Modern healthcare technology has delivered previously undreamed of longevity, sometimes with, but often without, an accompanying quality of life. Medical technology not only has increased the average life span, it seduces us into believing that we can cheat death or bodily limitations. Organ transplants, cardiac catheterizations, and even fertility treatments reinforce the belief that we can all live long lives without having to bear bodies that don't work as they should.
Baby boomers are the beneficiaries of both modern health care and the rewards of a large middle to upper-middle class, in which an extended life is now the rule, rather than the exception. But what is the cost of a long life?
Many boomers are committed to a "staying young forever" approach. Although many older adults provide shining examples of how to stay and feel young, a recent article in the Miami Herald by Ana Veciana-Suarez suggests that the unique stresses of the baby boomers (for example, taking care of aging parents, the presence of their own physical problems, and other reminders of an ambiguous future) are taking their toll.
This fascinating article reports alarming rates of illicit drug use and binge drinking among baby boomers. The problem is not just recreational or attempts to blow off steam; drug abuse, for example, is higher among people in their 50's than ever before. Moreover, boomers are dying from drug abuse, suicide and accidents.
The boomers are also setting another new precedent: higher rates of disability. Several recent studies point to the rising rates of disability among the "young-old." One such study, summarized by American Medical News, found that, consistent with overall declines in reports of physical activity, adults aged 60-69 had the greatest increase in physical limitations. Everyday activities (such as climbing stairs) were decreased, while the frequency of obesity increased. And perhaps even more alarming another recent finding is that just over one-fourth of U.S. adult health care expenses, as well as about 38 percent of all Medicare spending is associated with disability.
So how do we make sense of all of this? Though we could talk about narcissism in the boomers or their adamant refusal to grow-up, another view might be that the prospect of a long life with an uncertain degree of health or illness, is unduly taxing. Baby boomers--many of whose parents are alive but with debilitating illnesses--are first-hand witnesses to the failed promises of medical technology.
As boomers know first-hand, a long life is not a promise of a good old age. The generation above them knows this too. A very elderly woman, helpless and tearful, said to me recently, "I am 98. Isn't it time to die?" Baby boomers look into their own future and picture themselves in frightening scenarios--bodies that don't work and the likelihood of being dependent on others.
So instead of denial or baby boomer bashing, maybe we need to be more thoughtful about how scary it is to age in the 21st century. Boomers know that a very long life can be a pyrrhic victory. Managing that anxiety will be a major challenge for them, and for all of us.
Hayley Rose Horzepa: How to Stay Forever Young
Michele Willens: Face It: The More We Know the Better We Look?
Baby boomer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baby Boom Generation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Health is taught by all the great teachers as the basic structure to LIVE Right with right actions, "righteousness". The goal is to live right not as a END, but a means. The END is the awakening that there is no where for each man or women to go, but where they are. Surely not trying to manipulate others
But here we go forcing behavior to lower COST, while we have no record of correct any good percentage of those caught in our prison systems. Live as long as we can while attacking and killing others because we think others might do or have potentially to do to us. Force changes on others that do not require we make sacrifice on ourselves which is all re really have the right to do
Jesus also said: "it is not what you put into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of it"
Yet, here we are chasing our tails for a perfection of material gain a greed, instead of living OUR LIFE and not others, let alone allowing them the free choice of demacracy or the great lmaster teaching of right action..
We seem to not accept the death of the body that comes to some in infancy while other only after a long period of time. With no ryme or reason.
Instead of accepting the blessing of life in the body as the miracle it is as is eternity before and after.
My guess it is governed by the fact that so many do not except the experience of Nature as something they are part of, but the great desire to subdue it. Materialism Foly or Cosmic Delusion the duality of Nature as it is called.
I'm 58 and in excellent health, but old enough to have seen parents and friends wither and die in the most horrendous ways imaginable. What price longevity? To avoid a sad or miserable decline, I'd gladly forfeit an extra decade or two.
When my boy died at 32 I surely did not welcome it, but I cannot be thankful for the experience of 32 years. It was truely a blessing that could only be surpassed by having him with me today.
Of course I would gladly have given my life for his, but that is assuming that this materialism is all that nature has to offer and our experience teaches us so much more if we think outside of the material box
John Hardisty, Bakersfield
www.svs2help.com
Yes ,I feel so humiliated when I see life to \day being expressed so much in Youth, Adreneline and Cash. Most of which I am very bankrupt in. Still I am not rushing to the next life knowing it will come soon enough. Still knowing that unless I become painfully ill I will patiently wait for nature to take it's course even as the physical struggle approaches the benefit.
I know dementia is nothing to be flippant about.
Both of my step-Grandmothers are suffering from Alzheimer's with one far more debilitated than the other.
The less debilitated Grandmother set the kitchen curtains ablaze because she left the house forgetting she was in the midst of cooking breakfast.
The other Grandmother is so debilitated she lives with her daughter who is no spring chicken herself. Now Grandmother suffer bouts of failing to recognize her daughter and she escapes the house as she thinks a stranger is in her home to kill her. The neighbors bring her home after finding her aimlessly walking the neighborhood or after she appears on their doorsteps telling them to call the police. She has taken to falling and her daughter has to call rescue units because she is not strong enough to pick her up. Grandmother now requires Depends.
Luckily both of my step Grandmothers have money. What about those less financially fortunate?
I'm like Maude in the movie Harold and Maude who thought 80 was the perfect age at which to die except 80 is too old for me. 70 is the max I would ever want to live. And only with reasonable mobility and quality of life. If not, I believe I'd have to take Maude's lead and opt out.
Going blind would seriously compromise her happiness, and we hope that doesn't happen.
We know another woman at age 84, dementia, rages and paranoia, 24/7 care, incontinent, can't walk. I think if she really knew her condition and could communicate legally for herself, she might want to specify do not rescusitate.
There are ways to make the odds better of living a healty longer life. Exercise and diet seem the most important.
I agree quality is important.
Thanks for your thoughtful question. I believe the answer is that it is both. There is speculation that relatively younger people will have shorter life spans based on the number of diseases that they are afflicted with. But this data is based on current rates of obesity. What recent research shows is that more "older" adults (but still relatively young in this day and age, people 60-69) are more likely to be disabled. Technology, medicines, and a better health care system keep people alive for longer periods and this impacts the rates of both disability and longevity. I think, however, that you are right in how confusing this all is.
Must better to meditate through the Astro Star to Cosmic Consciousness than try to win the lottery of other possibilities. But then diet, physical strength and conscentration is but a beginning.