Getting old: Defy or accept?

[SteveinMN]

I don't wear very low-rise, super-skinny jeans with artful rips in them, and I suspect you don't either.

I don't think I've ever worn anything "super-skinny" in my life... And any rips in my jeans are completely borne of function, not art.

I do have normal blue jeans, however, and they're my default garment because wearing Dockers or sweat pants just don't make sense for what I'm doing.

[rosarugosa]

I live in jeans, but they are definitely a more conservative version.

[Rogar]

Levis have lost a little quality over the years but seem to have several different cuts for different body types. I rotate through three or four pairs for routine wear and they last a couple or three years and are more comfortable at the end. I do have a couple of pairs on reserve that I call skinny jeans only because i weighed less when I bought them and think the day will come when they fit again.

[frugal-one]

Ahhh, but the ones who do, Oh My!

The percentage is few.

[Simone]

Good topic. I am doing my very best to make peace with growing old(er). It's inevitable. I do admit to reading the obits in my local paper and cheering when someone's died who is quite a bit older than me...and booing when the dearly departed is younger than me.

A new book by Barbara Ehrenreich is titled: Natural Causes

One review says "Natural Causes examines the ways in which we obsess over death, our bodies, and our health. Both funny and caustic, Ehrenreich then tackles the seemingly unsolvable problem of how we might better prepare ourselves for the end—while still reveling in the lives that remain to us."

Have the book reserved at the library...sounds fascinating. She's a great writer -- loved her Nickel & Dimed examining the lives of those trying to survive on minimum wage jobs..she went undercover to live their lives and to experience, first-hand, their struggle.

I rather like Woody Allen's take on life--the progression of living should be reversed -- we should end our lives as an orgasm, rather than begin it as one...

I've read and admired Ehrenreich for decades.

A few days ago, I shared this essay with a family member. I agreed with most of what I read; she did not. The essay has influenced how I will approach my annual physical next week. I will ask for fewer tests. I may never have a Dexa Scan again.

https://lithub.com/barbara-ehrenreic...entative-care/

[pinkytoe]

I wholeheartedly concur with Ehrenreich's viewpoint. I have an appt for a physical in a month even though I don't have any issues. Just seemed like a prudent thing to do - a baseline of sorts for going forward. But then again, I think about all the tests I will be asked to have and how the usual treatment for high blood pressure or cholesterol is always a drug. I have never had a colonoscopy and don't intend to. I imagine that some day in an enlightened society which currently does not exist, we might look back and see how torturous "healthcare" was in this time. So may of our illnesses now are due to lifestyle choices - and not that our bodies are defective.

[Yppej]

Thanks for posting the Ehrenreich piece so I get a taste of the book before it is available at my library.

[catherine]

Yes, thanks for the Ehrenreich piece. She mirrors pretty much what I believe as well. In the last 5 years I've been to the doctor once--for a physical. He handed me a script for a mammogram and I ignore it. My DH gets mad at me. But I have absolutely no history of cancer in my family. If I feel a lump, I'll check it out. I remember when we made the decision to not put my 85-year old MIL through surgery to correct a gangrenous bowel (which killed her). She didn't want the surgery; but we still felt a twinge of guilt over not fighting harder for her life, and I still wonder if she'd be alive today if she had gotten sick at home in central NJ as opposed to on vacation in Vermont. But her last few years were pure struggle and depression. She lived her life. She was done, and she would often say those exact words. "Achh.. I'm done." as she struggled to get into a chair with a bad knee, or had to put a book down because her eyes were too bad to read it.

I will continue to get Dexa scans, though. I worked for years with the marketing team that "pushed" the first treatment for osteoporosis. I interviewed probably thousands of women eligible for bone density tests to uncover barriers to getting them, so that the marketers could create advertisements that would hit hot buttons. It still took me a decade to get my own BMD, but when I got it I found I had osteopenia. Sure, as Ehrenreich said, that doesn't mean I'm "sick" or "need treatment." But I DO have aunts with kyphosis (hunched back), and frankly, I'd like to do what I can to avoid that.

To date, I have not taken pharmaceuticals for osteopenia. I've seen evidence that bisphosphonates strengthen bone density, but the data proving that increased bone density=fewer fractures is just not there. So I have to work harder at nutrition (I have the book The Healthy Bones Nutrition Plan and Cookbook) and exercise (10 minutes of yoga 3 times a week has been shown by Dr. Loren Fishman to improve T-scores). But in the end, I may still wind up looking like my aunts.

[JaneV2.0]

I couldn't agree more with Ehrenreich. I'm now old enough to die, and I've long looked at the excessive testing and drug pushing practiced by our for-profit medical-industrial complex with a jaundiced eye, and avoided it like the plague. Thanks for posting the link; I've shared it with a like-minded friend.

[Rogar]

I read through the article and agree with parts and understand that it's all a reasonable perspective. However, I had the impression that she was not caught up in popular or scientific health habits to avoid some sort of obsession or pre-occupation with dying. I think of it more as improving the quality of life we have left rather than some sort of longevity extension. Most of the articles I've see say aerobic exercise improves memory and mental function. Yoga keeps you flexible. Healthy eating habits decreases the odds of very inconvenient things like Type II diabetes.

I might have to think about her perspective on preventive testing, but it does seem like some of the surgeries and medications that were popular just a few years ago are now considered causing more harm than good. I sometimes think that medical science is no where near perfected. And hospital stays and surgery spin the roulette wheel for errors and infections. However, I currently enjoy being around and there are preventive care things that seems to make sense to me.