Articles Posted in Aging

Published this year, “The Good Life” reports on the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the longest scientific study of happiness ever done. Tracking the lives of hundreds of participants for over 80 years, the report concludes that it is the strength of our relationships with friends, relatives and co-workers that most determine quality of life, health and longevity.

Regarding older adults, the authors note that time is suddenly very precious. Questions arise such as:

• How much time do I have left?

Each one of us experience countless injustices in the course of everyday living. Like other experiences, it is not the experience itself so much that counts, but how you process it. The Mayo Clinic addresses the health benefits of “forgiveness” which they define as “an intentional decision to let go of resentment and anger”. Letting go of grudges and bitterness can lead to:

• Healthier relationships
• Improved mental health

In his best-selling book, “Successful Aging”, Daniel J. Levitin, Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Neuroscience at McGill University (your writer’s alma mater), shows how the brain is formed and how it changes, in surprisingly positive ways, as we age.

The author notes that Freud said that the two most important things in life are healthy relationships and meaningful work.

Socialization is crucial to maintaining our mental acuity. “Navigating the complex mores and potential pitfalls of dealing with another human being, someone who has their own needs, opinions, and sensitivities, is about the most complex thing we humans can do. It exercises vast neural networks, keeping them tuned up, in shape, and ready to fire. In a good conversation, we listen, we empathize. And empathy is healthful, activating networks throughout the brain.”

According to the National Institute on Aging (NIA) polypharmacy is the use of multiple drugs to treat diseases and other health conditions.  Polypharmacy is common in older adults, many of whom have two or more chronic conditions, and about a third of whom take five or more prescription drugs. Often, these different powerful drugs have been prescribed by different doctors.  Some drugs mask or neutralize others, some are dangerously incompatible with others and some may worsen conditions that naturally occur in the aging population — such as loss of appetite, less efficient digestive systems and increased cardiovascular risk.

Inappropriate polypharmacy — the use of excessive or unnecessary medications — increases the risk of adverse drug effects, including falls and cognitive impairment.  Harmful drug interactions and drug-disease interactions may also occur, where a medication prescribed to treat one condition worsens or creates a new one.

Enter the new field of “deprescribing”.  The NIA is developing a network of scientists to advance the field of deprescribing to improve the quality of care and health outcomes for older adults. According to Parag Goyal, MD, “despite its role as an integral part of patient-centric and goal-concordant prescribing practice, deprescribing is not frequently incorporated into routine clinical practice”.

The recent announcement by 98 year old Jimmy Carter, our long-lived president, that he was opting for hospice care at home instead of additional medical intervention, is in keeping with the trend towards dying with dignity. Hospice care arises when an illness is either no longer responding to medical treatment, no medical treatment is available, or the patient has decided they want to transition from treatments intended to prolong quantity of life to treatments intended to improve quality of life.

One of the great misconceptions about hospice care is that it is the cessation of medical care. Dr. Sunita Puri, author of “That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour” defines hospice care as “intensive comfort-focused care, provided with the goal of minimizing the physical, emotional and spiritual suffering that patients and their families experience when somebody has possibly six months or less to live.” While hospice can usually take place at home it can also be in a facility and is paid for by Medicare Hospice Benefit.

The hospice “team” consists of (1) a nurse to assess and manage pain and provide hands-on-care, (2) a social worker, to offer emotional support and help with planning, (3) a physician to interface with the patient’s primary physician and consult on pain and symptom management and make house calls, (4) a hospice aide to help with personal care needs, such as bathing, (5) clergy to offer spiritual support, (6) volunteers to help in a variety of ways, and (7) a bereavement specialist to provide grief and loss counseling.

According to former Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, loneliness poses real threats to both mental and physical health, including depression and anxiety, addictions, heart disease and dementia. His book “Together” reveals that loneliness affects about one-quarter of adult Americans, and “The reality is that loneliness is a natural signal that our body gives us, similar to hunger, thirst. And that’s how important human connection is.” Such is the public health crisis, that in the UK the government has appointed a Minister of Loneliness to help combat the problem.

One of the best ways to overcome loneliness is to volunteer. AARP Foundation Experience Corps reports that 85% of volunteers felt their lives had improved through their volunteering efforts.

Here are some suggestions and resources gleaned from Val Walker’s ground-breaking book “400 Friends and No One to Call” subtitled “Breaking Through Isolation and Building Community.”

In his invitation and guide to life’s most important conversation, as he puts it, author Michael Hebb seeks to address the fact that “the way we die in the modern age is broken.” Almost unique to American culture, the denial of death has ripple effects in depleting our skills to discuss death and to process the loss of a loved one.

Perhaps this is why (1) although 80% of Americans say they want to die at home, only 20% do, and (2) the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States is the cost of end-of-life care. Most people do not want extreme measures that only prolong suffering leading to death. However, so few of us have talked to our families about our wishes nor have we been asked, leading to the medicalization of end-of-life.

Given the right framework, these conversations can be liberating and even transforming — bringing people together and reminding us what really matters. While death is often tragic and terrible, there are opportunities to learn and grow — by making us more aware of life’s precious gift, making us kinder and bringing us closer to one another.