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Ageing & Growing Old

Are you growing older?

  • Yes, I am

    Votes: 82 61.7%
  • No, I'm getting younger

    Votes: 28 21.1%
  • Sorry, I don't understand the question

    Votes: 16 12.0%
  • I'm a Mod; I think adding silly polls to chat threads is pointless

    Votes: 7 5.3%

  • Total voters
    133
One of the consequences of getting old is your similarly aged friends start dropping off the perch and you find your network of contacts diminishing. Lockdown exacerbated this situation as we further lost contact with the casual acquaintances that we would bump into when dropping in the local for the odd pint and missed the gossip of the local grapevine.
I met my sons for a couple of pints on Paddies day and found out a buddy of mine “Dangerous Dave” had died last summer. Dave was one of our little ”in” crowd and we would bump into each other several times over the course of a week pre-Covid. When he found himself homeless (domestic dispute) he camped on my sofa for several weeks until he found somewhere suitable to rent.
Dave was never one to phone up for a casual, and in his view, pointless conversation, and would have thought you were wasting his time if you rang him on such a basis, so we would never have kept in touch by phone. Our contact was always in person, in the flesh, over a beer. To find out a friend had died in such a small town as ours, and you only hear of it 10 months later is a sorry state of affairs and in some respects shows what damage lockdown caused.
Me and Mrs T63 have been discussing what other friends we have lost contact with and wondering how many of them may have fallen by the wayside?
 
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One of the consequences of getting old is your similarly aged friends start dropping of the perch and you find your network of contacts diminishing. Lockdown exacerbated this situation as we further lost contact with the casual acquaintances that we would bump into when dropping in the local for the odd pint and missed the gossip of the local grapevine.
I met my sons for a couple of pints on Paddies day and found out a buddy of mine “Dangerous Dave” had died last summer. Dave was one of our little ”in” crowd and we would bump into each other several times over the course of a week pre-Covid. When he found himself homeless (domestic dispute) he camped on my sofa for several weeks until he found somewhere suitable to rent.
Dave was never one to phone up for a casual, and in his view, pointless conversation, and would have thought you were wasting his time if you rang him on such a basis, so we would never have kept in touch by phone. Our contact was always in person, in the flesh, over a beer. To find out a friend had died in such a small town as ours, and you only hear of it 10 months later is a sorry state of affairs and in some respects shows what damage lockdown caused.
Me and Mrs T63 have been discussing what other friends we have lost contact with and wondering how many of them may have fallen by the wayside?

It can happen all too easily. A friend of mine was dead, buried and a memorial meeting held. First I knew about it was when I read his obituary in the Irish Times a couple of weeks later. I immediately phoned another mutual friend, he hadn't heard of the death either. Networks weaken.
 

A 'blueprint' for longevity: New study has an answer for why some people live to be over 100


Throughout history, brilliant minds have tried to figure out the secret behind living longer. Much of the research has credited diet and exercise, but a group of scientists expanded on previous data to suggest another theory.

Researchers from Boston University and Tufts Medical Center found people who live to be 100 years old or older – called centenarians – may have a unique composition of immune cells that’s highly protective against illnesses.


Researchers analyzed immune cells circulating in the blood taken from seven centenarian participants in North America and identified immune-specific patterns of aging and extreme human longevity.

They compared this information with other publicly available data that looked at immune cells from people ranging across the human lifespan and found centenarians’ immune profile did not follow trends associated with natural aging.

The findings “provide support to the hypothesis that centenarians are enriched with protective factors that increase their ability to recover from infections,” said senior author Paola Sebastiani.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...y-some-people-live-to-be-over-100/ar-AA19p9qY

maximus otter
 
I've always thought that those who lived well past a normal life span must have some sort of genetic/immune system advantage. Interesting bit of research.
It’s definitely mostly genetic.
 
It’s definitely mostly genetic.
Other factors must come into play though. Amazingly in the 20 years prior to 2020 the number of UK population aged over 90 rose from about 200000 to about 600000. There are over 15000 over the age of 100 in the UK (ONS) Apparently due to the huge increase in births following WW1. Possibly counterintuitively bearing in mind Spanish flu outbreak post WW1, the depression in the 30's, WW2, post war rationing etc. NHS and medical science must have played a part.
 
One of the consequences of getting old is your similarly aged friends start dropping off the perch and you find your network of contacts diminishing.
This, I expected. I feel the obvious shock when my contemporary chums die.
What hurts me is when younger relations than myself die. It doesn't seem fair.
Getting older, and closer to the inevitable, gives you a new appreciation of life. When youngsters say "You only live once", they intend it as an excuse to take risks and indulge in dangerous activities. I, too, believe in YOLO ... but with the perception that you only have one life, treasure it and make the most of it.
 
Other factors must come into play though. Amazingly in the 20 years prior to 2020 the number of UK population aged over 90 rose from about 200000 to about 600000. There are over 15000 over the age of 100 in the UK (ONS) Apparently due to the huge increase in births following WW1. Possibly counterintuitively bearing in mind Spanish flu outbreak post WW1, the depression in the 30's, WW2, post war rationing etc. NHS and medical science must have played a part.
Yes,advances in medicine must play a huge part. I’m basing on what I said from my own family,especially my maternal grandmother. All of her nine sisters and her lived into their nineties,all smokers for 50-60 years plus, ate what they wanted. All died of old age without any serious medical conditions along the way. That has to be genetic and not just a coincidence.
 
Seven isnt much of a sample.

Better would be to study the Very Old in a poorer place, people who might not have the advantage of modern medicine/nutrition.

But I doubt they suffer our stress...
 
Seven isnt much of a sample.

Better would be to study the Very Old in a poorer place, people who might not have the advantage of modern medicine/nutrition.

But I doubt they suffer our stress...
And, I would assume that, living in places of poverty, those who survive would have very good immune systems. People in poorer regions deal with diseases that we rarely or never see.
 
Yes,advances in medicine must play a huge part. I’m basing on what I said from my own family,especially my maternal grandmother. All of her nine sisters and her lived into their nineties,all smokers for 50-60 years plus, ate what they wanted. All died of old age without any serious medical conditions along the way. That has to be genetic and not just a coincidence.
Both my parents lived well into their 80's and lived a similar style to your family. Yet both sets of their parents died in their 60's and most close relatives did not get to 80. This genetic thing is complicated.
 
Both my parents lived well into their 80's and lived a similar style to your family. Yet both sets of their parents died in their 60's and most close relatives did not get to 80. This genetic thing is complicated.
I've no idea how I'm going to cark it. My Mum liked her food and wine so bowel cancer took her. With my Dad's Dad, he went in his sleep when his pacemaker stopped so that was heart disease, My Dad's Mum died not long ago at 103, she'd beaten cancer about 50 years earlier (big chunk cut from her leg), she was a gentle woman who never seemed to get stressed about anything which we think is partly how she lived so long. I get stressed loads so that'll probably finish me off. Or I'll get hit by a bus or something similar.
 
Both my parents lived well into their 80's and lived a similar style to your family. Yet both sets of their parents died in their 60's and most close relatives did not get to 80. This genetic thing is complicated.
Yes it is a complicated thing and the example is just a small sample.
When I had my heart attack in 2018 I was asked at the hospital about my lifestyle and the consultant said the major factor in heart attacks is family history, it overrides everything
 
Were you getting enough sleep or do you think that's a genetic thing?.
Living like Keith Richards probably hasn't helped.

I think stress/worry/anger, certainly at a younger age, although they say too much salt (didn't touch it for years in my teens though), alcohol etc etc, but yes, again it's probably mainly genes I would think.
 
Living like Keith Richards probably hasn't helped.

I think stress/worry/anger, certainly at a younger age, although they say too much salt (didn't touch it for years in my teens though), alcohol etc etc, but yes, again it's probably mainly genes I would think.
Bags under the eyes: Buy an moist heat 'eye mask', the type that you can warm up in a microwave for 30 seconds or so. Apply it eyes for a few minutes, then massage upper and lower eyelids.
Voila!

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I grew up in the east end of London and most blokes in their 60s seemed to look really old, wrinkly, doubled up, walking with a stick, etc. I am 65 this year and certainly dont feel like I'm sure they did. OK, that generation lived through a world war, most had hard manual jobs and we have had the benefit of modern medicine. But it wasnt just the workers, even sports stars like footballers just looked so old. Have a look at the picture of Ralph Coates below. He was only 32!
And what ever happened to Lumbago? No one seems to suffer from it today, unless they have a posh name for it now.
 

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You guys haven't heard of Creme de la Mer? (translation: cream of the sea)
You must apply it every evening before bedtime, after washing. It is not so much a face cream, as a skin treatment. Been around since the 1950's/1960's. Contains a 'miracle broth' of fermented (for three months) seaweed, and is like nothing else on this earth.
Takes care of bags, sags, wrinkles, dry skin, inflammation, ecxema, blotches, everything. It is pricey at $200 now for one ounce, but it lasts a long time. Scoop out a very small amount, rub it between your fingers and press onto face and neck, every night. They also have body lotions, serums, etc. I wouldn't live without it!

1680868650438.png
 
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