Prime Time: A New Look At Aging

Why terrific test results can fizzle

It seems every organization, company and nonprofit group is conducting studies on the factors that contribute to healthy aging. So I launched a scheme that had been percolating for some time.

The first step: the filing of a fictitious business name—Radishiology International. Next, at senior centers I placed “help wanted” notices on bulletin boards and rounded up enough people for three separate studies. The first one I called the control group. The participants simply kept track of what they ate for six months. Group 2 received six radishes per day that were included in one or meals a day. Group 3 members also got six radishes per day along with the explanation that they were part of an important study that would determine how much radishes improved their health, sex life, and looks.

Group 3 reported amazing progress in all three categories, enough to rate an 83 percent improvement on my progress scale. Group 2 scored a 49 percent gain in their energy levels. Even Group 1 showed slight weight losses and improved sleeping patterns, for an overall 17 percent advance.

The participants were unaware of the Friedelbern Factor, the finding that people engaged in research studies invariably get their act together and produce more, lose more, or make love more often, depending on the study emphasis. It’s like the placebo effect.

Before the study period, I had purchased every available radish seed and invested heavily in radish futures. By month four of the study, my radish cartel was in place. You’ve probably read or heard about the profits made by growers and dealers of blueberries, broccoli, tomatoes, and apples after testing proved their efficacy.

Things started popping after I announced the study results. I hired all of the study participants to help process orders. A veritable Niagara of cash flowed in.

Then came Bilbous Squelch. “I’m from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Radish Division, and I’m here to help,” he said as he parked his hand truck with three large boxes by my desk. The top box contained 978 pages of single-spaced instructions on interstate, intrastate and overseas shipment regulations. The middle box had 1,539 pages detailing the health and safety aspects of growing and shipping radishes. The third box had 1,752 pages that required information to be sent to 71 other government agencies.

It took less than six minutes to see that, like crime, a cartel doesn’t pay. I did recoup some money from the venture, and it’s doing fairly well since I invested in two of the leading paper supply companies.

A wake-up call for seniors

Uncle Howard, with wife in tow, rode the subway for a family get-together at the home of Dr. Gene Cohen. When they surfaced, the New York City streets were white with snow, and catching a taxi proved impossible.

Uncle Howard, a man in his seventies, pondered a bit, then suddenly said, “Let’s cross the street.” He’d spotted a pizza establishment. Moments later he’d ordered one big pizza after learning the store delivered, then asked, “Can you deliver us with it?” An amused manager agreed, and the sojourners were soon visiting with family members.

Dr. Cohen includes this and many other anecdotes in The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life. As Betty Friedan points out in a back-cover blurb: So much research has been done on decline and terminal illness and all the negative aspects of aging, and so little is known about what really happens with the [creative] process in healthy people.”

He notes that advances in public health, nutrition, medical technology and science have expanded opportunities for older people to express themselves and fulfill their creative needs. People like Einstein and Edison represent creativity with a big “C” while individuals who make a meal a bit differently, design a backyard garden, or write a poem have achieved small “c” creativity that enhances life and produces satisfaction.

“Even in the best of circumstances, creativity is an evolving process; it ebbs and flows, and moves us in different ways at different times,” Dr. Cohen says. His studies and contacts with elders convinced him “that it is never too late, even in the face of obstacles, to enjoy a fuller experience of our human potential.”

He also describes the qualities that can enhance our creativity include self-motivation; stick-to-it-iveness; resourcefulness; independence; curiosity; attraction to the unknown; a sense of challenge; tolerance of ambiguity; ability to “step outside the lines”; desire to seek something different; courage to imagine things that aren’t; and the willingness to take risks, to dream, and to draw inspiration from within oneself.

The book’s publisher is Avon Books, Inc.

 

The future for assisted living

A lot of powerful groups have every incentive to make assisted living work for you, the American senior citizen.

Take hospitals. They have just spent the last decade building and refurbishing hospitals in a manner not seen since the 1950s, modernizing, refitting and refurbishing, making hospitals modern and hooked up to all kinds of new equipment. But at the end of this massive renovation and rebuilding program, there are now 88,000 fewer available beds then there were a decade ago. Hospitals want assisted living to work.

Or take politicians. The new healthcare patterns being debated or decided in Washington today depend for their success on pushing more responsibility onto the patient. Their programs will fall apart unless they can get us all to take more care of ourselves. Hopefully better, but crucially, more. Politicians don't want the taxpayer to support you in the hospital any longer than necessary--nor do they want to spend on long term care facilities. They need assisted living to work.

And then there's business. A lot of business. The U.S. and Canada spent $6 billion on home medical equipment two years ago, and it's growing by almost 9% per year. Most of it goes on wheelchairs and equipment to treat diabetes, but they cannot survive without assisted living being a good option.

So you're not alone.

Going for the big One-double-0

“Is getting older slowing down?” Dr. Walter M. Bortz asks. Then he urges, “Don’t slow down.”

If you keep active in mind, body and spirit, “you can defy the so-called effects of aging,” he declares in his book DARE to Be 100. He provides a good example of the message. He runs at least one marathon a year, and he is now 79.

Here’s a capsule review of the DARE elements:

Diet—Eat a varied diet that includes plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Attitude—If you want to do something, you must first believe you can.
Renewal—Recharge, keep working, and stay in the mainstream.
Exercise—Be strong, stay loose, and stay balanced.

He provides 99 tips divided among these four categories, and he regards attitude as the most important element. Research shows the natural lifespan of humans is more than 30 years above current expectations, he notes.

In an earlier book called We Live Too Short and Die Too Long, he offers these steps for a long, healthy life:

1. Do at least 30 minutes of sustained, rhythmic, vigorous exercise four times a week. Make it as much a part of your day as eating and sleeping.
2. Eat like a bushman. This means whole grains and lean meat, along with the fruits and veggies.
3. Get as much sleep and rest as you need. Make quiet time a major priority.
4. Maintain your sense of humor and deflect anger. A positive mind-set creates the expectation that something good is about to happen, and opens the door to new options for success.
5. Set goals and accept challenges that force you to be as alive and creative as possible. Growth and living are nearly synonymous. When one stops, so does the other.
6. Don’t depend on anyone else for well-being. Maintain mastery, autonomy and independence in your daily life.
7. Be necessary and responsible. See each day as a chance to help someone or something. Associate with other active, involved individuals.
8. Don’t slow down. Stick with the mainstream. Maintaining your energy flow is the antidote to the perceived losses of aging.

 

Recipe for aging, plus some insights

  Ruth Bernhard, a highly regarded photographer and a senior, offers this “Recipe for a long and happy life”:
    1. Never get used to anything.
    2. Hold on to the child in you.
    3. Keep your curiosity alive.
    4. Trust your intuition.
    5. Delight in simple things.
    6. Say “yes” to life with passion.
    7. Fall madly in love with the world.
    8. Remember: Today is the day!
 
 According to Eric Tainter, “A person is not old until regrets take the place of dreams.” He also said, “Happiness is that peculiar feeling when you're too busy to be miserable."

 From the Internet comes these thoughts about things people have learned as they aged:
 I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. (Age 82)
 I’ve learned if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the best you can, happiness will find you. (Age 65)
 I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. (Age 62)
 I’ve learned that it pays to believe in miracles. And to tell the truth, I’ve seen several. (Age 73)
 I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch—holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. (Age 85)
 I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn (Age 92)
 
While on their fishing boat, the husband, concerned about a possible emergency, said to his wife, “Please take the wheel, dear. Pretend I’m having a heart attack and you must get the boat safely to shore” She did so.
That evening, she walked into the living room where he sat watching the tube, switched the TV channel and said, “Please go into the kitchen, dear. Pretend I’m having a heart attack. You must set the table, cook the dinner, and wash the dishes.”
 
Don’t worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
Despite the cost of living, it’s still quite popular.
The aging process could be slowed if it had to work its way through Congress.
Don’t take life so seriously—it’s not permanent.
The age of some folks is like the speedometer on a used car—you know it’s set back but you don’t know how far.
 
From a senior center newsletter story about staff changes: “Please bare with us as we acclimate and move forward for a better future.”
 Bumper sticker:  Friends may come and go, but aches and pains accumulate
 “Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.”—Redd Foxx
 “When men reach their 60s and retire, they go to pieces. Women go right on cooking.”—Gail Sheehy
 “Age is a high price to pay for maturity.”—Tom Stoppard
 T-shirt message: At my age I’ve got an achy breaky everything.
 Another T-shirt: The older I get the better I was.
 
 And here’s Ashleigh Brilliant’s slant:
 “Life has been very confusing, because I’ve been different ages at different times.
 “I still have many of my old dreams, but some of the colors have faded.
 “Inside every older person there’s a younger person wondering what happened.
 “No wonder I feel so tired—I’m older now than I’ve ever been before.”
  * *
 Cicero put it this way: “Life is a play with a badly written last act.”
 “It is time to be old, to take in sail.”— Emerson
 But, says E.B. Skinner, “It is not a time to be wholly adrift.”

 

Negative stereotypes can cause problems

With a wave of baby boomers approaching retirement age, the force of numbers may one day develop positive views on aging, or at least temper pessimism about growing old. If so, a change in perspective will bring benefits.

Negative stereotypes can be physically harmful, researchers have discovered. Putdowns and insults hamper seniors’ memory and create stress, based on findings by psychologist Thomas Hess of North Carolina University in Raleigh. Exposure to words such as grumpy, feeble and senile evidently causes anxiety, he postulates. Study participants who were forewarned about the negative test aspects took the slurs in stride.

Becca Levy of Yale University determined that people with a positive attitude about growing old live on average seven and a half years longer than individuals with pessimistic points of view. The upbeat people are less likely to become frail, according to studies by Glenn Ostir of the University of Texas in Galveston.

Robert Butler, head of the International Longevity Center in New York City, invented the word “ageism” in 1974 to reflect society’s negative stereotyping of the elderly in movies, TV and the press. His organization has sponsored workshops for journalists about the science and lifestyle aspects of aging with the goal of reversing false assumptions.

Youngsters acquire the stereotypes early, says gerontologist Sandra McGuire of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. By the time children are about 11, their attitudes are set. “We have to get to these kids earlier,” she adds. “We take far too many kids to nursing homes and not enough to senior activity centers.”

Then there’s the school of thought that aging has benefits. For example, the things you couldn’t have when you were young you no longer desire.

 

Watch Aubrey deGrey talk about defeating 'aging'

Coping with heat-related problems

Hot weather poses risks for older folks, especially those with health problems. The National Institute on Aging reports that hypothermia can include heat stroke, heat fatigue, dizziness after exercising, and heat exhaustion. Factors that may exacerbate the problem include:

Poor blood circulation and inefficient sweat glands
Heart, lung and kidney diseases, as well as illnesses that cause weakness or fever
High blood pressure
An inability to perspire because of diuretics, sedatives and other drugs
Being overweight or underweight
Drinking alcoholic beverages
Being dehydrated.

Older adults, especially those with these risk factors, should stay indoors when it’s extremely hot. Those without air conditioning or fans should visit senior centers, shopping malls, libraries, or other cooling centers.

For victims of heat stroke, the institute recommends these steps:

Get the person out of the sun and into a cool place
Offer water, fruit or vegetable juices; avoid alcohol and caffeine
Encourage the person to shower, bathe or sponge off with cool water
Apply a cold, wet cloth to the wrists, neck, armpits, and groin—places where blood flows near the surface
Urge the person to lie down and rest in a cool place

For more information on the hypothermia topic, call 1-800-222-2225 or visit
http:///www.niapublications.org/agepages//hyperther.asp

Scam artists target seniors

While standing in line at the market, an older man was bumped by an attractive middle-aged woman, who apologized and insisted on making amends by running several errands for him. Soon she gained his confidence, then his entire savings, plus his house. It’s easy to see why this type of crime is called a sweetheart scam.

Older adults fall prey to such schemes in higher ratios. They are more trusting,  principled, and, let’s face it, more gullible. Seniors make up about 13 percent of the population but fall victim to more than half of the telemarketing schemes dreamed up by clever con artists.

Some reverse mortgage and estate trusts squeak under the legal wire while enticing seniors to pay more for unneeded contract features.

Then there are the Ponzi schemes. Charles Ponzi taught Bostonians a lesson 90 years ago. He claimed he’d discovered a way of acquiring international postal reply coupons in countries with anemic economies. By cashing them in here, he could make a profit of 10 percent or more. Like Tom Sawyer lining up kids to whitewash a fence, he created an image of a wealthy man.

Investors earned a 50 percent return in 90 days by investing in Ponzi’s new Security Exchange Company. As the cash flowed in, he lowered the payback period to 45 days. His sales agents received a 10 percent commission for investments they obtained, and they enlisted their own sub-agents who received 5 percent.

A Boston Globe story added to the stampede. More than 40,000 people invested about $15 million. Ponzi bought a mansion, two fine cars, and for his wife, Rose, fine jewelry. He also bought a bank. Postal investigators and the local gendarmes began investigating the dapper 5-foot, 2-inch tycoon. It turned out he’d purchased a grand total of $61 worth of postal reply coupons, and was merely paying off this month’s investors with money received 45 days earlier.

The Boston Globe did a critical follow-up story. Eventually his stamp scheme came unglued. A judge sentenced him to 11 years in prison. He was deported after his release, but by then his name had become synonymous with a grand scam.

Fail gracefully

In engineering there is a concept called 'failing gracefully.' It doesn't really have a precise definition, but it refers to the idea of minimising the consequences of failure. If a building collapses, graceful failure would mean it didn't knock over other buildings, and would do so slowly enough for people to escape. If an engine quits, it doesn't immediately stop what is powering it, allowing a glide to resting position.

One common view of aging is that it is a process of surrender, giving up abilities and activities that we may have practiced all our lives as our bodies are no longer able to perform or recover from them. While I'm not that big a fan of surrender as a philosophy, I am well aware that sometimes giving up is what ya gotta do.

But how many of us prepare for giving up, so that we 'fail gracefully?' If my vision is deteriorating gradually but steadily, doesn't it make sense for me to find a place to live that doesn't require my driving? If I do it well in advance, then I don't have to move at the same time I'm getting used to poorer vision. Pretty much the same is true if I know I'm going to require major surgery.

Although I generally look at modern communications technology as a 'done deal' that we should all be using unconsciously, these tools can help us plan. The internet can tell us what the likely outcome of our current conditions will be, and help us plan a strategy in advance. The tools certainly exist for us to adapt to reduced function, ranging from larger screens to call buttons to intelligent wheelchairs.

The key requirement is to abandon denial as a frame of mind and think of graceful failure as a sign of superior intelligence. And since you're reading this, we already know you have that.