Getting Older

A friend of mine turned 38 last weekend and was complaining about “getting old.” I noticed a shift physically when I turned 40ish. The eyes were worse, the knees and ankles a little more wobbly.

About five years ago the National Institute on Aging published a booklet based on the lessons learned from the Baltimore Longitudinal study of aging. The point was to study the aging processes and look for solutions to reduce the burden of disease and disability on older people. We have a similar study going on here in Canada: the Canadian Logitudianal Study on Aging. Most of what we hear about how to stay healthy has its roots in these types of studies. Y’know, eat well, get some exercise, do things you enjoy, quit smoking and drink only in moderation. And yet, there are still so many things that happen to us as we add on the years that we are ill prepared for.

Take floaters for example. Do you have floaters? Do you even know what floaters are? I remember when I first discovered the wormy little black shadows I was horrified. Licketysplit I was at the optometrist for an exam. She smiled at my panic and then told me to relax.

Have you noticed strange specks drifting about in your field of vision? I see them when I look up at a clear blue sky, or a white ceiling. Apparently they’re experienced by around 70% of people. So why hadn’t I heard about them? Why hadn’t anyone told me these things existed so I wouldn’t worry when they showed up?

Floaters are actually shadows cast by objects suspended in the vitreous humor, which makes up the majority of the eye’s interior and helps your eye keep it’s round shape. Mostly made up of water, the vitreous humor also contains proteins and other substances.

When proteins clump together in the vitreous humour, they block the light and cast a shadow on the retina… they sometimes look like circles, sometimes like tadpoles, and they’re there for good. Floaters can also show up when our vitreous gel shrinks, which happens naturally as we age.

Mostly just an annoyance until you get used to them, if they become more serious, hampering your vision, then you might have to have your vitreous replaced with a saline liquid to get rid of the floaters.

The physical aspects of our aging is only part of the challenge we’ll face as the baby boomers keep racking up the years. There are dire headlines from time to time about the health care system being unprepared for our aging society or how Asia’s pension systems are unprepared for their rapidly aging populations. Harvard University says the US is unprepared to meet the housing needs of its aging population.

This can’t be coming as a surprise to anyone… that we have a massive number of people aging out of work and into the final 1/3 of their lives. Traditional rack ‘em and stack ‘em homes aren’t going to cut it. I’d smoke a lot of dope, drink a lot of booze and consume a lot of pills before I let myself be warehoused in one of those establishments. Hey, I don’t give two hoots about quantity, I’m all about quality of life.

Like just about everything else, we need to be talking about this issue in useful ways… not bemoaning how unprepared we’re going to be, but actually doing something to prepare. Where will you live? How will you get around? Who will do the shopping, cooking, cleaning, laundry, and everything else you’ll need done? Don’t count on your kids for this people? They’ll be busy just trying to get through their own lives. You don’t have the right to plop yourself on their backs as they struggle to make their own lives work now, and prepare for their own futures.

We still have time. I’m born in the year the most baby boomers were born: 1959. At 55 (almost 56), we are a decade away from the traditional retirement age. That’s enough time to make a plan and put it into action. But you’ve got to get a move on.

If you’re counting on the system to take care of you, you’re going to be very disappointed. The only person you can count on is YOU. And unless you want to spend part of your life shoved into diapers, a feedbag hung around your neck you best get moving.