Holiday Thoughts for Seniors
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Posted by Maryan Pelland Dec 15, 2006 |
The world's oldest living woman died at 116 years old in Memphis, Tennessee.
Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bolden was the record holder for about a quarter of a year, but it counts.
Lizzie, born on a cotton farm in Fayette County, Tennessee, was daughter to freed slaves. For the last two years, she was seriously impaired as the result of a stroke in 2004, but life was long and good from reports I've read. And it will only get better for those of us who reach such ages.
The latest stats say if you are alive in the year 2010, your life expectancy rises to 120 years. So Lizzie's age won't be all that exciting when we look back from the last third of the 21st Century.
But what about quality of life? When I told the factoid above to my husband, he said, "Holy smoke, how will anyone afford to live?"
Good question - and it's never too late to start planning. Do some research and get yourself a plan.
I spoke to entertainment veteran Art Linkletter this week, doing an interview for an article I'll post on Suite101 very soon. He's in his middle 90s and his advice to you is threefold:
- Get a great family doctor and see him or her a couple times a year.
- Find something you love to do and do it regularly. Volunteer, work at a career that really satisfies you, develop some hobbies that challenge you.
- Make your family your shelter. Bury all past spats, accept all family members for who they are and treasure your good fortune in having them.
Good advice. Then you can live long and prosper. They say Zabani Khakimova, in Chechnya, is 124 years old. The photos I've seen of her show a smiling lady who looks tickled to be here. We can emulate her, reduce stress that surrounds us if we're not careful, and consider ourselves to be just about middle age at 60.
Another thought - researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging report that resveratrol, a natural substance found in red wine, offset the negative effects of a high-calorie diet in mice. In their study, weight-related deaths were 31 % fewer for pudgy mice given the chemical as a supplement. The resveratrol mice lived longer than they should have and were happily leaping, frolicking and working out in the mice-gym instead of slumped in a corner of their cage like other geriatric rodents. They didn't get skinny, but they stayed healthy.
One journalist, more in tune to humor than news, I guess, said the mice were given an amount of the resveratrol that equates to you or I drinking 100 bottles of wine per day. But the study results I read said the mice's diets were supplemented with grape extract, grape skins, and pure juices. The quantities were not huge.
The chemical is found in wine, grapes, peanuts and other nuts.
Now, I wouldn't go off the deep end and hang in bars sucking down massive quantities of wine. Likely, the health consequences would make body fat look pretty healthy by comparison. But if you choose wine this holiday season, or anytime, choose red. If you drink juice, make it grape juice sometimes, add some pomegranite to your juice choices, snack on some peanuts and do all things in moderation.
Except maybe the mistletoe tradition. Go ahead and overindulge...
Merry Christmas.