Re: Age is like beauty and lies in the eye of the beholder
By fat margot On: 20 Mar 2010 05:18
its just another spin doctor trying obliquely, to make us feel bad. the worse we feel, the more the government can control us. lets face it we are in a deliberately engineered mess. this is no longer a positive nation.

i always ignore those whizzkid reports. i got my own troubles enough. but, im reasonably happy, god willing, and i want it to stay that way. kind regards

god bless, viv xx

Re: Age is like beauty and lies in the eye of the beholder
By Patthehat On: 20 Mar 2010 17:05
I class myself as old with an 8yr old grandson but can take him out swimming (yesterday) & today we visited the castle, musium & cathedral in Rochester We both enjoyed our day & are both looking forward to our next day out.I also suffer from ostioarthitis but keep going even with a stick.The EU are a load of crap who just like to make things difecult for the rest of us

Re: Age is like beauty and lies in the eye of the beholder
By Hildegarde On: 23 Mar 2010 10:25
I think we are very fortunate in the medical advances which have been made in the past 20 years and which allow us to live full lives for much longer than in the past. When I was a child cancer was an automatic death sentence and now many are cured and others live for years with cancer. Heart disease is much more treatable with new drugs so much so that open heart surgery is becoming increasingly rare. If someone has a blocked artery the problem is sorted out with minute precision using a catheter threaded through the blood vessels and a stent can be fitted to hold the blocked area open.
Medication for high blood pressure is much better with less side effects, statins are available for cholesterol problems.
Because of the use of key hole surgery the shock and stress of major operations is now often avoided.
In the past it was not unusual for people to die in their 60's but now many of us live for much longer and are able to remain active thanks to the advances of science.
I personally think that the reason that people seemed so much older in their late 50's and 60's is because in the past many of them were struggling with chronic conditions on a daily basis.
For example those who worked in coal mines often suffered with COPD, pneumoconiosis etc from a relatively young age. People had failing health from harsh and sometimes detrimental working conditions and I'm not talking about 100 years ago.
TB was another very common condition in the recent past and I know people of my parents generation who had lungs removed and also passed away from the disease. I nursed people with live TB in the seventies and it was not uncommon.
In my grandmother's day the menopause was something you had to put up with often at a time when women had other problems such as prolapses and stress incontinence and at a time when you didn't really talk about 'women's problems. They simple coped the best they could but what an effect it had on day to day life.
Now we are most unlikely to 'put up with' stress incontinence and prolapse symptoms and many of us take HRT or at least a herbal remedy for menopause horrors and we support each other by talking about it openly.
While we are in the 'general area' so to speak - men are much more likely to want to find a solution to 'erectile dysfunction' by speaking to their GP about drugs such as Viagra. Not surprising then that they and their partners have more of a spring in their step than our parents generation.

It's hardly surprising then that so many feel that life has never been so good. Having had a decent career and a decent pension is far more likely for the present generation than it ever will be again. Subsequent generations will not be so fortunate in such numbers.

As for the survey - it's quite obvious that it depends on who is answering the question and is neither here not there. When I was 16 I remember thinking that there was not much point in being around after 30 - we were discussing age at school one day for some reason!!

It's important also I believe for the present 55+ generation not to think that life is all about us, I personally am concerned about the welfare of the younger generations especially in regard to the problems of employment, climate change and population.
They need our support in a time of huge challenges and maybe we should stop whinging and be grateful for how lucky we were to be born in a time when becoming prosperous was so much more attainable than it was before or will be again.