The Secret to Successful Aging | Cathleen Toomey | TEDxPiscataquaRiver

so I'm here to share with you the secret to successful aging and it's not kale or Botox or even pseudo ku you don't have to buy it be born with it or borrow your life savings to get it photo I know I mean I'm old but I'm not that old but in the last decade I have been immersed in the senior living industry I have worked with seniors interviewed them observe them done research on them and what I've learned is that we are in the midst of an aging revolution there's an adage in my industry that the longer you live the longer you live and actually that is true so today if you're 65 you can expect to live to 84 and if you're 84 you can expect to make it to 92 and if you make it to 92 you can tack on a few years what else is new about this industry first of all there are more of us Aging in the United States than ever before in the history of our country so here's a chart of the u.s. live birth and it shows that today there are 10,000 people every day turning 75 and that's gonna continue for a couple years no it's gonna continue for the next 18 years 10,000 people a day turning 75 for 18 years with some people call a silver tsunami and what are these thousands of older people doing they're benefiting from better health care so today a new knee or a new hip is par for the course it's not a life-threatening surgery people are accessing better medicine and the other thing that's different is those pesky working women so 60 years ago you had adult women who typically were right around the corner their parents but now they're in the workforce they are getting married later having children later they are moving for their jobs relocating they are the true Sandwich Generation and considering their lifestyle it's not a bad thing that they're living farther away and what's the biggest change in this revolution it's the senior citizens the seventy year olds I'll share with you some 70 year olds I know Paul McCartney Aretha Franklin Mick Jagger seventy year old and still rocking stadiums as TEDx says living life on their own terms but even if you're 70 year old is not rocking stadiums they're not rocking chairs they are traveling more exercising more dining out this generation wants and expects more from the last third of their life than any other generation so I have a question why don't we all approach aging with this kind of enthusiasm why do birthday cards starting at age 40 turn doom and gloom don't we know it's better than they alternative I think it's easy to blame the reason for this on society's obsession with youth but I think it comes down to two things one is fear fear of aging and death as one of my favorite writers Atul Gawande says we blind ourselves to the opportunity to change aging for the better the second reason we don't look forward except there's no roadmap for this nobody expected to live this long and be this vital now I'm no Pollyanna I know the change that aging brings can be difficult you have aches and pains and places you didn't even know you had being older is seen and experienced by many as an advent of loss loss of physical vitality friends energy and sometimes I let a loss of a sense of purpose so what do we do about this we stick our heads in the sand otherwise smart people who have saved to buy a house educate their children take a vacation deny the fact of Aging and the changes ahead they don't think about it just take a look at the way we live today in the u.s. 50 percent of people over 85 live alone they've mostly stopped driving at night they don't socialize anymore and remember those adult children their far-flung and maybe that's a good thing people insist that living alone means independence even as the New York Times declares there is an epidemic of loneliness among older adults and why does loneliness matter in addition to the reason you would expect researchers at MIT in the University of Chicago last year came out with a research study that connects scientific evidence to loneliness and a loss of physical and cognitive decline even Forbes magazine recognizes loneliness as a bigger health risk than obesity or smoking and why are we lonely we've literally stopped speaking statistically adults over seventy-five only spent eight percent of their time communicating a 50 percent drop since when they're 65 and no in answer to your question texting does not count just because God gave you opposable thumbs does not mean it's a replacement for real conversation so so what do we do about this I looked into three pieces of research the first piece came out last year and it was done by Indiana and Harvard University and they took a look at eight thousand older adults some of whom volunteered outside the community and some of whom didn't and they found that overwhelmingly those people that volunteered were healthier than the people who didn't they had better test results they did mammograms they did took care of themselves and most strikingly volunteers had 38 percent fewer nights in the hospital that non volunteers these are older adults less time in the hospital stepping back and looking globally anthropologist Dan Buettner took a look at five areas around the globe where the longest living people were clustered he called them Blue Zones so Japan Greece Italy Costa Rica and California all have clusters of people who lived a long time and he looked into what factors in each of these cultures are the same what can we learn from this and in addition to a healthy diet he identified a number of key factors these people had moderate exercise they understood how to shed stress there was a focus on the family and they had a sense of purpose what the Japanese call a key guy I loved this concept of a key guy which is loosely translated as a reason to get up in the morning and I looked a little closer at this now the concept has been around for thousands of years and it derives from two japanese terms or kuru meaning life and kind meaning what one hopes for and what I love about this idea is it doesn't talk about our current state of happiness but rather our ability to look forward now when you're younger and you're raising your family and you're working in your career your purpose is clear but when your family has grown and your work career is over it doesn't mean your life is over just that base just that sense of purpose you now have the chance to find a new purpose and you can choose your a key guy by answering four questions what are you passionate about what does the world need what are you good at and what can you be paid for or if you're retired what is your vocation the intersection of these is you're a key guy the last piece of research is from a small nondescript School in Massachusetts that you may or may not have heard of they did a 75 year study of a lifespan of a cohort of graduates they studied them for 75 years they looked at mayoral success career status diet exercise and they wanted to find the secret to what makes a successful aging adult and what they came out with shockingly for this institution they boiled the whole study down to one sentence good relationships keep us happier and healthier period so what's the secret to successful aging three things don't be an ostrich you're smarter than that recognize that you are ageing and celebrate your age where you are understand you are on the right side of the grass to defy expectations find that next purpose find the reason to get up in the morning whether it's like Claire doing skydiving for your 80th birthday or coming up with a community garden a book group find out what that purpose is the world is hungry for your gifts your talents your time grow friendships relationships matter get some get out of the house I know for many of you your friends and family may have passed away but there's a lot of people in the world find people connect with them go out and connect with people in the outside world or in a case of one 94 year old man his wife died and he decided to build a community pool in his backyard now he has kids adults coming to his house all day long and at ninety four who's worried about liability look forward it's that simple you are here you have more gifts to give you have more friends to meet and as you flourish so will the world you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 120,803

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Aging, Life Development, Purpose, Social Interaction, Youth

Id: bPBJJ-lxsXA

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 28 2017