MatureAging Blog

Anger gets a bad rap. Our parents and teachers trained us to be proper young children and never to be angry, though they always seemed to be enraged about something. (We always thought they were justifiably angry because of us – but that’s another story.) There are volumes of articles showing that persistent anger can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Anger has always been considered bad, much like sexual dysfunction, there are no good versions of it.

There is no sugar coating it: existence is harsh.  Life, for most of us, is a battlefield that we never leave until removed in a body-bag. The United Kingdom recently created a minister of loneliness.  The job of this office is to develop strategies that will help alleviate the feeling of being cut off from society: the sense of being alone or disengaged.  Particularly the elderly suffer from this affliction of isolation.

We have reached the age when we can honestly claim that we have witnessed the cycle of life.  We have seen, if not experienced first-hand, many challenges.   As we get older, we may celebrate the increase in our families’ numbers but we also increasingly suffer the loss of family members and friends.  For reasons that those with degrees are still debating, death leaves a more lingering and disturbing emotion on our psyche than does birth.  Perhaps a human loss alerts us that inevitably our time will also be up.  We recognize, reluctantly, that there are no exceptions.  If we are born, we are destined to die.  We only hope that it is later than sooner.  In the meantime, we need to assimilate the deaths of those around us. 

We may have been taught to believe that the heart and brain are cradles for two different sources of human emotions: passions reside in the heart, and the brain comprises the analytical portion of our make-up and never the twain shall they meet. But that is not how scientists today view these two structures. They consider these two organs as interdependent, or to use the language of those wearing lab coats, bidirectional: what is good for one is good for the other, and the reverse. In other words, our mood disorders take a toll on our cardiovascular health and our heart ailments can lead to depression and anxiety, among the illnesses we associate with the mind.

We tend to disregard the obvious: taking an active part in our health care means working in partnership with those we entrust with our health. 

The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has decreed that all new products that are required to carry the nutritional labels must adhere to new standards and revisions.   Just a reminder, foods that are not processed, such as raw fruits and vegetables, need not carry a nutritional label.

An estimated 48 million Americans have some form of hearing loss. Studies have also shown that a quarter of the nearly 29 million adults in America who could benefit from a hearing aid, actually use one.  Most hearing aids, especially if not fit by a healthcare provider such as an audiologist, end up as an ITD – “it’s left in the drawer”.

Those over 55 years are the fastest growing demographic for a gym membership.  This current phenomenon is not lost to gym marketers who try to discourage the younger set from intimidating that lucrative group.  They have designed programs and hours that separate the two.

It’s all good news: According to an AARP Bulletin article by Warren Clarke, the number of people over 70 who have been killed in auto accidents has decreased by 18% in the last two decades.  Moreover, The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has shown that seniors today are involved in fewer crashes per mile traveled than in previous generations. As we get older, we no longer use our cars as assault vehicles. 

A worthwhile book for those preparing to retire is Don’t Retire, Rewire by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. The co-authors raise many interesting questions you should answer before you retire. 

As we grow older, we are at a higher risk at developing foodborne illnesses.  Primarily because our immune system lessens with age, becoming less efficient at doing battle with bacteria.  Also, because we are more likely to take medications that may reduce the stomach acids that are a natural first defense against ingested bacteria.  Finally, our sense of smell may ebb, causing us to fail to realize that our food might smell bad and may have spoiled.

Am I a big fan of Suze Orman, the ubiquitous personal finance guru?   No. Not really.   In the past, she has recommended that people buy term-life insurance instead of whole-life insurance and invest the difference in premiums.   Yet how many people do that?   

The “C” in this case doesn’t only represent cancer.   The “C” is for any life-changing occurrence. It refers to more than merely worrying about the type and font size of an article. It is the type of event that leads to anxiety and worry of an adult rather than of a student failing a math exam in the 5 th grade.   Though both are viewed as a precursor of a catastrophic future.

As we get older, we worry about losing our minds, specifically our ability to remember names, dates and where we last placed our keys.    When we were younger such “forgetfulness” never bothered us.   We assumed it was part of our addled brain.   We even made jokes about it: It’s a good thing her head is connected to her body, goes one. But as we age, our memory lapses become more worrisome.   But should they?   

You have checked your medicine chest (don’t get frightened by its enormity: the average adult takes over 14 medications per year) and have exchanged (with your doctor’s blessings) many of them. You have gotten rid of over-the-counter medicines, prescriptions and dietary supplements that may impair your memory.   Yet, you find yourself forgetting words that you knew yesterday, or you get lost driving to visit your children (a car trip that you undertake almost daily) or have misplaced (again) your keys, or you experience wild mood changes for seemingly no reason, at least that you can remember.   What are you to do?   How do you keep yourself sharp as you age? You take pride in your fly-paper memory.   You remember every detail, no selective memories for you.   But you are afraid that you will lose that mental acuity.

Some of us expect that as we age that we would lose some of our body strength, even some of our mobility.   But the power to see, that will remain with us forever.   Others have a more mature response:   Why should vision be any different?   Changes in how we see are inevitable.   There is good news for both schools of thought.    The future – with new medications and lenses – may be clearer and brighter.  

If you have ever cracked a psychology text, you have seen it: two pictures, usually side-by-side, of a dark circle surrounded by other white rings.   In one image, the circles surrounding the inner circle are significantly larger than the center one, while in the other, they are much smaller.   Which of the two circles in the center is larger, we are asked.   We know the answer, but incredibly our instinct drives us to declare that the black circle surrounded by smaller circles is bigger than the other one.   They are, of course, of equal size.    We have been duped by a modest mind-game.

Most of us have difficulty in talking to our friends, neighbors and even (or especially) close relatives about our physical and mental challenges. There are several reasons for such a hesitancy.

Few topics make me uncomfortable and this is one of them.   There are two reasons for this.

You might think that physicians and scientists are still debating whether your genes or your lifestyle determine how long you live. The truth is that this question – is it nature or nurture? – has been settled.