Ageing With Attitude: Go with Gray and still feel young at 70

Old people’s bodies aren’t more susceptible to disease argues a new book. It’s just the longer you live the more likely you are to pick something up along the way writes Margaret Jennings.

SINGER Debbie Harry made the headlines on July 1 and actress Helen Mirren will be joining her in nine days’ time — both the latest poster ‘girls’ to reach their 70th birthday, still doing what they do with incredible vitality — and looking good in the process.

As we live longer in the western world, gerontologists are taking a new look at how we categorise growing old, with some studies defining the process by three sub-groups of approximate age groups: ‘young old’ 65-74; ‘old’ 74-84, and ‘old-old’ 85 plus.

The multi-media world exposes us regularly to ageing celebrities who are still shaking their booty, spreading the message to a very wide audience that baby boomers are still booming.

But though some people are blessed with a favourable genetic makeup, numerous studies on ageing point to other factors like lifestyle, attitude, social involvement and personal meaning, as responsible for putting that pep in our step.

Enter one of the latest books on the subject, with the wonderful heading Sod 70! (which Mirren would no doubt appreciate on July 26).

Utterly readable and entertaining it is packed tight with very valuable information, written by one of the leading medical doctors in Britain, Muir Gray.

A former Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS, and currently a consultant on its Choices team and in his eighth decade himself, the author is well qualified to dole out advice on living well, as we age.

Here, for example, is one home truth from his book: If you believe ageing causes illness, then you are wrong.

Yes, if you study different age groups of the population, the percentage of people free from diseases, decreases as we age.

“This has lead to the belief that ageing causes disease, but this is not the case,” says Dr Muir.

“Most disease occurs from living in an unhealthy environment, or with an unhealthy lifestyle, and the longer you are exposed to it, the more likely it is that disease will occur.”

His view underlines the message we hear increasingly from ageing research, about living longer healthily — a lot of it is up to ourselves and we need to take responsibility. Dr Muir outlines the relationship between ageing and disease with these three points:

1. Disease prevention is effective, not just for young people, but for people in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

Even at the age of 70 it is possible to postpone the onset of disease, or even prevent it occurring at all, by taking measures such as stopping smoking or losing weight.

2. You need a little bit of luck. Some people will develop disease, even if they have no risk factors.

3. Your beliefs and attitudes about health and ageing play a very important part in both disease prevention and in improving fitness.

While his book covers all the angles on maintaining wellbeing, in a manageable way — and avoids a preachy tone, it’s no surprise he places huge emphasis on the importance of maintaining fitness for our physical, mental and emotional well-being.

“If you take action to get fitter every year in your 50s, 60s and 70s you will reach the age of 80 or 90 in a much better physical and mental condition,” he says.

“Even if you develop a long-term disease like heart disease or cancer, fitness remains important — in fact in becomes even more important.”

The regime he recommends for mental and physical fitness is:

A doable 10 minutes a day focussed principally on strength, suppleness and skill (balance).

Three longer sessions every week, for example walking, cycling or dancing, based primarily on stamina, that is until you get breathless at each session.

A daily mental workout.

His book includes simple exercises to do. And while World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that older adults should do at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity weekly, he explains that means we must exercise until we get breathless.

The author tells a story in Sod 70! which illustrates the potential that can be reached by someone in the ‘old-old’ category: “Recently I attended the 100th birthday party of a friend,” he says.

“His choice of present? An iPad. At the party, the birthday boy gave a wonderful speech saying, among other things, that he’d just flown for the first time to Israel and fulfilled a long-held ambition to swim in the Dead Sea.

“Of course it’s exceptional to be this lively at the age of 100. But provided we’re relatively free from the debilitating effects of disease, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to live independently well into our 90s, as well as still take trains and buses, drive a car and enjoy going for walks.”

Sod 70! The Guide To Living Well, by Muir Gray, published by Bloomsbury, €12.82

Your anti-ageing arm routine in five minutes http://goo.gl/ppfswz