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It is possible to slow the aging process. No there is no Fountain of Youth and no,
there is no pill that’s been discovered.
It’s all about lifestyle and this means starting at an early age and
sticking with it through the years.
I was recently invited to give a talk to a group of
about 100 individuals contemplating moving to a continuing care retirement
community. The topic - is it possible to
slow the aging process? I titled it “Aging
Gracefully.” Here are my thoughts
divided into three major categories: the
normal aging process, slowing the aging process, and (in a post to follow)
obtaining the very best comprehensive health care. The talk was picked up by the Howard Times of
the Baltimore Sun; the reporter’s article
is available at this link: http://bsun.md/1AtQW7E
“Old parts
wear out.” That’s normal aging. It’s universal, it’s progressive and, at
least as we know it today, it is irreversible.
Most organ functions decline by about 1% per year. Fortunately our organs have a huge redundancy
and so we can afford the declines without illness. But eventually if we live long enough and the
process continues at the usual rate a point is reached at which functional
impairment or actual disease presents.
Let’s use bone mineral density and cognitive
function as examples. During our
childhood and teenage years our bone mineral density increases and with it our
bone strength. It reaches a peak at
about age 20 and plateaus and then by age 35 starts a slow but inexorable
decline of about 1% per year. Should we
live long enough we will reach a point which we can call the “fracture
threshold” meaning that if we fall it’s possible to break a leg or a bone in
our back. Of course that 1% decline per
year is an average. Some people decline
faster and some people decline more slowly.
We’ll come back to that point.
The same goes for cognitive function.
We’re at a peak at about age 20 and then there is a long plateau with a
slow decline such that by the time we’re in our 80’s or 90’s most people have some
noticeable decline in cognition.
There are certain impairments that come with aging
such as reduced vision, reduced hearing and reduced mobility. We might not consider these as true
diseases. However there is also an
increased prevalence of chronic illnesses such as heart failure, cancer,
chronic lung and kidney disease and diabetes.
They often manifest in older ages but they actually originated many
years ago. For example coronary artery plaque
buildup begins in childhood but may not manifest itself as a heart attack until
the late 60’s. Similarly lung cancer is
on average diagnosed at age 72 but the cause began way back as a teenager when the
person first went back behind the garage for a smoke. (BTW, not all lung
cancers are due to smoking but for those that are, it was a long slow process
over time.)
These chronic illnesses are largely due to our
adverse behaviors, our lifestyles. The
four big behaviors that need to be addressed are nutrition, exercise, chronic
stress and tobacco. We could add other
factors but especially inadequate dental hygiene and excessive alcohol. All too
many of us have poor nutrition (e.g. packaged and processed foods, lack of
fresh fruits and vegetables, etc.) and at the same time we eat too much of
it. Most Americans don’t get an adequate
amount of exercise. It seems that
everyone has some level of chronic stress and 20% of Americans smoke.
To summarize, there is a normal aging process
wherein organs reduce their function by about 1% per year. This rate of decline
is related, in part, to our lifestyles beginning when we are quite young. There
are also age-prevalent chronic diseases that are also life style driven. Our
personal agendas need to include attention to healthy living so that we can
preserve wellness.
Next time – Slowing the Aging Process
