Aging Well: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health - Softcover

Wei, Jeanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0471082066 ISBN 13: 9780471082064

Publisher: Wiley, 2001

Synopsis

In this definitive, prescriptive guide to all aspects of aging, the authors-both top experts on aging at Harvard Medical School-offer a complete and highly accessible reference focused on the physical and emotional issues that affect seniors and their loved ones. Here is invaluable advice on a range of topics, from lifestyle choices to retirement and insurance options to coping with loss and other life concerns. Aging Well addresses such increasingly important subjects as:

* Safety risks associated with growing older

* Alternative medicine and the right questions to ask

* Assisting aging parents and other challenges of the "sandwich generation"

* Mail-order products for seniors

* Healthy-aging research and potential therapies

* How to optimize and strengthen your health if your body is affected by illness or disease

Aging Well contains what you need to know to help you and your loved ones live fuller, healthier lives, whether you're 40, 50, or older-because aging well is living well.

About this title

About the Author

Jeanne Wei, M.D., Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at the Gerontology Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Sue Levkoff, Sc.D., is an Associate Professor of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of the Department of Health and Social Behavior in the Harvard Medical School of Public Health.

From the Back Cover

In this definitive, prescriptive guide to all aspects of aging, the authors both top experts on aging at Harvard Medical School offer a complete and highly accessible reference focused on the physical and emotional issues that affect seniors and their loved ones. Here is invaluable advice on a range of topics, from lifestyle choices to retirement and insurance options to coping with loss and other life concerns. Aging Well addresses such increasingly important subjects as:

Safety risks associated with growing older

Alternative medicine and the right questions to ask

Assisting aging parents and other challenges of the "sandwich generation"

Mail-order products for seniors

Healthy-aging research and potential therapies

How to optimize and strengthen your health if your body is affected by illness or disease

Aging Well contains what you need to know to help you and your loved ones live fuller, healthier lives, whether you re 40, 50, or older because aging well is living well.

• Safety risks associated with growing older

• Alternative medicine and the right questions to ask

• Assisting aging parents and other challenges of the "sandwich generation"

• Mail-order products for seniors

• Healthy-aging research and potential therapies

• How to optimize and strengthen your health if your body is affected by illness or disease

Aging Well contains what you need to know to help you and your loved ones live fuller, healthier lives, whether you’re 40, 50, or older–because aging well is living well.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Aging Well

The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional HealthBy Jeanne Y. Wei

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2001 Jeanne Y. Wei
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780471082064

Excerpt

AGING WELL

Human aging is the sum total of all experiences and adaptations thata person undergoes from conception to death, including the complexprocesses of development, maturation, and attainment of wisdom.-J. Wei

When she was 55 years old, Elsie Frank went back to work to help educate herfourth child.

At 60, she moved to Boston to be closer to her children, one of whom was goingthrough a divorce and needed a hand in looking after her three little girls.

At 70, she retired from a job that she loved in order to help her oldest son,Massachusetts Congressional Representative Barney Frank, campaign in a verytight political race. Although she'd never done any public speaking before, sheovercame her initial nervousness and time and again rose to speak out on thepodium.

Today, at 86, Elsie Frank works as a volunteer to provide housing for homelesselders and serves as an advocate in many other organizations for the elderly. Inaddition to being a valuable source of wisdom and support for her family andfriends, her views on Social Security and Medicare are sought by communityleaders and politicians alike.

As she has grown older, the needs of Elsie's family and community have grown,too, but she hasn't retreated from taking an active role in the lives of thepeople around her. Instead, she has continued to step forward to help out, andin so doing, she has remained vital and connected in a remarkably positive way.She loves life.

We don't all have to become good public speakers in order to enjoy success inour later years, but we can learn a lot from Elsie's example of aging well byliving well. In this chapter, we talk about some different ways to look at whataging is, and about how we can keep our lives healthy, dynamic, and productive.

How We Age

What comes to mind when you think of aging? Do you think of a downhill slope, anuphill climb, or simply another bend in the road? Research has shown that agingis a very complex, multifaceted process. Let's look at how this stage of life isviewed by gerontologists, specialists who study aging and have expertisein treating the problems of older people.

Chronological Age

Chronological age relates to the number of years that we have livedsince we were born. Several factors have a role in our longevity, including oursex and our genes. The average life expectancy for women in the United Stateswho were 65 years old in 1980 is 83.7 years; for men who were 65 in 1980, it is79.8 years.

Although there is no single explanation for this sex difference, there are clearindications that men tend to die sooner than women from certain diseases andconditions (such as coronary artery disease). Smoking, the most preventablecause of death in the world, is more prevalent among men than women.Unfortunately, however, lung-cancer deaths in women have been rising, due toincreased smoking by women. Gender differences in lifestyle and healthmaintenance might partly contribute to the fact that women enjoy longer lives.However, living longer may not necessarily be a cause for celebration becausetwice as many women as men live at or below the poverty line, the median incomeof older women is only 57% of that for older men, and 41% of women over the ageof 65, in contrast to 16% of older men, live alone.

In addition to sex differences, some other genetic factors also appear toinfluence the aging process. One of our colleagues, Thomas Perls, has done somefascinating research with the "oldest old" - those over age 95 years - and hasfound that many of these individuals are mentally and physically healthier thantheir somewhat younger peers in their 80s and early 90s. It's possible thatthese people have some genetic advantages that help them to overcome or copewith diseases.

How long and how well we live are not determined by any one single factor,however. Although our sex and our genetic makeup may partly contribute toaverage life expectancy, factors such as environment, lifestyle, and how we carefor our health are actually even more important.

Biological Age

Another way of looking at aging is to consider our biological age, whichhas more to do with our physical condition. For example, there appears to be arelationship between aging and "programmed cell death" (apoptosis) whichseems to be an essential part of the life of multicellular organisms such ashumans. However, the variations due to a person's susceptibility to disease andhis or her genetic makeup make it difficult for researchers to find a singleexplanation for physical decline with the passage of time. The aging processaffects each individual differently, and it even occurs at different rates amongvarious body systems within a single individual. Moreover, the decline infunction in one organ does not necessarily mean that others in the same bodywill decline, too.

Behavioral Age

Finally, gerontologists sometimes refer to behavioral age, which relatesto how old we act and how old we think of ourselves as being. Behavioral ageinvolves a person's ability to function independently. You've probably met twopeople who have the same medical diagnosis - such as arthritis or heart disease- and yet they radically differ in how well they function. One may be quitedisabled and completely dependent on others to get through the day, while theother, in spite of some limitations, may be completely self-sufficient and maybe able to perform activities of daily living (e. g., bathing, eating,dressing) with little or no difficulty.

A person's ability to function, rather than his or her disease, affects theperson's quality of life. Although we may encounter illnesses along the way,growing old is not the same thing as "functional decline." This book will helpyou to optimize and strengthen your functional reserves, so that whenone area of your body is affected by illness or disease, your functional levelsin other areas do not suffer.

Now let's look at some of the normal age-related changes and syndromes that tendto occur most commonly in older individuals.

Normal Changes in Later Life

Organ Function

In our later years, our organs sometimes may not work to the capacity that theydid when we were younger; hence, certain conditions may affect us with greaterseverity. Bacterial pneumonia, for instance, can become quite serious because ofour reduced lung function. Over time, our hearts may become less efficient, asscar tissue may take the place of healthy muscle tissue. We may experiencehardening of the arteries, or atherosclerosis, too. The chapters that followoffer specific suggestions for countering these changes with exercises, a gooddiet, and regular medical care.

Memory Loss

According to the Baltimore Longitudinal Study on Aging, which tests more than2,200 men and women every other year for physical and mental functioning,short-term memory in certain individuals tends to decline somewhat over timeafter age 70. Some individuals over the age of 70 may also experience a slightlyreduced ability to solve problems. As you'll discover in Chapter 6, though, ourbrains have plenty of cells to spare, and there are many things that we can doto strengthen our brain power. It's important to note that some forms offorgetfulness are also not related to increasing age; in fact, they are highlytreatable and even curable.

Musculoskeletal Changes

We may lose bone mass as we get older, so fractures may be more likely if wefall. Also, changes that occur in the spinal nerves may make it slightly moredifficult for some of us to maintain balance. We may also experience a loss ofmuscle tissue as we age, especially if we have not exercised. Chapter 9describes steps you can take to maintain or improve your musculoskeletalfitness, including the benefits of supplemental calcium and vitamin D, as wellas different types of exercises that can be helpful, no matter how late in lifeyou begin to do them.

Urinary and Bowel Function

Our kidneys, which help to keep water and electrolytes in balance in our bodies,can become slightly less efficient over time. Our bowels can also developproblems, partly because of long-term consumption of refined foods, inadequateamounts of fiber, and laxative use. Roughly half of all Americans over the ageof 80 develop a condition called diverticulosis (herniations through themuscular part of the colon). You can take steps to avoid kidney and bowelproblems by embracing a healthier lifestyle. Chapters 11 and 13 discuss theseproblems in more detail and provide some useful recommendations for managingthem.

Sensory Changes

Vision. As we discuss more extensively in Chapter 7, the lenses of oureyes become more opaque and stiff as we get older. At about age 40 or so, acondition

called presbyopia may develop when the lens is less able to focus atvarious distances the way it used to do. Close vision may become problematic,and bifocals may be needed. Cataracts, glaucoma, and other eye problems are alsomore likely to appear with the passage of time. However, decreased vision is notnecessarily a normal part of aging, and many of these conditions are highlytreatable.

Hearing. Long-term exposure to noise in the environment can cause mildto moderate damage to the inner ear and may cause a condition calledpresbycusis, or sensorineural hearing loss, especially in the higherfrequency range. Chapter 7 discusses the latest therapeutic options for thiscondition and for other hearing problems that some of us may encounter later inlife.

In spite of these potential age-associated changes, with a positive attitude andan ounce of prevention, we can and should function well and continue to livemeaningful lives.

Not long ago, Elsie Frank remarked, "Although we may never be able to preventaging, we at least are learning how to keep it from reducing the quality of ourlives. Nothing can prevent us from readjusting our sights as we grow older. Allof life is a readjustment to age. . . .

"What people have to remember is that just because we are older it doesn't meanthat we have lost our sense of humor, our sense of pleasure, or our dignity.It's important that we do not give up control and [that we] continue to put ourbest foot forward. I've always felt I could affect my aging process, and I'vebeen working hard at it."

In the next several chapters, we discuss how you, too, can take charge of yourown aging process and step forward to a healthier and more fulfilling future.

Continues...

Excerpted from Aging Wellby Jeanne Y. Wei Copyright © 2001 by Jeanne Y. Wei. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471082066
• ISBN 13: 9780471082064
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384