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Count me in on this as well. I think one of the reasons may sound odd but we have more doctoring than the previous generations and I wonder sometimes if that is such a good thing. How many boomers have died of iatrogenic causes? Those are illnesses or injuries caused by the treatments given by doctors for other illnesses or injuries. Hundreds of thousands of people die in hospitals and at the hands of doctors or are injured and then die as the result of injuries. Older people tend to seek medical help more often and are therefore more at risk.
Look at those ads on TV for the class action suits against pharmaceutical companies for pelvic meshes and certain drugs. They may sound frivolous but I actually know a few people who were harmed by these items. And we hear all too often of drug recalls.
I am not saying these are the only reasons. Others have been pointed out in this thread like our generations' exposure to pesticides, pollution, food additives and food with the nutrition stripped out of it.
It is ironic that our generation boasts the most medical care and appears to be the least healthy. They say we are living longer but my mom didn't have the "benefit" of all the wonderful things of today and she lived to be 94 and was pretty healthy. My friend's dad just passed away at age 99; her stepmom passed last year at 100. My friends and I are all in our 60's and aren't all in that great shape even though we eat fairly healthy and exercise moderately. But our parents weren't particularly health conscious either.
Is our generation really living longer? But more to the point, are we really living better?
While shoveling manure, I got a hernia last spring. By the time I got a referral from my PCP, and got into to see a Urologist, the tissues had move back to where they are supposed to be and the swelling was down. The Urologist verified that it is a hernia, and explained that they could insert mesh to seal the rupture, everything could be done as an out-patient procedure. But he recommended against it. He said to wait, to see if it happens again. It may have been a 'one-off' event. Doing the procedure has a very high risk of getting infected with MRSA. They might fix my hernia, but what good is it, when the procedure gives me an incurable disease that will be terminal?
The fix is worse than the hernia [in his opinion].
While shoveling manure, I got a hernia last spring. By the time I got a referral from my PCP, and got into to see a Urologist, the tissues had move back to where they are supposed to be and the swelling was down. The Urologist verified that it is a hernia, and explained that they could insert mesh to seal the rupture, everything could be done as an out-patient procedure. But he recommended against it. He said to wait, to see if it happens again. It may have been a 'one-off' event. Doing the procedure has a very high risk of getting infected with MRSA. They might fix my hernia, but what good is it, when the procedure gives me an incurable disease that will be terminal?
The fix is worse than the hernia [in his opinion].
Submariner, I am so glad you didn't get the mesh. I actually got chills when I read your post. One of the iatrogenic things to which I was referring that happened to a friend was exactly that. She had surgery and one of those meshes was implanted. It became infected. It became infected with what I believe was MRSA.
I do know the infection came about when the mesh became disloged and moved around out to a point where it wasn't supposed to be. It required another surgery to put it back. They should have just removed it at that point but they didn't. Eventually as she became worse they went back for a thired surgery and took it out.
This was when the mesh first came into use. The hospital and doctors all tried to cover up the problems it was causing. I watched a vibrant, otherwise healthy laughing person sink deep into pain and depression. The doctors gave her more medication and kept telling her they did nothing wrong. She was wasting away through pain and confusion. She had the misfortune to be one of the first to have this reaction. The medical profession was in total denial.
Eventually more and more cases were reported. My friend lost her job, her home her insurance and eventually her life or so we think. She disappeared one day and was never found. She had been seeing a psychologist for her deep depression and even though new doctors were treating her they weren't helping her much and she was in pain even with narcotics. The original doctor who had denied everything still claimed he had done no wrong. It was a nightmare.
Whenever I see an ad on TV from the attorneys for a class action suit against the mesh I think of her. At least now I guess the doctors are honest about the dangers. Or at least some are.
Submariner, I am so glad you didn't get the mesh. I actually got chills when I read your post. One of the iatrogenic things to which I was referring that happened to a friend was exactly that. She had surgery and one of those meshes was implanted. It became infected. It became infected with what I believe was MRSA.
I do know the infection came about when the mesh became disloged and moved around out to a point where it wasn't supposed to be. It required another surgery to put it back. They should have just removed it at that point but they didn't. Eventually as she became worse they went back for a thired surgery and took it out.
This was when the mesh first came into use. The hospital and doctors all tried to cover up the problems it was causing. I watched a vibrant, otherwise healthy laughing person sink deep into pain and depression. The doctors gave her more medication and kept telling her they did nothing wrong. She was wasting away through pain and confusion. She had the misfortune to be one of the first to have this reaction. The medical profession was in total denial.
Eventually more and more cases were reported. My friend lost her job, her home her insurance and eventually her life or so we think. She disappeared one day and was never found. She had been seeing a psychologist for her deep depression and even though new doctors were treating her they weren't helping her much and she was in pain even with narcotics. The original doctor who had denied everything still claimed he had done no wrong. It was a nightmare.
Whenever I see an ad on TV from the attorneys for a class action suit against the mesh I think of her. At least now I guess the doctors are honest about the dangers. Or at least some are.
I am saddened to hear of your friend.
The American Medical profession is the leading cause of death in the nation. Though understandably that is not how some statistics show it.
My Dw recently went through a hysterectomy. We were both amazed at the assortment of drugs she was given: vicodin, codeine [tylenol-3], percocet, and oxycodone. Medical practice is changing.
I was born in '59. So many of the boomers are aging before me. In theory I will see some benefit from all these changes. This is part of how 'Baby Boomers' and change retirement for others.
I sure hate to go on with a known hernia that could rupture again at any time.
We do not have a TV [no broadcast signal in our township], so we 'miss-out' on the annoying TV ads
I know dozens who had the mesh which is just oe of mnay options and is knwon to stop reoccurances ;that have never had a problem since. Any surgery cres a risk of infection has does not takigcare of mnay injuries themselves.never go by the attorney wantig to sig up suit people as indication of commo porblem.Most mesh have been on feamle bldder problems that had problems and even thsoe are not as common as mnay elad to beleibe b watchig V attorney ads like most other ads. Most of thsoe are just attorneys who signup client for a fee for otehr attorneys handlig the cases anyway.
Texas, people know they take a chance with surgery. It isn't only that the mesh was a dangerous thing. It was the attitude of the doctors who refused to admit there was a problem. At the time they used it on her, it was a fairly new procedure. They should have been extra cautious. But instead they were dismissive of the problems they caused as was the hospital and refused to take responsibility for what they had done to her. She was not a crank or an uncooperative patient. She had just completed a successful series of chemotherapy for Cancer treatment and was a model patient.
But when she complained of pain all they wanted to do was give her pain pills. When they actually saw the mesh protruding from inside her abdomen, they called it a hernia and just shoved it back in. When she continued to have pain the best they did was shove more pills and antibiotics down her throat. More surgeries and then since nothing was successfully treating the pain or really fixing up her insides, they told her she was just being a whiner. They treated her like a crank.
They knew a mistake had been made. They refused to admit to one. The made her look as though she were a complaining nag. It was the cover up. Female problems? No, she didn't have them before the mesh. It was used to shore up her diaphragm where she had previously had a malignant tumor. As I stated, the mesh or part of it dislodged and traveled. It had nothing to do with her being female. They use it on males too for hernias and other body parts.
And the problem occurred long before the TV attorney bandwagon. I explained that before. You need to learn how to read posts more carefully before you make comments.
Sorry to get OT. But I really believe this dismissive attitude on the part of the medical profession is one reason why our generation is not living longer and will not live longer than our parents generation despite what the article says to the contrary.
Yes, modern medicine can keep us alive longer--although the gains are not so spectacular when infant mortality is considered. But has QUALITY of life been extended at all? No, it hasn't. Just because you may live 10 years longer than your Mom or Dad, that does NOT mean you can simply work an additional 10 years before retiring (particularly not with business's insane standards of productivity). With the huge numbers in our population, sure you can find some elderly person running a marathon. But for every one of them, you'll find 50 that have to severely restrict their lifestyle due to chronic pain, back problems, old injuries, illnesses that are being "managed," etc. My spouse and I have both seen significant limitations appear between the ages of 45-50, simply due to normal aging.
All this talk about thriving elderly people is propaganda designed to try and convince people to work until they drop dead. It is presented by the media, which is now the voice of Big Government/Big Business. The government wants people working long hours and not retiring--that's how income taxes are maximized and Social Security and Medicare minimized. Big Government grew to such massive size and intrusiveness by taxing the income of working people--and our current President is ADAMANT that those working people WILL pay significantly more.
Big Business has spent the last 40 years culling its labor force down to (1) low paid unskilled workers, and (2) highly educated and skilled workers who are the most productive, with the best work ethic and vast experience in their field. For high-expertise workers, by far the best value for the cost is to increase the hours in the work week, and keep them working until they drop dead. This is especially true when there are very few younger workers trained and experienced in highly technical fields (a result of decades of layoffs and hiring freezes).
A big gripe I have with articles like these is they try to turn seniors into a category. Along those lines are magazines like AARP that tell us how to look, act and think. They show the few good looking individuals, usually movie stars and the like who have the unlimited funds to keep up the beautiful looks and figures and lifestyles they have.
They show the more well off people in their retirement surroundings having their fun in the sun. They give an unrealistic ideal of what they tell us we should aspire to that most of us can never attain. But they are not alone in this by any means. Others selling us youth products and snake oil are doing the same. All geared toward those of a certain generation the media has christened with the idiotic name "baby boomer."
I am sick and tired of the media telling me how to stay young. I don't want to stay young. I'm old. I've earned it. It took me a long time to get here for Pete's sake. Let me enjoy it while I can. They can keep their wrinkly creams and their hair dyes. I don't wanna do that anymore. To me old age should be freedom; freedom to not have to worry about those things. Instead I find the same companies that wanted to get my money when I was young to make myself "better" still wants it to make myself "better."
Forget about it. I'm already better. I am not the least bit interested in changing retirement for anybody. All that means to me is more activity when all I want to do is sit down and read a good book now that I have the time. I give everyone else permission to do whatever they want to do. Just don't bother me.
I keep reading all these statements about how much longer Boomers are expected to live . . . but that is not what I am seeing happen around me.
I have mentioned this to my high school friends and to my dad, and we are shocked at how many of our peers have died in their 50s and how many have died in the last two years at 58-65. It is very unnerving. None were accidents and none were suicides . . . folks are dying from cancer, especially - but a lot of brain tumors and lymphoma - wh/ typically just isn't that common (or hasn't been in the group of people I grew up with, their siblings and parents). Many of my classmates are NOT outliving their parents.
Also, we keep finding out about folks under 65 who have chronic illnesses and some who are disabled from chronic disease - but whose parents (in their 80s - 90s) are still living.
Maybe this is totally isolated and just coincidental, but it seems that every article I read is about how Boomers will, overall, live longer than their parents . . . and yet, I am seeing a significant number of folks who won't outlive their parents (or who have already died).
I agree. I have lost quite a few of my friends in their 50s and many of the ones still alive (including me) have health problems. I recently lost my 91 year old father, but there is no way I will make it to the same age as he did.
Another factor in the longevity equation is obesity. Our parents' generation, as a group, were not obese, but many boomers are, especially younger boomers. Exercise patterns are a related factor. When I was a kid in the 1950's my father mowed our lawn with a hand mower and when I got old enough I did. Power mowers were just becoming fairly popular, signaling a change-over in physical activity (for the worse).
On the opposite side of the equation is smoking. We boomers smoke less than our parents, as a group. Many of our parents' generation probably quit smoking at some point, so I don't claim to know how this factor weighs in overall.
My point is that there are multiple factors at work in longevity, including those mentioned by previous posters.
Prescription and non-prescription drug use by boomers is huge.
I hear of friends of my family dying rather young and I know their recreational drug habits in their youth was a contributing factor.
Prescription drug use is huge too.... one pill makes you larger. Drug companies have people believing they can cure anything with a pill - even off-label useage.
I take only an antihystamine and decongestant and daily vitamins. That's It. Look into the medicine cabinets of most boomers and you will be shocked.
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