HAPPY OLD AGE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 143, 21 June 1927, Page 2

HAPPY OLD AGE

WHAT THE DOCTORS SAY

NO CAST-IKON RULES

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, ISth May.

"Eetiremeut is a problem beset with anxiety and danger; a successful business man when relieved of routine and able to indulge in idle luxury and without hobbies may rapidly degenerate." This was a statement by Sir Humphrey Kollcston, physician to the King and formerly president of the Royal College of Physicians, in a lecture, "Concerning Old Age," at the Royal Institution. At the age of 64 Sir Humphry himself leads a busy life. He is Regius Professor of Physic at Cambridge, consulting physician to tho Royal Navy, president of the British Institute of Radiology, and has been chairman, and member of a large number of medical commissions and committees.

Other points from his lecture were: After retirement the successful business man has to find occupation to kill time instead of time to do all lie must: he begins to feel that "his day is done." Instead of, as was his wont, having to find time for his occupation, he had to find occupation for his time. Soon he had little but his dinner to look forward to; he realised that at last ho was old, that he was a: "has-been." In this, auto-suggestion played a great part, and was often helped by friends and relatives. One piece of advice Sir Humphrey gave was: "Have a smile tor everyone, and accept new idea* readily."

lhere is a basis for the idea that senility is catching, and for seeking the companionship of the young and there'hy letting auto-suggestion work in a constructive direction. A well-occu-pied mind, a happy disposition, and an attitude of charity, in its original and best sense, to all, tend to prolong life and make a happy, healthy, prelude to crossing the bar. Public duties may provide a means of useful and healthmainting activity. Most centenarians have been small eaters, especially of meat. Excess of to practice should include moderation in alcoholism. Advice to give others and to practise should include moderation in all things, mental and physical exercise, an open-air life, serenity, and charity to all men. . The age of 50 to'6o is that when some common diseases, such as arterio-sclerosis, the result of past, or present high blood pressure or of poisons, failing heart, kidney diseases, cerebral hemorrhage, liver disease, and cancer take a heavy toll. Moderation in food was very necessary; indeed, excess of food was more generally destructive than alcholi ß m. iollow a simple diet throughout life and get up from the table before repletion cried "Hold, enough." It had been very truly said that a man did not die; he killed himself. And It had been said, with-equal truth, that wo dug our graves with our teeth. Recent investigation among 5000 individuals had gone to .show that a moderate use of alcohol did not tend to shorten life. He welcomed that, as his impression had been that long-continued absorption of alcohol, even in moderate quantities, did tend to shorten tho life of the conscientious devotee.

THE KEY TO YOUTH.

The effect of age oa women's looks was discussed by Sir Thomas Oliver, Professor, of Medicine, University of Durham, in his presidential address to toe Institute of Hygiene. He said: There is no well-marked line of demarcation between the early, middle and later periods of: life, for not only do the decades gently glide into each other without the cognisance of the individual, but people are affected differently by the progress of the years. A man or a woman is as old as he or she feels, and not as he or she looks. It has been said that a woman who conceals her age is a benefactor to her sex, for through her determination to remain young she has set up a superior standard of health, she herself being aware of the .fact that by shortening her hair and adopting inod'ern methods of dress she has, so far as personal appearance is concerned, temporarily modified the visible marks of time. Age is not, however, a matter of years, but of changes in the tissues, so that so long as woman does her best to keep her mind and body young, she is yomig. Probably, the middle period of life leaves more outward signs upon women than men. Fortunately, the change is not universal, for m.any women are just as handsome, attractive, good-looking, and, of well-proportioned figure as in the years before the middle period of life, and those much-admired qualities are carried on into old age when the women retain those attributes which charm all who are brought into contact with them.

The amount of sleep required is largely a personal and family matter. Some- people require' more sleep than others, while others, again, imagine they need more sleep than is necessary. If by the time a man. or woman has reached middle age he or she has not become his or her own physician as regards food, then no lesson has been learnt from the experience of previous years. Less food, rather than more, is safer for most people.when they are towards: the 'seventies.

THE ELIXIR OF LITE,

Obesity (Sir Thomas said) did not necessarily follow from excessive eating, for many stout persons ate sparingly- Of rejuvenescence, he said that biologists were now informing us that the goal was not altogether beyond our reach. There was a growing feeling that the use of glandular extracts was Worthy of a longer trial, as there were on record several cases of old age having thus been postponed, and years of activity addod to the later decades of life. :