GROWING OLD
How shall elders live in the years that are still ahead? Physical, mental, and emotional health will have to be taken into consideration, as we are dealing with whole individuals who cannot be taken apart. The cardinal rule for the old-timer regarding his habits of life is, “Make no abrupt changes.” In fact if he is doing reasonably well on the plan of life to which he has become accustomed, it is probably well for him to make no change at all. Only when there is evidence of a clear and present danger in what he is doing, as for example the man with progressively failing vision who still insists on driving his car, should we call a definite halt.
Even in the case of habits generally agreed to be harmful one must remember that more harm may result from a change in the plan of living than from the bad habit, despite which life has gone on pretty well. If one follows the motto, moderation in all things, one can often rest assured that the continuation of a bad habit, but in moderation, will be the best solution of the problem. If an eighty-odd gentleman says that a few cigars a day is his greatest comfort, let him have them even though he has a cancer of the lip. A ninety-year-old woman was under my care for a cancer of the uterus. When the family found that she was taking cold morning tubs in December they stopped her.
I am vindictive enough to wish that I could have made things uncomfortable for the officious meddlers.
My friend climbed Mt. Washington on his eightieth birthday as he had done on every birthday for a half century. Oliver Hoxsie shoed horses until he was eighty and then quit because his wife was sick. He was dead in three months. Perhaps that was not cause and effect; perhaps it was. Consider the fat old man who cuts out his lifelong use of tobacco – and gets still fatter; or another fat one who cuts down so far on his diet that he becomes unhappy and depressed. All these and many such have happened, so beware.
What about exercise as a general proposition for the aging? It is a good thing if one can do it comfortably and without evidence of distress. What kind and how much varies with the taste and training of the individual. The man who is used to playing singles at tennis, and does so without apparent symptoms, had best keep it up. You may remember that the king of Sweden did it into his eighties. I imagine, though, that he did not try too hard for some of the distant shots. Although I have no statistics on which to base my opinion, my own guess is that the old man who keeps in training by a moderate amount of regular exercise is a better bet than his sedentary colleagues. The more we learn about the human body, the surer we are that it should be kept up and doing. If we do not use our muscles they suffer a loss of tone, we become less accurate in our use of these muscles, and our joints stiffen.
*106/276/5*
GENERAL HEALTH
