don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

Yesterday I discussed senior adults, in general, and falls by senior adults, in particular. I promised to offer a few specific tips for reducing the chances of falls. In case you missed it, the essay (along with all Don's Reports for the past few years) is available in the archives.

Even if you are the wellest person on earth or a serious candidate for such an award, the fact is you are still going to grow old, eventually -- assuming you don't get hit by a bus or carry genes programmed to do you in before you reach a state of semi-frailty, senility or worse. I know this for a fact, based on my own double-blind, cross-over randomized trials of a horizontal, longitudinal and dignified nature -- and the fact that I am just days away from eligibility for Medicare (in other words, age 65.) While some good things can be said for denial, it won't work forever in the case of aging. You WILL eventually grow old no matter how much you exercise, regardless of how many fruits and veggies you eat and no matter how much lifting, stretching and creative thinking you do. Alas, it's true: Despite heroic efforts at self-managed skill building, at some point aging will catch up with you and, among other unpleasant consequences (besides dying), you will fall down now and then. Though I am in extraordinary shape by American standards for ALL age groups and am ONLY (almost) 65, I myself have been known to fall down now and then. I fell during the second run segment in a major duathlon in St. Cloud, MN last month -- and I've taken a few spills on other occasions while running along Bayshore Boulevard in Tampa where I live. The danger of falling down is a reality that you have to contend with the older you get, and it makes sense to think about ways to minimize such hazards. Not all falls can be prevented, but some can.

The first step, of course, is to stay as young as possible in the most meaningful fashion for as long as you can. By this, I mean you should live a wellness lifestyle via self-management for lifestyle artistry. The shape you are in makes a huge difference in all aspects of the quality of your life, including fall reduction or avoidance. Compared with your lifestyle age, chronological age is of minor significance.

Here are additional suggestions to minimize the danger of falling:

Design a safe home environment that reduces such risks.

Get quality medical care, including regular vision checkups.

Install devices in your home (for example, grab bars and railings in strategic locations) that make life easier, especially for frail adults.

Favor bright lighting.

Keep on hand plentiful supplies of Viagra.

As noted, I have taken to watching my own steps lately. I figure I am fast becoming a senior adult, not only because I qualify for Medicare, but because people have been telling me that I look young. When friends say that, at any age, it means you look run down and sickly.

Having said all this, I should reiterate that the best reason for going to the considerable trouble to sustain a self-management lifestyle is NOT to avoid falls, illness, doctors, pills, drugs and pain. Nor is the best reason that you will probably live longer than your neighbors or, for that matter, the long-lived Vilcambabas, Hunzas or Abkassians! No, the best reason for choosing self-management is to enjoy a better quality of life -- a lot better quality of life. If you plan to become and remain a senior adult as long as possible in the years ahead, you should be especially interested in wellness, as I suspect you are.

The opposite of a wellness lifestyle is a "worseness" lifestyle. OK, that is not a real word, at least not yet -- I made it up 25 years ago when I wrote HIGH LEVEL WELLNESS: AN ALTERNATIVE TO DOCTORS, DRUGS AND DISEASE (Rodale, Bantam and Ten Speed Press.) Yet, by any name, a high-risk lifestyle is a mighty dangerous way to live. The National Institute on Aging states that "sedentary habits are right behind smoking as the leading underlying cause of death among aging baby boomers." The leading cause of PREMATURE functional senior adulthood and falls, in my view, is the failure to live lifestyles that are healthy, satisfying and as meaningful as one's potentials/heredity/ environment and fortune (in other words, luck) permit. Self-management is a precious tool for life, without which your prospects for a good senior adulthood are not so good.

As Alexandra Robbin said, "the aging aren't only the old; the aging are all of us. The quality of aging is what distinguishes some from others."

Be well. Watch where you're going and always look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of appearance and aging. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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