Walk Your Way Right Into Your Uninhibited 80s
Final in a year-long series.
The mental skills of people over 70 are sharper than they think, according to recent research. But because most seniors accept outdated cultural prejudices about “dotty old people,” they underestimate their mental skills, which are particularly high in reasoning and verbal expression.
People who develop the discipline of daily mental exercise - reading newspapers instead of only passively ingesting TV news, noodling over the crossword puzzle every day, keeping journals, balancing their checkbooks and reading the fine print on insurance forms, etc. - are preparing themselves to graduate from the Sage 70s into the Uninhibited 80s.
The most successful octogenarians I have come across seem to share a quality of directness. Robust and unaffected, and often hilariously uninhibited in expressing what they really think, they do all kinds of things they wouldn’t have dared at earlier stages. They have nothing left to lose.
Long daily walks are part of the job of successful aging. Men and women who walk at least half an hour every day cut their mortality rates in half compared with sedentary people of both sexes. That was among the striking results of a massive study on 13,000 men and women who performed treadmill tests over an 8-year period at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas.
The most impressive improvement came from fairly modest levels of activity, noted Dr. Steven Blair, director of epidemiology and clinical applications at the institute. Someone who walked 30 minutes a day six days a week enjoyed a mortality rate almost as low as someone who ran 30 or 40 miles per week.
We are never too old to benefit from exercise, it seems. In another ground-breaking study, men and women who appeared to be typical of frail nursing home residents worked out vigorously on exercise machines for 45 minutes three times a week to strengthen their legs. After only a few weeks residents in their late 80s or their 90s could get around more quickly, climb stars better and sometimes even throw away their walkers.
The word researchers apply most frequently to centenarians is “adaptable.” All have suffered losses and setbacks. But even the most intense loss, such as the loss of a spouse after 50 or 60 years of marriage, was mourned, and then the person moved on. There was also a marked lack of high ambition.
Other characteristics of healthy centenarians, garnered from a number of studies, are these: Most have high native intelligence, a keen interest in current events, a good memory and few illnesses. They tend to be early risers, sleeping on average between six and seven hours. Most drink coffee, follow no special diets, but generally prefer diets high in protein, low in fat. There is no uniformity in their drinking habits, but they use less medication in their lifetimes than many old people use in a week. They prefer living in the present, with changes, and are usually religious in the broad sense.
All have a degree of optimism and a marked sense of humor. Life seems to have been a great adventure.
The Age of Integrity (65 and older) is primarily a stage of spiritual growth. Instead of focusing on the time running out, it should be a daily exercise to mark the moment. The present never ages. Each moment is like a snowflake, unique, unspoiled, unrepeatable, and can be appreciated in its surprisingness.
And instead of trying to maximize our control over our environment, now we must cultivate greater appreciation and acceptance of that which we cannot control. As long as we constantly try to relieve old hurts, escape old fears and impose control over the uncontrollable, we will continue to accumulate stress and accelerate the aging process that chronic stress produces. The attitude that works is the one ultimately adopted by an old friend of mine, a New York art critic now in his late 60s who has always been known for his boundless zest for life: “… learning to accept your life not as a series of random events but as a path of awakening.”
If every day is an awakening, you will never grow old. You will just keep growing.
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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Gail Sheehy Universal Press Syndicate