Men's Health over 60

Rick’s Health Letter 3.0
Chapter 3.0 Growing Older
Issue 3.0 10/2007
Rick Cowlishaw
rcowlishaw@comcast.net

Rick Cowlishaw is a semi-retired architect who lives in Colorado and enjoys sharing his experiences with friends. Rick was born in 1940, and wants to remain healthy for as long as possible. “I am learning about what works for me and I want to share what I have learned with other men. As you will note, I give credit to other authors. If you enjoyed this letter and want to share it with others, please do! Anyone may e-mail me directly, and I will add them to my e-mail list. If you have additional information you would like to contribute, please contact me by e-mail or at 303 216-9665. I hope you enjoy reading this newsletter and find it useful. If you do not want to receive this letter in the future, please e-mail me, and I will take you off the list.” This health letter is for men over 65 without the disabilities that would prevent them from doing the recommendations.


Introduction
From studies investigating the compression of morbidity and studies of centurions, we have learned that we can greatly reduce the odds of a chronic illness, which may put us in a nursing home for several years. We can add years of better health to our golden years though lifestyle changes. We may extend how long we live by these same lifestyle changes. We can shorten the time spent in the period of morbidity (the chronic illness time period needing care) from years to months.

Now we are interested in what we can learn about growing older, and what we can expect based on the average life expectancies. We understand this may be an unpleasant discussion for some, as we tend to avoid discussion of advanced age and dying.

Author’s note:
We are trying to improve our odds of living longer and healthier. This doesn’t mean that we won’t be dropped in our tracks with a heart attack tomorrow. It means that we can greatly increase the odds that this will not happen until the end of our lives.

Life Expectancy
Leave it to the insurance companies to figure out on the average how long we will typically live. Once we men reach a certain age, then we can expect to live a certain number of years into the future. For men, when we reach 65, we are expected to live 15 years or until 80 years old. This is based on a snapshot in time, now in 2007, and doesn’t anticipate healthy lifestyle changes or medical advances.

When we reach 70, our life expectancy is 12 years, or we will live until we are 82. When we reach 75, it is 9.24 years, or about 84 years old. When we reach 80, it is 7 years or close to 87 years old. When we reach 85, it is 5.19 years or about 90 years old. We can see the upward trend. If we live to a certain age, we will live longer than our average of 78 years.

Of course, these are averages, with some men living longer and some living less. If we improve our health, we can change our own life spans in our favor. It is possible to live up to 12 years longer than the average.

Medical Advances
Medical knowledge is doubling about every 3 years. This includes medical knowledge about the elderly, which will require a more a concentrated effort as 25 percent of the population becomes retired. Fortunately, Baby Boomers have the money to pursue how to live longer and how to live longer better. We realize it is important that we stay current with medical advances.

There are a number of sites that provide excellent information.
• www.healthline.com
• www.mayoclinic.com
• www.webmd.com
• www.alz.org
• www.americanheart.org
• www.anthem.com
• http://healthresources.caremark.com
• www.cigna.com/health_money
• www.livewellcolorado.com
• www.rmhp.org/members/for_your_health/
• www.securehorizons.com/members/healthinfo.html/
• www.vsp.com/member/html/eyehealth_articles.jsp

Author's note: Medical advances
I had an arthritic hip which became so painful that I could no longer walk. Thirty years ago I would have been in constant pain and confined to a wheel chair for the rest of my life. Instead, I received a new hip on December 1, 2006. Now I have no pain, and I am as mobile as ever. I have been hiking and exercising, and I hope to ski 40 times this year. This hip should last me the rest of my life. That is just one of the differences medical advances can make.

Quality of Life
We want to know what quality of life we can expect as we reach these older ages. We will take a hard look at what exists now.
• As we grow older, we begin to slow down, lose muscle size and strength, feel tired, become sleepy during the day, gain body fat around our middles, and become less sex driven.
• Our skin loses its elasticity, becomes thinner and wrinkled.
• We do not hear or see as well.
• We are more susceptible to diseases.
• We shrink in height.
• We have more trouble keeping our balance.
• We can’t do physically what we used to do just the year before.
• We need less to eat, yet many times eat more than we need.
• We become overweight.
• We may become depressed.
• If we have a chronic illness and are in pain, we are miserable.
• We are not cheered up by what we see in others and what we are experiencing.
We talk with men older than us and we don’t like what we hear. These are aging issues, as well as chronic disorders, are what we are trying to combat.

Chronic disorders
Eighty percent of people over 65 have at least one chronic disorder, and 50 percent have some limitations in performing daily activities. About 5 percent over 65 and 15 percent over 75 need assistance, and 25 percent over 80 are homebound.
From the National Institute of Health comes the following:
“Diseases of aging continue to affect many older men and women, seriously compromising the quality of their lives. For example, more than half of all Americans over age 65 show evidence of osteoarthritis in at least one joint. Over half of Americans over age 50 have osteoporosis or low bone mass.3 Cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes remain common among older Americans. And, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, as many as 4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common cause of dementia among older persons.
At the NIA and other Institutes and Centers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), we are working to understand factors that affect human longevity and ways to improve quality of life. We know that to prolong life we must improve diagnostic methods to ensure early and reliable detection of disease and pathology; we must encourage individuals to make healthy lifestyle choices; and we must develop effective interventions for disease and disability”.
Summary
The medical profession conquered the acute infectious diseases of the early 20th century such as measles, small pox, chicken pox, tuberculoses, yellow fever and malaria. This has allowed the life expectancy to almost double from 46 to 78 for men. Chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and stroke have taking their places.
Our next health letter will discuss some of the things we may do to further improve our health.

References