It is astounding when you stop and ponder implications of the fact that the average lifespan has nearly doubled in developed countries such as ours in only 150 years!

Body, Brain and Being

It is astounding when you stop and ponder implications of the fact that the average lifespan has nearly doubled in developed countries such as ours in only 150 years!

But the advances that have allowed for this have not been matched by an evolution in our attitudes to ageing. There is stigma and discrimination, personal and social, attached to ageing, to older people, to the very idea of being 'old'. We tend to avoid thinking about it, and our 'planning' often goes only as far as the financial aspect of older age and post workforce life.

And yet there is so much we can be doing to ensure and build the foundation of a healthy, happy and useful life in the years beyond families, fulltime employment and so on. There is definitely an upside available with ageing, with a bit of work and a bit of luck.

Older age is not inevitably a time of frailty, incapacity or senility. Of course it's a process that is going to bring with it some limitations...(including eventually death, the elephant in the room of fear and taboo surrounding ageing). Yet stories abound of people who ‘keep their spark’, who remain active, engaged and adventurous well into their 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond. We can do a lot to actively maintain health and vitality, while reducing our risk of dementia and other chronic diseases that are not a normal part of ageing. And the biggest lesson we can learn, from the research and from those who refuse to succumb to unhealthy cultural norms, is that our aging destiny is not all down to our genes, but has so much to do with choices we make and lifestyle factors that it is within our reach to influence.

The full article can be viewed at www.suepietershawke.com.au click on News Extracted from SPH Resources February 2011 Newsletter with permission from Sue Pieters-Hawke.