Can One Live to 80 Without Any Ailments? It’ll Take More Than Luck and Genetics.

Turning 80 is apparently a pretty big deal. I just did it and found that it drew a lot more attention than when I turned 70 – or any other age I recall. Except, perhaps, 21. For stupid adolescent reasons, I don’t remember much about that one.  I was somewhere in Cheyenne, Wyoming with a… Continue reading Can One Live to 80 Without Any Ailments? It’ll Take More Than Luck and Genetics.

Must life go downhill as we age, or do we have a choice?

Yes, life does go downhill, but – -we have some choices in the matter. Not with the eventuality of it, but with the starting point and the pace. The reality is, we took out a death certificate at birth. Or, as retired Stanford geriatric physician, Dr. Walter Bortz once wrote: “Life is a fatal disease. Once… Continue reading Must life go downhill as we age, or do we have a choice?

Did You Choose Your Parents Wisely? Doesn’t Matter!!

The parents I chose (circa 1943) Mom died at 56. Dad beat the national average at the time by a couple of years – dead at 81. Mom – cancer. Dad – COPD, heart failure. I’m guessing genetics had little to do with their demise. We don’t really know because, during their halcyon years (’30s-’60s),… Continue reading Did You Choose Your Parents Wisely? Doesn’t Matter!!