3-Line Diary 3/12: The 'Healthy Elderly' Who Make Up Only 5 Out of 100
I will be 80 years old in four more years.
Suppose,
out of 100 men aged 80,
how many
are living in good health?
Those who live without visiting a doctor, without taking medication, and in a state that is essentially 'unscathed',
are about 5 out of 100.
In other words,
they are the winners of 'healthy life expectancy'.
This is not a strict statistic.
However, based on my own experience,
it probably isn't far off.
5 out of 100.
If it were the class I was in when I attended an all-boys school,
there would be at most one or two.
That is quite few.
However, when I was young,
or rather, until I was in my 60s,
I thought I would be among those '5'.
I'm still fine.
I'm healthier than others.
I'm not the type to decline.
I think that is less about arrogance,
and more about the natural optimism of human beings.
Everyone lives
thinking they are on the 'side of the 5'.
But as 80 approaches,
many people
end up facing the reality of their bodies.
In my case,
I take medication for hyperlipidemia,
I have discomfort in my lower back,
and I wake up many times in the middle of the night due to frequent urination.
I also have occasional urinary leakage.
At that moment, I suddenly realize.
'Huh?
This isn't the future I imagined.'
What is shocking
is not that my body has changed.
It is because the unconscious standard of
'I am on the side of the 5' collapses.
What if, from the beginning,
you knew that people who are unscathed at 80
are in the minority?
What if you knew that people living with something
are actually the norm?
You would realize that you,
who go to the hospital and take medication,
are not particularly weak.
That is
not a failure, but the standard.
In fact, it might be proof
that you are living a normal human life.
If you think of health as a score of 100,
your sense of health will keep being deducted.
But
if you reset your standards to match reality,
the scenery changes.
At 76,
I can still walk on my own two feet today.
My food tastes good.
My lower back feels a little lighter than yesterday.
That alone is enough.
I don't want to be swayed
by the concept of 'healthy life expectancy'.
I will let go of the illusion of being on the 'side of the 5'.
And then,
I will accept myself as part of the majority.
Only then,
will aging no longer be a deduction.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
By the way, this is the same for every generation.
At your age,
people with 'healthy life expectancy' are,
How many out of 100 people is it?
If you search for it, you will find out right away.
