There is a saying that the most reliable old asset is health. This means that the cost of preventing diseases is less than the cost of treatment after the disease occurs.
As life expectancy increases, social interest in living "long and healthy" is increasing, but unfortunately, modern people's lifestyles make health life shorter. For example, the human body is basically designed to move a lot, but we use elevators, taxis, and private cars even for close distances.
Would you choose a life that is comfortable right now but painful in the long run, or a life that is uncomfortable right now but peaceful and less painful in the long run? A domestic geriatric specialist has published a book on "delay in aging," an essential concern facing modern people.
Chung Hee-won, a professor of senescence at Asan Medical Center in Seoul, recently published a book titled "You Can Age Slowly," which warns of "accelerating aging" and introduces in detail the four topics we need to prepare for happy aging right now.
The World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizes the importance of "internal competency," saying that elements of life must be managed in multiple ways in order to age healthy. Intrinsic competency is a concept that considers not only visible health indicators such as disease, blood pressure, and exercise time, but also invisible factors such as appropriate rest, mindfulness, life goals, and self-efficacy.
The American Geriatric Society and the American Hospital Association are emphasizing the 4M Health Act to manage this intrinsic competency. It is a health method that mainly manages mobility, mental health, medical issues, and what Matters, which are the four pillars of life.
Professor Chung, the author, introduces 4M health methods in a book based on studies revealed by scientists across academic boundaries such as medicine, science, sociology, psychology, economics, and humanities.
Part 1 "Your Life Determines the Speed of Aging - Understanding the Body of Complex Adaptors" introduces the correlation between blood sugar, dopamine, and default mode networks that vary depending on lifestyle habits and aging speed. The second part introduces the need for movement, the right exercise method, and posture about the "body that beats aging-the first pillar that slows down aging, mobility." In Part 3, "The Weapon to Turn the Clock Back, The Second Column to Slow the Speed of Mind-Aging, Mental Health," we talk about the effect of mindfulness on our bodies and the importance of healthy sleep. In particular, we look at the threats that increase the incidence of dementia. The fourth part deals with the theme of "The illusion that it is natural to be sick when you get older - the third pillar that slows down aging, health and disease," and the habit of causing accelerated aging such as wrong diets, drinking and smoking. The last five parts explain the psychological mechanism that does not move immediately to prevent aging and diseases that generations before old age or non-patients do not yet realize in the "technology of relieving old age-the fourth pillar that slows down aging, which is important to me."
Aging and disease do not occur in a moment, but are created by lifestyle habits, and the more you lean on a fluke, the more acute and chronic diseases occur, creating an opportunity for aging to progress rapidly. It has been scientifically proven that managing intrinsic capacity for decades can maintain a healthy body and mind for a long time, and I would like to recommend this book because it seems to say the same thing.
Writer: Grace Jun
(Picture from Unsplash)
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