Keeping Your Edge Beyond 45
By Dr. Philip L. Miller
It is
a recurring theme, the baby boomers lead once again.
Why? There are 76
million of us turning 50 at the rate of 1 every 18 seconds for the
next 20 years. It remains
a potent force as it has for the last 5 decades.
You can’t ignore us because the population bulge in the
modern world continues to favor the baby boom population.
We are an aging society. The World Health Organization and
large annuity companies are only too aware of this developing fact.
The fastest growing segment of our population is … 85 and
above.
A new field
and discipline is emerging in Medicine.
It has various appellations - Anti-Aging Medicine,
Rejuvenation Medicine, Longevity Medicine, or Age Management.
But its common theme is applying well-researched phenomenon of
the aging process to a focus on a new paradigm.
This is the essence of functional medicine.
It is the application of medicine to improve and optimize function
as opposed to the late stage intervention and treating of disease
states. It is forward
thinking and is the solution to the dilemma facing modern medicine -
treating larger numbers of people with diminishing national economic
resources.
So what does
this mean to you? Here in
the Silicon
Valley, as in so many large
metropolitan areas around the country and even around the world, we
are faced with the business dilemma of retaining an aging workforce.
Until recently the simple solution has been the hiring of
younger workers at less expensive salaries or, worse, off-shoring.
But we lose an entire generation of expertise, savvy and
know-how. It is a
temporary fix. Long term,
more and more post-50 workers will stay in the work force - of
necessity. How?
The most
successful application of Anti-Aging Programs is a coordinated and
structured approach that begins with solid and time tested principles
of good nutrition, exercise and supplementation.
There is a level of hormonal modulation and balance but it is
followed by “cognitive enhancement.”
This means staying smart and retaining memory.
Brain Longevity, as it was called by Dharma Singh Khalsa
in his epic volume. We all
experience a loss of memory for names and small details past the age
of 50 (actually past 38). So
that a structured approach to reviving this memory gap remains vital.
Our memory storage and recall are our little internal hard
discs. We resort to the
use of external devices such as PDAs and Google searches.
Staying
competitive. What does it
take? We have the
experience and knowledge. So
staying competitive is reviving the drive, the motivation, the force
and the ability to move ahead. Staying
competitive is what it took in our 20s and 30s to get started.
Do we now have what it takes to keep going?
It is about looking, feeling, and performing at our optimal best.
The most
formidable interview I have seen in years was an interview with George
Burns - one of the icons of aging well.
There are others including John Glenn, Sophia Loren and, of
course, Jack LaLaine. George
was 92 years young. His
recall, timing and delivery were impeccable and undiminished.
His goal was to play the London Palladium at age 100.
It was daunting that a man 40 years older could be so sharp and
witty and “on.” So
gentle reader it is not necessarily a function of age.
Age is a state of mind. Aging
is not inevitable.
Our target
audience is the 40 to 55 year old group, which happens to be the
leading edge of the baby boom population.
It is when the motivation to re-capturing lost vigor and
stamina presents itself as “I am losing energy” or “I just
don’t fell like myself any longer.”
It may be out of lost physical, mental, sexual or even
spiritual energy. A
glimmer of the final end becomes more tangible.
You begin to sense the game is moving into later innings.
I see
dentists who are losing the ability to move from chair to chair as
easily. I see software
engineers having difficulty keeping up. “I feel beat up.”
But the most striking example is a 72-year-old real estate
broker who just wanted some small changes in her hormonal routines.
She is youthful, vivacious and a charge-ahead woman who, in the
end, was most fretful of losing her job.
And why? Despite
the fact that she was the most productive sales person in her unit,
she was constantly fearful of revealing her true age.
She looks and acts about 62.
But she is 72.
They most
often come out of a vague sense of lost energy or fatigue that is so
poorly addressed, or understood, in conventional medicine.
This is a functional concept.
Restoring lost function - lost vim and vigor.
But in the end it so often comes down to competitiveness in the
workplace. At any level up
to corporate CEOs, it is about restoring confidence, motivation and
stamina - physical and mental - that is the ultimate quest.
This is a
nation that values “productivity.”
It is part of the GNP. It
may be part of company annual reports and 10Ks and daily stock market
charting. It may be a
facet of the annual employee review.
I often say that, here in the Silicon
Valley, we have what may pass for the
most egalitarian society imaginable.
Race, color, ethnicity and gender are all subordinate to
productivity. It is how
much you can produce that matters.
What is your intellectual value?
The pursuit
of optimal health and well being starts as a personal goal and ends as
a personal triumph. “I
feel like myself again.” “This
is the best I have felt in 10-20 years.”
We all have the capacity to regain “that feeling.”
But in the
marketplace, this is ultimately a matter of increased productivity.
The ability to stay competitive and thrive.
Unless you are one of the few who has attained “critical
mass” and can retire prematurely, there are going to be far more
that need “the edge.” The
answer is here. The
government is not here to help. Medicare
is going broke. It is up
to you.
The strength
and motivation must come from within each one of you.
We in the Anti-Aging, Longevity Medicine field are merely the
vanguard of an entirely new way of offering the help, the guidance and
some answers. The Phoenix
rises. There is the
certainty of far more John Glenn’s rising into space at age 78,
Sophia Lorens at age 70 Jack LaLaines at age 91 and the creativeness
of Clint Eastwoods into the 70s and beyond.
The hope and prospects are at hand.
Now reach out. It
is up to you to take the first steps.
Read other articles and learn more
about
Dr.
Philip Lee Miller.
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