The Way We Age Now

There’s a wonderful article in the New Yorker, The Way We Age Now.

It discusses the different theories of aging: a genetic based process versus the wear and tear model, and, how medicine looks at them, and, the importance of geriatric specialists in helping older people preserve what they have:

Good medical care can influence which direction a person’s old age will take. Most of us in medicine, however, don’t know how to think about decline. We’re good at addressing specific, individual problems: colon cancer, high blood pressure, arthritic knees. Give us a disease, and we can do something about it. But give us an elderly woman with colon cancer, high blood pressure, arthritic knees, and various other ailments besides—an elderly woman at risk of losing the life she enjoys—and we are not sure what to do.

There are a couple of poignant personal stories, as well, it’s very much worth your time.

(via Life Two)