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Old 08-16-2012, 11:50 AM
 
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Ok I will say no. Why? Because of budget limitations the quality of medical care in our sunset years will be much less than it is now and was. Medicaid funds will be cut and with that nursing care.
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:09 PM
 
Location: Northern Wisconsin
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My wife works in the hospital and sees all kinds of people who die young or are all ready physical train wrecks in their 50's because of obesity related problems, diabetes, high blood preasure, congestive health failure, etc. My guess is that the life expectency will probably decrease somewhat. The baby boomers don't seem to exercise much either. Plus, we notice that people don't seem to exercise much, and spend a lot of their life looking at a screen. All negative influences on their health.
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:27 PM
 
Location: Mid-Atlantic east coast
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I suspect that those Boomers with excellent medical care will live long lives--likely longer than their parents due to medical technology gains.

Those with below par medical care and poor lifestyle choices (lack of exercise, poor diet) will likely have shorter life spans.

Of course, should age warfare break out over Medicare/SS, then all bets are off. We Boomers will end up as Soylent Green fodder. "Boomers and Bits." lol
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:40 PM
 
Location: Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl View Post
I'm in your camp.

Some boomers are doing better than the previous generation because they are eating nutritionally and exercising in concentrated ways. Many of the previous generation (our parents) drank quite a bit, ate awful stuff, etc. but they grew up in a time of less environmental toxins, and they were tougher in general. Some suffered heart attack after heart attack and still kept going; today, one heart attack for us and we're done. Interesting comparison between the "greatest generation" and the "boomers."
I disagree with the above. The environmental toxins were always present, they were just declared hazards over the last 40-50 years.
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Old 08-16-2012, 01:53 PM
 
Location: Virginia
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Originally Posted by akck View Post
I disagree with the above. The environmental toxins were always present, they were just declared hazards over the last 40-50 years.
Good point. DDT was being used back in the 1870s, for example.

I liked NEG's comment about earlier generations being tougher than us. I think there's a lot of truth to that. That's one reason we may not live as long as expected--when the going gets tough, many of us might not choose to fight very hard. My dad talk ed about wanting to keep going on no matter how bad it got--I don't share that desire at all. I'm not going to deliberately cut my life short, but I doubt I'd strive too hard to prolong it. (I think--guess we'll find out when we get there.) I've already signed a DNR, and if I need it I hope it's respected.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:05 PM
 
Location: Planet Eaarth
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Originally Posted by RedJacket View Post
"If you look at the health status of the baby boom versus the generation that just preceded them, they are in worse shape,"

Will baby boomers live as long as expected? - Health - Aging - NBCNews.com
"They" tried to kill a lot of us in Vietnam. For those of us that didn't get killed outright in 'nam they poisoned us with Agent Orange so we would die early.

Then for those who made it this far they are killing us with bad food, constant fear, and medicines that are like time bombs intended to shorten our lives.

So I see little danger that any great numbers of Baby Boomers will live as long as their parents.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:13 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Curmudgeon View Post
Dunno. Kind of an individual "thing" anyway. Guess we'll really have to wait until about 2050 to know for sure. By then most of the statistics should be in.

Funny question for me right now. Might have had a mild heart attack yesterday, 911 response and all, yet 30 minutes later I felt fine, vitals good and didn't transport. Have an appointment with my doctor to get to the bottom of it.

So, I could assume room temperature today or may not check out of the net until 2026 or later. My mother died at 67 and my father at 71. I'm 66. It's a crap-shoot.

I find the question premature.

I'll let ya know if I get to the other side before ya!
Yep, happened to me July 4th. I did end up going to the hospital overnight. Was released after a catheterization showed no blockages, no permanent damage and only a narrowing of a couple arteries.

How long will I last? Don't know. Mother died at 89, dad was 40 and died in an accident. Mom's parents lived into their 90's. Dad's parents died of Swine Flu for dad and heart attack at 55 for mother. Their siblings all lived into their 80's and 90's.
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:14 PM
 
Location: Virginia
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Originally Posted by Prairieparson View Post
we notice that people don't seem to exercise much, and spend a lot of their life looking at a screen. All negative influences on their health.
I'm not buying this theory that our generation has worse health habits than the generation before. Yes, people sit a lot, but was it so much different for the generation before us? My parents and their friends may not have sat look at a screen, but they sat just as much. Every evening my dad would drive home and then they'd sit and read the paper and watch tv. I don't recall the adults being active once they got home, or going to a gym when I was growing up. I don't recall seeing people out jogging. What I recall is seeing people sitting, just like they do now. (I also recall seeing people smoking back then. Sitting and smoking and yakking all night long.)

Our generation may eat larger servings, but then again maybe not. I've inherited my mom's cookbooks and have tried a few of the recipes she used when it was just her and dad--recipes that supposedly served 2 people. Holy cow, the two of us can't possibly eat that much food. You should see her recipe for meatballs! White bread, six eggs, a stick of butter, etc. I can feel my arteries clogging just reading the list of ingredients. And then, when the 60s hit, my mom bought into "better living through chemistry" and we ate Spam and fizzies and Tang and Spaghetti-os and tv dinners and all sorts of unhealthy things.

My parents loved dessert, too. We had dessert with every meal and a big bowl of ice cream every night before going to bed. They kept that habit until the very end. Did it hurt them? To be honest I'm not really sure it did.

Another thing that cuts lives short is stress, and their lives also had plenty of emotional stress. I can't imagine what it was like to be a prudish woman like my mom and raise daughters during the sexual revolution. I can't imagine what it was like to be my dad and deal with the war situations he faced as a soldier, or the mafia situations he had to deal with after the war, or the fights he had with my brother over burning his draft card. When I was a kid we had people drive by and throw rocks through our windows because of contract disputes where my dad worked. And ten years after that my dad lost his job at about age 50 when the plant closed (as did half the people who lived nearby). Stress is very hard on your health, and when I think about all they faced in their lives, I haven't had to deal with half the amount of stress my mom and dad did.

Last edited by Caladium; 08-16-2012 at 03:31 PM..
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:24 PM
 
Location: On the Chesapeake
45,113 posts, read 60,214,676 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Caladium View Post
I'm not buying this theory that our generation has worse health habits than the generation before. Yes, people sit a lot, but was it so much different for the generation before us? My parents and their friends may not have sat look at a screen, but they sat and read the paper. Every evening my dad would drive home and then sit and read the paper and watch tv. I don't recall the adults going to a gym when I was growing up or recall seeing people out jogging. What I recall is seeing people sitting, just like they do now.

Our generation may eat larger servings, but then again maybe not. I've inherited my mom's cookbooks and the recipes she used to make supposedly served 2 people, but when I make them I can't possibly eat that much food. And those recipes often called for plenty of eggs and butter and other artery clogging ingredients. My parents loved dessert, too. We had dessert with every meal and a big bowl of ice cream every night before going to bed. They kept that habit until the very end. .........

There were likely more people doing physical labor in the previous generation. Today hammers have been replaced by power nailers, power pipe benders, electric screwdrivers. Log splitters have replaced wedge and sledge. Even farming and making hay, I can't tell you how many hay bales I tossed onto the wagon and then loaded into the loft. Now hay is baled in rolls and either left in the field or forklifted on and off the wagon.

You're right about recipes, too. Both sides of the family (not my mother's parents, my God my grandmother was a lousy cook, but my aunts) would heavy up on the butter, sugar and eggs whenever they were called for. You just didn't have potatoes and gravy but butter, potatoes and gravy. There was some kind of sweet at every meal: sticky buns at breakfast which carries over to lunch and pie or cake at supper. Desserts were put in the packed lunches for school, which went with the pint of whole milk you bought. People claim sweet tea for the South (grew up in NW PA) but I didn't know iced tea came unsweetened until college.
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:56 PM
 
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My parents didn't have the information we now have about alcohol, cigarettes, exercise, vitamins, caffeine, red meat, sugar, etc. Also they were never checked for cholesterol, blood sugar levels, and all the other things we get tested for regularly these days. In fact, my parents very rarely went to the doctor. They did alot of physical labor and housework so "extra" exercise wasn't as needed I guess. Us boomers are much more aware of health issues today, whether we pay attention to them or not is up to us. Just quiting smoking has saved alot of people. Generally, I think it is playing out that we will live longer than the average life span of our parents. My grandparents' generation mostly died in the 60's...I think we're way ahead of the game compared to two generations ago.

Remember the old saying...heck if I knew I was going to live this long, I'd of taken better care of myself. I know myself I'm paying now for some of the partying I did when I was younger !
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