There was an interview in the paper with Nortin
Hadler who writes books on the overuse of medical treatments.
How to have a pleasing journey on the way to age
85—that isn't the title of his book, though it it made me wonder how often do
we think about our future and the life we want to live.
We have a lot of information about the efficacy
of medical treatments: what it makes sense to do and what it doesn’t.
Questions to ask your doctor: how certain are you
that this procedure or treatment or medicine will provide meaningful benefits?
What about possible harm? How many people are helped by this intervention? What
is the likelihood of the same outcome without treatment? What’s the anticipated
effectiveness of treatment given my age, frailty, and other illnesses I am
dealing with? To what extent will it prolong life? If it gives me an additional
year, how will I be feeling during that time? What will my quality of life be
like?
Doctors should help you to cope with discomfort
and minimize suffering. Surgery may not be the best way to accomplish this.
Do we want to call gray hair, wrinkles, and the
slowing down a disease or reframe as an essential time of life—generativity?
Many of the physical changes of aging are normal. For example, is puberty a
normal stage of life or is it a disease (some parents may claim it’s a mental illness,
but that’s another issue). Should we view aging in the same way?
Interesting that my autocorrect changed my
misspelling of aging to gaining? Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to think
about getting older.
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