What Can We Do or Not Do to Better Our Odds in Old Age?

Krystal Shay said:
I think people that live into their 100’s have no clue, as to why they lived as long. I have one great aunt left in my family, and she is 101 years old and still lives in her house. She is sharp as a tack and says she has no clue why she is still living.
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I agree with this. I think it's mostly genetics and luck. My husband's grandfather lived to be within 5 months of his 100th birthday. He lived alone after being widowed many years before, took care of himself, and never gave up driving. In his 80's, he took each of his grandchildren to Europe as a graduation present. He smoked a pipe for 70 years, had a drink every evening, and ate whatever he pleased. He was outgoing and gregarious, and wrote his own autobiography in his early 90's then had it printed and bound. Each adult family member received a copy.

I have said before that when I was going to MD Anderson, so many of the young women in treatment were health-obsessed. Runners, gym rats, vegan, obsessed with diet "macros" and green smoothies, etc. I ate french fries and had an occasional beer, yet we all had the same kind of cancer. Most of those women are dead now, and I'm still here. Who knows why?
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I doubt it, Shirley. I was too busy crying and wondering "why me?" to be optimistic. I was grateful to have all my SOC "cheerleaders" along for the ride, though. ❤️
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Despite the fact that I had been a paramedic for over 20 years, when I was first diagnosed with cancer, I thought my life was over. That was more than twenty years ago, I think. A part of that was that, in my experience, I didn't usually know that someone had cancer until they were in their last days and, as a paramedic, the people I came across with cancer were in bad enough shape that they were being transported to hospitals by ambulance.
 
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Ken Anderson said:
Despite the fact that I had been a paramedic for over 20 years, when I was first diagnosed with cancer, I thought my life was over. That was more than twenty years ago, I think. I think a part of that was that, in my experience, I didn't usually know. that someone had cancer until they were in their last days and, as a paramedic, the people I came across with cancer were in bad enough shape that they were being transported to hospitals by ambulance.
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My problem was that I couldn't stay off of Google, which at best has 5-10 year old data and a lot of gloom and doom. Googling "Inflammatory Breast Cancer" will scare the pants off of anyone; I truly expected to be dead within months.
 
One thing we should do is acknowledge that we're older & need to modify our activities & hobbies so they are age appropriate. This applies mainly to guys.
On my daily walk, a guy asked me how old I was. I said, "73." He said, I've seen you circle the park briskly twice, don't your knees bother you?"
I said, "Not while I'm walking, but a few hours later & sometimes part of the next day they'll hurt. How about you?"
He said, "My knees always hurt really bad & I'm only 62. I'm in a lot of pain, especially after basketball."
I said, "Basketball is fine. but not for older people; it's hard on the knees. Remember, while you're recovering from surgery or injuries, you're not having much fun."
One thing that I find really asinine is that tired comment, "Age is just a state of mind." Or, "Age is just a number."
Really? So....how many Olympic athletes are competing in their 50's, 60's or 70's?
How many NBA, NFL or NHL players are 30 - 60?
 
Tony Nathanson said:
One thing we should do is acknowledge that we're older & need to modify our activities & hobbies so they are age appropriate. This applies mainly to guys.
On my daily walk, a guy asked me how old I was. I said, "73." He said, I've seen you circle the park briskly twice, don't your knees bother you?"
I said, "Not while I'm walking, but a few hours later & sometimes part of the next day they'll hurt. How about you?"
He said, "My knees always hurt really bad & I'm only 62. I'm in a lot of pain, especially after basketball."
I said, "Basketball is fine. but not for older people; it's hard on the knees. Remember, while you're recovering from surgery or injuries, you're not having much fun."
One thing that I find really asinine is that tired comment, "Age is just a state of mind." Or, "Age is just a number."
Really? So....how many Olympic athletes are competing in their 50's, 60's or 70's?
How many NBA, NFL or NHL players are 30 - 60?
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Yeah, that state of mind, young as you feel, age is just a number, 🐴:poop: gets tiring. :sneaky:
 
Lots of us take vitamins and mineral supplements. I do. I know I don't eat enough of the foods that would help my body maintain itself. But a LOT of products are not what we need even if some of the ingredients sound as if they are. This video tells of some very important info even if it also gives an opening for a sale. I used Centrum Silver on occasion when I found rotating vitamin products helped because some have more of some items than others. I select individual items now.
 
Tony Nathanson said:
One thing we should do is acknowledge that we're older & need to modify our activities & hobbies so they are age appropriate. This applies mainly to guys.
On my daily walk, a guy asked me how old I was. I said, "73." He said, I've seen you circle the park briskly twice, don't your knees bother you?"
I said, "Not while I'm walking, but a few hours later & sometimes part of the next day they'll hurt. How about you?"
He said, "My knees always hurt really bad & I'm only 62. I'm in a lot of pain, especially after basketball."
I said, "Basketball is fine. but not for older people; it's hard on the knees. Remember, while you're recovering from surgery or injuries, you're not having much fun."
One thing that I find really asinine is that tired comment, "Age is just a state of mind." Or, "Age is just a number."
Really? So....how many Olympic athletes are competing in their 50's, 60's or 70's?
How many NBA, NFL or NHL players are 30 - 60?
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It is easy to be optimistic when it's someone else life in shambles, once disaster hits home then it's all of a sudden tragic!
 
Yvonne Smith said:
I was reading an interesting article today. According to the article, back in 1979, a psychologist invited a group of older men, in their 70-80’s to a retreat.
At the retreat, everything was like it was 1959, 20 years earlier. The television played the old shows and the news from that time period, the radio had songs from the 50’s era, and all of the furnishings where they were staying looked like they fit that time period.

They said that the men began talking about how their life was back then, and discussed their careers as if they were still working, and spent the week re-living how their life was when they were 20 years younger.
At the end of the retreat, the men were walking more like they did as a younger person, and had less body pain, and they agreed that they felt younger again.

This is not to say that we should all return to living in 1959, but that the men started feeling younger inside, and their body followed along by responding to being more like a younger body, so the article said it is better to think of ourselves in that kind of a positive way.
Sometimes, we say to ourselves that we can’t do something because we are “too old”, and this is what the article said we should avoid, as much as possible.
Naturally, we can’t expect our body to be able to do the things we did when we were younger that are not safe for us to do now, but we should try and see ourselves more as the younger, healthier person we were back then, as much as possible.
It can’t hurt to try.
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This is true to a certain extent, I sometimes used to quote a Bible verse too when I just didn't feel like doing something.
: whatever thy doest, do with all thy might, for there is plenty of rest in the ground where thy goest". That verse can really remind you to stay busy.
 
Marie Mallory said:
This is true to a certain extent, I sometimes used to quote a Bible verse too when I just didn't feel like doing something.
: whatever thy doest, do with all thy might, for there is plenty of rest in the ground where thy goest". That verse can really remind you to stay busy.
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I think that is why older women had/have sewing and knitting baskets (and books). When you are not able to do very physical things we can still be busy. Goodness, My youngest asked me about tatting yesterday. That is a term I have not heard in a while.
 
I disagree strongly with the idea that health and longevity are things that we have no control over. While it is true that doing all of the right things, if we could even figure out what they were, will not guarantee us a long, healthy life, it will do far more towards that end than doing all the wrong things. There will always be outliers, just as I am sure there were people whose cancer went away after they ate apricot pits, or whatever they hell it was they did with apricot pits. You'll always be able to point to someone who lived on fast food, cigars, and beer, yet lived to be a hundred, and you will always find young children, who haven't even had the chance to do any of the wrong things, with cancer. But to suggest that it doesn't matter what you eat, drink, or do, that's not something I can accept. Yes, to a very large extent, we inherit good or bad health traits, but these are not the only determining factors.
 
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