"Anti-aging" Author: Yu Guoliang
In the previous sections, we introduced how to resist aging and stay young by "keeping your mouth shut, your legs open, and getting a good night's sleep."
So, in the last section, let's look to the future and talk about how we can beat the time and enjoy a colorful, healthy and happy 100-year-old life when mankind is about to cross the 100-year-old mark.
At the age of 100 years, are you ready?
In the past, people have always said that "life is rare for 70 years", after all, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the average life expectancy of Chinese people was less than 40 years old, but the development of science and technology has changed all this. Looking at the global life expectancy, since 1840, the average life expectancy of human beings has increased at an average rate of about 3 months per year, and can be 2 to 3 years more every 10 years.
In China, in 2016, the average life expectancy of the people has exceeded 76 years old. According to the aforementioned longevity growth trend, the probability of a child born in 2007 living to the age of 100 is 50%; When the children of the "post-10s" and "post-20s" are concerned, they will have a greater probability of entering the ranks of centenarians.
Such a prolonged life expectancy will pose new challenges to life planning. Confucius once said: Thirty stands, forty is not confused, fifty knows the destiny of heaven, sixty ears are obedient, and seventy do what the heart wants. In his time, at the age of 50, he had already entered the stage of old age; But in the era of 100 years old, 50 years old will still be the age of the prime.
In the past, our lives were usually divided into three major periods: the first period was the first 20 years, from the time of landing to the graduation of college, most of the time spent in school; After graduation, he began to work for thirty or forty years, until he retired at the age of 60, and spent most of his time working; In the end, he retired and went home, teased his grandson, and spent his days of life, and basically spent his energy at home.
This is the standard configuration of people in the past: after studying for more than 20 years, the accumulated knowledge is almost enough for a lifetime; Working for thirty or forty years can save some family funds, which is enough to support the retirement life for more than ten years after retirement. But the advent of the era of longevity has changed this logic, and even if the retirement age is delayed, the days after that will be a long 30 years. So, how do we spend this era of longevity?
In this regard, two economists from the London Business School, Andrew Scott and Linda Gratton, pointed out in their book "A Hundred Years of Life" that the traditional three-stage life model will no longer adapt to the new social form, while the new stage is a multi-stage life model, in which each paragraph has its own theme, interspersed, and no longer has clear boundaries.
For example, someone starts working as a teenager after graduating from high school; When he was in his 30s, he found that he was lacking in knowledge, so he returned to school to study and changed his job track; When he was in his 50s, he took advantage of his career gap to travel, and when he returned, he started his own business, while using night school to continue his studies in the courses he was interested in.
Also, there are always a few major events in life, such as falling in love, getting married, having children, etc., and they will no longer have a "deadline" in the future. With the progress of science and technology, the longevity of the "freshness period" of youth, and the development of medical technology, it will become the norm of life to fall in love, get married, and have children in their 40s or even older.
Of course, this model of life will bring many new challenges, such as it requires people to have a stronger learning ability and a stronger sense of self-subversion. The pace of change is accelerating, requiring people to embrace new things, have the courage to give up everything they have, and capture new opportunities through continuous learning, disruption, and reconstruction. But it also brings us more openness and freedom, and gives us the opportunity to explore a more colorful life.
Make good use of the health management curve and beat the time happily
The 100-year-old age we mentioned just now mainly refers to the length of life that can be achieved, but it is not the only element of a happy life, and the quality of life, including health, is equally important. We often say that wealth, fame, knowledge, etc. are all zeros in life, and health is the first one.
With the advent of the era of longevity, health management will become more important. We want to live not only a long life, but also a high-quality, dignified life. Traditional Chinese medicine often says that "the best treatment is not the disease", for health management, prevention is more important than rejuvenation, so we should regard health management as a systematic project, perseverance, and unremitting preparation.
First of all, we need to learn to manage our own health curve and let the relevant data "do the talking". The health curve uses time change as the X-axis to measure data indicators, and blood pressure, blood sugar, heartbeat, weight, sleep quality, etc. as the Y-axis to observe, track, change, and intervene in our physical health.
Let's take an example from life where an analogy can be made. If there are children at home, some parents and friends will let the child lean against the wall in the living room, and draw his height every once in a while, and finally combine these data together, we can assess when the child starts to grow taller suddenly, and whether this growth is within a reasonable range. The same is true for the health curve, except that as we age, we record indicators related to aging and disease.
In addition to these data, Yu Guoliang also suggested that we do a genetic mapping test, focus on monitoring and early prevention of diseases with a high probability of occurrence. For example, the genetic test report showed that he had a high probability of diabetes, so he began to test his blood sugar level every six months since he was 44 years old, and later changed to every three months.
This indicator is called glycosylated hemoglobin and reflects the blood sugar control in the last 2-3 months. In general, a glycosylated hemoglobin level of 6.5% or more is considered to meet the diagnostic criteria for diabetes. Yu Guoliang has always controlled it quite well; It wasn't until after the age of 54 that the body's ability to metabolize sugar weakened as he grew older, and his index began to fluctuate.
Two tests in 2017 showed that Yu Guoliang's blood sugar level rose to 6.5, sounding the alarm for diabetes. After half a year of sugar-free diet, he managed to get his indicators back below the safety line. He breathed a sigh of relief and let himself eat a few more desserts, but he didn't expect the glycosylated hemoglobin index to soar to 6.7% in September 2018.
So Yu Guoliang started the hard sugar fasting diet again, and lowered the index to below 6.5% again, but this good result only lasted for half a year, and he didn't control his mouth, so the index soared again. This repetition made him realize the impact of aging on glucose metabolism, and he should control the intake of desserts more strictly.
The above experience shows that health management tests our self-discipline ability, and we must resolutely say "no" in the face of various temptations. In the whole year of 2020 and the first three quarters of 2021, Yu Guoliang's glycation index was well controlled, so he took it lightly again, and the next indicator value sounded the alarm for him again.
Yu Guoliang was very remorseful, but at the same time, he also sighed that fortunately, he had a health management curve and was able to detect and control his health in time. This is the essence of health management. We can't change the genetic defect we are born with, but we can make the disease less likely to occur or appear later by doing it later.
Yu Guoliang called this health management method a "race against time". In other words, if we assume that our innate genes will cause us to suffer from a certain disease in our old age, then through detection, prevention, and intervention at a young age, we can postpone the time of the disease by 20 years, that is, continue to live a happy life for 20 years, which is a victory.
Finally, we should remind that our body must resist aging, and our state of mind must also resist aging. The American writer Samuel Ullman once said: "Youth is not a year, but a state of mind", "Everyone has an antenna in their hearts, as long as you receive the signals of beauty, hope, joy, courage and strength from heaven and earth, you can live forever and be beautiful." ”
The key to being young is to feel happy. It's a long-term, heartfelt, and unstoppable feeling. When we feel happy, our body follows the command of our brain and works well with our organs. Even if some fatigue and damage occurs, our organism has the ability to repair and heal in a short period of time.
And the key to happiness is to keep a normal mind and have the courage to be yourself. Although in real life, we will be trapped by many worldly standards, but we should live positively according to our own hearts, instead of comparing ourselves with others, belittling and blaming ourselves.
Finally, happy people also know how to be grateful and be kinder to others. As the saying goes, "It's better to be happy alone than to be happy in all", and sharing can double the happiness. We should associate more with positive people, understand, treat and be grateful to others, make the world around us better through win-win cooperation, and make ourselves feel more happy.
Be the first person responsible for your health
Well, at this point, the co-reading of the book "Anti-Aging" is nearing the end. The author Yu Guoliang uses his own personal practice to tell us that it is possible to resist aging and even reverse growth. It relies on a set of systematic and scientific health management methods, including keeping your mouth shut, opening your legs, getting a good night's sleep, regular physical examinations, early intervention, and so on.
Although these questions seem to be a bit "cliché", the cliché is often the simplest and most effective common sense, and what we lack is often the perseverance to "do simple things repeatedly, and repeat things seriously".
Anti-aging does not rely on a panacea, but to eliminate the harm of various unhealthy factors and slow down the speed of aging. The key is whether we are willing to change and stick with it.
Yu Guoliang reminded us: "You are the first person responsible for your own health!" "Health affects not only the quality of life of the individual, but also the happiness of the family and the harmony of the society. Therefore, I hope that everyone can base themselves on the present, start small, and be the first responsible person for their own health.
The last thing we want to say is that youth is a youthful and high-spirited state of mind and body, as long as the antenna in our hearts to accept happiness is erected forever, as long as we take good care of our body, and constantly give it "lightening" and "energizing", we can beat the shackles of time, forever young, always on the road!