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An article published in the Washington Post, and elsewhere I presume, on September 12, just a few days ago, suggested that seniors could be seriously at risk if they didn’t lower their Systolic blood pressure reading to below 120.  The Post quoted a definitive, but unpublished, study from the National Institute of Health no less.

Imagine how terrified I must have suddenly become because my own Systolic blood pressure reading hovers around 140 (with pills).  I wasn’t.  But seriously, imagine how terrified many older adults must have become when they read the article in that pillar of fine reporting, The Washington Post.  After all, if it’s in the Washington Post, it must be true, even if it’s an unpublished study they’re  quoting.  I’ve been told that many, if not most, doctors discount  readings in the lower 140 range for older adults.  Now it appears to be dangerous.

Well, it turns out that a few people didn’t agree, and sent off some sharply worded letters, two of which, to the Washington Post’s credit, they published.  Both of the published letters were from practicing physicians.

One of the letters, written by a primary care physician from suburban Maryland, said that “many studies of the elderly have shown just the opposite: Aggressive blood-pressure control leads to more disease and disability.”  I quote further from the letter:  “. . . it would be irresponsible and dangerous to state that it [the study] proved anything.  Only with careful inspection, and by comparing this study with others that have reached opposite conclusions, can we start to arrive at the truth.”

The other letter from a physician in Vermont (which demonstrates that people outside of DC actually read the Post) says that: “. . . recent studies have indicated that allowing mildly elevated blood pressure levels is safer for some patients, especially the frail elderly.”  The letter writer goes on to say:  “The bottom line is that medical knowledge is not written in stone and is often debatable — which argues strongly against the enforced use of treatment protocols and standards that Medicare and other insurance companies are mandating to demonstrate meeting what they call quality targets.”

The point is that when a story such as this is published on the front page of a National newspaper like the Washington Post, we tend to believe it, and get upset when it conflicts with what our own doctors are telling us.  We should know better.

We should also be aware that no matter how great they sound, the results of one “study”, no matter how credible the author, should rarely, if ever, be relied on as true.  The next month, a new “definitive” study will come along which totally refutes the findings of the first.

How many statistical studies by reputable authors do we take as gospel?  How many statistical studies do we rely on when we know how easy it is to manipulate them?

My mother once told me that 87.46% of statistics used in Government studies are made up.  She should know.  She was a Senior Supervisor in the Statistics Division of a Government Agency (The Bureau of Mines, now part of the Department of the Interior).  I asked her how she arrived at that number.  She said she made it up.  But she also said that while the raw statistics she worked with were mostly accurate as far as they went, the conclusions published in the Agency’s studies and reports bore little resemblance to the raw data.  I would suspect that is still the case.

Enough said.  Thank you for reading.

I had drafted an article for today about the greatest fears that we, as older adults, experience.  I realized I had posted a similar article nearly a year ago so I thought I would re-visit that article today.  Here is a substantially edited and reordered version of that article.

What are the greatest fears, concerns and wants of seniors as we age? Is it the fear of dying? I don’t think so. Here are the Top Four most common fears, other than financial fears, that most seniors seem to experience.

Number 4: Leaving Things Undone. Perhaps we do fear dying “with our song still in us”. Someone once said that you don’t die regretting the things you did, you die regretting the things you didn’t do. That’s probably true for many of us. All too often, we simply never get to the things we say we want to do. We promise ourselves that we will do this thing, or these things before we die, but time marches on and we never do them.

Perhaps that’s where the concept of The Bucket List comes from. A Bucket List is a list of things that a person wants to do before they die – things like traveling around the world, or jumping out of an airplane, or learning to paint. These are dreams that we may have had as a youth that we let pass us by as we aged; things that we just never got around to doing. These things can be large or small, sensible or non-sensible. It doesn’t matter. They are simply things that we always wanted to do or be, that we simply never took the time to make happen. Now we use age as an excuse for not doing those things that we want to do but don’t think we can. A bucket list can give purpose to our lives and living with a purpose is a characteristic of longevity.

Number 3: Fear of Falling. This is one of the major fears for all seniors. It is the fear of falling DOWN on a floor or a street, or even down a flight of stairs. The fear is of hurting yourself, breaking a hip or other bone, or of not being able to get back up to your feet. This is a legitimate challenge because as we age, our bones tend to get brittle and break more easily.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: One-third of Americans aged 65+ falls each year. Every 14 seconds, an older adult is treated in the emergency room for a fall; every 29 minutes, an older adult dies following a fall. Falls are the leading cause of fatal injury and the most common cause of nonfatal trauma-related hospital admissions among older adults. Falls result in more than 2.4 million injuries treated in emergency departments annually, including over 772,000 hospitalizations and more than 21,700 deaths. In 2012, the total cost of fall injuries was over $36 billion. The financial toll for older adult falls is expected to increase as the population ages and may reach $59.6 billion by 2020. That’s scary.

Let’s face it, if you “slip or trip”, which is the reason for most falls, gravity is going to take over and you are going to go – DOWN. Yes, down. That’s toward the floor or street. It will probably hurt, even if you catch yourself. If you go down all the way without somehow catching yourself, you are likely to seriously injure yourself, or at least break a bone. But there are ways to protect yourself. One answer, of course, is to build your leg and core strength, do balance exercises, learn some techniques to catch yourself before you get too far down, and if you can’t stop yourself on the way down, at least learn ways to protect yourself and minimize the damage when you hit.

Number 2. Long, Lingering Illness. Most seniors want to live right up until they die, and want to be able to do what they want to do until they die. But so many seniors are susceptible to chronic illnesses that incapacitate them and, like loss of mobility or functionality, increase reliance on others. No one wants this to happen. That’s scary, too.

The best way to avoid long, debilitating illness is to take care of yourself in the early stages of aging. It’s never too late to improve your physical condition. But it’s best when you start early, as you begin to move into “seniorhood”, rather than having to catch up later. We all understand the importance of exercise and eating for health and energy, but too many of us just won’t do it for one reason or another. Is inertia on of those reasons? Is it laziness, or is it just don’t realize how important it is to fend off illness.

Number 1 Fear that Most Older Adults Experience.  Loss of Mobility/Functionality, and Loss of Independence: Functionality and mobility go hand in hand. As you age, you still want to be able to do the things you want to do and go the places you want to go. Seniors, in general, dread the idea of loss of mobility. Functionality means being able to do the things we need to be able to do. Mobility means being able to move from point A to point B, whether it is getting across the room, or driving to the store for groceries. The result is a loss of independence. The idea of needing help to perform basic tasks is terrifying to most seniors. The loss of the use of a car, not being able to go to the store, let alone not being able to put the groceries away when you get home is an unnecessary tragedy. Dependence on someone else, particularly having to rely on your own kids, is terrifying.

Of course you could move into an assisted care facility where someone is there to look after you and your needs.  That’s never a pleasant choice.

Summary: We all have fears. We see others who bear the negative results of aging without taking care of themselves. There is a way to put off the aging process and even, in some cases, seem to reverse it. You can regain some of your mobility and functionality as well as stave off long, lingering, chronic illness. Is this true in every case? Of course not.

We have the ability to do something about it, and we can start now. It’s never too late. The evidence is there to support the ability to reverse, or at least stop the debilitating effects of aging. Take care of yourself as you get older and you should live a long, happy and healthy life.

You already know the solution. Go do it.

Thanks for reading.

You’ve heard of the SAT tests for college entrance for high schoolers.  Now there’s the SRT test for aging.  Yes, it’s for real.  Here’s the story.

The SRT Test has been all over the media recently.  It seems that if you can get down to the floor and then up again without using your hands or your knees, you are likely to live significantly longer than if you have to use your hands or knees.  If you can’t perform the test, you are likely to die sooner.  You have to cross your legs near the ankles, and sit straight down without using hands or knees, and then get up the same way.  I must confess that I tried it and am not able to do it — yet.

It seems  a Brazilian doctor did a six year “study” (if you are a long time reader of my blog, you know my attitude about “studies”) that demonstrated this clearly.  The results of the study were published in The European Journal of Preventive Cardiology in December, 2012, and have just recently have become a darling of the media.  I read about it recently in several publications and have seen numerous different publication dates for the study itself.

Subsequent studies and anecdotal evidence  show that most people over 50 could not pass the test.  Since the test was conducted with 2000 people age 51 to 80, I can only question the significance of the test at all.  To me, it’s just fine to use your hands and feet to get up and down.

I have a great deal of skepticism about the validity of the test.  There are too many variables that would be involved other than longevity issues of health and fitness.  But it seems to be one of those “published studies” that so many people are willing to accept without challenging, and that the media dwells on for so long.

What the study does demonstrate is that a lack of flexibility, leg strength and balance can be a “descriptor” of an out of shape and “at risk” person, young or old.  In fact, in the study’s own words: “Musculoskeletal fitness, as assessed by SRT, was a significant predictor of mortality in 51 – 80 year old subjects.”   I can get down on the floor without using my hands, but I do use my knees and hips.  I can get up from and down to one step on the stairs using the SRT method, but not all the way to the floor.  I would think a person with bad knees would not be able to do the test at all, and not to have to worry about dying before their time.

Can you pass the SRT test?  Give it a try.  But please be careful and hold on to the back of a chair or something stable at first.  The important point to be made from all this is that the ability to get down to and up from the floor is a critical life skill for older adults.  It’s certainly OK to use your hands and knees, but it is a skill that you need to learn and practice before you lose your leg strength.  Remember, loss of leg strength is one of the early symptoms of aging, and the ability even to get directly up and down from a chair without support is threatened, let alone getting up and down from the floor.

Here’s a link to a video about the test, complete with English subtitles, that shows the way the test is done:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCQ2WA2T2oA .  The comments to the YouTube video are telling.

Thank you for reading.