THE ELDERLY

Current issues, news and ethics
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kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Growing older has an array of hidden costs

Rob Carrick

The Globe and Mail

Published Sunday, Jul. 17, 2016 5:46PM EDT

Last updated Monday, Jul. 18, 2016 8:08AM EDT


The recent news about improving the Canada Pension Plan for tomorrow’s retirees has Harris Gulko feeling a little put out.

“There’s a lot of material being written about what is going to happen to people in the future, and there’s no regard for people who have been retired for 20 or 30 years,” the 88-year-old Winnipeg resident said in an interview.

Mr. Gulko, a writer, painter and former professional fundraiser, is not an angry complainer. He just wants a little understanding for retirees like him who feel they’re being marginalized or forgotten. For reasons related to both demographics and basic personal finance, let’s hear him out.

.....

What bugs him is a sense of being pushed to the margins – overlooked in discussions about improving the CPP and patronized with labels like aged and senior. His message to everyone: Age is just a number.

“I’m an older person,” he said. “That’s a mathematical fact. I’m older – that’s it.”

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-in ... e30950836/
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

The Intelligence Inside of the Aging Process

January 20, 2013

A A A


What can God and nature have had in mind when they designed the aging process? Why is it that just when our mental prowess, our human maturity, and our emotional freedom are at their peak, the body begins to fall apart?

Our faith, of course, because it opens us to a perspective beyond our biological lives, sheds some light on these questions, though it doesn’t always give us a language within which to grasp more reflectively what is happening to us in the aging process. Sometimes a secular perspective can be helpful and that is the case here.

James Hillman, in a brilliant book on aging entitled, The Force of Character and Lasting Life, takes up these questions. What did God and nature have in mind when designing the aging process? He answers with a metaphor: The best wines have to be aged in cracked old barrels. The last years of our lives are meant to mellow the soul and most everything inside our biology conspires together to ensure that this happens. The soul must be properly aged before it leaves. There’s intelligence inside of life, he asserts, that intends aging just as it intends growth in youth. It’s a huge mistake to read the signs of aging as indications of dying rather than as initiations into another way of life. Each physical diminishment (from why we have to get up at night to go to the bathroom to why our skin sags and goes dry) is designed to mature the soul. And they do their work without our consent, relentlessly and ruthlessly.

The aging process, he asserts, eventually turns us all into monks and that, indeed, is its plan, just as it once pumped all those excessive hormones into our bodies to drive us out of our homes at puberty. And God again is in on this conspiracy. Aging isn’t always pleasant or easy; but there’s a rhyme and reason to the process. Aging deliteralizes biology. The soul finally gets to trump the body and it rises to the fore: “We can imagine aging as a transformation in beauty as much as in biology,” writes Hillman. “The old are like images on display that transpose biological life into imagination and art. The old become strikingly memorable, ancestral representations, characters in the play of civilization, each a unique, irreplaceable figure of value. Aging: an art form?”

Increasingly, as we age, our task is not productivity, but reflection, not utility, but character. In Hillman’s words: “Earlier years must focus on getting things done, while later years consider what was done and how.” The former is a function of generativity, we are meant to give our lives away; the latter is a function of dying, we are also meant to give our deaths away.

And the aging process raises a second series of questions: What value do the elderly have once their productive years are over? Indeed the same question might be asked of anyone who cannot be useful and productive in a practical sense: What is the value of someone living with Alzheimer’s? What is the value of people continuing to live on in palliative care when there is no chance of recovery or improvement and they have already slipped away from us mentally? What is the value of the life of a person who so mentally or physically challenged that by normal standards he or she cannot contribute anything?

Again, Hillman’s insights are a valuable supplement to the perspectives offered us through our faith. For Hillman, what aging and disability bring into the world is character. Not just their own. They help give character to the others. Thus, he writes: “Productivity is too narrow a measure of usefulness, disability too cramping a notion of helplessness. An old woman may be helpful simply as a figure valued for her character. Like a stone at the bottom of a riverbed, she may do nothing but stay still and hold her ground, but the river has to take her into account and alter its flow because of her. An older man by his sheer presence plays his part as a character in the drama of the family and neighborhood. He has to be considered, and patterns adjusted simply because he is there. His character brings particular qualities to every scene, adds intricacy and depth by representing the past and the dead. When all the elderly are removed to retirement communities, the river flows smoothly back home. No disruptive rocks. Less character too.”

Aging and disability need to be regarded aesthetically. We are culture that does everything it can to deny, delay, and disguise aging. We put our elders away into separate homes, away from mainstream life, tucked away, no disruptive rocks for us to deal with. We are also a culture that is beginning to talk more and more about euthanasia, defining value purely by utility. If Hillman is right, and he is, than we are paying a high price for this, we have less character and less color.

http://ronrolheiser.com/the-intelligenc ... g-process/
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Post by kmaherali »

Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness

BLACKPOOL, England — The woman on the other end of the phone spoke lightheartedly of spring and of her 81st birthday the previous week.

“Who did you celebrate with, Beryl?” asked Alison, whose job was to offer a kind ear.

“No one, I…”

And with that, Beryl’s cheer turned to despair.

Her voice began to quaver as she acknowledged that she had been alone at home not just on her birthday, but for days and days. The telephone conversation was the first time she had spoken in more than a week.

About 10,000 similar calls come in weekly to an unassuming office building in this seaside town at the northwest reaches of England, which houses The Silver Line Helpline, a 24-hour call center for older adults seeking to fill a basic need: contact with other people.

Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quiet devastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious public health issue deserving of public funds and national attention.

Working with local governments and the National Health Service, programs aimed at mitigating loneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trained to inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.

“There’s been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Department of Health to the media,” said Paul Cann, chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and a founder of The Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year-old group based in London. “Loneliness has to be everybody’s business.”

Researchers have found mounting evidence linking loneliness to physical illness and to functional and cognitive decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity.

“The profound effects of loneliness on health and independence are a critical public health problem,” said Dr. Carla M. Perissinotto, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco. “It is no longer medically or ethically acceptable to ignore older adults who feel lonely and marginalized.”

In Britain and the United States, roughly one in three people older than 65 live alone, and in the United States, half of those older than 85 live alone. Studies in both countries show the prevalence of loneliness among people older than 60 ranging from 10 percent to 46 percent.

While the public, private and volunteer sectors in Britain are mobilizing to address loneliness, researchers are deepening their understanding of its biological underpinnings. In a paper published earlier this year in the journal Cell, neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology identified a region of the brain they believe generates feelings of loneliness. The region, known as the dorsal raphe nucleus, or D.R.N., is best known for its link to depression.

More...

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/healt ... dline&te=1
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Post by kmaherali »

You’re How Old? We’ll Be in Touch

It might not seem that Hillary Clinton and Donald J. Trump have much in common. But they share something important with each other and with a whole lot of their fellow citizens. Both are job seekers. And at ages 68 and 70, respectively, they’re part of a large group of Americans who are radically upending the concept of retirement.

In 2016, almost 20 percent of Americans 65 and older are working. Some of them want to; many need to. The demise of traditional pensions means that many people have to keep earning in their 60s and 70s to maintain a decent standard of living.

These older people represent a vast well of productive and creative potential. Veteran workers can bring deep knowledge to the table, as well as well-honed interpersonal skills, better judgment than the less experienced and a more balanced perspective. They embody a natural resource that’s increasing: the social capital of millions of healthy, educated adults.

Why, then, are well over a million and a half Americans over 50, people with decades of life ahead of them, unable to find work? The underlying reason isn’t personal, it’s structural. It’s the result of a network of attitudes and institutional practices that we can no longer ignore.

The problem is ageism — discrimination on the basis of age. A dumb and destructive obsession with youth so extreme that experience has become a liability. In Silicon Valley, engineers are getting Botox and hair transplants before interviews — and these are skilled, educated, white guys in their 20s, so imagine the effect further down the food chain.

More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/opini ... &te=1&_r=0
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Post by kmaherali »

News Release

Ontario Making Shingles Vaccine Free for Seniors


September 15, 2016

First-in-Canada Program Will Save Seniors Money and Support Healthy Aging

Ontario is the first jurisdiction in Canada to provide the shingles vaccine free of charge, saving eligible seniors approximately $170 and helping them stay healthy.

Starting today, the shingles vaccine will be available across the province for people 65 to 70 years of age. The government is investing $68 million over three years in order to publicly fund the vaccine, which will reduce the likelihood of Ontario seniors developing the painful infection, and reduce visits to emergency rooms and hospitals.

Shingles, also known as herpes zoster, affects more than 42,000 people every year in Ontario and can cause complications such as loss of vision and debilitating nerve pain. Studies show that the vaccine is highly effective when seniors are vaccinated between the ages of 65 - 70, and this new program aligns with scientific and expert recommendations from Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization and Ontario's Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee on Immunization.

Those who are eligible for the shingles vaccine should contact their primary care doctor or nurse practitioner to receive the vaccination.

Expanding Ontario's publicly funded immunization program to help seniors stay healthy is part of the government's plan to build a better Ontario through its Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care, which is providing patients with faster access to the right care, better home and community care, the information they need to stay healthy and a health care system that's sustainable for generations to come.

QUICK FACTS
•Approximately 850,000 seniors between the ages of 65 and 70 years will be eligible to receive the publicly funded shingles vaccine.
•During the 2016 year only, any Ontarian who was born in 1945 can receive the vaccine up to December 31, 2016 to ensure that individuals close to the upper age eligibility cut-off have sufficient time to get vaccinated.
•Ontario is the only jurisdiction in Canada to date that is introducing the shingles vaccine as part of its publicly funded immunization program.
•Shingles is caused by the reactivation of the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox. Shingles creates painful skin rashes with blisters, usually on one side of the body, often in a strip. The best protection from shingles is immunization.
•The most frequent complication of shingles is post-herpetic neuralgia which is prolonged and often debilitating pain.
•Ontario’s health care budget has increased from $47.6 billion in 2012-13 to a total of $51.8 billion in 2016-17.
•This year’s $51.8 billion investment in health care is a 2.1 per cent increase over last year – greater than the rate of inflation.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
•Shingles
•Immunization 2020
•Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization
•Ontario’s Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee
•Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care

CONTACTS

David Jensen
Communications and Marketing Division-MOHLTC
416-314-6197
media.moh@ontario.ca

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kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

How doctors are failing us in death

Never mind assisted-dying, our health care system needs to change the way it deals with the natural end of life

I’ve spent much of my career in the health care field, but it took a very personal experience to drive home just how poorly prepared health care providers are to help us through the one certain life-experience that awaits us all: death.

It happened in a hospital in southern Ontario. My father-in-law, Ijaz Ahmad, who lived with insulin-dependent diabetes for 35 years, went into the hospital for a partial foot amputation due to a bone infection.

Prior to surgery, a routine diagnostic test was performed requiring dye to be inserted into his bloodstream. After the surgery, the dye put him into kidney failure while it was being metabolized. Within a day of the surgery all of his organs started to fail and he was put on life support for what we were told would be two to three days so his organs could rest and strengthen — after which, we were told, “the doctors would bring him back.”

He spent the next 18 days on life support. And what became clear over that long 18-day ordeal is that what had clearly become the end of his life would have been unnecessarily prolonged depending on which of the eight doctors we interacted with was treating him that day.

Like so many families who have had the difficult but essential conversation with an aging parent around their end-of-life wishes, we had spoken with him about his wishes. He was clear he did not want to be on life support.

More...
https://www.thestar.com/opinion/comment ... death.html
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Post by kmaherali »

These Are the Places Where People Refuse to Die

Slide show:

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/health/wellnes ... ut#image=1

People all over the world are living longer due to improvements in lifestyle standards, medications, and better healthcare. The average life expectancy in almost every country has increased over the last several decades. The following ranking, in an ascending order, is based on 2016 CIA estimates. Life expectancy at birth compares the average number of years to be lived by a group of people born in the same year. It is also a measure of overall quality of life in a country.
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Human life span may be limited to 115 years

American scientists have predicted that human life span may be limited to about 115 years. Published in the British science journal, Nature, the researchers studied years of data on human longevity to reach the conclusion.

Thanks to vaccines, better treatment of cancer and heart disease and safer methods of childbirth, there has been an unprecedented increased in life expectancy among humans.

The data reveals a slower expectancy of life among centenarians. According to one of the researchers, Prof. Jan Vijg, “For the first time in history we've been able to see this, it looks like the maximum life span - this ceiling, this barrier - is about 115. It's almost impossible you'll get beyond it, you need 10,000 world's like ours to end up with one individual in a given year who will live until 125 - so a very small chance."

Jeanne Calment (pictured) of France, is on record as the oldest person, at 122 years and 164 days, until she passed away in Aug. 1997.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/techandsc ... Nb9#page=2

*****
What’s the Longest Humans Can Live? 115 Years, New Study Says

Dr. Vijg and his graduate students Xiao Dong and Brandon Milholland published the evidence for this pessimistic prediction on Wednesday in the journal Nature. It’s the latest volley in a long-running debate among scientists about whether there’s a natural barrier to the human life span.

Leading figures in the debate greeted the new study with strong — and opposing — reactions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/scien ... dline&te=1
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Post by kmaherali »

The Gray Gender Gap: Older Women Are Likelier to Go It Alone

Every few years, a group of federal agencies publishes a raft of data on every conceivable subject affecting older people. Housing. Employment. Leisure.

The numbers that jumped out at me from the latest report, called Older Americans 2016, concerned a more intimate matter: gender differences in marital status. To be blunt, they’re enormous, with consequences beyond the purely personal.

At every age, the report shows, older men are far more likely to be married than older women.

More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/healt ... dline&te=1
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Post by kmaherali »

An 80-Year-Old Model Reshapes China’s Views on Aging

BEIJING — Before cranking up the techno music at his 80th birthday party, the man known as “China’s hottest grandpa” paused from his D.J. duties to poke fun at the country’s staid traditional celebrations for the elderly.

“I should wear a long robe, with the word ‘longevity’ embroidered on the front,” the birthday boy, Wang Deshun, said at his party in September.

Far from looking frail, the silver-haired actor, model and artist wore a crisp white shirt and black jeans, his back straight and his eyes glittering with humor.

“Two young maidens should help me into an old-style wooden chair,” he added, pretending to hobble.

Determined to avoid mental and physical stagnation, Mr. Wang has explored new skills and ideas while devoting ample time to daily exercise. Last year, he walked the runway for the first time, his physique causing a national sensation. He takes obvious joy in subverting China’s image of what it means to be old.

And old age in China begins relatively early. The legal retirement age for women is 50 for workers and 55 for civil servants, and 60 for most men.

Being older in China typically means being respected, but also, often, sentimentalized. Someone as young as 50 may be addressed as “yeye” or “nainai” — grandpa or grandma — regardless of whether they have offspring.

Mr. Wang is having none of that.

“One way to tell if you’re old or not is to ask yourself, ‘Do you dare try something you’ve never done before?’ ” he said in a recent interview at a hotel in Beijing.

“Nature determines age, but you determine your state of mind,” he said.

More....
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/world ... k&WT.mc_c=
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

How to Become a ‘Superager’

Think about the people in your life who are 65 or older. Some of them are experiencing the usual mental difficulties of old age, like forgetfulness or a dwindling attention span. Yet others somehow manage to remain mentally sharp. My father-in-law, a retired doctor, is 83 and he still edits books and runs several medical websites.

Why do some older people remain mentally nimble while others decline? “Superagers” (a term coined by the neurologist Marsel Mesulam) are those whose memory and attention isn’t merely above average for their age, but is actually on par with healthy, active 25-year-olds. My colleagues and I at Massachusetts General Hospital recently studied superagers to understand what made them tick.

Our lab used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan and compare the brains of 17 superagers with those of other people of similar age. We succeeded in identifying a set of brain regions that distinguished the two groups. These regions were thinner for regular agers, a result of age-related atrophy, but in superagers they were indistinguishable from those of young adults, seemingly untouched by the ravages of time.

What are these crucial brain regions? If you asked most scientists to guess, they might nominate regions that are thought of as “cognitive” or dedicated to thinking, such as the lateral prefrontal cortex. However, that’s not what we found. Nearly all the action was in “emotional” regions, such as the midcingulate cortex and the anterior insula.

My lab was not surprised by this discovery, because we’ve seen modern neuroscience debunk the notion that there is a distinction between “cognitive” and “emotional” brain regions.

This distinction emerged in the 1940s, when a doctor named Paul MacLean devised a model of the human brain with three layers. An ancient inner layer, inherited from reptiles, was presumed to contain circuits for basic survival. The middle layer, the “limbic system,” supposedly contained emotion circuitry inherited from mammals. And the outermost layer was said to house rational thinking that is uniquely human. Dr. MacLean called this model “the triune brain.”

The triune brain became (and remains) popular in the media, the business world and certain scientific circles. But experts in brain evolution discredited it decades ago. The human brain didn’t evolve like a piece of sedimentary rock, with layers of increasing cognitive sophistication slowly accruing over time. Rather (in the words of the neuroscientist Georg Striedter), brains evolve like companies do: they reorganize as they expand. Brain areas that Dr. MacLean considered emotional, such as the regions of the “limbic system,” are now known to be major hubs for general communication throughout the brain. They’re important for many functions besides emotion, such as language, stress, regulation of internal organs, and even the coordination of the five senses into a cohesive experience.

And now, our research demonstrates that these major hub regions play a meaningful role in superaging. The thicker these regions of cortex are, the better a person’s performance on tests of memory and attention, such as memorizing a list of nouns and recalling it 20 minutes later.

Of course, the big question is: How do you become a superager? Which activities, if any, will increase your chances of remaining mentally sharp into old age? We’re still studying this question, but our best answer at the moment is: work hard at something. Many labs have observed that these critical brain regions increase in activity when people perform difficult tasks, whether the effort is physical or mental. You can therefore help keep these regions thick and healthy through vigorous exercise and bouts of strenuous mental effort. My father-in-law, for example, swims every day and plays tournament bridge.

The road to superaging is difficult, though, because these brain regions have another intriguing property: When they increase in activity, you tend to feel pretty bad — tired, stymied, frustrated. Think about the last time you grappled with a math problem or pushed yourself to your physical limits. Hard work makes you feel bad in the moment. The Marine Corps has a motto that embodies this principle: “Pain is weakness leaving the body.” That is, the discomfort of exertion means you’re building muscle and discipline. Superagers are like Marines: They excel at pushing past the temporary unpleasantness of intense effort. Studies suggest that the result is a more youthful brain that helps maintain a sharper memory and a greater ability to pay attention.

This means that pleasant puzzles like Sudoku are not enough to provide the benefits of superaging. Neither are the popular diversions of various “brain game” websites. You must expend enough effort that you feel some “yuck.” Do it till it hurts, and then a bit more.

In the United States, we are obsessed with happiness. But as people get older, research shows, they cultivate happiness by avoiding unpleasant situations. This is sometimes a good idea, as when you avoid a rude neighbor. But if people consistently sidestep the discomfort of mental effort or physical exertion, this restraint can be detrimental to the brain. All brain tissue gets thinner from disuse. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

So, make a New Year’s resolution to take up a challenging activity. Learn a foreign language. Take an online college course. Master a musical instrument. Work that brain. Make it a year to remember.

Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University, is the author of the forthcoming “How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/opini ... ef=opinion
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Post by kmaherali »

Loneliness Can Be Deadly for Elders; Friends Are the Antidote

The circle shrinks. As the years pass, older people attend too many funerals. Friendships that sustained them for decades lapse when companions and confidants retire or move away or grow ill.

These days Sylvia Frank, who moved into an independent living residence in Lower Manhattan in 2014, can email or call one longtime friend in Florida. Another, in Queens, is slipping into dementia and will most likely exclaim, “I haven’t spoken to you in months!” when, in fact, they talked the day before.

But even at advanced ages, new relationships take root. Ms. Frank’s son kept telling her that a colleague’s cousin, Judy Sanderoff, was about to move into the same facility. They sought each other out.

Now, Mrs. Frank, 91, and Ms. Sanderoff, 96, eat breakfast together almost daily; they have dinner, à deux or with other friends, many evenings. Ms. Sanderoff spent Thanksgiving with Ms. Frank’s family in Brooklyn.

More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/30/healt ... &te=1&_r=0
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Post by kmaherali »

Study Says Meditation Could Protect The Brain From Signs Of Aging


Meditation is good for the brain. A new wave of research has connected the ancient practice to many cognitive benefits, from greater attention and focus to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression to improved cognitive control and executive functioning.


According to a new study from the UCLA Brain Mapping Center, meditation may also protect the aging brain. Researchers from the University of California at Los Angeles and Australian National University found that the brains of longtime meditators were less affected by aging than the brains of those who don’t meditate.


The brain begins to decline in the 20s, and continues to decrease in volume and weight through old age. Meditation, in addition to boosting emotional and physical well-being at any time in life, may be an effective way to prevent neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as help stave off some of the normal cognitive decline that comes with aging. The strategy is free, and it comes with no side effects.

More...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/0 ... 29858.html
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Post by kmaherali »

Daily chart

Longevity in rich countries


A new study suggests South Koreans will have the world’s highest life expectancy by 2030

Table at:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicd ... n/NA/email

Extract:

As recently as 2000 it was thought impossible that a country’s average life expectancy would ever exceed 90. That so many developed countries can expect people to live beyond 80 is testament to health-care successes. The next challenge for governments will be to ensure there are sufficient health and social care policies in place to support fast-swelling older populations.
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Post by kmaherali »

To Be a Genius, Think Like a 94-Year-Old

In 1946, a 23-year-old Army veteran named John Goodenough headed to the University of Chicago with a dream of studying physics. When he arrived, a professor warned him that he was already too old to succeed in the field.

Recently, Dr. Goodenough recounted that story for me and then laughed uproariously. He ignored the professor’s advice and today, at 94, has just set the tech industry abuzz with his blazing creativity. He and his team at the University of Texas at Austin filed a patent application on a new kind of battery that, if it works as promised, would be so cheap, lightweight and safe that it would revolutionize electric cars and kill off petroleum-fueled vehicles. His announcement has caused a stir, in part, because Dr. Goodenough has done it before. In 1980, at age 57, he coinvented the lithium-ion battery that shrank power into a tiny package.

We tend to assume that creativity wanes with age. But Dr. Goodenough’s story suggests that some people actually become more creative as they grow older. Unfortunately, those late-blooming geniuses have to contend with powerful biases against them.

More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/07/opin ... &te=1&_r=0
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Post by kmaherali »

Weekly volunteer work reduces risk of dementia in retired seniors: Professor

Seniors who volunteered sporadically did not see the same cognitive benefits

If you’re a senior who is considering retirement or recently retired, you might want to consider taking up volunteer work.

According to a professor at the University of Calgary (U of C), seniors that consistently participate in volunteerism post-retirement substantially reduce the risk of developing dementia.

The study, led by Dr. Yannick Griep, a psychology professor for the U of C and published in the medical journal PLOS One, tracked 1,0001 Swedish citizens – all of whom retired in 2010 – over a five-year period, monitoring them for the development of cognitive problems.

“The idea is that people who volunteer continue to reap the latent benefits,” Griep told Metro on Wednesday. “So, when you retire, you usually lose benefits like having a structured day, contact beyond your family, and the idea that you have a purpose and contribution to society that is greater than simply paying taxes.”

The professor said the underlying assumption is that those in the regular volunteering camp stay sharper cognitively because they are continuing to engage their mind in these key ways.

Griep said in another study senior retiree subjects were asked to exercise a specific number of times a week and they also saw the benefits, but volunteerism appears to have the greatest affects.

“What is special about volunteering is that it’s the most prototypical activity that comes close to doing paid work. It’s the most closely related to the benefits that person had while they were working,” he said.

Griep said he and his co-researchers found that retirees who only volunteer sporadically did not receive any benefits to their cognitive health.

“You do need to do this constantly, so as soon as your volunteering discontinues, or you do it less often, there are no specific cognitive benefits for those individuals,” he said.

Griep said this is an important issue.

“As a senior, your risk of dementia goes up substantially. Anything you can do that’s low cost and easy to implement that will reduce the likelihood of dementia is invaluable.”

http://www.metronews.ca/news/calgary/20 ... -prof.html
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Post by kmaherali »

Making the time to value simply being: Marmur

In a society that values work and youth, we have lost sight of the importance to reflection, questioning and “sacred aging.”


The Western world celebrates doing at the expense of being. Even religious communities, in their effort to be vibrant and relevant, often pay much more attention to action than to reflection and contemplation. Those in search of meaning, particularly the young, even travel to the Far East to find gurus who’d expose them to the art of being.

That doing is important to make a living and to contribute to society should be self-evident. The elimination of poverty in many places — albeit not enough and not everywhere — is largely due to what’s sometimes described as the Protestant work ethic. We’ve every reason to be enthusiastic partners in this, irrespective of our religious affiliation.

But there’s much more to life than work. We need to look into ourselves and beyond to affirm, nay celebrate, the mystery of human existence. Even those who work hard and enjoy its fruits ought to know that in order to live fully, more is needed than doing. Now when we live longer because of the favourable conditions created through work, our retirement years could be dedicated to being — to enjoy existence on Earth and perhaps also try to prepare for what’s beyond.

Psychologist and blogger Mary Pritchard has written that “society praises those who do: It’s more about what you accomplish than who you are as a person.” That’s probably why retirees, seemingly more men than women, are anxious to tell you, defensively, that now, though they no longer work for a living, they’re “busier than ever.” They may find it shameful to admit that they now have time to do “nothing,” to enjoy the everyday and the ordinary, with opportunities to reflect on what human existence is really about.

Pritchard recommends: “Instead of looking at your day as an endless to do list, what if you started each day with a question: ‘At the end of the day, how do I want to feel?’ After you ponder that one, you can ask yourself, ‘What will make me feel that way?’ ”

But that requires not only that society regards such questions as legitimate but also for the state to provide adequate support to enable retired people to live with dignity. That’s by no means always the case. Some people need to work past their retirement age in order to maintain themselves. This, alas, makes it virtually impossible for them to move beyond doing.

An editorial in this paper last month assumed that the answer is to allow, nay encourage, seniors to remain in the workplace beyond retirement age. Though this may be appropriate in exceptional cases, pensions should be made adequate to enable women and men to devote their “golden years” to the cultivation of being.

That’s the aim of the “sacred aging” movement in the American-Jewish community. Reacting against “our modern youth-obsessed culture,” it tells us that moving away from the world of doing “can be an empowering and inspiring opportunity for spiritual, emotional and psychological growth.”

Reminding us that in ancient and Indigenous cultures, including Judaism, “eldering has always been regarded as a sacred and honoured phase of life,” sacred aging seeks to encourage old people to lead “idle” lives that “continue to be vibrant with joy and self-discovery.”

As churches, synagogues and mosques usually have a large proportion of older worshippers, they may take to heart the Psalmist’s charge to “serve the Eternal with joy” by celebrating being without apologies. In the words of Rabbi Deborah Jacobson of Longmeadow, Mass., “we are here to keep learning and to keep growing especially in our character and in our spirit. None of that ends with ‘retirement.’ ”


Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus of Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every four weeks.

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/comment ... armur.html
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Yes, You Get Wiser with Age

Aging gets a bad rap. But disease, decline and discomfort is far from the whole story. Dilip Jeste, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at UC San Diego and director of the UCSD Center for Healthy Aging, is challenging us to take another look.

In conversation with Nautilus, Jeste points out that some things get better with age, like the ability to make decisions, control emotions, and have compassion for others—in other words, we get wiser with age. The challenge to aging well, he argues, is to be an optimist, resilient and pro-active, allowing the benefits of age to shine through. The corresponding challenge for doctors is not just to increase lifespan, but to increase healthy life.

Nautilus caught up with Jeste earlier this month.

What is successful aging?

There are three domains of aging: Physical, cognitive, and psycho-social. Most people think about aging as physical aging, and that’s why there is a negative perception about aging and a bias against aging. In terms of cognition, again, there is something similar. Starting after middle age, say around 60 or so, memory and other abilities decline. However, psychosocial aging is really important, and that is usually not studied and that is not included in the concept of aging.

So what is psychosocial aging? It includes things like well-being, happiness, quality of life, control of emotions, socialization. Those are the kinds of things that matter a lot to people, and they need to be included. Successful aging mainly refers to better well-being, greater happiness, and not just arriving at old age, but thriving and even flourishing.

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http://nautil.us//blog/yes-you-get-wise ... 5-60760513
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Where is life in old age both longer and healthier?

In Europe, gains in longevity level off with country wealth. But healthy longevity does not


IN THE end, it is not the years in your life that count. It is the life in your years,” goes the saying. Many people fear that a trade-off between the two is inevitable: they may live to a very old age, but their final years may be spent in wretched health.

Data from 30 European countries suggest that such a trade-off depends on where people live, and whether they are men or women (see interactive chart below). The number of years of healthy life that the average person can expect comes from a survey asking people about long-term health problems that limit their usual daily activities.

On average, European women who turn 65 can expect to live about three years longer than men at that age, who have a life expectancy of 17.4 years. However, women tend to spend much of that extra time in poor health; the number of healthy years for men and women is the same, at just over nine.

Does it help to live in one of Europe’s richer countries? The data suggest that life expectancy at age 65 rises with a country’s wealth, but only up to a point. The trend levels off at a GDP per person of around $30,000 (adjusted for differences in price levels between countries), which is roughly the dividing line between eastern and western Europe. By contrast, the time spent in good health increases in a linear fashion with a country’s wealth. Italian 65-year-olds, for example, can expect to live about the same number of years as Norwegian ones, even though Norway is much richer than Italy. But Norway’s elderly are likely to spend nearly 80% of their remaining time in good health, whereas those in Italy can hope for just 40%.

This may be a result of countries’ spending on public services and infrastructure. Many characteristic health problems of old age, such as difficulties with hearing or eyesight, are not fatal; but unless they are dealt with, and unless public spaces are adapted to the needs of the elderly, they can make life miserable. Pavements, street signs and pedestrian signals, for example, are often designed for the young and able-bodied. Richer countries have more money to spend on making them better suited to older age groups. That may not extend lifespans, but it can help people make the most of their remaining years.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphic ... lydispatch
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What if You Knew Alzheimer’s Was Coming for You?
Simple blood tests may soon be able to deliver
alarming news about your cognitive health.


By PAGAN KENNEDY NOV. 17, 2017

Excerpt:

"Everything about our relationship to Alzheimer’s is in flux right now. The disease — once thought to be unpreventable — is beginning to look more like a multifactorial illness that might result from poor diet, a sedentary lifestyle, chronic inflammation, exposure to chemicals in the environment and genetics. Some scientists now describe Alzheimer’s disease as another form of diabetes; others are pursuing a link between Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular problems. And studies have shown a link between Alzheimer’s and exposure to air pollution and head injuries. Many researchers in the field, including Dr. Holtzman, believe that the key to defeating Alzheimer’s will be to catch it at the earliest possible moment and prevent it.

It remains unclear whether lifestyle interventions can significantly delay cognitive decline. But the members of ApoE4 group believe that by banding together, sharing data and collaborating with scientists, they can improve their odds. “We are genetic pioneers, modern-day canaries in the coal mine, searching for and testing out strategies,” reads the group’s website. Rather than seeing themselves as victims of genetic bad luck, Ms. Gregory and her collaborators regard themselves as citizen scientists and activists who may be able to outsmart the disease.

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... r-You.html
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Old and Lonely in New India

KOLKATA, India — Once when I was searching for old-age homes in Kolkata for a story, my mother said sardonically: “Look around you. The whole neighborhood has become an old-age home.” It was an exaggeration but not by much.

The old man down the street was recovering from a knee replacement. The elderly lady across from him spent her days in her nightgown feeding the neighborhood’s stray dogs. The children were gone — to the United States and Australia, to Bengaluru and Mumbai. When my sister went to pay our property taxes she found a separate line for seniors. It was pointless. Almost everyone there was a senior.

My mother had grown up as one of 30-odd cousins, all living in one sprawling house. In the morning they would leave their soaps outside the common bathroom to mark their place in the line. On holiday afternoons they would crowd onto their grandmother’s bed. It was not a very big bed but somehow they all fit. Only a few of the next generation still live in Kolkata. The others return for weddings and funerals.

When I lived in the United States, my immigrant friends would always say their dream was to retire in India. The magnetic lure of the dollar had pulled them to the United States. In old age they planned to be economic migrants again, returning to India, where their dollar would go much further. India was the coda to their American dream. Who wants to live in the United States in old age, they would shudder. It was too expensive, too lonely, too difficult.

But according to the Global Age Watch Index, a survey by Help Age International that measures the quality of life — using income security, health, personal capability and enabling environment — for people age 60 and older, India ranked 71 out of 96 countries in 2015.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/opin ... pe=article
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A Lonely Death

Excerpt:

It was the afternoon of her 91st birthday, and unusually hot, part of a heat wave that had community leaders worried. Elderly volunteers had been winding through the labyrinth of footpaths, distributing leaflets on the dangers of heatstroke to the many hundreds of residents like Mrs. Ito who lived alone in 171 nearly identical white buildings. With no families or visitors to speak of, many older tenants spent weeks or months cocooned in their small apartments, offering little hint of their existence to the world outside their doors. And each year, some of them died without anyone knowing, only to be discovered after their neighbors caught the smell.

The first time it happened, or at least the first time it drew national attention, the corpse of a 69-year-old man living near Mrs. Ito had been lying on the floor for three years, without anyone noticing his absence. His monthly rent and utilities had been withdrawn automatically from his bank account. Finally, after his savings were depleted in 2000, the authorities came to the apartment and found his skeleton near the kitchen, its flesh picked clean by maggots and beetles, just a few feet away from his next-door neighbors.

The huge government apartment complex where Mrs. Ito has lived for nearly 60 years — one of the biggest in Japan, a monument to the nation’s postwar baby boom and aspirations for a modern, American way of life — suddenly became known for something else entirely: the “lonely deaths” of the world’s most rapidly aging society.

“4,000 lonely deaths a week,” estimated the cover of a popular weekly magazine this summer, capturing the national alarm.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/worl ... d=45305309
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*Dr Aloysius LOH:*

*LIFE AFTER 60*

*An interesting article.*

Life can begin at 60, it is all in your hands! Many people feel unhappy, health-wise and security-wise, after 60 years of age, owing to the diminishing importance given to them and their opinions. But, it need not be so, if only we understand the basic principles of life and follow them scrupulously. Here are ten mantras to age gracefully and make life after retirement pleasant.

*1. Never say I am aged' :*

There are three ages, chronological, biological, and psychological. The first is calculated based on our date of birth; the second is determined by the health conditions; the third is how old we feel we are. While we don't have control over the first, we can take care of our health with good diet, exercise and a cheerful attitude. A positive attitude and optimistic thinking can reverse the third age.

*2. Health is wealth:*

If you really love your kith and kin, taking care of your health should be your priority. Thus, you will not be a burden to them. Have an annual health check-up and take the prescribed medicines regularly. Do take health insurance coverage.

*3. Money is important:*

Money is essential for meeting the basic necessities of life, keeping good health and earning family respect and security. Don't spend beyond your means even for your children. You have lived for them all through and it is time you enjoyed a harmonious life with your spouse. If your children are grateful and they take care of you, you are blessed. But, never take it for granted.

*4. Relaxation and recreation:*

The most relaxing and recreating forces are a healthy religious attitude, good sleep, music and laughter. Have faith in God, learn to sleep well, love good music and see the funny side of life.

*5. Time is precious:*

It is almost like holding a horses' reins. When they are in your hands, you can control them. Imagine that everyday you are born again. Yesterday is a cancelled cheque. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is ready cash - use it profitably. Live this moment; live it fully, now, in the present time.

*6. Change is the only permanent thing:*

We should accept change - it is inevitable. The only way to make sense out of change is to join in the dance. Change has brought about many pleasant things. We should be happy that our children are blessed.

*7. Enlightened selfishness:*

All of us are basically selfish. Whatever we do, we expect something in return. We should definitely be grateful to those who stood by us. But, our focus should be on the internal satisfaction and the happiness we derive by doing good for others, without expecting anything in return. Perform a random act of kindness daily.

*8. Forget and forgive:*

Don't be bothered too much about others' mistakes. We are not spiritual enough to show our other cheek when we are slapped in one. But for the sake of our own health and happiness, let us forgive and forget them. Otherwise, we will be only increasing our blood pressure.

*9. Everything has a purpose:*

Take life as it comes. Accept yourself as you are and also accept others for what they are. Everybody is unique and is right in his own way.

*10. Overcome the fear of death:*

We all know that one day we have to leave this world. Still we are afraid of death. We think that our spouse and children will be unable to withstand our loss. But the truth is no one is going to die for you; they may be depressed for some time. Time heals everything and they will go on.
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Grandparents Film Festival launches today at Edmonds Community Centre in Burnaby
Free screenings will be presented on the third Sunday of every month


by Charlie Smith on January 21st, 2018 at 4:07 AM

A director of the Edmonds Seniors Society, Shiraz Ramji, has long dreamed of showing films that strengthen the bonds between grandparents and grandchildren.

Today, he will finally get his wish with the launch of the Grandparents Film Festival.

It will take place for free every third Sunday of the month from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Edmonds Community Centre.

'We want to start with grandparents and grandchildren having about five minutes to talk about what they've learned from each other," Ramji told the Georgia Straight.

The first film that's being screened is Mieko Ouchi and Craig Anderi's 1996 documentary, Shepherd's Pie and Sushi.

It resulted from Ouchi's research into the life of her Japanese immigrant grandfather.

Ramji has found films from around this world on the theme of grandchildren, grandparents, and elders, which will be shown over the year.

"There are six million grandparents in Canada," he said. "There are 6,000 Canadians who are 100-plus as well. Everybody is aging."

The lighthearted Tanzanian-born retired university teacher has long been an advocate for gender justice and global peace.

He also promotes "global fruit security", which involves planting a single fruit tree for ever child born and two fruit trees for every grandchild borrn.

"I'm trying to promote grandparent-grandchildren friendship and get stories of grandparents more visible," he says.

When he was teaching mathematics courses in Dar es Salaam, he showed films to students on the side. He moved to Canada in 1994 and volunteers with various festivals in Vancouver.

https://www.straight.com/movies/1022306 ... re-burnaby
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Finding Meaning and Happiness in Old Age

What’s the best way to develop a healthy perspective on old age? Spend more time with elderly people and discover what brings meaning and pleasure to their twilight years despite the losses, both physical and social, they may have suffered.

That’s what two authors of inspired and inspiring books about aging discovered and, happily, have taken the trouble to share with those of us likely to join the ranks of the “oldest old” in the not-too-distant future. Actually, the wisdom therein might be equally valuable for young and middle-aged adults who may dread getting old. To their detriment, some may even avoid interacting with old people lest their “disease” rub off on them.

Too many in our youth-focused culture currently regard the elderly with fear or disdain and consider them costly consumers of resources with little to offer in return. Given the explosive pace of technology that often befuddles the elderly, they command little or no respect for the repository of wisdom that was once cherished by the young (and still is in some traditional societies).

The first book I read was “The End of Old Age” by Dr. Marc E. Agronin, a geriatric psychiatrist at the Miami Jewish Home whose decades of caring for the aged have taught him that it is possible to maintain purpose and meaning in life even in the face of significant disease and disability, impaired mental and physical functioning and limited participation in activities.

The second book, “Happiness Is a Choice You Make,” was written by John Leland, a reporter for The New York Times who spent a year interviewing and learning from six of the city’s “oldest old” residents — people 85 and above — from diverse cultures, backgrounds and life experiences.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/well ... 3053090320
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WHEN I’M SIXTY-FOUR: A LONG WALK TO GIVE BACK

Rasheed Hooda is redefining what it means to age in today’s world. This year the Houstonian is dedicating a remarkable journey to mark his 64th year, where he will walk hundreds of miles to highlight the values that have sustained him in his life. Rasheed has partnered with the Aga Khan Foundation USA to use the walk to raise awareness and funds for AKF’s work across Africa and Asia.

WALKING THE WALK

Rasheed has been building up to this journey for several years. A few years ago, as he approached his 60th birthday, Rasheed decided to climb the tallest mountain in Texas, Guadalupe Peak. It was a rigorous hike that took 11 and a half hours. That trip inspired his nephew and others to undertake the same journey.

Two years later, Rasheed stepped up his goal: a journey from Chicago to Santa Monica along Route 66 on foot. He walked more than 2,800 miles over a six-month period. He met an estimated 2,000 people on his solo journey. Along the way he camped, stayed in motels, and accepted the hospitality of strangers who approached him during his hike and offered him lodging.

He posted his experiences regularly, gained social media followers, and made lifelong friends with the people he encountered along the way.

64 MARATHONS IN 64 DAYS
It was during that journey that Rasheed was inspired to dedicate his 64th year to an even bigger goal, which he described on his blog, Ageless Adventurers. In the spirit of his favorite song, the Beatles’ hit “When I’m Sixty-Four,” Rasheed mapped out a trip starting in Houston, where he lives now, then moving north toward his first home in the U.S.: Alva, Oklahoma, where he came to study at Northwest Oklahoma State University in the early 1970s.

“I will be walking from Alva, Oklahoma, east on Highway 64 to Concord, Arkansas.” Then he will dip south through Louisiana and east Texas, and then back to Houston. The entire trip will take 64 days, walking a minimum of 26.2 miles each day: the distance of a marathon. “In other words, 64 marathons in 64 days.”

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https://www.akfusa.org/our-stories/when-im-sixty-four/
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Announcing: The ABCs of caregiving to seniors workshop.

There are a wide-variety of issues well beyond the actual giving of care that families need to address. We are producing a project that is funded by the Ontario Government that helps families deal with many of these complex and complicated issues. As part of our project, we are producing a full day of FREE workshops in King, City Ontario. Here are the details:

Date: Saturday October 13, 2018

Time: 9:45 am – 2:45 pm

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https://caregivingmatters.ca/announcing ... -workshop/
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The Secret to Aging Well? Contentment

Despite having many friends in their 70s, 80s and 90s, I’ve been far too slow to realize that how we respond to aging is a choice made in the mind, not in the gym.

Excerpt:

If there is one characteristic common to friends who are aging with a graceful acceptance of life’s assaults, it is contentment. Some with life-altering disabilities — my blind friend, another with two prosthetic legs — are more serene and complain less than those with minor ailments. They accept the uncertainties of old age without surrendering to them. A few have told me that the wisdom they’ve acquired over the years has made aging easier to navigate than the chaos of adolescence.

It was clear I lacked, and had to find, the contentment those friends had attained. The hours I spent exercising had given me confidence, but not contentment.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/well ... tment.html
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NEW! Awakening the Sage Within

Cost: $25
Starts 11/4/18

This interactive workshop will introduce Sage-ing® concepts including life review, forgiveness, and issues surrounding our mortality. Designed for anyone in their late 40's and older, the course will explore the impact of our beliefs about aging and the role of spiritual development as we create personalized plans for our elder years, including serving others and leaving a legacy. The workshop is designed with three objectives that will provide each student with tools to create their own personal Sage-ing journeys. They are: considering and choosing new ways and options in aging; understanding and experiencing how forgiveness can be liberating and how it’s an essential component in aging well; and recognizing the value of and applying a (nonsectarian) spiritual approach to aging.

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https://charterforcompassion.org/featured-courses
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Ageing in Japan

How Japan can cope with the 100-year-life society

Shinzo Abe must be bolder if a society of centenarians is to stay solvent


More than half of Japanese babies can expect to live to 100. This prospect would have horrified Yukio Mishima, a writer who thought it so important to die young and handsome that he ritually disembowelled himself after staging a pantomime “coup” attempt in 1970. It horrifies today’s pessimists, too. They worry that, as the country ages and its population shrinks, health bills will soar, the pension system will go bust, villages will empty and there will be too few youngsters to care for the elderly.

Yet for most people, not dying young is a blessing. Those extra years can be spent learning new skills, enjoying the company of loved ones or reading blood-spattered Mishima novels. Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, says he wants his country to be a model of how to make ultra-long lives fulfilling—and affordable (see article). He talks of “designing the 100-year-life society”. But to achieve that Mr Abe, in his last three years in office, will have to adopt reforms that are far bolder than he currently envisages.

The key is to have enough people working to support those who no longer can. There are three ways to achieve this: persuade current workers to labour longer, encourage more women to enter the workforce and let in more immigrants. Japan has made progress on all three. The share of over-65s in work is the highest in the g7; the share of women in the labour force has recently overtaken that in America; and the Diet (parliament) is debating a bill that would allow up to 345,000 foreign workers (called “trainees”, not immigrants) to enter Japan by 2025. Companies are eagerly investing in robots to raise productivity. Mr Abe vows to reform the public pension system to encourage even later retirement.

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https://www.economist.com/leaders/2018/ ... a/167098/n
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