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This
month, I turn 86 years of age. This -- birthday time -- is the convenient
occasion every year for me to take personal inventory. There are several levels
to this check-up, obviously the most basic one being my physical self. Given
the insults dished out by ever-lengthening time, how is my body responding?
To help me along this year is a special health report from the Harvard Medical
School titled, "Living Better, Living Longer."
This very interesting report contains what it identifies as the secrets of
healthy aging. While it does not deny the importance of one's genetic inheritance,
the report goes on to make a most important point of how much environment
and lifestyle influence our health and life span.
Much of the traditional inevitable deterioration previously associated with
growing old -- such as high blood pressure, creeping weight gain and significant
memory loss accompanied by intellectual impairment -- is not considered to
be genetically fully predetermined, but rather a product, a function of personal
behavior. In other words, one's longevity is greatly a product of one's lifestyle.
This new medical insight into extending life is taking root in society. Just
a short 100 years ago, U.S. life expectancy was a full 30 years shorter than
it is now. In California, we are on the way to having the over-65 population
grow from 3.7 million in the year 2000 to 10.1 million by 2040. With the ranks
of the 85-and-older folks also rapidly increasing, this is a basis for the
100-year-old group being now the fastest growing group in the United States.
In this greatly swelling population of the elderly, my 86 years of ago is
a most modest achievement. In my continued quest for longevity, I take nothing
for granted, I work at it. In my diet, my governing motto is if the item is
good for my health, I like it. If the food is supposed to be bad for me, I
don't like it and reject it (even if previously I had immensely enjoyed it,
as with ice cream, for example).
Given this fortunate bonus of years of much more life, I have chosen to spend
it, to the best of my understanding, advocating for public issues that will
meet the needs of the growing ranks of the elderly. In that conjunction, my
best gift to my children, I tell them, is for me to remain mobile and independent,
not in need of their help, only their continued love.
This magnificent growing increase in longevity should be universally acclaimed
as one of the most tremendous achievements of the human race. All around,
there should be congratulations, kudos and hosannas.
Instead, this happy miracle of more life is not fully appreciated. Many, especially
politicians, seemingly view the growing ranks of the elderly as a huge national
financial catastrophe. Witness the pushing, shoving and the dragging of their
reluctant political feet when it comes to delivering on their pledged word
of a prescription drug benefit for all seniors.
And that dragging of feet is followed by doleful moaning about the future
of Social Security. Yet for other causes there is always enough money, like
the $5 billion bribe offer to the Turks to use their country for a launching
pad for the projected Iraqi war. And then a further $100 billion or more for
the war itself, and for the aftermath still more billions for "rebuilding"
Iraq.
And for the poor politicians, the worst is yet to come if the research of
Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California at San Francisco bears full
fruit. By manipulating genes, she has extended the life of flatworms six-fold.
And these long-lived animals do not get diseases of aging until they get much
older -- in other words, a very long extension of youthfulness.
Kenyon observes, "I think it's very reasonable that we could increase
life span by a couple of decades for most people with a concomitant increase
in 'youthfulness.'" Oh boy! Wouldn't that give our worried politicians
a real fit.
Ted
Ruhig is well-known in Sacramento for his tireless advocacy for proposals
designed to help seniors live long, happy, full lives. He has held leadership
roles in several advocacy groups and on government advisory boards. Ruhig
once sued the California Department of Aging for age discrimination, and won!
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