 There are so many articles out there about “healthy aging”, but most of them are bizarrely vague. Like ads for menstrual products or incontinence, they seem to be convinced that we’d all run away screaming if they actually mentioned what aging is actually like, so we’re left with commercials of silver-haired couples taking romantic strolls on the beach, senior women lifting two-pound weights in yoga pants, and similarly-aged men mowing the lawn and looking purposefully at the horizon. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with beach dates or light workouts, but it doesn’t really address the issue of aging head-on. It’s like a dream of healthy seniorhood, as imagined by people who still don’t believe they’ll ever actually be old. (Yes, I said old. It’s not a dirty word!) But even if it’s usually polished up beyond recognition, healthy aging is a major concern. Across the world, the percentage of the population over the age of sixty is increasing, and by 2050 this percentage is expected to surpass 30% in Canada and most of Europe. We aren’t, as the saying goes, getting any younger. So what does it mean to age well? And what do we need to do in order to get there? Defining healthy agingHealth is a broad term that means different things for different people. But in general, it’s looking at functional ability, regardless of the particular quirks that your own body or mind develops as you age. The World Health Organization defines functional ability in the following terms:
We’ll take a look at each of these in a little more detail. Meeting your needsOkay, that’s a HUGE category. It means healthy finances, a safe place to live, warm clothes, clean water, nutritious food. It means access to whatever medications or treatments (including massage) that keep you functioning. If you’re having problems with some aspect of meeting your basic, needs, it means you have supports in place to help with that, whether these are physical supports like a grab bar in the bathroom, mental supports like reminders to take care of important tasks, or social supports like a neighbor who checks in on you regularly. For those of us who are wondering how to age well, it means making plans for how these needs will be met in the future. Talking with your primary care physician, your financial planner, your family, and even your friends can help you build a solid plan for ensuring your needs continue to be met over the coming years. Learning, growing, and making decisionsLearning and growth are a huge part of a happy and healthy life. It can be comfortable to fall into routines, but that shouldn’t stop you from branching out as well. Reading a book, taking a dance class, or exploring a new museum or park are all simple examples. More challenging can be traveling, taking up an entirely new hobby, or learning another language. But the greatest fear that many people have about getting older isn’t about failing to learn new things. It’s not even developing poor health. It’s the potential for lost autonomy. The longer you’ve been empowered to make your own decisions, the more you cherish it. The idea of losing that is horrifying. This is especially true when we think about the two primary sets of people who might take on our decision-making power down the road: our own children, for whom we made decisions for years, and strangers. As we get older, most of us end up leaning more heavily on others than we would have wished. What’s the solution here? Making as many decisions as possible now. Again, this involves some (possibly uncomfortable) conversations, especially with family members who’d rather pretend aging simply doesn’t happen. An advance directive is also a key part of this process. Five Wishes is one of the easiest and most common versions of this form, and makes your choices known in five key areas:
Even if not choosing this particular template, developing an advance directive is a good practice for people of all ages to consider, if they want to preserve their decision-making powers in the event of a catastrophic illness or injury. Staying mobileMobility comes in two flavors. The first is the ability to get around by the power of your own body. The very best thing you can do to maintain your mobility is to use your mobility. That means taking advantage of opportunities to walk, exercise, and stretch. Strength training can help, as well as getting regular massage. (Hello!) For folks whose mobility is limited in one or more ways, this can require taking advantage of what your body can do, even while there are things it can’t. Maybe you take t’ai chi instead of Zumba fitness, or you walk laps in the pool instead of around the track. Your physician or physical therapist can help you figure out what maintaining your personal mobility looks like. The second form of mobility is about how you get around in the world. People in their 80s often give up driving for a number of reasons, most commonly due to vision problems. Having access to alternative sources of transportation can be huge in assuring quality of life as we age. Living within walking distance of important resources such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and social spaces can as well. Building and maintaining relationshipsSome people naturally seem to collect new friends wherever they go. The introverts among us struggle a little more. Either way, building and maintaining relationships with others is a key part of health at every stage of life. Volunteering is a fantastic way to get to know people in a structured environment. Groups based around walking, reading, gardening, games, or other hobbies are another great option. Whatever you choose, you’ll be spending time with people who enjoy and appreciate the same things you do. And what about family? If you’re lucky, they also fall into this category. If you’re not so lucky, these relationships can be fraught with challenges. It’s worth considering individual or family therapy if there are family relationship you’d like to strengthen. And if they’re not the sort of relationships that ought to be maintained, a good therapist can help you through that process as well. Contributing to societyKnow that you have something to offer the world. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve spent most of your life as a NASA scientist or a full-time parent, whether you were a pillar of the community or the town’s biggest screw-up. If you believe that the world could be better with a little help, you are never too old to offer it. Volunteer. Share your experiences. Model your values. Make the world more just, friendly, beautiful, or honest. A huge part of health is hope. So act on it, however you can. Aging isn’t always easy.It would be nice if our minds and bodies kept functioning as though we were perpetually 25, but that’s not the reality we live in. What is our reality is that we have choices available to us that can help us lead meaningful and fulfilling lives at every age, even as we face new challenges. So today? Think a little bit about the future. Plan to take that walk, call your sister, write that op-ed, or schedule that massage https://www.massagebook.com/biz/WillowBowMassageTherapy. Aging isn’t always easy, but it’s a privilege all the same. So here’s to making the most of the opportunity. Ma
12 Comments
 Pain is one of those “you know it when you feel it” kind of sensations. But it’s also a strange phenomenon, when you think about it. A snowball is cold, and so it feels cold when you touch it. A block of concrete is rough, so it feels rough when you touch it. But a knife isn’t painful on its own. Neither is a pot of boiling water or the leg of a table. We handle these things safely all the time, and experience their mass and temperature and texture. But pain exists only in the body, and even more specifically (as people who’ve experienced anesthesia know firsthand) in our minds. But that doesn’t make it less real! So what exactly is happening when we feel pain, and how do we stop it from negatively impacting our lives?
How does pain work?There are three primary types of pain, and each of them works a slightly different way. Nociceptive pain (tissue pain).There are many different kinds of sense receptors in the body. Some are sensitive to heat or cold, some to touch or pressure. Others, called free nerve endings, aren’t specialized for any one type of stimulus. When a significant stimulus triggers these nerve endings, they send a message through the spinal cord and up to the brain indicating that something potentially dangerous has happened. The brain then decides (without consulting the part involved in conscious thought, alas) whether this is something to ignore or brush off or if it seems likely that damage has occurred. This then sends this message back down to the affected part of the body. If the message is “No biggie, ‘tis but a scratch,” then you’ll most likely shake yourself off and forget the incident even happened. If it’s “WHOA, THIS SEEMS LIKE A PROBLEM,” then you experience this as pain. This is useful! Just ask someone with CIPA, or congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, a disease that leaves people insensitive to pain. Imagine not noticing a bit of grit in your eye until it damages your cornea, developing stress fractures in your feet because nothing is telling you it’s time to sit down, or ending up with burns in your mouth and throat because you don’t realize your coffee is scalding hot. Pain stops us from trying to walk on a sprained ankle or go for a run when we have a fever. Tissue damage, high temperatures, low pH, and capsaicin (the active ingredient in hot peppers) are all common triggers for this process. But brains aren’t always correct when it comes to assessing danger. Lorimer Moseley gives a brilliant example of this in his TEDx talk. What’s the difference between the pain from a scratch on the leg and the pain from a nearly-fatal snake bite? Spoiler: it’s whatever your brain is expecting. That’s why you might feel little pain after a bicycle accident, but be in agony when getting the wound stitched up two hours later. Pain is weird. Neuropathic pain (nerve pain).This is pain that results from an issue with the nervous system itself, rather than surrounding tissues. If you’ve ever banged your funny bone, you know this feeling well. Common forms of neuropathic pain include:
Less common forms include phantom limb pain (pain that feels like it originates in an amputated limb) and postherpetic neuralgia, which occurs as a result of getting shingles. Neuropathic pain can be especially frustrating because the normal things we do to reduce pain are often useless when it comes to pain originating in the nervous system. Moving or not moving our muscles, applying heat or ice, these can have relatively little impact on nerve pain. What’s more, nerves don’t heal as well as things like muscles and skin do, which makes nerve pain more likely to become chronic pain. Other pain. (Yeah, that’s a terrible fake category name.)Pain is messy, and a lot of it doesn’t fall into either of the two categories above. Fibromyalgia is a great example of this. Is it pain resulting from tissue damage? Nope. What about nerve damage? Not as far as we can tell. It’s caused by the nervous system malfunctioning, sometimes in horrible ways, but that don’t result from actual nerve damage. Often a lot of it. And the world of medicine is still trying to figure out why. So how do we alleviate pain?There are several different options.
Feeling the hurt yourself? There’s a massage with your name on it. Book your next one today. https://www.massagebook.com/biz/WillowBowMassageTherapy  We all know that stress in life is a guarantee. Stress is necessary for life and can be a positive motivator. However, when it starts to become too much for our bodies and minds to process, it can start to present in many ways that can be frustrating, overwhelming or downright alarming. Symptoms of too much stress can present itself mentally, physical and emotionally.
Some of the mental effects of too much stress can be subtle at first. Trouble learning new information is often associated with aging but can also be attributed to stress overload. Forgetfulness and difficulty making decisions are other ways that stress can affect your brain (ask any new mom!). Confusion and disorganization are two more signs that your stress levels are beyond a healthy level and that it is time to start seeking stress management solutions. Most people are more aware of the physical side effects of stress. Headaches, grinding teeth, muscle spasms, neck and back pain just to name a few. Some physical symptoms are less known such as light headedness, dry mouth, hives and tremors. Other physical ways stress can present are heartburn, stomach pain, nausea and difficulty breathing. After ruling out any medical conditions, stress management is critical for reacquiring quality of life. Emotional effects of stress are often the most disturbing for people. Just a few of the symptoms that people can experience are frequent crying, irritability, increased anger, depression, feeling overloaded and loneliness. How you will manage stress will be different than every other person, but I will share a few ideas with you to help you get started. Meditation is something you can do anywhere and there are lots of free resources to get you started. Exercise is a great way to release natural endorphins in the body and reduce stress, even something as simple as taking a walk can help. Regular massage therapy can be a way to reduce stress and alleviate the pain associated with it. Other ways to manage stress include yoga, listening to music, reducing your workload, spending time in nature and visiting friends. If you are ever overwhelmed, reach out to your doctor for evaluation or resources. https://www.stress.org/stress-effects |
|
RSS Feed