When did your body begin to fail?

[odanny]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

. My mother probably put on 50-75 lbs after I was born and seems to be around 250 (she is only 5'2). She has a steps app on her phone and is pretty good about keeping it in her pocket, so I'm guessing it's fairly accurate. She hasn't done more than 2,000 steps on any one day for the entire month - many days, she does under 1,000. She never makes her own meals, and on the days my dad doesn't work from home, they often get fast food take out. They're eating fast food probably at least five times per week total. Needless to say, she has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, and various other disorders and is going to the doctor at least once a week on average, many times twice a week.

I don't think those numbers are right. Just walking around your house over the course of a day is usually good for over 2000 steps. Under a thousand is like your barely moving anywhere. If those numbers are accurate you should encourage her to find a good walking trail and/or a nice sidewalk and start walking. People underestimate the health benefits of walking. The great thing about all the step counters you find these days (fitbit, phones, etc.) is that you can now track your walking and this motivates you to walk more.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by odanny

I don't think those numbers are right. Just walking around your house over the course of a day is usually good for over 2000 steps. Under a thousand is like your barely moving anywhere. If those numbers are accurate you should encourage her to find a good walking trail and/or a nice sidewalk and start walking. People underestimate the health benefits of walking. The great thing about all the step counters you find these days (fitbit, phones, etc.) is that you can now track your walking and this motivates you to walk more.

I'd say it is somewhat low, but not unreasonably so. The point is that she is extremely sedentary, and that the under 2000 is probably fairly close to accurate. She's never been much more active. The most exercise she'll get in a week is going to Sam's or Target and walking through the store.

When someone is that sedentary over many years, they are inevitably going to get some conditions they probably wouldn't otherwise have gotten (or at the very least, those conditions wouldn't be as severe with more activity) had they kept up a more active lifestyle. Not saying she should be running marathons, but she could not walk even maybe two football fields from a parking lot to an outdoor cabana on a paved, flat road last month for a kid's birthday party. She will be just 60 in three years. She is having eye surgery for an eye conditions that she said the eye surgeon said he normally only sees in older seniors.

It gets difficult to disentangle what problems are caused by sedentary lifestyle, poor diet, weight, etc., because people who have one of these conditions are likely doing all of them.

[reneeh63]

Originally Posted by odanny

I don't think those numbers are right. Just walking around your house over the course of a day is usually good for over 2000 steps. Under a thousand is like your barely moving anywhere. If those numbers are accurate you should encourage her to find a good walking trail and/or a nice sidewalk and start walking. People underestimate the health benefits of walking. The great thing about all the step counters you find these days (fitbit, phones, etc.) is that you can now track your walking and this motivates you to walk more.

People definitely underestimate the value of walking - they seem to think that if they aren't running marathons (or even jogging) then it doesn't mean a thing. I'd rather walk for fitness for my whole lifetime than run until my 40's and have to give it up due to knee/hip/back problems!

[in_newengland]

I was never very healthy after my 20s when I went on birth control pills. Those things screwed up my hormones and caused a lot of other side effects. The ones I was on were taken off the market but not before they ruined my health.

All in all, at age 73, I feel better than I have for most of my life. I try not to take prescription pills because all they do is give me side effects. I think I inherited good genes but stuff happens to affect your health--like the early pills, living in a rental that had a faulty oil burner--being exposed to oil fumes--if my health hadn't already been ruined, this nearly destroyed any health I had left.

From that petroleum exposure, for some reasonI became allergic to nearly everything and would have died if I hadn't found a wonderful allergist. What saved me was a special diet and no more exposure to oil fumes--and actually making my life as allergy free as I could make it, especially never again using any petroleum derived cleaning products, no petroleum anything--except a few years later when I could drive again, I could buy gas, lol.

It was about 10 years ago that I had sinus surgery to clear up the resulting breathing problem and near blinding constant sinus headaches. It's been wonderful since then! I've had fibromyalgia twice but got rid of it twice, the second time it will be gone forever--it was caused by a prescription medicine and finally Dr. Google helped me figure out how to fix that.

I know I don't exercise enough and I was never very athletic. I walk the dog every other day and that's about it. I have to spend a lot of time cooking because those allergies never really go away, they just diminish, so the special diet has to be for a life time. I hope I am always able to be in charge of what I eat because that makes a world of difference.

To make up for getting older and also for the nutrients I can't get due to food allergies, I take calcium, magnesium, zinc, and a daily one cap. My main health issue is chronic insomnia and that started from prescription drugs long ago. We are all in decline, sadly, as we get older. Probably age 70 would be the stage when most start to notice it, although for me my health was so bad before that, except for the sleep issue, this feels great!

[theoldnorthstate]

Originally Posted by tailsock

I'm 40 now. Most of the time I still feel like I did in my 20's but something will come along that will bring me back to reality. (nagging aches, occasional cramp, lower back pain, occasional fatigue, etc.) I'm increasingly aware that I'm getting older and that my body is slowly becoming more fragile. When I read the threads in "Retirement" I often wonder what life will be like for me when it's my turn. One day a doctor will give me bad news and it will turn my world upside down. To feel immortal, invincible for so many years I got over that feeling when I observed life and people and knew that we are not immortaland then be handed bad news like "you've got colon cancer" or "your kidneys are failing". I'm curious , for anyone that would be kind enough to share, what your bad news was Was told I had early onset alzheimers, it rocked me for awhile but I knew it was a bad diagnosis so I fought it and found a new doctor and how you're dealing with it. Do you ache? yes, everything aches some days but my body is not failing, it is just hurtingDoes your back hurt? yes so I exercise, stretch, walk, swimDo you suffer from some affliction that makes everyday life difficult? some do, I am most fortunate to be overall able to do what I set out to doWhat was this like for you?

OP, I am disconnecting between your title and your post, especially your questions. so I am not sure what you are going for.

People can be older and have aches and afflictions but their bodies may not be beginning to fail. As in failing like dying. See what I mean?

Or you can get colon cancer or kidney failure at any age, and how do you handle it at any age? It doesn't necessarily go with age. It is a fact of body failure.


So in my case I am 66 and while I have age related problems my body is strong for my age and overall fit. I try to keep it that way. and I work to prevent problems.

After an Army career and the physical demands entailed with that, I might have skeletal and neuro systems that are more crushed up than I would have had otherwise or that may be why I am as strong as I am now.

I see a huge physical capability deficit from age 55 to 65 if that is what you are asking. Not as strong, shrinking to 5'2", endurance is less, ability to see/hear/physically do things is less, climbing is more of a problem, etc. I use tools and plan what I do before I do it more than when I did with the 55 yr old body. I hire out things that would be unsafe for me to do on my own. I exercise and eat wisely. Try to get sleep when needed. But I do all that I can safely do. (I stress safely since I live alone, it would be nice to have someone hold the ladder now and then.)

Long ago, I intellectually accepted impending mortality and the cycle of life. One day we will all die of something but I do all I can to work to forestall that. And I take after my mother who is 90 years old, physically fit, we call her the energizing bunny because she keeps going. Unfortunately, she has severe dementia so all that long life and good health is sad given her current mental state.

That is more my dread than the body failing. but I do the best I can to forestall that as well. There is a bit of planning going on in the back of my head, if that becomes the case. Plan what I want, document it, and have key points as to when to put it in motion so that my children are forced with only the decision of timing not what.

At 40 you have a long time yet before age hits you seriously. Aches and pains are signs of aging but not necessarily body failure. But thought and reflection is a good thing at any point. good luck

P.S. Maybe the answer you are looking for is resilience and adaptability. Develop those attributes if you can. Credit to my Mom, she is the most adaptable person I have ever known and that has stood her in good stead as she aged and through this illness.

[stepka]

I think my body began to fail at 11. Seriously. Someone had told me that breaking open a thermometer and playing with the mercury would be great good fun so one day my brother and I did that in the bathroom. He soon got bored and went off to play but I was fascinated and stayed another hour. After that my life went crazy. . . I had many of the symptoms of mercury toxicity--extreme allergies that sometimes sent me to the hospital. A feeling of "pins and needles" that has been a source of irritation all of my life. My skin broke out shortly after this experience and I got really bad acne--at 11. Spaciness and personality changes--I had been rather outgoing before this but became quite withdrawn and became the class reject for my 6th grade year (and later years as well, tho not quite as bad) and my grades plummeted and I ended up dropping out of high school. My coordination went haywire and I could not be an asset to any sports team.

Despite the fact that my mother was a nurse, she had no idea what was going on and I don't blame her for that because I certainly never told her about the thermometer experience. I suspect I have the MTHFR gene mutation that keeps your body from detoxing as efficiently as most people's will. At 55 I got chelation therapy and that has helped a lot and I feel better than ever.

Originally Posted by theoldnorthstate

That is more my dread than the body failing. but I do the best I can to forestall that as well. There is a bit of planning going on in the back of my head, in case that becomes the case. Plan what I want, document it, and have key points as to when to put it in motion so that my children are forced with only the decision of timing not what.

At 40 you have a long time yet before age hits you seriously. But thought and reflection is a good thing at any point. good luck

I have a plan. . . when my kids start to whisper behind closed doors I'm booking a trip to Indonesia and plan to go on a hike on the Island of Komodo. No one in my hometown will forget me after that!

[Dino1]

I have outstanding genetics, but you can't tell. I used to as strong as an ox, but in my late 40's my back got very weak, and I am constantly getting bulging disks.

[Pat Answers]

Stepka, people didn't always know how dangerous mercury was. Remember mercurecrome? My mother's solution to any cut or scrape. And, get this, somewhere my dad got a hold of a whole bunch of mercury and put a jar of it in our basement. My sister and I used to go down there and play with it. It's such interesting stuff, not a liquid, not exactly a solid. We used to pour some out and roll balls of it around and coat coins which we'd take back up to our bedroom and play with for days and days. The jar was as big as a small pickle jar.

I have no idea why he'd bring such a thing home. He did work in a chemical plant.... and I have one medical problem which has affected my life... so I should look to see what mercury poisoning causes.

Back to the original question now.