Myths of Aging

Fifty-Plus Fitness Library

Library : Year 2 | Session 2: Myths of Aging

Aging

Notes from the book “Dare To Be 100”
By Walter M. Bortz, M.D.

What is aging? Is it a disease, a process, behavior, a symptom? Let us consider a new formulation, one that places all human ailments into four separate, distinct types:

Blueprint error, such as heredity

Lightning, in that a person has little or no role in its occurrence. Consider the top killers in 1900: infection, malignancies, injuries, poisoning, and war. Major concerns were pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis

Dissonance, that is the result of a person's relationship to the environment. Includes heart attacks, strokes, arthritis, emphysema, and cirrhosis.

Time Most of what we have been taught about aging is wrong, It isn't simply a matter of time, It is really the effect of energy flow on matter over time. The human body is constantly changing, totally replacing or remaking itself at the calorie level every 65 days. (2000 calories, or 1/65th of the body's worth of energy per day.) Every cell in the animal world is impacted by it's environment and conforms and reacts to specific demands. Structures strengthen, expand, or don't. Consider plants' life and development, as well as muscular/bone density development in animals and also the effect of cardiovascular exercise.

We are not confined to a life pattern preordained by forces over which we have no control. Growth is a lifelong affair. Humans have choices in habitat and ranges, unlike plants. We have a choice.

Frailty: This represents a diminished level of functions. It is not aging, Some young people develop it. How much is due to preventable causes?

Vitality: On a scale, put vitality on top, and frailty normally at 30% of it. Based on research by Dr. Bortz and his son (a doctor), performance in athletes over a period of years was shown to decline at 1/2% per year. Presume that at age 30 we are at maximum vitality. If you consider normal loss of vitality to be at 2% per year, at age 65 70% of vitality is lost, the point of frailty. However vitality 1055 at 1/2% per year will produce vitality loss at age 65 of only 15%! And, for a person active in athletics, frailty (30% of vitality), would occur at age 120. Fitness for a younger person is an option, but is an imperative for an older person.

The centenarians of today are living 2-3 generations longer than the average life expectancy when they were born. Earlier, those who reached 100 did so by fate. Now, it is our opportunity to make it happen by choice.

DARE to be 100 means: D=diet; A=attitude; R=renewal; E=exercise. Dr. Bortz deals with these topics, covering 99 steps to 100,