Living ‘for a long time’ is meaningless. It is an era in which the quality of life is more important than just prolonging one’s life, moving freely, living well, being healthy, enjoying life, and being respected. Aging cannot be prevented, but aging can be a more valuable life if one delays aging as much as possible, lives happily, and then dies with dignity. Achieving successful aging of well-aging, which is said to be ‘prepare if you can’t avoid it’.
When is the standard of old age? According to the Elderly Welfare Act, the standard for seniors is 65 years old, but the standard for physical age is said to be from 60 years old. Recently, a university in the United States announced that the ages at which aging progresses rapidly are 34 years old, 60 years old, and 78 years old. From this point on, not only the wrinkles, but also the functions of the muscles, musculoskeletal system, and brain cells are noticeably deteriorated, and the body feels uncomfortable and becomes self-aware. It changes the composition of the body. At the age of 70, water, muscle mass, and minerals decrease, and fat more than doubles compared to a young man in his 20s. The distribution of fat also changes, reducing subcutaneous fat and increasing abdominal visceral fat.
Through this process, the number of diseases also increases, and although it can come quickly or be delayed depending on the individual’s health condition or constitution, it is not easy to avoid it without any. In addition, there is little expectation that the pain will completely disappear or be cured, and slowing and relieving becomes a realistic goal.
Diseases of old age that appear in the process of being lost and degenerating
Aging can cause cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and arrhythmia if problems such as enlargement of the heart, thickening of the heart wall, and enlargement of the atria and ventricles gradually occur. If you already suffer from diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity, or diabetes, the chronic disease itself can affect the heart and cause chronic heart failure.
In addition, with age, the number and weight of neurons in the brain decrease by about 10%, causing the ventricles to enlarge. Vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s are dementias accompanied by memory loss, poor judgment, and language disorders. Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by slow motor nerves, tremors, muscle stiffness, and bent posture. In addition, chronic diseases such as lung diseases such as asthma, chronic emphysema, pneumonia, and lung cancer, bone joint diseases such as osteoporosis and arthritis, and diseases of the kidney and urinary system threaten health in old age.
Seo Min-seok, a professor of family medicine at Incheon St. Mary’s Hospital, Catholic University of Korea, said, “Since diseases in the elderly develop slowly and progress chronically, it is more important than anything else to detect and prevent diseases early.” For the elderly who have fallen, we continue to manage them through long-term treatment policies and rehabilitation treatment.”
Chronic disease management determines quality of life in old age
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year, deaths due to chronic diseases accounted for 79.6% of all deaths. The prevalence of major chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) showed an increasing trend, while the adult smoking rate decreased, while the level of management of drinking and obesity remained stagnant or worsened.
Among chronic diseases, cancer accounted for 34.5%, circulatory diseases including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases accounted for 26.6%, chronic respiratory diseases accounted for 5.6%, and diabetes accounted for 4.2%. In this case, the entire population is targeted, and in the elderly, dementia, degenerative joints, etc. along with cardiovascular disease are added as causes of death and also act as a cause of lowering the quality of life.
However, not all chronic diseases necessarily lead to death. There are many examples of people living healthy for a long time even suffering from chronic diseases. If chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes are diagnosed and managed at an early stage, and muscle loss is slowed down through a balanced diet and customized exercise for each disease, even if you have chronic diseases, you can live a healthy life without lowering the quality of life or leading to premature death.
Meals for the health of the elderly, balanced nutrition in daily meals
There is such a thing as longevity diet. Living a long and healthy life is not only a concern of Koreans, so various diets and recipes such as the Mediterranean diet as well as the low-sodium Dash diet (DASH, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) have been on the table at home.
Recently, a research team in Korea announced the results that Korean food lowers body weight and cholesterol levels and helps with diet and health in old age. In this experiment involving elderly people over the age of 65, they paid attention to the healthyness of the Korean diet, saying that the relative level of inflammation was lower despite a diet with a high percentage of carbohydrates, mainly rice, compared to a diet high in nutrients such as protein and fat.
The reason why Korean food can be a healthy food lies in the basic composition of Korean food. Rice, soup (soup dishes such as soup, stew, etc.) and a variety of side dishes are balanced in nutrition. One of the elements of health is that there are many vegetable dishes such as kimchi, namul, and ssam, and cooking in perilla oil or sesame oil instead of frying or frying, meat or meat is included in side dishes rather than the main menu, so fat and cholesterol intake is low. Dots and the like became a ‘healthy diet’. Here, fermented foods such as kimchi, soybean paste, soy sauce, and red pepper paste help digestion and help intestinal health.
Professor Seo Min-seok said, “However, Korean recipes that mainly use soybean paste or soy sauce have a risk of increasing sodium levels, so it is necessary to consider lowering the ratio of salt to soy sauce.” It is helpful to refer to the advantages of eating whole grains, using oil with beneficial ingredients for the body, and low-salt recipes.” In addition, he emphasized, “We must remember that rice Korean food in the experiment is not a table where you eat rice rolled in water with a piece of kimchi, but a table of labor and devotion with various side dishes.”
Let’s grow survival muscles by improving old age exercise and muscle strength
Exercise in young adulthood is not only for health but also for rearranging muscles to create beautiful lines. However, the exercise of old age is to create so-called ‘survival muscles’ for a healthy life. This is because muscles, which protect and withstand external shocks by wrapping bones and joints and help cardiovascular health, are lost and their strength decreases with age.
The important thing is the number of times rather than the intensity of the exercise. Stretch to contract and relax muscles, get up and sit down in a chair, hold on to an exercise band or a weight of about 1 kg, and lift 12 to 20 times, gradually increasing the number of times. Increasing the weight, increasing the intensity, or reducing the number of repetitions increases the risk of injury with no particular benefit for the elderly. It is recommended to increase the number of times rather than the intensity of the moment and build up one by one. In order to increase flexibility, it is desirable to do it after exercise when the resistance of the muscles to stretching is the least. For most elderly people who are not those with impaired positional sense, flexibility and strength exercises are more effective in preventing falls than balance exercises.
In the case of these exercises, it is good to receive guidance from specialists, physical therapists, and professional trainers in the case of a specific disease, and to change the amount of exercise or how to exercise at different times. Especially in winter, refrain from outdoor exercise and recommend wearing a hat or shoes that can protect your feet.
Professor Seo Min-seok said, “There is a saying that ‘you decide your own destiny after the age of 50’. Rather than denying aging itself, if you acknowledge it and maintain a stable daily life, smoking cessation, proper drinking, regular exercise, and weight control that suits you with a positive view, you will be able to face old age with a high quality of life.”