The Chronicles of “B”

I recently read an article in AARP magazine….yes your youthful narrator reads magazines aimed towards old folks….that asked senior Americans about the prospect of an anti-aging pill.  Most said they would not take such a pill. In their minds, living longer equated with living more years in a senile, debilitated state.  And who could blame them!!!  Who wants to live beyond 100 years and wake up to look in the mirror the last 30 years of their lives to a wrinkled face covered with thinning hair?  UGH!!!!!  The goal should be retaining youthfulness not just achieving longevity. 

 Have you ever heard of a guy named Tithonus???  In Greek mythology Tithonus was granted immortality by Zeus, but not eternal youth. Thus Tithonus became increasingly debilitated and demented but being immortal would never die.  What a horrible way to spend eternity, Huh??? 

The average lifespan has been increasing at the staggering rate of 2.2 years per decade (or 5 hours a day) for the last 100 years. Relatively soon there will be millions of people living beyond the age of 100. That’s great, right??  Wrong!  The sad part is the increase in life expectancy is not matched by an extension of health.  The years we gain are mostly spent with disease, disability, and dementia!!!  The 3 D’s of aging!!

Another unfortunate factor is that it is much more profitable for pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs that keep patients alive but uncured, rather than curing the disease, which loses the customer. The situation is not helped by the charities and funding agencies that focus on preventing death rather than disease or ageing.  I mean lets face it…there is a pill for everything these days that helps control the disease but never actually cures it and the side affects are sometimes worse than the disease itself. 

That’s because they treat the symptoms rather than the cause!  And the big drug companies are drooling at the prospect of developing more drugs to treat a rapidly aging population! 

Believe me when I say public health authorities are being bought off by the commercial interests in health care. You’ll have to find your own pathway to healthy longevity and the best way to do that is a healthy regime of diet and exercise.  How many more ways can I say this??? 

We have the goose who laid the golden eggs right within our grasp!!!  The golden eggs would be a long healthy life free from the 3 D’s of aging!!!  It’s as simple as getting off your ass and picking up that weight in your garage that’s collecting dust and move it around.  Just 3 days a week of weight bearing exercise along with 30 minutes of light cardio each day (a brisk walk) and a healthy diet will help you to avoid the 3 D’s!!!  So get up and get started!!!!  Today!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 6:03 am and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.