Aging is a controversial topic. On the one hand, we hate the thought of wrinkles and age spots, not to mention disease and decline. But, let’s face it, we all want to get older because the alternative stinks.
Since hitting 40 I have tried to embrace aging. In general, I have always been of the “You are as old as you think you are” adage, but have noticed a few, albeit subtle, changes. My once normal skin is getting drier (as is my hair) and there is a little more sagging and a few extra fine lines.
But really, do we want to look 25 (or 30) when we are 40 and up, or do we want to look healthy for our own age?
Fertility rates are declining around the world and most of what is written about this trend casts it in a positive light. The cover story of last November’s Economist magazine carried the headline: “Falling Fertility - How the Population Problem is Solving Itself.” It claimed that countries like China are enjoying a “demographic dividend” over the coming decades. As positive as an end to human population increase might be for the planet, the question that is not getting much attention is, “what next?” After population reaches an inflection point and begins to decline, what will society be like? I won’t live to see this, but my grand daughter who was born last month certainly will.
My good friend John sent me a link to the IIASA website (International Institute for Applied System Analysis) where it is possible to download data from their models of global demographic trends (I’ve made some graphs of that data). Most such models stop at 2050 but this one goes out to 2100. If these models are correct, there are some major challenges ahead for humanity. The most immediate is how to feed the population that will continue to increase until about 2060. The next is how to deal with a population that is getting very old. If you are an American, the trends in the following graphs should be seriously unsettling. We have a dysfunctional, hyper-partisan-dominated, political establishment that is chronically unable to find reasonable solutions to the challenges of medical costs, Social Security insolvency or immigration reform, and yet addressing these very issues will become even more critical in the future pictured in these graphs.
Fewer and Fewer Children
The first thing that strikes me (see graph above) is the declining proportion of children. This global trend is well under way in the developed world and is only slightly less so in North America because of immigration. I wonder at what point colleges will start competing for the few remaining students?
This post is an anti-climactic one. It talks about what a herb that was thought so far to have a certain effect, does not actually have that effect. While not the most encouraging, if you were a Ginkgo biloba fan, the importance of such a finding remains because at least it won’t mislead people into thinking they are helping themselves when helping themselves to the supplement.
For a few years now, the media including the New York Times and even the [...]
Advertising is full of suggestions that getting older is a bad thing, and that it must be fought with every weapon at our disposal: chemical, physical and surgical.
The truth is that most women in their forties, fifties and sixties experience a greater sense of self-esteem and self-fulfilment than those in their twenties and thirties. Age is something to be celebrated, wherever we are on its path. But there are things you can do to ensure that you age with beauty, confidence and power, and they don’t require you to go under the knife, or surrender your weekends to colonic irrigation or sadistic gym routines. Here are five ways to lose years and gain beauty:
While most people squirm at the thought of blood sucking leeches, celebrities like Demi Moore are swearing by leech therapy to keep themselves toxin free and youthful. According to US Magazine, leeches are Demi Moore’s secret to looking sexyat the age of 45.
“I feel like I’ve always been someone looking for the cutting edge of things that optimize your health and healing,” she told David Letterman on his show.
Ayurvedic medicine has had an obsession with these creatures for centuries. Leeches are a critical player in an age old form of Ayurvedic detoxification known as Rakta Moksha i.e. the letting of toxic blood. The technique, drawn from ancient Ayurvedic scriptures such as the Charak Samhita and the Sushrut Samhita has been a stronghold of Indian village medicine for centuries, says Dr. O.P. Singh of Banaras Hindu University, India’s renowned Ayurvedic educational institution.
Contrary to popular opinion, bicycling can potentially damage the environment due to the increased longevity of people engaged in physical activity, says Karl Ulrich, a Wharton Business School professor.
Ulrich argues that the greatest environmental peril society may face is the looming prospect of slowing the aging process, and bicycling potentially contributes to slowing aging.
Put simply, Ulrich says there is an underlying conflict between human-powered transportation, longevity, and environmental impact, which needs to be highlighted as the world seeks to find [...]
Five Australian senior citizens who are committed to the environment, both in terms of reversing damage already done to our planet’s eco-system, and ensuring it doesn’t continue, are the subjects of today’s podcast. Their stories are featured in an article published by the Sydney Morning Herald.
More proof that individual effort, based on one’s skills and background, are empowering the groundswell of grassroots environmentalism around the world.
