 95. And women who gave birth after the age of 40 were four time as likely to live to the age of 100.
“We believe the ability to have kids at an older age is a sign that a woman’s reproductive system is aging slowly, which is a marker that her entire body is aging slowly," lead researcher Thomas Perls, MD, a geriatrician and professor of medicine at Boston Medical Center, tells Yahoo Shine. "That means she is better able to ward off life-threatening, age-related diseases such as heart attack or stroke.”
“Look at Halle Berry,” he says. “She became pregnant without fertility assistance at the age of 46 and she looks young and appears to be healthy.”
The results were also good news for the children of women who conceived later in life — the offspring ran half the risk of developing heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. “The longevity genes appear to be genetic,” says Perls.
That’s reassuring for women in their 30s who don't have kids yet but want to some day. But Perls notes that his findings are not a free pass to delay motherhood. “Doctors generally advise that women not put off childbirth to avoid maternal complications and birth defects,” he says. “However, for mothers who are told they will be too old and tired to enjoy their children when they grow up, that’s probably not true considering how well they age.”
Whether or not you’re a mother, you can still estimate how long you’ll live by using the Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator, a tool linked to the New England Centenarian Study for which Perls is a lead author.
https://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/women-kids-after-33-and-40-live-longer-boston-university-boston-medical-center-thomas-perls-life-expectancy-delay-motherhood-study-154330781.html
What Happens When We All Live to 100?
ReplyDeleteGregg Easterbrook
SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
For years, the American social trend has been away from “constant interaction with other people”—fewer two-parent homes, fewer children per home, declining participation in religious and community activities, grandparents living on their own, electronic interaction replacing the face-to-face in everything from work to dating. Prosperity is associated with smaller households, yet the large multigeneration home may be best for long life. There are some indications that the Great Recession increased multigeneration living. This may turn out to boost longevity, at least for a time.
The single best yardstick for measuring a person’s likely life span is education. . . .
If health span can be improved, the costs of aging-related disability may be manageable. . . If chronic ailments related to aging can be prevented or significantly delayed, big-ticket line items in Medicare might not go off the rails.
But if health span does not improve, longer life could make disability in aging an economic crisis. Today, Medicare and Medicaid spend about $150 billion annually on Alzheimer’s patients. Absent progress against aging, the number of people with Alzheimer’s could treble by 2050, with society paying as much for Alzheimer’s care as for the current defense budget.
Many disabilities associated with advanced years cannot be addressed with pharmaceuticals or high-tech procedures; caregivers are required. . .
A new view of retirement
In 1940, the typical American who reached age 65 would ultimately spend about 17 percent of his or her life retired. Now the figure is 22 percent, and still rising. Yet Social Security remains structured as if longevity were stuck in a previous century. The early-retirement option, added by Congress in 1961—start drawing at age 62, though with lower benefits—is appealing if life is short, but backfires as life span extends. People who opt for early Social Security may reach their 80s having burned through savings, and face years of living on a small amount rather than the full benefit they might have received. Polls show that Americans consistently underestimate how long they will live—a convenient assumption that justifies retiring early and spending now, while causing dependency over the long run. . . .
A grayer, quieter, better future
In the wild, young animals outnumber the old; humanity is moving toward a society where the elderly outnumber the recently arrived. Such a world will differ from today’s . .. Warm-weather locations are likely to grow even more popular. . .. Ratings for football, which is loud and aggressive, may wane, while baseball and theatergoing enjoy a renaissance. . .
But consumerism might decline. Neurological studies of healthy aging people show that the parts of the brain associated with reward-seeking light up less as time goes on. . . older people on the whole don’t desire acquisitions as much as the young and middle-aged do. . . Longer life spans may at last be the counterweight to materialism.
Older people also report, to pollsters and psychologists, a greater sense of well-being than the young and middle-aged do. By the latter phases of life, material and romantic desires have been attained or given up on; passions have cooled; and for most, a rich store of memories has been compiled. Among the core contentions of the well-being research of the Princeton University psychologist Daniel Kahneman is that “in the end, memories are all you keep”—what’s in the mind matters more than what you own. Regardless of net worth, the old are well off in this sense.
Should large numbers of people enjoy longer lives in decent health, the overall well-being of the human family may rise substantially. . . As life expectancy and health span increase, . . .the late phases of life seen as a positive experience of culmination and contentment.
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/what-happens-when-we-all-live-to-100/379338/
Quiz: How Long Will You Live?
ReplyDeleteMandy Oaklander @mandyoaklander
Oct. 10, 2014
8 questions that help determine your life span
Americans can now expect to live longer than ever, a new government report finds. That’s largely because death rates are declining for the leading causes of death, like heart disease, cancer and stroke.
How long will you live? These eight basic questions, calculated by two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, are some of the most predictive of American life expectancy. “Those are the most important risk factors that we have solid evidence for,” Lyle Ungar, professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania, tells TIME.
The one missing factor? “If you’re in a happy marriage, you will tend to live longer,” he says. “That’s perhaps as important as not smoking, which is to say: huge.” So feel free to give yourself a little bump if you’ve got a happy relationship.
Find out yours in the quiz below (and if you’re on your phone, turn your device sideways):
How long will I live?
Fill in the following form then click the button labeled "Calculate Life Expectancy".
(Leave them "as is" if you don't know the answer.)
I am a ___ ___ ___ who ___
I am ___ years old.
I ___ a seat belt during the ___ miles per year I travel in a car.
I exercise ___
http://time.com/3485579/when-will-i-die-life-expectancy-calculator/
Could a common pain reliever be the secret to longer life?
ReplyDeleteBy Victoria Colliver
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging in Novato found in a recent study that regular doses of ibuprofen equivalent to what a human would take extended the life span of yeast, worms and fruit flies by an average of 15 percent when compared with their species counterparts. For worms, that meant an extra three to four days of life, which in humans could be 12 additional years.
“It’s not time to go run to the market and stock up on ibuprofen,” said Brian Kennedy of the Buck Institute and co-senior author of the study. “There’s more work that needs to be done, but it’s easy to imagine human clinical trials that test the aspects of aging.”
Ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, was created in England more than 50 years ago and is used for relieving pain and reducing fever and inflammation. While most people can tolerate it, the drug can cause side effects such as bleeding ulcers and intestinal problems and can be particularly risky for elderly people.
Controlling inflammation in the body has long been associated with better health. But yeast and worms lack the pathways that respond to inflammation, so when the researchers noticed that they lived longer when dosed with ibuprofen, they realized something else had to be in play.
The three-year study, done in collaboration with Texas A&M University’s Agrilife program, showed that the painkiller’s effect on metabolic activity was probably responsible for its ability to extend life, researchers said. The study was published online Thursday in the scientific journal PLOS Genetics.
What the researchers found was that ibuprofen appears to slow the body’s metabolism, Kennedy said. Specifically, it interferes with the body’s ability to transport amino acids, the most important of which is called tryptophan, which humans get from protein sources in their diets.
On its surface, inhibiting the body’s ability to perform these important functions might not sound like a good thing. But slowing metabolism has long been linked with longer living.
“Dietary restriction has been known to extend life span for a long time in animal models. This might be a related approach,” Kennedy said.
Although deemed relatively safe, ibuprofen at high doses can have adverse side effects on the gastrointestinal tract and the liver. For the study, the researchers gave the organisms a steady, relatively low dose, the equivalent of about two to four pills in humans.
Aspirin and naproxen are also nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which block enzymes in the body to reduce the sensation of pain. They were not included in the study, although researchers say they may have similar properties.
The next step, Kennedy said, is to move forward with mouse studies and then, eventually, to look at whether the drug has similar life-extending properties in humans. The researchers expect that work to be easier because the drug is already so widely used in humans.
Still, some doctors are skeptical.
Dr. Janice Schwartz, a UCSF professor of geriatrics, said…in addition to the side effects,…studies have shown that the medication may be associated with an increased risk of heart attacks and hasn’t helped those with dementia…
A growing number of people — most notably Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel in his controversial Atlantic article, “Why I Hope to Die at 75” — are also questioning the value of efforts to extend life span, especially if that means living with pain, dementia, disability and disease.
Kennedy acknowledged that, saying that while extending life is always the goal, “what we really care about are the physiological aspects of aging. We don’t want to keep you alive longer if that means you can’t ... enjoy life.”
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Could-a-common-pain-relief-medicine-be-the-key-to-5966322.php
Silicon Valley Is Trying to Make Humans Immortal—and Finding Some Success
ReplyDeleteBY BETSY ISAACSON / MARCH 5, 2015 6:47 AM EST
Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, plans to live to be 120. Compared with some other tech billionaires, he doesn’t seem particularly ambitious. Dmitry Itskov, the “godfather” of the Russian Internet, says his goal is to live to 10,000; Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle, finds the notion of accepting mortality “incomprehensible,” and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, hopes to someday “cure death.”…
But whether we achieve immortality through robots, injections or protein packs, one profound and disturbing question remains: Do we really want to live forever? And if so, why?
Itskov says he’s driven by frustration. A serial hobbyist, the Russian billionaire’s taken up judo, weight lifting, diving, practical shooting—“but every time I achieve certain results in a new type of sport or a hobby, I realize that if I really want to get serious results, then I need to make this activity the focus of my entire life and sacrifice something else for it that is no less interesting.” This dilemma, he says, keeps him constantly aware of how short life is...
Ask ethicists about immortality, though, and the quest starts to look a little less heroic. Paul Root Wolpe, the director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University, argues that perhaps we ought to pay more attention to how the elderly are treated today before we think to extend life spans further. “When you hear people who are pro-life-extension talk about the greater font of wisdom, experience and perspective you'd create by extending life, well, we already have a lot of 70- to 90-year-olds in society now, and we do nothing to try to learn from them,” he says. “So I don't buy that argument.” On the contrary, says Wolpe, “we already have doubled the average life span of humans, and what that has created in modern society is a cult of youth.”…
Still, even Wolpe admits the pursuit of happiness may ultimately entail a pursuit of a lot more time to be happy. The goal, he says, should be to seek out “healthier living as we age...
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/03/13/silicon-valley-trying-make-humans-immortal-and-finding-some-success-311402.html
What Your Face Reveals About Your Health Risks, According to a New Study
ReplyDeleteBy Dennis Thompson
TUESDAY, March 31, 2015 (HealthDay News) — Every face tells a story, and that story apparently includes hints of how quickly a person is aging, a new study contends.
Facial features have proven even more reliable than blood tests in spotting those for whom time is taking a heavier toll, a Chinese research team reports in the March 31 issue of the journal Cell Research.
A computerized 3-D facial imaging process uncovered a number of “tells” that show if a person is aging more rapidly, including a widening mouth, bulging nose, sagging upper lip, shrinking gums and drooping eye corners, the researchers said.
“This suggests not only that youth is ‘skin deep,’ but also that health is ‘written’ on the face,” the study authors concluded, suggesting that facial scanning could more accurately assess a person’s general health than a routine physical exam.
This sort of facial imaging is part of a cutting-edge technology aimed at estimating life expectancy and assessing health risk factors simply by taking a scan of your face, said Jay Olshansky, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s School of Public Health and a board member of the American Federation for Aging Research….
“You can get at these risks a much simpler way through a combination of facial analytics and asking the right questions.”
In the new study, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences collected 3-D facial images of 332 people of Chinese descent between the ages of 17 and 77.
Based on this data, the researchers constructed a model for predicting age, generating a map of the aging human face that recognized certain patterns of aging based on specific facial features.
They found that up to age 40, people of the same chronological age could differ by up to six years in facial age. Those older than 40 showed even wider variation in facial age.
“In aging science, we know people who look young for their age are aging more slowly,” Olshansky said. “They look younger because they probably are younger. One year of clock time is matched by something less than one year of biological time. It’s real. We can see it.”
The researchers compared the results of their facial scans to routine blood tests they took from the participants, and found that age estimates based on facial features were more accurate than blood screenings for cholesterol, uric acid or the blood protein albumin.
The findings track with what doctors already know about how age can affect a person’s face, said Dr. Anne Taylor, chairwoman of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Public Education Committee.
“Our lips are shrinking, and the distance between the nose and the mouth increases as we age,” Taylor said. “And there’s a reason for the saying, ‘Long in the tooth.’ Your gums are shrinking as you age, so more of your teeth are showing.”
Olshansky added that facial features also reveal evidence of behaviors that can affect your health.
Smokers tend to develop wrinkles around the mouth, caused by constant pursing of the lips to suck on a cigarette, he said. Drinkers develop a “W.C. Fields” nose, red and bulbous at the tip.
Researchers currently are exploring the ways in which diabetes, obesity, drug use and other detrimental personal behaviors affect the aging of the face, Olshansky noted.
Even though the Chinese findings jibe with what is known about facial aging, they need to be verified through follow-up research, said Dr. Stephen Park, president of the American Academy of Facial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Park argued that the new study could not show whether some people are physically aging faster than their years, because the researchers did not include a control group for comparison.
“It’s not fair to say some are physiologically aging faster or more slowly than their chronological age suggests, because they use the data from these participants to define what the age group should look like,” he said.
http://news.health.com/2015/03/31/face-scans-show-how-fast-a-person-is-aging/
'Super-agers' study may reveal secrets to staying young
ReplyDeleteBy AFP
Published: November 3, 2015
MIAMI: Mary Helen Abbott, 77, paints her lips bright pink, still smokes the occasional cigarette, keeps up on all the gossip at the retirement home and wears a short skirt to fitness class.
She giggles as the aerobics instructor shouts, “Swagger! Like you are going to meet someone famous!,” and then she and a dozen seniors throw shoulders back, lift their knees high and strut around the exercise studio.
Abbott is what scientists refer to as a “super-ager,” and she is taking part in a $3.2 million study that aims to uncover the secrets to staying sharp and healthy into old age.
While some hunt for medications to treat or prevent dementia, others, like University of Miami neuropsychologist David Loewenstein, are interested in why some people are spared altogether.
“I study Alzheimer’s disease, but if we want to unlock the mysteries of the brain we also have to know why some people age successfully,” said Loewenstein.
The five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health is open to people age 63 to 100 who have not been diagnosed with dementia, and who are either in good mental shape or have early signs of memory failure, known as mild cognitive decline.
Loewenstein is particularly intrigued with how some people seem to be able to fend off memory loss, whether by genetic, environmental or other means.
He cites studies involving autopsies on people 85 and above, a population in which about one in three suffers from dementia.
Nearly another third of this age group have post-mortems that reveal significant hallmarks of dementia, known as plaques and tangles in the brain, but seemed just fine while alive.
“How can people function at these higher levels? Science has not been able to answer that,” said Loewenstein.
“And that is what we are trying to figure out.”…
“We have known for a long time that people in the workforce are better than people out of work,” said Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford University Center on Longevity, addressing a forum on aging at the National Academy of Medicine last month in Washington.
“Work, paid or unpaid, may improve cognitive functioning.”
Regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are also known to help foster healthy aging.
“Geriatricians I know say that if we could put exercise in a pill form it would be the most sought-after drug on the market,” she said.
Abbott confesses that prior to entering the retirement home, she was not doing so well. After her husband died, she lost weight and felt lonely….
“Epidemiological studies show that people with a lifetime of cognitively stimulating activities and social connections are much less at risk for cognitive decline as they age,” said Loewenstein.
Of course, it is impossible to ignore the economics of healthy aging. Many of the residents at East Ridge are educated. They saved their earnings, invested well and benefited from the boom in real estate prices.
The poor are often more prone to the ravages of aging. Research also shows that African-Americans and Hispanics suffer disproportionately higher rates of dementia than the country’s whites.
With cases of dementia in the United States set to triple, reaching 132 million by 2050, some experts warn the disease could bankrupt major world economies and cripple health systems.
But Carstensen believes society could also benefit from a new perspective, one that does not automatically conflate aging with illness.
http://tribune.com.pk/story/984200/super-agers-study-may-reveal-secrets-to-staying-young/
Secrets of Getting to Your 90s — in Good Health
ReplyDeleteBy Nancy Shute
NPR Shots
APRIL 19, 2016
When it comes to getting old, some of us are a lot better at it than others. If I’m going to live to be 95 I would much prefer to be healthy, cogent and content. So I want to know the secrets of the healthy and very old.
Fortunately, scientists are starting to figure that out, “The good news is that there’s a lot we can do about it,” says Dr. Luigi Ferrucci, a geriatrician and scientific director at the National Institute on Aging. He wants to see more and more people in that state of “aging grace.”
…But genes aren’t fate, Ferrucci says: “There’s some destiny; we are children of our genome and what we inherit from our parents. But we can do a lot to avoid the destiny that was predisposed to us.”
Studies have found that genes are a factor in extreme longevity just about 20 percent of the time, but being physically healthy while very old is much more likely to run in families. Clearly those families must be doing something right.
To find out, in 2009 the NIH launched the IDEAL study, which focuses on the families of people who were able to delay or evade ill health in their 80s and beyond.
They’ve already gotten some physiological clues. Healthy old people are much more likely to have a lower resting metabolic rate, Ferrucci says, which means that their bodies are still working efficiently. “They have energy left for other activities,” he says. “It allows them to do many, many things during daily life.”
The lucky ones also tend to have fasting glucose numbers more typical of people in their 20s. Obesity and lack of exercise increase the risk of insulin resistance, so keeping weight under control and staying active from early adulthood can help there, Ferrucci says. Medications like metformin for people with insulin resistance help, too. “There’s a lot you can do to manage your insulin resistance as soon as you realize it’s there.”
Other studies, including the landmark Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging, have found that participants’ attitude about the inevitable losses of aging matters, too.
“Some of them thought that aging sucks — your friends die, you get disease, you can’t do whatever you want, you can’t eat and drink what you like,” Ferrucci says. “But others thought aging was not so bad.” And people who had a positive view of aging at age 40 had significantly less cardiovascular disease later on.
“How that works will require a lot more work from us,” Ferrucci says. “But clearly these people have found ways of behaving and thinking and interacting with the environment and other people that works for them.”
http://ww2.kqed.org/stateofhealth/2016/04/19/secrets-of-getting-to-your-90s-in-good-health/
What’s Your Relationship with Aging?
ReplyDeleteby Jeanette Leardi, ChangingAging Contributor
If you’re alive, you’re aging.
Forgive me for stating the obvious, but it’s worth noting that people have varying degrees of awareness of this fact...
What’s more important, perhaps, isn’t how often we think about aging but rather, how we feel about it when we do…Our relationship with the aging process not only tells us important things about how we see ourselves but also about our willingness to see others of all ages as equally viable human beings.
And so, the question arises: What’s your relationship with aging? I ask the question in this way because living with aging is analogous to having a relationship with another person, which can be described in one of four ways.
Aging as an “enemy”
…from a place of fear. To them, getting older means becoming more vulnerable to inevitable degeneration and decline. It’s a threat they struggle to defeat despite the reality that aging is a natural process of life. Nevertheless, they do all that they can to hold aging at bay for as long as possible by using such weapons as Botox, hair dye, and suspect nutritional supplements.
Aging as a “stranger”
…in denial about the fact that they are getting older. Aging takes on the veneer of unfamiliarity, of being foreign to one’s personal experience. “Who me?” they say. “No way! I’m not old.” Of course, this reaction is based on the same kind of fear with which one confronts an enemy, only the tactic is more one of flight rather than fight.
Aging as a “neighbor”
…in the same way that they might tolerate an unpleasant next door neighbor whom they occasionally feel obligated to acknowledge during brief encounters…They are polite and try to keep the interaction short. They deal with their aches and pains as inevitable latter-years symptoms and stoically endure experiences of ageism, all the while failing to perceive any advantages to getting older.
Aging as a “friend”
…characterized by meaningful engagement. Like any friendship, aging can be sometimes challenging and problematic but also deeply rewarding in the many experiences and insights it brings. People who treat the aging process as a valued friend mindfully seek to nurture it and will defend its honor and dignity when confronted by outsiders who threaten to diminish its importance. They stand up to ageism just as they would to a bully who is pushing their friend around. And they look forward to more years of such a fulfilling relationship.
It’s easy to see that each of us not only falls somewhere along this enemy-stranger-neighbor-friend spectrum, but that during the course of our lives we often journey from one type of relationship with aging to another.
Consider this: As young children, we can’t wait to get older. When asked our age, we often want to make it very clear that we are “nine and three-quarters” or “almost 12.” Aging is not only our friend but our superhero — able to grant us newly acquired special powers at each stage of life. As teens, we can’t wait to be old enough to drive, then old enough to go to college, then old enough to get a job or get married.
But somewhere along the way, say, around middle age, our youth-centric society begins to pressure us to break up with our friend and see the “reality” of the personal threat that aging poses. Then the process becomes like an “ex” whom we would like to forget but keeps reappearing and has to be dealt with. And the relationship often grows more acrimonious with time.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Our relationship with aging can remain as a loving friendship throughout our lives when we understand that it’s a cumulative experience that provides us with an ever-changing variety of psychological and spiritual gifts –– if we are open to anticipating and accepting them.
So I ask again: What’s your relationship with aging?
If you’ve had a falling out somewhere along the line, maybe it’s time to reconcile.
Published on: July 26, 2016
http://changingaging.org/elderhood/whats-relationship-aging/
Living to 100 is a mixed blessing in ‘Older Than Ireland’
ReplyDeleteBy Mick LaSalle
August 17, 2016
The documentary “Older Than Ireland” is an attempt to give a survey of 20th century Irish history through the recollections of Irish centenarians. It’s not rigorous in its approach, but impressionistic, so that we come away more interested in the people than in their particular ideas or memories.
Of course, for Irish audiences the insights into Irish life may be of special value. But for everyone else, the movie’s overriding point of fascination is that it might very well represent the largest assemblage of centenarians ever put into a single film. There are about 30 of them, and the film ends up offering a look at the various ways people experience extreme old age.
Some are clearly ill, and some aren’t. Some seem to have retained a radiant selfhood and others seem to have been subsumed by age. Some seem beaten by disappointment and tragedy, and others are rather bouncy and upbeat. Some seem perplexed by their longevity, some inconvenienced by it, and some seem to take it in stride. One woman says she thinks she’d have been better off dying years ago, because, as it stands, she has outlived everyone she knew.
At one point a man lies in bed, talking about his first kiss. To say that he looks close to death would be to put it mildly. He looks old enough to have attended Death’s bar mitzvah. But then he suddenly lets out a whoop, remembering this happy memory, and you see the spirit trapped in that body.
At one point, the centenarians are asked about the meaning of life and the meaning of their longevity. The ones who feel they have a clue seem happier than the ones who know they have no idea what’s going on.
There are moments of humor. One fellow talks about how he has no online life, no Twitter, no email. “I have no mobile phone,” he says. “But I’m bloody glad to be mobile myself.”
But overall, the experience of “Older Than Ireland” is a bit depressing. Here are the winners of the genetic jackpot. That prize looks better than the alternative, but it doesn’t look that great.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Living-to-100-is-a-mixed-blessing-in-Older-9148130.php
Life Expectancy In U.S. Drops For First Time In Decades, Report Finds
ReplyDeleteDecember 8, 2016 12:02 AM ET
ROB STEIN
One of the fundamental ways scientists measure the well-being of a nation is tracking the rate at which its citizens die and how long they can be expected to live.
So the news out of the federal government Thursday is disturbing: The overall U.S. death rate has increased for the first time in a decade, according to an analysis of the latest data. And that led to a drop in overall life expectancy for the first time since 1993, particularly among people younger than 65….
Now, there's a chance that the latest data, from 2015, could be just a one-time blip. In fact, a preliminary analysis from the first two quarters of 2016 suggests that may be the case, says Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch at the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the new report.
Anderson says government analysts are awaiting more data before reaching any definitive conclusions.
"We'll have to see what happens in the second half of 2016," he says.
Still, he believes the data from 2015 are worth paying attention to. Over that year, the overall death rate increased from 724.6 per 100,000 people to 733.1 per 100,000.
While that's not a lot, it was enough to cause the overall life expectancy to fall slightly. That's only happened a few times in the past 50 years. The dip in 1993, for example, was due to high death rates from AIDS, flu, homicide and accidental deaths that year.
On average, the overall life expectancy, for someone born in 2015, fell from 78.9 years to 78.8 years. The life expectancy for the average American man fell two-tenths of a year — from 76.5 to 76.3. For women, it dropped one-tenth — from 81.3 to 81.2 years.
…Most notably, the overall death rate for Americans increased because mortality from heart disease and stroke increased after declining for years. Deaths were also up from Alzheimer's disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease and diabetes. More Americans also died from unintentional injuries and suicide. In all, the decline was driven by increases in deaths from eight of the top 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.
"When you see increases in so many of the leading causes of death, it's difficult to pinpoint one particular cause as the culprit," Anderson says.
The obesity epidemic could be playing a role in the increase in deaths from heart disease, strokes, diabetes and possibly Alzheimer's. It could also be that doctors have reached the limit of what they can do to fight heart disease with current treatments.
The epidemic of prescription opioid painkillers and heroin abuse is probably fueling the increase in unintentional injuries, Arun Hendi, a demographer at Duke University, wrote in an email. The rise in drug abuse and suicide could be due to economic factors causing despair.
"Clearly, that could be related to the economic circumstances that many Americans have experienced in the last eight years, or so, since the recession," saysIrma Elo, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania.
Whatever the cause, the trend is concerning, especially when the death rate is continuing to drop and life expectancy is still on the rise in most other industrialized countries.
"It's pretty grim," says Anne Case, an economist at Princeton University studying the relationship between economics and health.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/12/08/504667607/life-expectancy-in-u-s-drops-for-first-time-in-decades-report-finds
The new truth about Aspirin, and your doctor’s slow uptake of medical evidence
ReplyDeleteInderveer Mahal, The Conversation
Apr 7, 2019
For decades, millions of patients have been taking a daily Aspirin in an attempt to prevent hearts attacks and strokes. But in March 2019, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association released guidelines declaring healthy adults with an average risk for heart disease receive no overall benefit from a daily Aspirin.
In simple terms, Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is now “low-value medical care.”
The term has been coined to classify tests and medications that are ineffective and provide no benefit to a patient’s medical care. Instead, low-value care can actually expose patients to harm, shift the focus away from beneficial care and result in unnecessary costs to the patient and the health-care system.
Since entering medical school almost 10 years ago, and now as a practicing family doctor, I have noticed this ever-growing need to identify and move away from low-value medical care.
In the case of Aspirin, research shows that average-risk patients are exposed to higher risks of bleeding and led to falsely believe Aspirin is the best form of primary prevention.
In fact, the best protection is regular exercise, a healthy diet and avoiding smoking.
Health-care systems slow to respond
Convincing doctors to stop making a low-value care recommendation may be a slow and difficult task. History tells us doctor and patient expectations may be slow to respond to this new information.
It’s no secret health-care systems are slow to integrate new research into clinical practice. A landmark study from the early 2000s showed there is a time lag of 17 years before research is implemented into regular care.
Changing clinical practice also goes beyond integrating new information. It requires unlearning and de-adopting outdated, ineffective clinical practices. And it’s this process that health systems particularly struggle with.
This partially explains why low-value health care continues to thrive — to the tune of $765 billion of unproductive expenditure in the United States in the year 2013 alone.
Doctors practice ‘defensive medicine’
Part of the challenge in unlearning is that it interrupts the status quo, both for doctors and patients. For instance, in previous decades, family doctors had all patients undergo a yearly physical exam and routine blood work. We thought this annual check would find diseases and make patients healthier.
Instead, research has shown annual exams are very low yield. They provide no health benefit for a large, healthy subset of our population…
Studies looking into the complexity of unlearning among physicians highlight the inherent shame and loss of professional self-worth that occurs when previous practices are abandoned and considered obsolete.
Even more powerful is the impact that removing previous practices can have on patients. Our culture places a strong emphasis on the mantra “more is better.” More exams. Most tests. More procedures.
When doctors refuse to provide care that was previously considered beneficial and important, the pushback from patients can be strong. As a family doctor, I often inform my patients that I don’t do annual checkups. Most are surprised and some become upset…
Complicating the matter even more is how overusing health services allows doctors to protect themselves against malpractice lawsuits. This is known as “defensive medicine.”
…Initiatives such as the international Choosing Wisely campaign are making efforts to try to curb low-value care by educating health-care providers and patients on the drawbacks and harms of over-testing and medical misuse…
Inderveer Mahal is a family physician and global journalism fellow at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-new-truth-about-aspirin-and-your-doctors-slow-uptake-of-medical-evidence