Florence Henderson, aka Carol Brady of The Brady Bunch, passed away due to heart failure – as reported locally on my local radio station. She was 82 years of age.
Decades ago, I thought 82 was pretty old. Today, I am 70 years old – only twelve years younger than Florence Henderson. Am I old? Probably in some peoples’ minds, but not mine. Old age is relative. Some people are old in their 50’s. Some are still young into their 90’s.
My next door neighbor passed away while my wife and I were in Spain. He was in his mid-90’s. I talked to his son a couple of days ago. His father had some kind of cancer years ago. It came back. Couple that with pneumonia and he did not survive. Yet, I would see him often coming back from the gym. He was very active (mentally and physically). He enjoyed life well into his 90’s.
My parents traveled a lot through their early to mid-70’s. It wasn’t until their early 80’s that they started slowing down. My father battled cancer and had several cardiac issues. He lasted a few years from his surgery for cancer and died at the age of 84. My mother survived several more years (almost making 90), but had some serious health problems off and on.
What does this have to do with you (and me)? We appear to have great health early in our lives. Then some problems hit off and on and we survive them. Then, to me, it appears (in many cases) that in our older years we can’t quite rebound back to normal from some health malady. Our immune systems aren’t helping us any more.
Is this really the effects of old age? Partly, because our human growth hormone levels are continually decreasing. However, we can counter this easily – keeping our human growth hormone levels high. This counters many age-related diseases.
We can’t wait till we are in our 80’s to begin fighting the inevitable effects of old age. Take action today.
