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Weight Loss Forum / Low Carb / March 2004healthy old age and weight (was dorky picture of me)
On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > I have thus disproved Doug Lerner's point that all people who live > active lives in their 90s are "rail-thin". Well, I said what I observed was anecdotal, and not proof. Also, I believe I maintained that I've never seen an overweight, healthy, active person in their 90s. Somebody "sturdy" like you mentioned doesn't sound overweight. I'll bet a thousand yen, though, that more than 90% of healthy, active people in their 90s are thin! doug Actually, I've seen very few overweight elderly people. :-) -- Cheri Type 2, no meds for now. Doug Lerner wrote in message ... >On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >doug > Actually, I've seen very few overweight elderly people. :-) Perhaps they weren't old but just looked it.  SignatureJohn > > Actually, I've seen very few overweight elderly people. :-) > Perhaps they weren't old but just looked it. On this very newsgroup we had the discussion about how people who have lost sufficient weight are starting to look a lot older than they used to because of saggy skins and deflated wrinkles. Maybe all the overweight elderly people look too young for us to realize they are elderly. This is a big tongue-in-cheek jokie, by the way. April. Put out the cat. Signature"Things that try to look like things often do look more like things than things. Well known fact." Esmerelda Weatherwax (Pratchett 1988) >Actually, I've seen very few overweight elderly people. :-) I worked in nursing homes for many years, and cared for many, many overweight elderly people (mostly females);with a good portion of them being flat out obese. Since these were skilled care facilities, none of the residents were living what you or I would call healthy, happy golden years. Whether they were obviously "ill" (non-ambulatory, suffering from dementia, etc) or had less visible issues, they were there because they needed to live with twenty four hour nursing care available, so it's a sick population that I had experience with. No ones quality of life was what I would wish for in my elderly years. That said, I found, without fail, that the thinner residents were also the sickest and closest to death;when the fat ladies fell or got a virus they recovered..our tiny ones more often did not. No one really ever wanted to care for the heaviest women because not only was it such hard physical work to lift or turn them but almost all of them were a huge pain in the a.s in every little way. ;-> Lots of minor complaints and bell ringing for attention while they lay in their beds or sat in their easy chairs stuffing themselves with the candy their families brought that would shoot their blood sugars up; when the sweet, skinny woman in the next bad was suffering through her last few dying days of cancer they would invariably ring to order you to move her, so that moaning wouldn't disturb their soap operas. But they sure hung in there through stuff, and there were plenty of them. No endorsement, as I said I would prefer to be neither side of that population but believe it, there are fat ninety year old people. =) May "Not all who wander are lost" -J.R.R. Tolkien Well, my 98 year old dad is thin and active and my 88 year old mom is chubby and sedentary. Their health is about the same except that my mom has no sign of heart disease and my dad has had it for 25 years. So much for generalizations. . . -- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes, hba1c 5.2. Cut the carbs to respond to my email address! Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes, strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/ Looking for help controlling your blood sugar? Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm > On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > doug :: Well, my 98 year old dad is thin and active and my 88 year old mom :: is chubby and sedentary. Their health is about the same except that :: my mom has no sign of heart disease and my dad has had it for 25 :: years. :: :: So much for generalizations. . . Once again, thank you. It is so easy for any of us to think that our own personal experiences carry across the board. That's rarely true, folks. :: -- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 :: diabetes, hba1c 5.2. [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] ::: ::: doug > I'll bet a thousand yen, though, that more than 90% of healthy, active > people in their 90s are thin! My grandmother died at 86 and was healthy and thin. However she was very fat all her life, and only began to lose weight when she had to have a colostomy at age 79, so she was only thin the last 6 years of her life. :-) Debbie > Well, I said what I observed was anecdotal, and not proof. Also, I believe I > maintained that I've never seen an overweight, healthy, active person in > their 90s. Somebody "sturdy" like you mentioned doesn't sound overweight. > > I'll bet a thousand yen, though, that more than 90% of healthy, active > people in their 90s are thin! My grandmother is about 80 and extremely fat, but very active. We'll see in 10 years... > On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > doug My grandfather has "always" been obese, smoked for many years, was an alcoholic for many years, worked in the coal mines, ate a terrible diet (high sugar and high fat), and never exercised. I think he's in his upper 80s, although he's recently had to use a wheelchair. On the other hand, here's a story about the inventor of the powerbar, who died at 51 from a heart attack: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/03/20/obit.maxwell.ap/index.html In 1977, he was ranked as the number three marathon runner in the world. No one ever talks of genetics, but genetics is very important. SignatureBob M in CT remove 'x.' to reply :: On Sat, 20 Mar 2004 13:11:29 +0900, Doug Lerner <doug@lerner.net> :: wrote: [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] :: :: No one ever talks of genetics, but genetics is very important. I would argue that most of those to live to 90+ have a longevity gene that probably has the biggest impact; all other factors are likely secondary. :: -- :: Bob M in CT remove 'x.' to reply [cut] > I would argue that most of those to live to 90+ have a longevity gene > that > probably has the biggest impact; all other factors are likely secondary. I agree. I also think that, while I like to exercise, exercise won't help much for long life (in fact, I've seen arguments that say that exercise is worse because of free-radical damage). SignatureBob M in CT remove 'x.' to reply > On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > maintained that I've never seen an overweight, healthy, active person in > their 90s. Somebody "sturdy" like you mentioned doesn't sound overweight. By "overweight" here, I mean "with a BMI of 25 or above". I agree that the folks I'm thinking of aren't huge spheres, but they qualify as "overweight" by clinical standards. Here's a photo of the Queen Mum at the age of 100: http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/Queens/Record/2003/images/polkinghorne.jpg > I'll bet a thousand yen, though, that more than 90% of healthy, active > people in their 90s are thin! Bet whatever you like; your opinion is your opinion, and others' opinions differ. Here's a photo of some participants in a centenarians' study--from their photos on this page, two appear "thin", two appear to be of average weight, and two appear noticeably chubby. http://www.bumc.bu.edu/Departments/PageMain.asp?Page=5905&DepartmentID=361 T. A well known epidemiological study found that in the older population weight loss for any reason INCLUDING intentional diets is a predictor of increased mortality. That's in the over 70 age group. -- Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. At goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes, hba1c 5.2. Cut the carbs to respond to my email address! Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes, strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/ Looking for help controlling your blood sugar? Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/Newly%20Diagnosed.htm > > On 3/20/04 11:19 AM, <triannadunord@hotmail.com> wrote: > > [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > T. In a NY Times article titled Centenarians' Inner Secrets Are Slowly Revealed (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/24/h...CONV.html?8hpib ), reporter Claudia Dreifus quoted the following exchange with researcher Nir Barzilai "Q. Can you give us some general findings about the 100-year-olds you studied? A. They were often healthier than the spouses of their 70-year-old kids. They often got the same diseases that their sons and daughters-in-law got, but 30 years later. And they were, for the most part, unless they had diabetes, fairly healthy right up until the end. Even when they had serious diseases, the progress was slower. The medical billings for centenarians in the last two years of their lives was, on the average, $8,000. For people who died between 60 and 70, it was $24,000. The most common thing this group had is that they did not reveal any particular lifestyle secret for their own longevity. When asked specifically, none has exercised. None was a vegetarian. Not a single one ate yogurt throughout his life. In fact, 30 percent were overweight. Some smoked. The fact that they had a strong family history of exceptional longevity seemed to be the main commonality. This supports the notion that they have special genes protecting them from their environment. One of the things I'm worried about is that my study will encourage people not to engage in healthy environmental practices such as diet and exercise, because they'll think it doesn't matter." In an anecdotal vein, my mother, with a sky-high BMI, died at 83, having outlived all her thinner friends--and if she hadn't been a lifelong smoker, she'd probably still be around. So I don't think what you do or don't do matters much at all, in the long run. I've heard it said more than once that one characteristic long-lived old people share is the ability to deal with life's trials with equanimity, if not aplomb. Something to think about. |
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