Читать книгу Making The Right Move - Gillian Eades Telford - Страница 15

Elders of today are surviving longer and living better than in the past. On the whole, they are a healthier group than they were a decade ago. In fact, as your children age, they will probably be healthier than you are. One of the major reasons that elders are living better is because less disability is caused by illness than in the past, and drugs control many symptoms.

Modern medicine has made great advances in curing acute illnesses. The discovery of antibiotics was a milestone in the cure of many acute illnesses such as ear infections, gall bladder infections, measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough. Advances in surgical techniques for replacement and removal of diseased body parts have contributed to fewer people dying from acute disease.

However, we are currently only managing, not curing, chronic illnesses such as arthritis (inflammation of the joints), osteoporosis (porous or holey bones that break easily), and macrimal deterioration (nerve-ending damage to the eye that leads to blindness). We can treat the symptoms, but not eliminate the cause.

Depending on the cause of your illness, medical, alternative, or nonmedical interventions may help increase your physical capacity. You may suffer from a chronic illness that affects your body, but in the process of coping, you may gain a new emotional sense of well-being in your mind.

Your body structure will change throughout your life. The changes start from the moment you are born. Take the skin, for example. A baby’s skin is soft and flexible. The skin cells slough off as growth occurs until, in old age, the skin loses some of its elasticity and ability to be soft and flexible, which results in wrinkles and lines. The skin changes at different rates. Some 80-year-olds look no older than 60, and some 60-year-olds look older because of their wrinkled skin.

Your muscles also change as you develop from babyhood. However, if you continue to use your muscles, you will find that your physical capacity can be amazing. You may not have to change the way you live your life, as your body changes gradually and enables you to accommodate. So when you see elders doing physical activities such as hiking and skiing, you’ll notice that they have more efficiency of movement and don’t “hot rod” it up or down the hill as they did in their youth.

Physical well-being is a major part of happiness and life satisfaction. It provides you with the means to do what you want to do, when you want to do it, and it helps you achieve purpose in your life.