Hedonism for Healthy Aging

Excerpt from Daily Cures, Wisdom for Healthy Aging by Connie Mason Michaelis

I recently came into the possession of a manuscript called All About Aging.  Keep in mind that an 85-year-old physician wrote it as he reflected on his medical practice and his own aging experience. He dishes out some sage and humorous advice, and assuming he practiced his own counsel, it served him well; he lived to be 95.  He said he had issues with a dietitian telling him to change his diet.  “A 25-year-old dietitian telling a healthy 75-year-old man what he should eat seems to me to be both late and ludicrous.”  He wrote, “My own experience parallels a good segment of the senior population. We eat eggs, red meat, and we prefer real butter.  We eat bran out of necessity.  Maybe we’ve just been lucky, but we enjoy our food, and we have survived a lot longer than that dietician. She has it to prove: we don’t.”   He bluntly says that tobacco, not diet, is the chief cause of most modern illnesses.  “Yet, smoking isn’t much of a problem in my elderly patients.  You might ask why, and I can tell you.  First and most important is attrition.”  Smokers were not making it to his roster of older patients!

Dr. Berry recommended the philosophy of hedonism, as appropriate, for the still-functioning older adult.  “Hedonism is the belief that life is given to enjoy.  The good Lord does not communicate with us in ordinary human languages.  Perhaps He guides us with two fundamental symbols.  Things that He wants us to do, he makes pleasant.  Conversely, things to avoid, He makes unpleasant.  So I unhesitatingly say to any older person that, within the limits of common sense, what seems pleasant to you is almost certainly good for you.”  Medical advice that is given by an 85-year-old physician to his elderly patients simply cuts to the chase. There are things that will kill you, but enjoying life may be the best health benefit.