The Later Years
Growing old could mean growing healthier. In many ways you are as old as you think and feel. Consider these points;
• No disease results just from the passage of years.
• We age piecemeal – each organ separately rather than uniformly.
• In retirement you have less daily stress and strain, and you have more time to take care of yourself.
What then makes a person think and feel old?
The Aging Process.
Physically, we mature at about 25 to 30, when the body reaches maximum size and strength. Then, body tissues and cells are constantly being rebuilt and renewed.
Nutrition, rest, exercise and stress, influence the length of time that the body can maintain a balance between the wearing down and rebuilding of body tissues.
When more cells die than can be reproduced, they are replaced by a fibrous, inert substances called collagen.
The living process slows down to compensate, and we begin aging; strength and ability start to decline.
But this happens at various intervals. For instance:
1. Vision is sharpest at 25; the eye loses the ability to make rapid adjustment in focus after age 40.
2. Hearing is sharpest at about 10, then diminishes as you grow older.
3. Sensitivity to taste and smell lessons after age 60.
4. The decline in strength and muscle ability is long and gradual: there are even gratifying plateaus. At about 50, a man still has about four-fifth of the muscle strength he had when he was 25.
5. Although physical abilities may decline, mental abilities may actually improve during the middle years, and memory and the ability to learn can remain keen.
Prof Alfred Schwartz, Dean of Education at Drake University was asked: “Can a 70-year-old man in reasonably good health learn as rapidly as a 17-year-old boy?” Prof Schwartz answered. “Indeed he can – provided he’s in the habit of learning. The fact that some older people today are not active intellectually is no reflection on their ability to learn.
There is a simple proof that learning ability does not automatically decline with age.
Regardless of what you may have heard, organic brain damage affects less than one percent of those over age 65. But in thinking about physical change, remember that this is just one aspect of aging.
Age is determined by emotional and intellectual maturity, as well as by chronological years.
Can a person do anything to retard aging?
I specifically asked this question because of a plethora of “stay young and healthy drugs” in proliferation mainly from USA and China.
I have regularly been bombarded by my readers on the advisability of taking these “Ògwò nnú oria” as the Igbos will put it, which literally means “the magic pills that cures all”.
I have been regularly blackmailed by my responders to endorse any of the longevity and cure all pills or sachets. The new products are everywhere now, pharmacies, chemists, medicine stores, supermarkets and, wait for it even hospitals. Name them
• GNLD
• Tiashi
• Swiss Gold
• LongRich
• STC 30
• Edmark
• Greenword
• Cellgivity etc etc etc.
My caveat to them has always been “all those things you mentioned are not classified as drugs but as “food supplements “ So I cannot in all ethical orthodoxy endorse any of them as drugs.” They will now blackmail me, by asking “what of your doctor colleagues who are marketing them and smiling to the bank with their millions, sometimes in dollar denomination.” “oh well”, I would answer, “this is a free world, they are entitled to their free choices”.
Most, Gerontologists, feel that the reason more people don’t live longer is that they are not willing to follow a regimen of diet, exercise, rest, recreation – coupled with the excesses.
And while there isn’t anything you can do to set back the clock, you can keep in good health by making sure to have a regular physical examinations, sufficient exercise, adequate rest, moderate nutritious and balanced diet, plus a positive mental attitude.
Always be medically guided.
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@ _ DRSUN