Nurse's Notes
2002 View
CAN WE LIVE LONGER?
If only God had found a more reliable messenger! At the beginning
of time, according to an East African legend, he dispatched a
scavenging bird known as the halawaka to give us instructions for
endless self-renewal. The secret was simple: Whenever age or
infirmity began to be a problem, we were to shed our skins and we
would emerge with our youth and health intact. Unfortunately the
halawaka got hungry during his journey and came upon a snake that
was eating a freshly killed wildebeest. In the bartering that
ensued, the bird got a satisfying meal, the snake learned to shed
its skin and humans lost a chance at immortality. People have been
growing old and dying ever since.
Many of you have probably read this legend recently, perhaps in
NEWSWEEK or on “The Net”—it seems to have had a popular revival. As
the first world’s population grows grayer, scientists and others are
trying to figure out how to turn back or at least slow down the
“aging” clock. During the last century life expectancy nearly
doubled in developed countries, thanks to improvements in public
health, nutrition and medical science, and yet the potential life
span of humans has not changed significantly since the halawaka met
the snake. By age 50 every one of us begins a slow decline and our
odds of living past 120 are virtually zero. Why, after being so
exquisitely assembled, do we fall apart so predictably? Why do we
outlive dogs and cats, only to be outlived by turtles and parrots?
The predicament we face is that our bodies are nicely adapted to the
harsh conditions our Stone Age ancestors faced, but poorly adapted
to the cushy ones we’ve created. When life expectancies were about
30 years, the genes that leave us vulnerable to chronic illness in
later life rarely had adverse consequences. As long as we could
reproduce, natural selection had no occasion to weed them out. So if
it seems to you, for example, that there is more cancer than there
ever was, you’re right! Not because cancer didn’t exist back in the
dark ages, but because all those lethal diseases and conditions that
did exist have mostly been eliminated. Take a walk in any old
cemetery and notice plots where one man is surrounded by several
young wives and children. Women didn’t get breast or ovarian cancer
when they died in childbirth at age 23. Men didn’t get prostate
cancer when the life expectancy was 47, as it was in 1900. There
were less environmental carcinogens and people didn’t live long
enough to be affected by the ones that were present. Cardiovascular
disease (heart attacks and stroke) was way down on the list of
causes of death, much as they are in third world countries today.
While scientists are working in the laboratories to extend healthy
life what can we do to give ourselves “an edge” as we move into
those “over the hill” years? Living “forever” will be not worth it
if we can’t enjoy it!
Stay intellectually challenged—get involved. Stay physically
active—move it or lose it! Stay socially active. Don’t smoke. Drink
alcohol only in moderation. Get treatment for treatable diseases
such as diabetes, depression, hypertension, or elevated cholesterol.
Use hearing aids and glasses if you need them because it is hard to
stay engaged if you can’t hear or see. Eat a moderate, balanced
diet. Take a vitamin. Take medications exactly as they are
prescribed and don’t stop unless your doctor tells you to. Fall in
love—we live longer and happier lives when we love someone. Pray.
Smile. Laugh. Today is a day that the Lord has made—rejoice and be
glad in it.
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