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So, why not use wishful thinking? And the placebo effect? And thinking positive? And being involved in a good community? And prayer? And helping others?
I would rather be hopeful than negative.
Because these are largely myths and do not work. You can chose to live in fantasy land if you wish. I would rather look at reality and try to understand it.
There is nothing new about psychosomatic medicine or a whole bunch of myths, many of which we would like to believe:
Other people get sick because they don't have a good attitude. (Therefore I will avoid getting sick).
Illness can be avoided or cured with a good attitude.
If you don't feel well and your doctor cannot find a reason, it must be all in your head.
If you have a disease without a cure, that is your fault and it is up to you to fix it.
If you don't feel well and cannot sleep well, then it is your fault for not sleeping and you are to blame for not feeling well.
The placebo effect cures diseases.
The only part that is not a myth is the idea of making a living by doing psychosomatic research or by getting paid for ineffective treatment procedures.
Just because many or most illnesses are caused by non-psychological reasons, this does not mean that psychosomatic causation never happens. This is black and white thinking. Nor does it mean that stress won't hasten the damage occurring due to other causes. The most obvious example, ironically, may be the very first thing on your list of diseases: Heart disease. Stress causes high blood pressure, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. Even if the heart disease was caused by genes and diet, the heart would not give out as quickly if there were not so much stress. In other words, it is multifactorial. The idea that there must always be one single well-defined "cause" for every medical problem is an inane oversimplification.
Aside from congenital heart disease and uncommon causes, heart disease in the elderly is almost always due to atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is primarily due to genetics and diet with smoking and lack of exercise as contributing factors. High blood pressure is another symptom of the disease, not a primary cause.
The OP claimed that having a good attitude would cure diseases. That is a gross exaggeration. A great attitude is not going to cure a lifetime of developing atherosclerotic disease. Anyone with chronic high blood pressure also needs more than a good attitude. They need appropriate meds.
Way too many people have the idea that they can avoid diseases and aging with a good attitude. That is the oversimplification. If a good attitude means exercise, appropriate weight and diet then maybe. But attitude by itself is highly, highly overrated.
1) Younger beautiful women no longer view you as a sexual "threat", for lack of a better term, at all. Probably the same in reverse for women with younger men.
2) Things like crowds at concerts start to become a hassle to the point where you don't really enjoy them anymore. You will still have fun if you go but you have to be dragged to them.
That is when I turned old at least. I think some can put it off into their sixties, others are born old.
Jack Benny stopped at 39. I have stopped at age 12. Yep, my inner child is now at the helm and as far as the calendar goes, pfooey!
I know 30 year olds who are ''old'' and 90 year olds who are ''young''.
Stay positive, enthusiastic, and engaged in life as much as you are able. Take care of your health as best as you can.
Quit thinking about your age and start thinking about living to the fullest, moment by moment.
That's all I've got to add to the conversation.
Jack Benny stopped at 39. I have stopped at age 12. Yep, my inner child is now at the helm and as far as the calendar goes, pfooey!
I know 30 year olds who are ''old'' and 90 year olds who are ''young''.
Stay positive, enthusiastic, and engaged in life as much as you are able. Take care of your health as best as you can.
Quit thinking about your age and start thinking about living to the fullest, moment by moment.
That's all I've got to add to the conversation.
But that's enough! I agree with this all. I have an age 92 friend that is still a rock hound, and calls me over sometimes to help him lift a large (80lb) rock onto his rock saw so he can cut it. If you sit with him for a minute, his stories about everything will fill you face with smiles until it hurts.
I don't know, age slows us all down, but we adapt. I just passed 65, and I feel slower than I did a few years back, but DW and I are still healthy. Our next goal is to reverse some of the muscle latency that occurred due our soon to be forgotten, hectic schedules and hours tied to my mandatory cubicle sitting. We are now beginning the transition from of our old lives to the new, and as a first step, are starting the design of a simple rope-tow on our new 'retirement' property so we can ski at home during the white months. Yea, 'Green runs'...not like we used to do at A-Basin, but hey, we're 'old'....but just thinking about it gives us the grins.
If one sets out to find and realize their dreams- whatever they are, they can find things that makes them feel younger. It doesn't really matter what they are as long as it lifts the spirits, and if it happens to lift the spirits of those around them, even better. Maybe it's just me, but I have always felt that staying engaged in life turns back my mental clock. I may not BE younger, but I FEEL younger...and after all, isn't that the goal?
Last edited by MichiganGreg; 04-07-2017 at 05:27 AM..
1) Younger beautiful women no longer view you as a sexual "threat", for lack of a better term, at all. Probably the same in reverse for women with younger men.
2) Things like crowds at concerts start to become a hassle to the point where you don't really enjoy them anymore. You will still have fun if you go but you have to be dragged to them.
That is when I turned old at least. I think some can put it off into their sixties, others are born old.
I must have been born old. Those two criteria applied at that point.
This article argues that creativity peaks at older age.
Quote:
today, at 94, has just set the tech industry abuzz with his blazing creativity. He and his team at the University of Texas at Austin filed a patent on a new kind of battery that, if it works as promised, would be so cheap, lightweight and safe that it would revolutionize electric cars and kill off petroleum-fueled vehicles. His announcement has caused a stir, in part, because Dr. Goodenough has done it before. In 1980, at age 57, he coinvented the lithium-ion battery that shrunk power into a tiny package.
Quote:
On the contrary, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that late blooming is no anomaly. A 2016 Information Technology and Innovation Foundation study found that inventors peak in their late 40s and tend to be highly productive in the last half of their careers. Similarly, professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Hitotsubashi University in Japan, who studied data about patent holders, found that, in the United States, the average inventor sends in his or her application to the patent office at age 47, and that the highest-value patents often come from the oldest inventors — those over the age of 55.
John P. Walsh, one of the professors, joked that the Patent Office should give a “senior discount” because “there’s clear evidence that people with seniority are making important contributions to invention.”
A study of Nobel physics laureates found that, since the 1980s, they have made their discoveries, on average, at age 50. The study also found that the peak of creativity for Nobel winners is getting higher every year. For many years, oddsmakers have predicted that Dr. Goodenough would win the Nobel Prize, but so far the call from Stockholm has not come. You might call him the Susan Lucci of chemistry. If he finally does prevail, he could be the oldest person ever to receive the Nobel, and a harbinger.
A data point perhaps, but hardly the whole story. We do not have to give other people the power to declare us Old.
Quote:
Originally Posted by infocyde
Let's cut to the chase. You are old when-
1) Younger beautiful women no longer view you as a sexual "threat", for lack of a better term, at all. Probably the same in reverse for women with younger men.
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