An Angel Looks at 70

My mom turns 70 years old today. Besides being ecstatic that she is in such good health, her birthday makes me think that we are going to start to see people growing into their 80's, 90's and even 100's on a much more regular basis.

My wife's grandmother died a few years ago at 94. My grandfather was an octogenarian. My uncle, despite smoking and drinking excessively his whole life, lived to see his late 70's. The official average life expectancy in the United States is 78.

It makes sense. We have never known so much about medicine, fitness or physiology. While many of my generation were able to ignore the Surgeon General's warnings about tobacco use, today's generation are using it less and less. Obesity is not a category where we are making many major strides, but the fact that First Lady Obama chose to champion exercise and activity in her Let's Move campaign shows that we can expect to make some headway in that department over the next few years.

This article from Science Daily talks about kids born very recently...

It is possible, if we continue to make progress in reducing mortality, that most children born since the year 2000 will live to see their 100th birthday -- in the 22nd century

What they are saying is that kids who are up to 12 years old have a respectable chance to live to see the turn of the next century...to party like it's 2099. Amazing.

What's the takeaway from this? For me it is to truly start living with passion and do what I am supposed to be doing with my life so that when I am really, really old I can look back and be happy about what I see. Besides that, while medical science and better habits may keep us alive longer, quality of life still depends on how healthy we are when we reach old age. Therefore, I for one am going to redouble my fitness efforts and seek new methods to stay young and healthy like pilates and yoga.

You can see my mom (with a bit of hair dye, but still) does not look like my grandmothers' 70 years old. She spent 45 minutes vigorously exercising just about every day of her life from her 20's on, and that probably has much to do with it. She could have retired years ago, but chooses to work a few days per month because she's good at it and it keeps her sharp. Are any of these things a good example of what the rest of us should do? I can only speak for myself, and my answer is yes.