People have been seeking the fountain of youth since man started walking upright. So far it has remained an elusive myth or a topic for science fiction. Lately, however, we have discovered a way to slow the aging process down. It is called calorie restriction. You might call it starvation. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-12-07 08:48:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
We joke about senior moments and failing memory as we age. Society is accepting of senior moments as just one more part of the aging process and people may think little about being forgetful but science has another opinion.
“The very early mild cognitive changes once thought to be normal aging are really the first signs of progressive dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease.” Robert S.Wilson, PhD, neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-09-28 08:26:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
In Missouri where I grew up, the soil was fertile but the weather was unfriendly. It was hot and humid in the summer and cold and snowy in the winter. Plants grew well so long as they could take the winters. There was usually enough rain all year round so that irrigation wasn’t necessary. You plant the seed and things grow. I didn’t do much gardening in my youth but what I did do turned out to be easy. I spend most of my adult life in Southern California where the weather was close to perfect and the soil was crap. You needed to amend the soil which was humus deprived and you always had to add water since Socal is a desert. I learned to cope with the limitations of soil and water and loved the climate. Because of the wonderful weather I could grow just about any plant I wanted. Soil amendments and water were easily added. When I moved to our house in Nocal, I had to adjust again. More water and extreme temperatures and, instead of soil, rocks. As I think about it, my gardens mirror my life and it’s stages.
As a child, everything was easy and possible. My folks were encouraging and supportive. Nothing much was impossible or hard. As a result I didn’t struggle or work at anything and it all worked out pretty well. I didn’t think much about life or anything else. It wasn’t until I finally left college and began to work that I discovered that life was a different proposition than my childhood. I learned that I had to make some effort to make my life progress. I had to sell myself to employers. I had to earn promotions and stay employed. I had to learn new skills. My college degrees put me in the running but they didn’t get me jobs or more pay. Once I got the right system going, I could make things work.
After I retired but wanted to continue working and earning my life and success changed again. I had to find new employment or value for myself in a new world. It wasn’t easy to put roots into an unfriendly new environment and when I did, there wasn’t much there to support them. Temperatures could run both hot and cold and I had to adjust and adapt. Even when I did there wasn’t much support or help and it was easy to flail and fail.
I see the home stretch of my life as making a new garden in the rocks and extreme temperatures. You have to be so much more careful to keep from failing. When you do fail, you have fewer resources to support and maintain you. At this stage I hope that I am in the smarter not harder phase. I hope that the lessons I have learned and the skills I have developed will keep me on the path to success. I don’t have the energy I had when I was younger so I can’t rely on force to help me prevail.
My rock pile garden is like that. I am no longer trying to grow horticultural superstar spectaculars. I just want a garden that look good without pampering. I select plants carefully for their resilience and I don’t keep worrying about failures. I will try new plants and techniques but I won’t be fixated on any particular plant as defining my success. I will embrace the good ones and plant more. In my life I will try new things as well but I won’t get hung up on a particular success. I will embrace any success, however, and look for more.
Originally posted 2010-06-17 07:25:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
I shared my vision about finishing strong a few weeks back.I opened up about how I view my life in the home stretch and what I want to make of it. It wasn’t that I think you will share my vision about what that means. I wanted to start a dialogue with others that are entering the final laps in their life. Are you content to coast to the finish? Or do you want to pick up the pace, pull out the stops and cross that line in a blaze of glory? Now that blaze of glory may look different to you. Maybe it won’t look like a blaze of glory to some but to you it means that you invested your time in making the final chapters in your life story the best ones.
If that is you then, I want to know what that means for you. I opened up about how I view my life in the home stretch. I know for me it doesn’t mean 24-7 drudgery. I want to be enjoying the world and my family, making memories and building a legacy. For me that includes building a community of like minded people and making some money. Your idea may be completely different but if you don’t want your last years to dribble away, we can help each other. We may not agree on our goals or activities but we will share the vision of finishing strong.
Does finishing strong mean a second income to supplement your retirement? Are you looking for a vehicle to make that second income happen without requiring a full time job?
Does finishing strong mean becoming a part of an organization that helps the needy, supports activities you enjoy and makes the world a better place?
Does finishing strong mean using the resources you have built to explore the world and its beauty, make memories for your family and leave a legacy?
Does finishing strong mean learning all you can about healthy aging and doing everything you can to stay healthy and vital to the end?
Whatever finishing strong may mean for you, share it in the comments. Join the mailing list. Come back and participate. You may be thinking that you want all of the above. That is ok. I know exactly how you feel. But pick one area and get started on the adventure. We all start with baby steps. But we do have to start.
Originally posted 2010-06-28 09:02:12. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Image by RaeAllen via Flickr
I just celebrated my birthday; Even though I try to forget how many of them I have had, I can’t really deny that I am getting old. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I could pretend it isn’t so. As long as I didn’t look to closely at the image in the mirror when I shaved, I felt young – or at least not old. Lately, it’s not so easy. Despite the efforts of a personal trainer who has get me into the best muscle tone since basic training, there is no fooling mother nature. I need more sleep than I used to and my knees hurt all the time.
I’m not saying this to whine and complain. Whining helps me cope a bit but it doesn’t make the pain any less. Complaining diverts me from what is important. There is a finite amount of time left. My life is wrapping up and there are a bunch of things that I still want to do while I can. I don’t have all that much time left.
There is also the possibility that I will suffer some physical injury or disability that prevents me from being active. I can’t control those events. I likely have twenty or so years left but I can’t guarantee that those twenty years will be active and healthy. Each day that I can get up, take a walk and live a normal life is a blessing. I don’t know how many I have left but I want to live every one fully.
So this is what motivates me these days. I don’t have any time to waste. There are things I want to do, places I want to go and I need to generate some income to grease those skids. This gets me going each morning. It makes me pay attention to my work schedule and it and it motivates me to include fun breaks as well.
It would be easy to accept my age and slack off. I could take it easy and coast to the finish line but imagine how I will feel twenty years from now on my death bed. What will I have to think about? What experiences will my wife and I share. How will I feel about my life? Maybe siting on a rocking chair and watching the sunset has it’s charms and I’ll probably get to that point sooner or later. Still I want to have many exciting experiences between now and then. I couldn’t figure out what the point of taking riding lessons was and then I discovered horse trekking in Iceland. We haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities.
Maybe you think that retirement lifestyle is making do with what you have. Maybe you are happy just sitting on a porch and letting your life wind down. Maybe you have decided that it is too late to do the things that you never had the time or money to do before. I’m not saying that you are wrong. I just know that I haven’t lived my life with the enthusiasm and spirit I wanted up til now. I don’t plan to continue that mistake. Nobody can tell me how much time I have left and how long I will have the physical strength to remain an active participant in life. So I’m not waiting any longer. I’ve got a lot of living to do.
You probably need more! Zinc is found in almost every cell of the human body. It supports a healthy immune system, wound healing and promote the senses of taste and smell. Besides maintaining the immune system, zinc can also reduce an enlarged prostate. Most adults do not get enough zinc from their diets and this is especially true for seniors who may not absorb zinc as efficiently as younger people. Vegetarians are probably zinc deficient because some plant based foods block zinc absorbtion and beef is one of the riches sources of zinc. Oysters are also a good source of zinc. The RDA for zinc is 11 mg per day for males and 8 mg per day for females. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-08-31 07:23:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Image via Wikipedia
Maybe not completely but even an aging body is a remarkable instrument when you work it.
As I reported earlier, I have now embraced exercise as a part of my daily routine. I see my personal trainer twice a week but now I commit myself to daily exercise as well. The benefits of exercise are impossible to ignore. My goal is to become an expert on my fitness. Instead of waiting for directions, as a next step I need to master my training program. It’s an evolution and I’m not ready to take over just yet but the past six months have taken me from physical decrepitude to being moderately fit. Continue reading
Image via Wikipedia
My Lifestyle Design Plan has a fitness dimension. As I reported earlier this year, the deterioration of my physical strength and agility caught me by surprise. Suddenly I couldn’t do things that were easy before, like getting up out of a chair. I had accepted getting old. I just wasn’t prepared for the realities. I wanted an active lifestyle and a walker and one of those push up chairs didn’t fit.
This was a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment for me. I had deluded myself that just making up my mind to live like a 40 year old into my 70′s and beyond would make it happen. I was learning that aging is real and it’s momentum is powerful. Thinking happy thoughts wasn’t going to keep me strong and active. I had to be aggressive.
It is amazing how easy denial can be. The only sign of aging I am forced to face each day is my face. But I’ve learned to cope. I really don’t look at the wrinkled face in the mirror each morning. I am not forced to see the other signs of deterioration and so I can remain blissfully oblivious to what is obvious to others. My wife tells me that I walk with a stoop. Of course I can’t see how I look and after a few attempts to walk straight I just pass off the comment. I don’t feel any different so I conclude that it can’t be so bad. When I observe ‘old people’ I often feel superior because of their stooped posture and clumsy movements, but ignore my own. Continue reading
Image by Argonne National Laboratory via Flickr
There is some new information about Alzheimer’s. Nobody has a cure or even a sure way to keep your brain healthy but there are some promising ideas that may help you now and will lead to research into new treatments in the future.
Some studies suggest that you are more at risk if your mother had Alzheimer’s than your father. It’s not a definitive study but it suggests that the genetic properties that lead to Alzheimer’s are passed from your mother and not your father. There isn’t much you can do about your birth now but it might help you assess your chances of getting Alzheimer’s and your efforts to stay healthy.
One thing that may help keep Alzheimer’s at bay is moderate alcohol consumption. A recent study showed that moderate drinkers developed Alzheimer’s at a lower frequency that heavy drinkers or non-drinkers.
Finally, research suggests that the amyloid substance that builds the placqe in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s is created in the liver. New studies are looking the find ways to stop the production of those anyloids in the liver or prevent their transport to the brain.
For now, a good diet and exercise program along with mental stimulation seems the best defense against Alzheimer’s.
Of the three dimension of the aging process, nobody talks about the pain in the aging process. The intentions are good. You don’t want people to think you are a complainer. So you just don’t talk about it. You learn to walk and move in ways that disguise the fact that pain is your constant companion. Your denial is contagious and so we all suffer in silence confirming that the pain we feel is a personal affliction and not a general condition of being old. Continue reading