Living to 100

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If you want to live to be 100, here are a few things you might need to do: keep slim, avoid smoking and be sure to own your own home before you turn 50. Swedish researchers tracked 855 men, born in 1913, to try to work out the links between lifestyle and longevity. Of their original group, only ten made it to 100, but they had several things in common. All were non-smokers who had retained a trim physique; they had good posture, low cholesterol and low blood pressure. They had remained in active work until at least their mid-50s; they had drunk no more than four cups of coffee a day, and had been financially secure enough either to own their own home by the time they were 50 or to rent an expensive property. Genes seemed to count for something: they’d all had mothers who had lived into their 80s. However, paternal age of death seemed to make no difference. (The Week)

I’m not sure why people want to extend their lives to a point that they are infirm and need constant nursing. Nor do I quite get the intense desire of people who are at death’s door to be resuscitated at huge expense. I think the intelligent strategy is maybe to go on until lack of memory or energy ring the final bell. At that point I would personally like to have made the acquaintance of an enlightened doctor (or three) who would arrange my graceful and smiling exit, surrounded by admiring friends and relatives muttering “I had no idea he was that old. I thought he was in his fifties”. But most importantly: I couldn’t possibly leave my wife alone, wrestling with the computer. So we would leave together, our own music playing and friends making endearing speeches about us both. However, getting to 100 years old together is another, daunting, task.

Telling the truth

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Epicurus was very concerned about telling the truth, but telling it with tact and kindness.  He thought philosophers used rhetoric to conceal the truth.  Ancient Epicureans prided themselves on politely pointing out errors or misconceptions to offer other people, something that requires huge trust and respect. There is a right way to criticize and a wrong way, too.

One of the problems with the anonymized web is that you get these people who give themselves bogus names that allow them to be rude, vulgar and hurtful. There is no excuse for this behaviour, although, surprisingly, others seem to tolerate it. I just looked at a blog where people were saying the most sexist, violent and disgusting things about Hillary. I am not a particular admirer of Hillary, but believe that she is not a bad person. I can disagree with the tendency of some of her views but remain courteous and thoughtful. What motivates these vacuous thugs online? Do they treat others like this in real life? No, they are cowards, upsetting others in anonymity.

Health and lifestyle in Britain : good news on dementia

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Dementia incidence for over 65s has fallen drastically in UK men, a drop of 41 per cent. But the improvement has been much smaller among women: only a 2.5 per cent. This is according to an analysis of more than 10,000 over-65s in the UK spanning the past 20 years. The study found that, overall, a person’s risk of getting dementia by any particular age is a fifth lower than it was 20 years ago (Nature Communications, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11398).

Understanding what’s behind this drop could help lower dementia rates further. Lifestyle factors like better diets, improved blood pressure control and more education may all be involved.

The much steeper decline in men could be because older men used to have unhealthier lifestyles than women, so they had more room for improvement, says team member Fiona Matthews of Newcastle University, UK. “We have gone from smoking being something that nearly every man did to how it is considered now,” she says. (Report on the New Scientist, April 2016).

I rather envy men living in Britain. The much-scorned EU has significantly tougher rules on the purity of food, water and on protecting the environment in general than does the United States. To illustrate, micro style: today we learn that plain, ornery oats (as in porridge) are grown in the US using chemicals that are implicated in cancer. My wife and I eat a lot of oats as part of a carbohydrate-controlled diet. Who, may I ask, can we trust? For sure, by the way, the TTIP “trade treaty” is designed to loosen the rules about food purity to accommodate American suppliers. Be careful, Brexiters, what you hope for!

There is only one life

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” No one will bring back the years; no one will restore you to yourself. Life will follow the path it began to take, and will neither reverse nor check its course. It will cause no commotion to remind you of its swiftness, but glide on quietly. It will not lengthen itself for a king’s command or a people’s favor. As it started out on its first day, so it will run on, nowhere pausing or turning aside. What will be the outcome? You have been preoccupied while life hastens on. Meanwhile death will arrive, and you have no choice in making yourself available for that”. (Seneca)

Thus, we must enjoy life and live it to the full. Regrets are pointless, but, speaking for myself I am slightly wistful about my failure (entirely my own responsibility) to explore my own capabilities early on in life. I was well into adulthood before I discovered musical composition, rhymed verse, drawing, singing, acting and painting, to name a few. No, I doubt my ability to have made successful careers out of any of them, but I do wish I had been properly trained when I had the leisure, the time, snd the habit of learning one has in youth. In the unlikely event of being asked for advice by a young person, I would definitely press them to try everything, if only once, to find out where their talents lie. People think far too much about money, snd too little about self-fulfillment and self-exploration.

The gap year

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The big news from Washington DC yesterday was the report that 17-year-old Malia Obama is taking a gap year before going to Harvard university. Gap years are quite normal for most young people in the UK, but are still relatively rare in America, where any delay in getting through further education and earning money is viewed as odd by many.

The gap year was an outcrop, as it were, of National Service in Britain. National Service took young men away from home and school for two years and allowed them a long, (if sometimes boring) break, and time to grow up. Nowadays, too many drink beer for a year on a beach in Thailand, but that’s alright, too. They get used to being away from home and developing some perspective on life – it will be stressful enough later. At my own university interview I was told,”Mr. Hanrott, we will admit you, but we find you immature, so the condition of acceptance is that you do two years National Service. You will get more out of university this way”. They were absolutely right. (I have told this story previously on this blog, but it bears repeating, because I think students can be propelled into college/university far too soon, and this helps explain some of the behavioral and psychological problems many develop away from home for the first time. I hasten to say not all young people! Everyone matures at different rates). And, of course, the gap year can cost a lot, so it is still the preserve of the relarively well off.

Malia sounds a very sensible young lady. My only reservation is that, at 17, the gap should maybe be 2 years. It’s young to go to university, and you are young but once.