Primetime Living 9.27.26 - Flipbook - Page 21
| Sunday, September 27, 2026
Health and Wealth
Continued from page 17
cerns, such as cholesterol, weight, stroke,
lifestyle and cancers. Many families
have one or both parents unemployed;
women are assuming caregiving roles.
Post pandemic, there is an acceleration
of long-standing health threats common
in middle age. Opioids are an epidemic
and obesity has replaced tobacco use as
the biggest health concern. We are also
seeing a rise in domestic violence and
suicide.
You also need to know on whom you
could depend on should you face a crisis;
it consists of the capacity of individuals,
your family and your communities, those
who will support you at that point in time,
to help you get through.
We’ve all seen and experienced what
can happen when the unexpected
upends our lives. The COVID epidemic is
not that far behind us, and many are still
recovering. If you have limited financial
resources, it can exacerbate the stress.
This is also your peak earning period,
which causes its own stresses.
Use this time as an opportunity to
improve health, especially in midlife:
• Ramp up healthy nutrition and lifestyle, behaviors.
• Watch your weight and alcohol
intake, get exercise, eat healthy.
• Take preventive steps: Get annual
check-ups, monitor health conditions, receive flu shots and other
vaccines.
• Take action before problems develop
or get worse.
Social Equity and Social Challenges
Our sixties are the prime time to make
sure we’ve planned well. However, this
is a time to make some choices: do you
continue your career, become a consultant, retire, volunteer, do contract work,
go back to school or start a whole new
career.
However, be prepared for a few adjustments. Our social networks will shift.
Routines that dictated how we lived our
lives may no longer exist. If you retire, a
big part of your socializing will disappear.
You no longer have the colleagues that
contributed to your view of the world.
This is when connections are key:
friends, colleagues, neighbors, clubs and
organizations, hobbies, volunteering,
leisure, and travel. Start strengthening
them.
If you choose to retire, plan well.
Otherwise, it could be a very lonely period. Start building up social connections
early to prevent social isolation. Join
clubs and/or participate in neighborhood
events. To quote a song, “You can’t make
old friends.” It takes time.
Other challenges in our 60s include
Gray Divorce, something that’s becoming increasingly common. One in four
divorces today involve at least one party
older than 50 years of age, and women
over 67 years of age are more likely to
be divorced than widowed. Women also
tend to face financial consequences that
are more severe.
What’s on the Horizon
You’ll hear it often. Have a purpose in
life. You need a reason to get out of bed
every morning. However, finding that purpose can be a challenge. Start thinking
about options as early as possible. When
you figure it out, pursue this goal with a
sense of optimism!
Ask for help if you need it. You are
not alone. There are lots of people out
there dealing with the same things as
you are. We help each other. And make
new friends, new connections. Revive old
connections. Find young people who will
keep you current on what’s going on in
the world. Cheer each other on.
Resilience is paramount. It’s a fact of
life and successful aging. It’s about how
we react or adapt to unwanted and unexpected changes. First, accept that your
life changed. Then figure out where to go
from there. Harness your inner resilience.
It’s a word I hear more often.
Most of all, laugh. Stress is at an alltime high. Find the humor. The ability to
laugh actually lowers our blood pressure, reduces anxiety and improves heart
health. It releases endorphins, natural
painkillers, and helps us face whatever
is ahead. Make it a point to laugh once a
day. It really is the best medicine!
Forever Young
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
“What is aging?” Forever Young, a movie
by David Donnelly, questions what our
future may look like and is aging –
specifically, living forever – something
for which we should strive. “What we
thought was missing from the conversation was the heart,” Donnelly explains,
“why it’s important. And if it is important,
what’s our purpose and meaning, to
connect the dots between physical and
emotional, and what will our lives be like
when we add extra decades?
Bringing together innovative minds
– researchers, leaders of organizations
working on extending our lives, psychologists and futurists – the movie posits
what is possible today, although not yet
readily available, and how discoveries in
science come in fits and starts. We are in
a period of discovery, described as “the
most innovative decade in our history. We
are living through a revolution, with enormous change happening at the same
time, mostly in the last five years. On the
horizon: in the next 10 years, 90 will be
the new 60!
Eric Vardin, M.D, president and CEO
of the Buck Institute on Aging Research,
says, “Aging is a process that starts
around 30. If we kept up that pace,
we’d live to be 1000. But there’s all the
environmental damage. But then it’s the
subtle accumulation of the unrepairable
damage that’s cumulative, logarithmic,
not linear.”
Steve Horvath, Ph.D., is an aging
researcher and bioinformatician whose
research ranges from epidemiology,
chronic diseases, epigenetics, to systems biology. “My high school friends
and I made a pact, that we would spend
our careers extending the human lifespan.”
Horvath published an age estimator
that applies to all tissues and cells of
the human body. This discovery, known
as the Horvath epigenetic clock, was
unexpected because cells differ greatly
in terms of their epigenetic patterns.
Epigenetics is the study of how our environment influences our genes by changing the chemicals attached to them.
Nir Barzalei, M.D., Albert Einstein
College of Medicine, says, “We can prevent age related diseases that cause a
bad quality of life. We can prevent them
now. And the most life-prolonging factor
is under our control: walking 25 minutes
every day. It will cut down your annual
risk for cancer, heart attack, and osteoporosis by 40%.” His research focuses
on fundamental mechanisms of aging
including the genetic determinants of
exceptional longevity.
We are already seeing longer life
spans. Vardin points out that the biggest
indicator of long life is one’s zip code.
So, yes, there is a tie between health and
wealth, called the longevity gap, between
the wealthiest and poorest Americans;
already, those with the resources live
longer, 10 years for women, 15 years for
men.
Interspersed into Forever Young, is a
predictive story line, a version of possible “coming attractions,” starring Ava,
a woman who appears to be in her mid
to late 30s or early 40s but her age is
unknown, and how she is living in the
future. You see her at work, at leisure,
learning to play the violin (a new skill?),
and in her relationship with a significant
other.
There’s so much more to learn, to
hear, to imagine when you watch Forever
Young. It will shift your mind into high
gear, advancing what is possible and just
around the corner, sparking discussions
on what is in the offing. There are two
ways to watch the film:
Apple TV:
https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/forever-young/umc.cmc.4t1561uviumw4ofcri0ufql7v
Google Play:
https://play.google.com/
store/movies/details/Forever_
Young?id=Awy3gM8ahZM.P&utm_
source=na_Med
No matter how old you are, how much
of your life is behind you and ahead of
you, you’ll be intrigued and delighted
with all that is happening in our lifetimes.
Watch the preview: https://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=gT2V-USKm6g&authuser=1 Then watch science come alive.
You won’t be disappointed.
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