Aging repeat

Ageing revisited

I have been denying it but proof positive I am becoming forgetful is that I forgot I had written a blog on aging that repeats a number of the observations I made in the April post on the same subject. Shocking! but there it is – irrefutable evidence – a common symptom of aging!

We have our first birthday after we have lived for a whole year so, since I had my am 86th in January, I am half way through my 87th year and feel qualified to add my two cents worth on the subject of ageing.

We have one unique body we are born with and, good or bad, we must live in it for our lifetime. We do however have a lot we can do about how it ages. If we were given a new car when we were driving age and told that it had to last us through our lifetime we would surely make it our business to take good card of it – have it checked up regularly, change the oil and have it seen to right away if there were any mechanical problems. Our bodies tend to be self-healing and are far more forgiving but to keep our health and feel fit as we age, we need to take care of it.

In the early 50’s I started taking an interest in nutrition and absorbed the very readable books by Adelle Davis. Nowadays our diet is often very different from our hunter-gatherer ancestors and we can easily have a deficiencies of some of the vitamins. I have been knowledgeably supplementing for most of my life. So rule number one for long life is take care of your body, eat well, exercise and all that good stuff and obviously don’t smoke. I did for 30 years when we didn’t know better and I still suffer with clogged arteries in my legs.

I expected there would be noticeable deterioration in vigour in my 60’s and 70’s but actually, I was constantly surprised at how great I felt and how much sustained energy I had through until I was 82. That's when I began to slow down a bit but was still active. At 85 the circulation problems began to really slow me down so I am being proactive and hope to have the trouble at least alleviated.

Someone once said 'Growing old is like being increasingly penalized
for a crime you have not committed' and unfortunately the aches and pains of moving have started to descend and my greatest pleasure for now is using my head – and hopefully my deterioration into forgetfulness will be slow. Rie