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Interesting story by Lesley Stahl concerning what factors seem to help folks make it to 90 and beyond.
Among their findings:
"People who exercised definitely lived longer than people who didn't exercise. As little as 15 minutes a day on average made a difference. Forty-five was the best. Even three hours didn't beat 45 minutes a day."
The 45 minutes a day of activity could be at multiple intervals, didn't have to take place all at one time. They also mention items such as drinking some (not much) coffee and booze every day apparently being beneficial. Also, they mention putting on a little weight as a good thing.
"It's always been a dream of mankind to live forever"
I don't think that's true. We would may be like to be young (?) and healthy forever, but I don't think anyone wants to tack time on to the end unless they know its going to be quality time.
My mother inlaw said that the worst part about living into her nineties was losing friends and family along the way until she literally felt like she was alone and waiting.
It was an interesting program. Some of it was painful to watch.
I liked the part about putting on a little weight.
I would want to live until such age if I am still capable of doing personal things for myself and would not have an Alzheimer. What the use of living that long if it will just be full of burden or pain.
i cannot imagine wanting to live to be 90+. i know that the loss of people- friends, relatives- who were a part of your past and who share similar memories is an enormous loss. keeping busy with activities is important and having friends with whom you can socialize - bridge, dancing, etc- but i don't feel that would be enough for me. i would want substantive relationships with people to whom i wouldn't have to explain myself; usually that occurs with friends whom one has known for quite some time, and even then, not just in a social setting.
i had lunch yesterday with a friend who i knew in 4th grade and with whom i've re-connected in the last several years. we're both almost 71. she has been and still is an artist, and she said she finds that so much of what she paints now is really about yearning- for what we feel or imagined we had, for what of significance has been lost. i do reminiscence/memoir writing- essays, poetry, articles, and i have to agree that a lot of what i write about can be categorized in that way. perhaps that is what being 70 is all about and it may be that such things no longer matter when you reach 90. if so, that's another reason i have no desire to grow that old.
I cannot imagine wanting to live to be 90, My Dad lived to 89 and it was a horrible existence for him.
I would have agreed with you 10 years ago. I'll be 90 in 26 years. With medical advances, self driving cars and seeing a number of active 90 year old types in my area, it might be no worse than what being 70 was 20 years ago.
Gosh, 10 years ago the thought of being 80 gave me a big yuk feeling. Today I see lots of 80ish people skiing, hiking and having full active lives. True, that most of them were not smokers, heavy drinkers, lived hard or lazy. And of course, some people have bad genes, but even that can be mitigated to some extent.
My parents are 84 and recently, my mother said something about planning to do that once she gets really elderly.
I thought - wow - 84 qualifies as "elderly" in my book but evidently, in hers, it doesn't! So I guess it is all from each person's unique point of view, which is influenced by health and satisfaction with life as to how good or difficult living to and past 90 would be.
My parents are in their 80's and they are still incredibly active. Dad still drives and they both garden and do yardwork, go out to dinner, etc... They never downsized so the house that they manage is HUGE. Mom is so sharp that she continues to treat their household finances as though it was a business. She runs a monthly trial balance sheet by hand and keeps track of all of the accounts payables/receivables...This is just for their personal finances. She also catches bank errors, assessment errors and every typo in the local newspaper.
For years, she used a WebTv to access the internet. When the company went out of business last year, she learned to use a laptop!
My parents are in their 80's and they are still incredibly active. Dad still drives and they both garden and do yardwork, go out to dinner, etc... They never downsized so the house that they manage is HUGE. Mom is so sharp that she continues to treat their household finances as though it was a business. She runs a monthly trial balance sheet by hand and keeps track of all of the accounts payables/receivables...This is just for their personal finances. She also catches bank errors, assessment errors and every typo in the local newspaper.
For years, she used a WebTv to access the internet. When the company went out of business last year, she learned to use a laptop!
This is great when it's possible, as it obviously is for your parents. But how many 90-year-olds even have enough money that they need a budget? How many have the mental capability to learn a new computer at your mother's age? It's rare.
The problem for the future is what to do with all the 90-year-olds who have run out of enough money to support themselves. Everyone wants to live far beyond the average life expectancy. So few people are financially able to provide themselves with all the help they will need when they do. How is our society going to address that?
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