In the '100-Year Life' Era, Body Maintenance is Essential!

#20251204-601

December 4, 2025 (Thursday)
For several years now, I have been hearing and seeing the phrase "100-year life era" quite often.

At the time, I was in my late 40s and thought, "If life is 100 years, isn't 50 still just the halfway point?"
As someone who still has so many things I want to do, my heart leaped at the thought that I had finally reached the turning point.

Age milestones are easy to grasp as turning points.
I passed 20 and 30 smoothly. There wasn't any major change in my physical strength or energy; yesterday became today and then tomorrow, just one of many waypoints. The changes in skin condition or body shape that people often talk about didn't happen; if anything, I felt comfortable.
I braced myself for 40, thinking it would be different, but that passed without incident as well.
Now, the next one coming up is 50.
Of course, the moment I hit my 50th birthday, nothing changed with a 'ping'.
However, now at 53, I am gradually feeling the difference.

What comes to mind are two events.

• My father's death

• Menopause

My father's death: The deadline for 'life' has become closer

I lost my father in the early winter of my 52nd year.
Both my parents were in good health, and coming from a long-lived family, I thought they would continue to live energetically for a while longer. The doctor told my father he had one month left to live, but he fought for two months before passing away.
My mother is sound in both mind and body, but since she has always been bad with administrative tasks, I ended up handling the procedures after my father's death.
Even for me, this was my first experience with the death of someone close. I didn't know left from right.
Still, I managed to get through it by reading relevant books and searching on the internet.

The one-and-a-half-hour trip each way, a three-hour round trip, felt close yet far. Honestly, commuting to my parents' house while squeezing in time between my elementary school daughter's school drop-offs and pick-ups was exhausting.
However, through my father's death and the subsequent procedures, I felt various things, thought about them, and learned.

My father organized his affairs as soon as he knew his life expectancy, but things still popped up after his death. Even for my father, who was unfamiliar with the internet and had no digital assets, this was the case.
If something were to happen to me now, I didn't think my husband, who is juggling work and our daughter, would be able to handle the procedures without delay.
For the sake of the family left behind, I keenly felt that an ending note summarizing the necessary procedures is essential. Especially with recurring subscriptions, it's terrible that payments keep being deducted from the bank account even though the person using them is no longer in this world.

And so, I started paying attention to the elderly.
Even if life lasts until 100, it doesn't mean you will be mentally and physically healthy until 100.
It doesn't mean you can go where you want to go on your own when you want to go.
It doesn't mean you can do what you want to do when you want to do it.

Looking around, it seems that as long as there are no major illnesses or injuries, one can move around domestically and internationally on their own until about 75. After 80, international travel becomes difficult.
My 78-year-old mother takes the train and goes out by herself, but her walking pace has become quite slow. She can't keep up with my normal walking speed. That means it takes time to get anywhere.
I thought 50 was the halfway point, but perhaps I should think that the period during which I can do what I want is not 50 years, but only about another 25 years. And that's assuming nothing happens.
Not in a pessimistic sense, but the time I have left has become visible with a sense of reality.

Menopause: Carpal tunnel syndrome, which might be an effect of it

I was told by my doctor that I had reached menopause at 53.
Since my first period, I had suffered for a long time from various symptoms, including severe menstrual pain. There was the option of stopping my period with pills, but I couldn't bring myself to do it because I wanted to have children.
I finally started taking medication to stop my period when I turned 50. The three years or so from then until menopause were extremely comfortable.
Menopause arrived, and the medication was stopped.

Whether it's because of menopause or not, I don't know the connection, but right now I am troubled by numbness in my fingers.
For quite a while, I had experienced numbness in my fingers upon waking up. Since I have a history of fractures in both wrists, I thought perhaps the nerves were being compressed.
That got worse around last month. I don't know if it's because I stopped taking the gynecological medication, because I reached menopause, because it's getting colder, or if it would have happened anyway.
When I visited an orthopedic surgeon, I was diagnosed with "carpal tunnel syndrome".
I was prescribed vitamins and told that if it worsens to the point where daily life becomes inconvenient, I will need surgery. I was told to avoid using my hands as much as possible, but honestly, I can't live without using them.

May the vessel last a long time: Body maintenance is required more than ever

My state of mind, my way of thinking—my perspective is still narrow, but in my life, "now" is the widest it has ever been— mentally I am in good shape, but the vessel, my body, is not doing so well.
Even though I call it a vessel, it's not like in science fiction where you can detach it.
The mind (head) and body are connected.
They influence each other.
Having passed 50, I find myself wanting to take better care of this vessel and maintain it more meticulously from now on.