While most people find facing a New Year stressful enough, 1999 compounds the problem: Not only are we growing older, we're also heading into a new millennium. For many of us who struggle to fulfill New Year's resolutions, the coming year's apprehensions and millennial anxieties include the vital question of how to age gracefully as Time marches on. And on.
This writer conducted an informal poll of a dozen boomers age 40 and over and found the following to be some of the most widely shared resolutions: to eat more healthfully and lose weight, to improve one's mind and make career gains, to exercise regularly, to take better care of one's looks and to get more sleep.
Above all, these pre-millennial times offer a good opportunity to upgrade mind and body, or even to pursue the wholly American activity of reinventing oneself. Judging by the popularity of cosmetic surgery, functional foods and anti-aging goods (to name just a few businesses that this country's 76 million baby boomers are pouring money into), reinvention is an ever-expanding growth industry. Physicians, cosmetic manufacturers, therapists, scientific researchers and other experts are all offering strategies of varying effectiveness for aging gracefully in this transitional era. Here are some of the most promising ones:
IMPROVING ONE'S MIND AND MAKING CAREER GAINS
Try the daily "brain longevity" program as described by Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., in his book, Brain Longevity (Warner Books: 1998). This involves a low fat diet, aerobic exercise, yoga, meditation, nutritional supplements such as vitamin E, ginkgo biloba, phosphatidyl serine and, in some cases, pharmaceutical drugs such as deprenyl. "The clinical results that I have achieved indicate that the brain longevity program diet may help delay and prevent Alzheimer's disease," says Dr. Khalsa. "I believe age-associated memory impairment can be eradicated," he continues. "The brain is flesh and blood, and you can increase the strength and vitality of your brain by feeding it the proper nutrients. People in their forties, fifties, sixties, and older," he says, "can retain strong memory functions and also become more productive and optimistic." (In fact, research published in the scientific literature reports findings that vitamin E can help improve brain function by delaying Alzheimer's. The pharmaceutical drug deprenyl has also been found to be effective in delaying the disease.)
EATING MORE HEALTHFULLY AND LOSING WEIGHT
According to John Yudkin, M.D. and Sara Stanner, authors of Eating for a Healthy Heart, (Keats Publishing Inc.: 1997), you can protect against heart disease and lose weight by living the "French Paradox" -- eating a diet rich in fresh vegetables and fruits, fish, garlic and red wine. The only oil you eat should be olive oil.
While most people find facing a New Year stressful enough, 1999 compounds the problem: Not only are we growing older, we're also heading into a new millennium. For many of us who struggle to fulfill New Year's resolutions, the coming year's apprehensions and millennial anxieties include the vital question of how to age gracefully as Time marches on. And on.
