Living through Amazing Times
Al Rodbell
I'm one of you- we who are attending the Successful Aging Expo who are looking for answers as we face what is called our Golden Years. We, most born between 1920 and 1950 have seen social changes unprecedented in any country in the absence of a violent revolution. Computers, hardly existing when we were children, are now squeezed into something the size of a pack of cigarettes (remember those) with more capacities than we ever dreamed of. Since time seems to go faster for us, just as soon as we've learned how to use one type of computer a whole new set of devices comes along, apps replace programs, and we have to adjust or fall further behind.
So, we feel our brain is starting to go, since we can't keep up with the hundreds of new apps for our new smart phones, and can't make the damn thing work as easily as they show on the television ads. And we fear that this is the first stage of something that is worse than death itself, Alzheimer's disease. We become confused by the daily barrage of articles of new research that promises to cure this disease, since it worked so well in mice (who don't have to learn new apps for their iphones) We wait for more news about this latest magic bullet, but it never comes; and we don't hear how it didn't have any effect on humans except making them sick. But not to worry, there are five more articles this week about new ways shown to ward off this disease.
As Bette Davis famously said, "Getting old is not for sissies" and she is right. It's not for chumps either. We have a right to be suspicious of all of those nice young people here who want to help us, to provide us with supplements to keep our joints and brains young, to help us navigate the legal complexities of transfer of assets, to turn our small retirement fund into a flow of income that we can live well on, to make our lives better in every way.
And then there's Politics.
I'm distributing this at the presentation by Mike Slater on his subject, "Obamacare Liberty and Healthcare." He is a self described "Extremist for Liberty" which has a specific meaning in his world, and those of his associates Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. "Liberty" among this group means freedom from programs such as Medicare and Social Security that make you slaves to "Government" which also has a special meaning, which is all things bad. On his program Friday, he talked about this problem, and Joked, "Maybe I'll tell them (us, the older people) that they are stealing from their grandchildren with their Medicare and Social Security." He laughed and said, "I can't say that or Ill never make it back to my car." The problem is that this is what he believes, this is what his admired Republicans in the House of Representatives believe, who voted to end Medicare as we know it almost unanimously. (Don't worry, it was only one house of Congress and it was never even taken up by the Senate)
Note After watching his speech.
Mike did address the need to deal with Medicare, and put in the context of caring for the audience's grand children's well being. He avoided evaluating specific partisan positions during the entire speech, mostly criticizing lack of portability, excessive mandates of coverage, and the inherent increase in costs when the individual does not pay for services. These deficiencies are well known, and "Obamacare" is an attempt to deal with them within our political constraints. His lack of specificity makes it difficult to evaluate his own answers to the problems he raised.
Back to Alzheimer's, the fear and the prognosis.
I will also be giving this out at Dr. James Brewer's presentation of his research on advanced MRI scans to evaluate possible dementia. First of all, he's a great guy, who possesses the rare combination of smarts and personality that allows him to reach we who are so fearful of this dreaded disease. His research is only one part of a network of federally funded facilities (Government = Bad ?, remember) that is trying to find a way to prevent this disease, actually an array of different conditions that can cause pathological memory loss. Here's my concern, that while medical treatment of this complex chain of cellular dysfunction may be long in coming, dealing with the universal fear of this condition must be addressed now. I have suggested to him that in his enthusiasm to find a cure, he may inadvertently be contributing to this exaggerated fear among we older folks. I even took his program's memory assessment to better understand their process, which I write about on my blog.
The highly respected Alzheimer's Association illustrates this subtle distortion. In the section "Myths" on their website they assert that the reality of normal decline of memory with aging is an "open question," meaning that it could be that if dementia, the disease, is cured, we would retain our youthful memories until we die of old age. This is false, as shown in hundreds of studies of populations and examination of healthy older brains upon autopsy. It's different than that of younger people, just as every other part of our bodies, inside and out, is different. Some may call it better, with a deeper richness like fine wine, but different nevertheless. We have to ask why this respected organization maintains this fiction, and what function other than creating both fear and desperation does this promote. Who will work towards achieving a way to age, including all that this means, in the most satisfying way without distortion of the reality of the process? While Government can be "bad" as Slater espouses, he is wrong that it is always such, as there are positive changes that can only be achieved by concerted national policy, otherwise known as Government.
Let's see if there's something we can do together, not as clients who need help, but as people who have accumulated a richness of experiences and insights that deserve to be a major part of our national conversation. I'll start by coordinating this at my website, ALRODBELL.BLOGSPOT.COM.
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