Independent Living: Being Responsible For Your Health And Fitness

Aging is inevitable but the rate of aging is not.  Dr. Michael F. Roizan, M.D. has written another first class book titled “You Staying Young,” although it could just as well be called “you being responsible for you”.  He talks about some of the common misconceptions about aging:  the aches and pains, the memory lapses, the fear of night driving and the fear of becoming one of the many who eat dinner at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and think watching Wheel of Fortune is late night entertainment.  You may or may not see yourself reflected in that picture, but it probably describes at least one of your folks to a tee.   Dr. Roizan suggests that if you don’t want to become “one of them” that you need to get to the root of the problem.

Traditionally medicine has focused on treating chronic diseases and reversing the acute illnesses associated with aging.  The newer philosophy is taking a closer look at the root of the problems and thinking prevention.  This means that if you want to add serious years to your life you need to lower your risk for getting these diseases in the first place.   Slowing the aging of your cells at the same time as trying to prevent disease goes a long way toward perfecting this new attitude and toward reinventing a new you.

One of the best predictors of how well you are aging, says the author, is your own perception of how healthy you are.  You have already seen the scales that ask you to rate your own health.  Your doctor is asking you if you see your health as being excellent, very good, good, fair or bad.  Studies show that if you select fair or bad, you are thirty times more likely to die in the next two years.  Well, that isn’t very encouraging is it?

You probably already have a gut feeling about how you are doing. We are all lucky that science is telling us that it is possible to make some positive changes, which means that the scale predictions don’t have to be quite so dire.   Dr. Roizen theorizes that aging isn’t about breaking down as much as it is about repair.  He compares the human body to that of a car. You will get better mileage if you schedule routine maintenance checks than if you just keep on rolling along until you crash and burn.  It is within your power to boost your resilience and keep your body going for an extra hundred thousand miles or so.

Just because you made mistakes in the past (and haven’t we all) you are not destined to an early demise.  No matter what kind of life you have led, aging is still somewhat reversible.  If you perform a good habit for three years, the effect on your body is as if you had done that behavior an entire lifetime.  Within months of changing a behavior you can start to measure a difference in your life expectancy.

Yes, aging is still inevitable, but the rate of aging is not.  Your goal should be to ensure that you enjoy a high quality of life for as long as possible.  It is up to you to be responsible for your own health. 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Bryan]

Thanks for the book review. Will definitely want to go and search for this book. I don't wanna grow old early.