Medicine: Adding Life to Years

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Plan Ahead. The one common denominator that sociologists, psychiatrists, gerontologists and geriatricians see in all the actively productive oldsters of this or any other time in history is a keen continuing interest in some activity, which carries with it a revitalizing sense of participation in life. This may be, Sloan fashion, a continuation of earlier activity, but with a switch from administration to policy, or a new career in public service. It may be that a former avocation can be turned into a vocation. But "make-work" hobbies will not do. The oldster, like the human being of any age, must feel that what he is doing is useful, needed and appreciated. If his former hobby can be thus adapted, so much the better; e.g., an amateur part-time birdwatcher might make a contribution to science as a semiretired professional ornithologist.

But the aging citizen must plan ahead. He must stop feeling guilty over the fact that oldsters are alleged to complain too much about their illnesses. (Geriatricians argue that the aged, because they are less responsive to pain, are apt to complain too little, so that dangerous conditions go undetected until they are irreparable.) He must take advantage of the limited but growing knowledge that geriatrics has amassed. Dr. Zeman likes to quote Sir James Crichton-Browne (who lived to be 97): "There is no short cut to longevity. To achieve it is the work of a lifetime."