Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Too Young to Die, Too Old to Worry and Why I hope to Die at 75

This past week I saw two articles with the above titles and was intrigued.  “Too Young to Die, Too Old to Worry” was in The New York Times and the “Why I Hope to Die at 75” was in The Atlantic. 

They both had similar themes:

“Once you get older, 80 in the first article, 75 in the second, perhaps one should spend less time on preventative medicine and more time enjoying the more pleasurable things in life.”

“Doubtless, death is a loss. But here is a simple truth that many of us seem to resist: living too long is also a loss. It renders many of us, if not disabled, then faltering and declining, a state that may not be worse than death but is nonetheless deprived.”

“At older ages, we desire to not to simply pursue life, but happiness, and that medicine is important, but it’s not the only means to this happiness.” 

“Americans seem to be obsessed with exercising, doing mental puzzles, consuming various juice and protein concoctions, sticking to strict diets, and popping vitamins and supplements, all in a valiant effort to cheat death and prolong life as long as possible. I think this manic desperation to endlessly extend life is misguided and potentially destructive. For many reasons, 75 is a pretty good age to aim to stop.”

“Since 1960, increases in longevity have been achieved mainly by extending the lives of people over 60. Rather than saving more young people, we are stretching out old age. Over the past 50 years, health care hasn’t slowed the aging process so much as it has slowed the dying process. And, the contemporary dying process has been elongated.”

Both articles focus on how after certain ages, the benefits of prevention are not worth the hassles of testing, surgeries and medications. 

I agree with the basic premises of these articles and can only hope to be alive at 75 or 80.  The links to the articles are below: