Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

from the web

Today my brother is taking out our Mother for her 86th birthday. Sadly he won’t be there as he lives in Switzerland and my husband and I are going in his stead. We’ll think of him whilst we dine at his expense. This is our third attempt at having this lunch. The first cancelled as the cardiologist decided that Mum required a pacemaker and surgery fell on the day we had planned for the celebration.  The next time, cancelled again due to a probable heart attack which saw her readmitted to hospital but this time the day has dawned and it looks like we are going to make it.

Naturally as one gets older and having a mother who is old (though she doesn’t think so) makes one reflects on one’s life and what you want to be like when you are older so when My brother (he doesn’t post often but wow when he does) put me on to this fascinating article which examines longevity I read it avidly. The article’s author Eric Barker starts by asking the question “so is it possible to live forever?” The answer to this and other questions is found at http://time.com/108249/is-it-possible-to-live-forever-how-to-live-a-long-healthy-life/

Although the average age is getting older (more people living to 100 than ever) it seems as though there is a full stop in human existence because no more people are reaching the incredibly old ages than ever before. Not surprising the studies mentioned in the article found that we don’t want to live forever. I know I for one don’t want to and that time that I do have I want to be healthy and fit and have lots of friends around me. Once my friends start going that is when I would want to go also (says I before this starts to happen).  Back to the article where the studies concurred that we want a great quality of life for the time we are living.

Interestingly it said from the age of forty our birthdate was the least accurate predictor of our actual age. I’m sure we all know people in their nineties who look like they are in their seventies and people in their seventies who look like they are in their nineties.  The article talked of many studies looking at ways of increasing longevity. It found diet and exercise had less impact on how long we lived than we expected. A low-fat, low carb, high protein, vegetarian , vegan diet are not the major factors in making us live longer. Thank heavens for that (I’m far from fanatical about diet though not unhealthily so). It did quote the results of some interesting studies  which barring accidents means I should live to a fairly ripe age such as: if you have a friend that you can ring at 4am in the morning to have a chat with your lifespan will increase by up to 7.5 years. Other traits which have an effect are being happy, good, vain, being positive and conscientiousness with just the right amount of stress. Relationships are one of the most important factors. Read the article – its fascinating.

Golly – I wonder if my nephews will take me out for my birthday lunch when I reach 100.