APPLE A DAY
Prompt - Apple a Day : Write about a health topic that interests you
As we get older our concerns in life shift. And since, obviously, the older we get the nearer we are to our own eventual end, the subject of death, and our health more widely, becomes an increasingly common preoccupation. For most of us the notion of our own mortality is something that we are at first wholly unaware of, then choose to ignore, for it seems to have little relevance to our younger selves. But eventually the moment will come when it pokes it's head up - the death of a parent, a health scare, a friend dying or becoming seriously ill at an early age, and other similar events can raise our own awareness that we all share the same fate in the end. And once it's there it's never going away...
Some readers will be aware that Barbara had her own reminder of this. A routine bowel screening test showed up internal bleeding, which then revealed a small cancerous growth in her colon. The resultant surgery went well and she's going to make a full recovery, but it's one of those reminders, isn't it? We are not immortal, we are not perfect. And the older we get the more the wear and tear on our bodies will tell.
I have no fear of being dead. It will feel like it was before I was born - nothingness. But the dying bit, and the potential for pain and suffering that could bring, well I'm not so keen on those aspects. So my focus on my own health isn't so much about prolonging my life as far into the future as possible, but about trying to ensure that for however many years I do have left I'm in a condition to enjoy them. Still as physically and mentally sharp as my body will allow me to be.
Advice on what that entails changes all the time, but most of the basics are pretty obvious. For all that a great deal of how the future pans out is going to owe much to my unalterable genetic inheritance, and the way I've lived my life to date, there's still a lot can be done by eating healthily, and exercising brain and body. I would like to be able to manage my own decline, as far as possible.
In the past much of the emphasis has been on aerobic fitness as one of the best ways to prolong health as we get older. Recent thinking has seen the emergence of maintaining decent muscle tone being as, or even more, important in ensuring that getting older doesn't mean gradual incapacity. So a bit of physical exercise every day, including some weight resistance activity. Nothing too strenuous, just enough to make sure everything is kept in reasonable working order. And looking for new ideas, new games, new mental challenges to keep the mind exercised too.
I intend to keep trying to do what's needed for me to be able to do the things I most want to do - getting out every day, walking a few kilometres each day, getting myself to gigs and plays and films, reading and writing and laughing. And for as many years as possible.
A few years ago, having had a very swollen and very painful left foot, I was diagnosed with gout. So I took the doctor's advice, and sought out information on the internet, and adjusted my diet accordingly. That mostly meant drinking a lot of water each day, and no alcohol. Although I now consume a very occasional glass of the latter, my overall consumption must be about 90+% less than it was before the diagnosis, and I continue to down water like I'd just emerged from the Sahara. I know of other gout sufferers who have chosen to ignore this approach, and still happily down their pints and drams as they always did. While I can understand reluctance to give up old habits, I never liked the drink so much that I'd want to risk the pain of a gout attack, or, more importantly, the inconvenience it can bring. Being housebound is not my idea of enjoying life (nor crawling about the flat on all fours, as I did during the worst bout - Barbara thought we'd acquired a dog...).
Quality, not quantity.
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