Surprising Truth: How To Live Longer And Better If You Make It To Age 65
Average life expectancy in the U.S. is going down: but if you've made it to retirement age, you're in a different statistical group
If the TV is on in our house and it’s not a Phillies, Eagles, or Dodger game, neither of us are probably paying much attention.
However, the other day I did see a few minutes of a show about the famous Wild West shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ.
A current Tombstone resident told an interviewer, “If things were as violent as they portray back in the old days, there couldn’t have been a town and we wouldn’t have a town today.”
I thought that this seemed similar today in the U.S.: an avalanche of violent, depressing, and sad news may be concealing a happier reality for the majority of people.
Many chronic illnesses are increasing rapidly and are striking younger people. Ten-year-olds are being diagnosed with heart disease. People in their 20s are being diagnosed with colon cancer. Teens and young adults are being diagnosed with diabetes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 2020 and 2021 represented the biggest decline in U.S. life expectancy since the Great Depression in the 1920s.
It’s a shocking reversal, especially when compared to many other nations, including ones that U.S. residents typically think are “poorer” or have lower standards of living and healthcare. Chile, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece all have longer life expectancies than the U.S., and they kept these trends throughout the COVID pandemic.
But these figures don’t tell the entire story. When people reach age 65, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) begin to count “years of life left.”
If you live to age 65 in the U.S., you can expect to live another 19.6 years: broken down as 18.2 years for men, and 20.8 years for women. If you live to age 75, the next milestone tracked by the CDC, you can expect to survive another 12.4 years on average, putting you well on the path to reach to age 90.
I might have just used this information to figure out that I don’t need to “be a statistic” and am aging in good health, but insurance companies and investment firms know these facts inside and out. I also sometimes do business consulting for long-term care businesses, pharmacies, and health industry software/app businesses. And doctors, medical aesthetics and cosmetic surgery businesses. And developers and dairy product manufacturers and annuity providers.
All of these businesses are devoted to serving an older population. All are counting on a population of healthy aging customers to remain profitable.
Nobody wants to grow old being disabled, living a poor quality of life.
Just about everyone wants to age in good health and happiness.
We don’t hear as much publicity about happy aging as we should, but engaging in positive activities with friends and family will make our lives better, happier, and healthier: at any age.
Aging Happily and In Good Health
One of the most-overlooked parts of healthy aging is plain-old happiness.
In the U.S., that is. Our culture of 24–7 controversial politics, shame and denigration over aging or less-than-perfect bodies, junk entertainment and non-nutritious food, and continual downgrading of community cultural and social traditions makes it easy for older adults to become isolated, sad, and fearful.
Life as we grow older does not have to include low mobility, no friends, and no positive interactions. It also doesn’t have to include getting too old to play with Legos!
I saw a brief video of Dutch nursing home residents this morning playing many different creative games. The video came from Rotterdam, one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands.
The Dutch government’s official aging policy is to “stimulate everyone, including those with increasing physical and cognitive limitations, to participate in society as actively as possible.” As a result, the younger people who work at well-paid jobs in nursing homes create and organize a wide range of activities for the residents: games, social times, and creative get-togethers. Here in the U.S., quite a few people work in facilities for the aging, but most of the facilities I’ve visited don’t challenge their residents or engage them in creative games the way I saw on the fun, cute Dutch videos.
This doesn’t have to be the case here in the U.S. We could easily incorporate more fun and games into our lives. Growing older does not need to be a death march to 8 hours a day of Fox News or MSNBC and chicken salad sandwiches.
According to the World Happiness Report, “the Nordic countries have the highest well-being, though they are not richer than many other countries. But they do have higher levels of trust and of mutual respect and support.” The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark aren’t “richer” than other nations, they just invest more of their time and daily activities in being happy.
I’m not sure how many years the ability to hang out with friends, have a good time, and relax adds to our lives.
All I know is: it makes things a lot more enjoyable and happier while we are here.
As we age, we don’t have to be a statistic, we can just be happy.
Sources
Centers for Disease Control. "Life Expectancy in the U.S. Dropped for the Second Year in a Row in 2021," 31 August 2022, url: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/nchs_press_releases/2022/20220831.htm
Centers for Disease Control. "Health, United States - Data Finder," url: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/hus/data-finder.htm?&subject=Life%20expectancy
Sustainable Development Solutions Network. "World Happiness Report," Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University," 20 March 2023, url: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2023/the-happiness-agenda-the-next-10-year/
Made it to 65 a couple months ago. Your post exactly addresses the issues I have been thinking about. We can live happy at this milestone - but are swimming against a lot of corporate-designed resistance. I have pretty well settled on the effort to embrace the good that surrounds me and limit the negative inputs from my life. It don't come easy but recognizing these things provides the choices.