Being All You Can be

(The Washington Post) The late Sen. John Glenn’s triumphant trip into space in 1999 served as reminder to some 75 million older Americans that they, too, are capable of living healthier, proactive lives well into their twilight years.

This is confirmed by a growing body of scientific evidence, including laboratory longevity studies showing that under ideal conditions rats fed highly nutritious, calorie-restricted diets i.e. are capable of far outlasting their peers. The same is believed to apply to humans, particularly now that robust gene therapies that promise to extend our expected life span are poised to enter the marketplace. Some longevity experts believe that under ideal conditions, humans can now live up to 120 years. This is offset by the fact that we exist in a mass marketed culture geared to maximize corporate profits rather than the bolster the health of ordinary citizens.

In the past, those who extolled the virtues of eating well were often disparaged as "health nuts." Now that interest in good health has gained traction with the masses, terms like organic, non GMO, acupuncture, and massage therapy have worked their way into the lexicon of American respectability. Increasingly, conventionally trained doctors are incorporating guided imagery, biofeedback, chelation, and ozone therapy into their treatment regimens. Integrative Medicine is becoming mainstream, enticing growing numbers of converts.

Increasingly, old standards such as "the four food groups" are out, consumption of red met is no longer di riguer, and vegetarian choices involving more than iceberg lettuce and fruit appear routinely on restaurant menus. The American medical establishment is slowly warming to acupuncture and other forms of medicine that have been successfully practiced by the Chinese and other cultures for thousands of years. Even old guard drug and food companies are catering to the demand by developing their own lines of herbal and organic products.

But it’s not just about diet. Increasingly, older Americans are involving themselves in active sports, traveling extensively and taking Viagra. It helped that Glenn, a "semi-vegetarian," was in great physical shape, buoyed by a lifetime of good health habits that included eating plenty of fruits, legumes, nuts, seeds and only a small percentage of fish, turkey and chicken. He also did leg presses, military presses and, before his death at 96, power walked near his Maryland home.

NASA required the former senator to meet the same physical standards as younger astronauts and go through all the standard emergency training, including climbing in and out of the orbiter simulators, bailing out, climbing through upper windows and rappelling, jumping into water — all wearing a heavy flight suit. Glenn surprised many by coping seamlessly with the strenuous pre-flight training and the physical and mental strain of flight itself. The greatest difficulty, he claimed, came in training to use a laptop PC onboard the spacecraft.