8 ms·

I'm close to 60, now around 50 I noticed things were going south and I wasn't to happy about it. So I did some research and made lifestyle changes - nothing sta

I'm close to 60, now around 50 I noticed things were going south and I wasn't to happy about it. So I did some research and made lifestyle changes - nothing startling, ate well and started an exercise program. Now I feel like I'm 40 again. I have some friends who I've known since high school, now some have health issues and its how they respond seems to make a difference. Some just take the pills the doctor gives them and accept the ageing process and complain about things. Others, like myself, fight tooth and nail to do whatever they can. Of course you can only fight so much - the genetic hand you're dealt, but, I believe your attitude to ageing is really a factor - if you accept it, or fight it. Which sort of aligns with the personality traits they observed. You're only as old as you feel as the saying goes. I know one lady for example who has had two cancers and was forced to use a walker for a while but is going again, whereas her husband was showing me all the pills he takes - due to being overweight and eating poorly. He has accepted his fate, she has fought against it.

agumonkey 5y ago
can you share your plan details ? I did clean my diet 85% but I'm still looking for a PE plan.
- chadcmulligan 5y ago
  Like I said, nothing startling. I do studio pilates a couple of times a week, if you have aches and pains I really recommend this - I don't have back pain anymore because of this. I walk everywhere now, I used to drive everywhere, I moved inner city near public transport. It seems very personal though, I know some people that run a lot, not for me, others do gym work or golf. It really depends on what bits are hurting I feel. I do think we all need some sort of strength training, and the research seems to back that up, and Pilates is superb for that. I'd been very sedentary for a number of years, and happened to go to someone that had done a lot of rehab work, she was great. I tried a few people though, so just find one that works for you. Diet is mainly Mediterranean now - beans, lentils, veggies, fish etc. occasional meat, but not much.
  - specialist 5y ago
    Yes and: Balance exercises. I was active. Bike commute, some weights, jogging, hiking, stretching. I had to do some physical therapy (before and after surgery). Part of their assessment is balance & stability. I was shocked to learn I had none. Eg I couldn't hold onto one foot and balance on the other leg. Now I recommend everyone starts PT no later than 40 yo. If only for assessment and tuning.
gogopuppygogo 5y ago
My grandfather was a nuclear scientist who worked on the Manhattan project. He ate right and exercised daily. He even maintained the community parks as a volunteer fixing things like tennis courts and fences. He got Alzheimer’s. It dragged out for over a decade killing him slowly and hurting everyone who knew him. My father decided he’d rather have a shorter but more quality driven life after that experience. He’s overweight, has a great outlook on his life, and is a joy to be around. Not everyone wants longevity.
- chadcmulligan 5y ago
  Yeah, I was replying to the 'superager' submission and my observations in connection. People can do whatever they want, particularly when you hit 60 :-).
- theshadowknows 5y ago
  My mother's dad died of stomach cancer, my mothers mom had a brain tumor and died of organ failure, my mother was an alcoholic and died of liver failure, my father was an alcoholic and died from massive organ trauma (he made a series of bad decisions in rapid succession), my father's dad had multiple heart attacks and died of complications from MDS, my father's mother is still alive. There's a history of mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and overall poor health on both sides of my family.... That said, I'm taking as good care of myself as I can without going to the extreme. I don't want to deny my one short, brief life the pleasures that are here to be experienced but I also don't want to artificially shorten my (already stacked against) life. I have decided however that I won't be dying in pain in some hospital if I can at all help it. I've watched it happen. I'll either live somewhere that assisted is allowed, or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS...something, anything, other than the slow waste of a hospital.
  - bserge 5y ago
    > or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS Highly likely that you won't. Standing there, ready to go, your survival instinct will go into overdrive and suddenly living a bit longer regardless of the pain won't seem so bad.
Waterluvian 5y ago
Do you mind attempting to put into words what you mean by things going south? What does that feel like? How could you tell?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
scrose 5y ago
If you’re interested, you should check out ‘Ortho Bionomy - A path to self care’ by Luann Overmyer. She touches a lot on what you were just saying. Often, people expect to do whatever they want and then go to doctors to ‘fix’ them. It’s good for doctors, but not so great for you. I just started getting into some of the self-care routines she lists in her book after breaking my foot and having multiple doctors recommend surgery to ‘fix’ things. Instead of going down that route, I asked an Ortho-bionomist I know personally to help me. In a single session, most of the swelling and limp in my foot ‘disappeared’. After sticking to the very simple routines he suggested and that I read in the book(none involving pills or icing it), my foot healed more in a week than it did in the 2 months I sat around taking Tylenol and just ‘waiting’ for someone to fix me.
- aaronchall 5y ago
  What are these simple routines?
  - plebianRube 5y ago
    You'll never guess what #1 is. Click here to find out!
    - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
      I clicked there but nothing happened.
      - dominojab 5y ago
        have you subscribed?
  - scrose 5y ago
    There are many little things that depend on what you’re trying to address. In my case, a few of the most helpful things I do now are: - Focused box breathing for ~5-10 minutes several times throughout the day to relieve tension in my body. I find it helpful to do this to figure out what I should try and address next. - Walking indoors in different ‘patterns’ to break my body out of the limping pattern it found itself in after my injury. - Walking indoors as normally as possible with an increasing cadence. Ie. I’ll walk in a straight line extremely slowly as normal as possible. If there’s no pain, I’ll turn and walk faster. - Contrast baths for my foot to properly circulate blood flow in my foot and reduce inflammation. There are plenty of other things, but I think I’d do very little justice trying to write things out. I’m still essentially just a patient and learning more about this as well.
mordnis 5y ago
I find it weird to say that not taking care of yorself is accepting the ageing process. I like to think that doing everything you can is the 'normal' behavior.
- nickthemagicman 5y ago
  Just turned 40 and things I've noticed as I age are: I can't pull all nighters anymore. My body literally starts shutting down around 2:00 a.m. My poop is less firm. I have to wipe a lot more. Muscles take more time to stop being sore. Other than that that's about it so far.
  - dominotw 5y ago
    Biggest change i noticed is that i now recognize individual body parts. rotator cuff, mcl, plantar, upper GI.
  - nkingsy 5y ago
    On the plus side I feel much more sustained focus in work and enjoy endurance activities like mountain biking steep hills that I used to have to suffer through. I can practice piano for hours. Working on my bike I’ll have a hydraulic brake caliper fall apart in my hands in a puddle of mineral oil, then just muddle my way through until my mistake is fixed. I used to get so frustrated by things.
hourislate 5y ago
Isn't it surprising that just eating real food (clean diet), not smoking or drinking and walking a little everyday can cut all cause mortality like in half, leaving you younger, healthier and more mentally engaged. Those changes in lifestyle for some is hard work, not everyone is cut out for it. Shame they don't think it's worth saving themselves and prefer the taste of pills to healthy food. I sort of figure it's Natural Selection at play, all these folks who choose to poison themselves and embrace chronic illness as something that is inevitable will eventually fall out of the Gene pool, unfortunately the destruction they cause during and on the way out costs all of us an enormous amount of resources.
- JackFr 5y ago
  > I sort of figure it's Natural Selection at play, all these folks who choose to poison themselves and embrace chronic illness as something that is inevitable will eventually fall out of the Gene pool, unfortunately the destruction they cause during and on the way out costs all of us an enormous amount of resources. That’s not how natural selection works. Men over the age of 50 father less than %1 of babies, and it’s lower than that for women. So if a tendency to embrace chronic pathological behaviors is genetic, the offspring will be born long before the behavior catches up with them. Things get a little more complicated because of the inter generational support networks. The older generation does support their offspring, but at eventually will need support, and take resources from the breeding cohort. Which is the only cohort natural selection cares about.
antman 5y ago
Very nice. What were the changes you needed to do?

agumonkey 5y ago

can you share your plan details ? I did clean my diet 85% but I'm still looking for a PE plan.

chadcmulligan 5y ago
Like I said, nothing startling. I do studio pilates a couple of times a week, if you have aches and pains I really recommend this - I don't have back pain anymore because of this. I walk everywhere now, I used to drive everywhere, I moved inner city near public transport. It seems very personal though, I know some people that run a lot, not for me, others do gym work or golf. It really depends on what bits are hurting I feel. I do think we all need some sort of strength training, and the research seems to back that up, and Pilates is superb for that. I'd been very sedentary for a number of years, and happened to go to someone that had done a lot of rehab work, she was great. I tried a few people though, so just find one that works for you. Diet is mainly Mediterranean now - beans, lentils, veggies, fish etc. occasional meat, but not much.
- specialist 5y ago
  Yes and: Balance exercises. I was active. Bike commute, some weights, jogging, hiking, stretching. I had to do some physical therapy (before and after surgery). Part of their assessment is balance & stability. I was shocked to learn I had none. Eg I couldn't hold onto one foot and balance on the other leg. Now I recommend everyone starts PT no later than 40 yo. If only for assessment and tuning.

gogopuppygogo 5y ago

My grandfather was a nuclear scientist who worked on the Manhattan project. He ate right and exercised daily. He even maintained the community parks as a volunteer fixing things like tennis courts and fences. He got Alzheimer’s. It dragged out for over a decade killing him slowly and hurting everyone who knew him. My father decided he’d rather have a shorter but more quality driven life after that experience. He’s overweight, has a great outlook on his life, and is a joy to be around. Not everyone wants longevity.

chadcmulligan 5y ago
Yeah, I was replying to the 'superager' submission and my observations in connection. People can do whatever they want, particularly when you hit 60 :-).
theshadowknows 5y ago
My mother's dad died of stomach cancer, my mothers mom had a brain tumor and died of organ failure, my mother was an alcoholic and died of liver failure, my father was an alcoholic and died from massive organ trauma (he made a series of bad decisions in rapid succession), my father's dad had multiple heart attacks and died of complications from MDS, my father's mother is still alive. There's a history of mental illness, cancer, diabetes, and overall poor health on both sides of my family.... That said, I'm taking as good care of myself as I can without going to the extreme. I don't want to deny my one short, brief life the pleasures that are here to be experienced but I also don't want to artificially shorten my (already stacked against) life. I have decided however that I won't be dying in pain in some hospital if I can at all help it. I've watched it happen. I'll either live somewhere that assisted is allowed, or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS...something, anything, other than the slow waste of a hospital.
- bserge 5y ago
  > or I'll FEED MYSELF TO SHARKS Highly likely that you won't. Standing there, ready to go, your survival instinct will go into overdrive and suddenly living a bit longer regardless of the pain won't seem so bad.

Waterluvian 5y ago

Do you mind attempting to put into words what you mean by things going south? What does that feel like? How could you tell?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

scrose 5y ago

If you’re interested, you should check out ‘Ortho Bionomy - A path to self care’ by Luann Overmyer. She touches a lot on what you were just saying. Often, people expect to do whatever they want and then go to doctors to ‘fix’ them. It’s good for doctors, but not so great for you. I just started getting into some of the self-care routines she lists in her book after breaking my foot and having multiple doctors recommend surgery to ‘fix’ things. Instead of going down that route, I asked an Ortho-bionomist I know personally to help me. In a single session, most of the swelling and limp in my foot ‘disappeared’. After sticking to the very simple routines he suggested and that I read in the book(none involving pills or icing it), my foot healed more in a week than it did in the 2 months I sat around taking Tylenol and just ‘waiting’ for someone to fix me.

aaronchall 5y ago
What are these simple routines?
- plebianRube 5y ago
  You'll never guess what #1 is. Click here to find out!
  - faeyanpiraat 5y ago
    I clicked there but nothing happened.
    - dominojab 5y ago
      have you subscribed?
- scrose 5y ago
  There are many little things that depend on what you’re trying to address. In my case, a few of the most helpful things I do now are: - Focused box breathing for ~5-10 minutes several times throughout the day to relieve tension in my body. I find it helpful to do this to figure out what I should try and address next. - Walking indoors in different ‘patterns’ to break my body out of the limping pattern it found itself in after my injury. - Walking indoors as normally as possible with an increasing cadence. Ie. I’ll walk in a straight line extremely slowly as normal as possible. If there’s no pain, I’ll turn and walk faster. - Contrast baths for my foot to properly circulate blood flow in my foot and reduce inflammation. There are plenty of other things, but I think I’d do very little justice trying to write things out. I’m still essentially just a patient and learning more about this as well.

mordnis 5y ago

I find it weird to say that not taking care of yorself is accepting the ageing process. I like to think that doing everything you can is the 'normal' behavior.

nickthemagicman 5y ago
Just turned 40 and things I've noticed as I age are: I can't pull all nighters anymore. My body literally starts shutting down around 2:00 a.m. My poop is less firm. I have to wipe a lot more. Muscles take more time to stop being sore. Other than that that's about it so far.
- dominotw 5y ago
  Biggest change i noticed is that i now recognize individual body parts. rotator cuff, mcl, plantar, upper GI.
- nkingsy 5y ago
  On the plus side I feel much more sustained focus in work and enjoy endurance activities like mountain biking steep hills that I used to have to suffer through. I can practice piano for hours. Working on my bike I’ll have a hydraulic brake caliper fall apart in my hands in a puddle of mineral oil, then just muddle my way through until my mistake is fixed. I used to get so frustrated by things.

hourislate 5y ago

Isn't it surprising that just eating real food (clean diet), not smoking or drinking and walking a little everyday can cut all cause mortality like in half, leaving you younger, healthier and more mentally engaged. Those changes in lifestyle for some is hard work, not everyone is cut out for it. Shame they don't think it's worth saving themselves and prefer the taste of pills to healthy food. I sort of figure it's Natural Selection at play, all these folks who choose to poison themselves and embrace chronic illness as something that is inevitable will eventually fall out of the Gene pool, unfortunately the destruction they cause during and on the way out costs all of us an enormous amount of resources.

JackFr 5y ago
> I sort of figure it's Natural Selection at play, all these folks who choose to poison themselves and embrace chronic illness as something that is inevitable will eventually fall out of the Gene pool, unfortunately the destruction they cause during and on the way out costs all of us an enormous amount of resources. That’s not how natural selection works. Men over the age of 50 father less than %1 of babies, and it’s lower than that for women. So if a tendency to embrace chronic pathological behaviors is genetic, the offspring will be born long before the behavior catches up with them. Things get a little more complicated because of the inter generational support networks. The older generation does support their offspring, but at eventually will need support, and take resources from the breeding cohort. Which is the only cohort natural selection cares about.

antman 5y ago

Very nice. What were the changes you needed to do?