Mom at 85: A model for healthy living and independence
If staying active translates to longevity, my mother may live to be 130.
Going strong at 85, she continues to work two jobs — substitute teaching and selling real estate — while also keeping busy on the home front doing chores and taking care of her belovedbut-demanding pets (four cats, two dogs).
This time of the year, mom, a Buffalo, N.Y., resident, is transitioning from gardening and lawn work to clearing the driveway of snow. She gets some help from the nephews, but she tends to be independent. Maybe a bit too independent.
Steven Zarit, a professor of human development and family studies at Pennsylvania State University, described the need to maintain autonomy in an article, “What Aging Parents Want From Their Kids,” and published in The Atlantic in 2016.
“One of the scariest things to people as they age is that they don’t feel in control anymore,” Zarit told writer Claire Berman. “So if you tell your dad not to go out and shovel snow, you assume that he’ll listen. It’s the sensible thing. But his response will be to go out and shovel anyway ... It’s a way of holding on to a life that seems to be slipping back.”
Mom could probably make a case for snow-shoveling as an additional topic for a Denmark epidemiological study that analyzed the relationship of one’s participation in a sports activity with one’s life span. Danish researchers published their findings for the Copenhagen City Heart Study in Mayo Clinic Proceedings in September. They found that playing tennis improved the life expectancy of men and women by 9.7 years when compared to a “sedentary” participation group.
Other sports noted to correlate with longevity were badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years) and jogging (3.2 years).
Tennis anyone? Mom’s mobility is good, but, given that she has a problematic shoulder, she’d probably have to opt for a twohanded backhand.
Dad, who died at 87 from kidney disease two days before last Christmas, had been a big advocate of bicycling and soccer. He was still riding his bicycle daily in his mid-80s.
The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health focused on regular exercise as one general category in its research on life expectancy earlier this year. The Boston group concluded that five “low-risk lifestyle factors” — regular exercise, healthy diet, healthy body weight, moderate alcohol consumption and smoke-free living — can have a dramatically positive impact on life expectancy. They found that women adopting all five of the healthy lifestyles in adulthood lived an average of 14 years longer than those who did not. For men, the gain from adhering to the same five low-risk lifestyle factors was 12 years.
The Harvard report indicated that those having these lifestyle traits were also less likely to die from cancer or cardiovascular disease.
I believe researchers in both recent studies would give Mom a good prognosis. She is a nonsmoker who watches her weight and enjoys a glass of wine with dinner. She has no history of cancer, cardiovascular disease or kidney disease.
Hopefully, she will keep busy and remain healthy — but also be receptive to a short break. Family members have arranged for a pet sitter so she can make her annual winter trip to Florida.
While trying not to be pushy or overprotective, we will ensure that Mom is provided the same kind of care she provides her finicky pets.