The Riverside Press-Enterprise
5 more terms that reframe age
Last week, we identified five relatively new age-related words and terms and described their meaning. Here are the remaining five:
HEALTH SPAN >> We typically talk about aging in terms of life expectancy, which is the average period of time a person expects to live. Equally, or even more important, is how well we live. That takes us to health span, which is the number of years a person lives without chronic and debilitating disease. The problem is we have a gap between life expectancy and health span. The average life expectancy in 2022 was 77.5 years, but the health span was 66.1 years. That leaves an average difference of about 11 years of possibly living with a chronic disease or disability in later life. Most folks want to live a long life if they are functioning well both mentally and physically. The good news is that we know about healthful habits and lifestyles that can increase health span.
CENTENARIAN >> The numbers are increasing. In 2021, there were just under 90,000 centenarians in the U.S. — people 100 or older — representing .03% of the population or 3 out of 10,000 folks. According to the Pew Research Center, that number is predicted to more than quadruple in the next 30 years, from an estimated 101,000 this year to about 422,000 in 2054.
Genes may be responsible for 20% to 30% of this long life, according to Dr. Peter Attia, author of “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity” (2023, Harmony
Books). He writes that the older you get, the more genes matter. Having centenarian siblings is a good sign; the next best one is having long-lived parents, according to Attia. But genes aren’t everything. The “Blue Zones” project studied long-lived people worldwide and found centenarians predominantly consumed plant-based diets, were physically active, had a strong social network and a purpose in life, and more.
MIDDLESCENCE >> This is a period in life roughly between ages 45 and 65. It is considered a new life stage with beginnings and endings. Like adolescence, it can be a time of frustration, confusion and alienation but also a time of new directions and beginnings. The word has become more popular with the work of Ken Dychtwald, founder of Age Wave, and gerontologist and leadership coach Barbara Waxman. In a CBS interview, Waxman notes that middlescence is like a second adolescence with wisdom, a time to re-evaluate decisions.
Chip Conley, the founder of the Modern Elder Academy, thinks middlescence
might be the best time in our life. His recent book, “Learning to Love Midlife: 12 Reasons Why Life Gets Better With Age” (Little, Brown Spark, 2024), offers another way to think about living in our 40s, 50s and 60s. He finds it a time of perks; a time to feel empowered to celebrate this period of life.
ROMEO >> This term that may not be familiar to many. It stands for Retired Old Men Eating Out. It’s a club with about 100 chapters throughout the U.S. TV journalist and author Tom Brokaw mentioned it in his book “Generations.” These men may not miss their work, yet they miss the male companionship from their working years. So they get together to eat out, have fun and keep friends. There are no rules, causes or membership restrictions. They meet for breakfast, lunch or dinner once a week or once a month. Some have outside speakers; others just enjoy the good conversations and company. romeoclub.com
RENEWMENT >> This term is a combination of “retirement” and “renewal.” It’s a word and concept my cofounder Bernice Bratter and I made up to focus on career women and the period of time after their primary career. It was developed in 1999 because there were no retirement role models for career women who were successful and passionate about their work. Renewment is a forum and process that supports and inspires career women in their transition from work to retirement and beyond. (See Renewment.org.) For the past 20 years, small groups have been meeting in person. Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 100 women from across the country are meeting over Zoom in what we call virtual renewment roundtables. Once a month, a topic of interest is discussed. See “Project Renewment: The First Retirement Model for Career Women” (Scribner, 2013).
These terms are in response to our increased longevity, changing environments and individual aspirations. Furthermore, we are more aware about the subject of aging, with increased communications about research studies and reports in print or on the internet that focus on Hollywood, politics or just looking for the Fountain of Youth.
So, dear readers, live long and live well. And, of course, be kind always.