Going for Healthy Aging? Or Looking Younger?
On a recent trail hike in the woods, Gail and I came across a tree that had just recently fallen. The leaves were still green, but the entire trunk, roots and all, were flat on the ground. No other nearby trees had any sign of damage. How could that be? It’s likely that there was some disease or weakness deep in the tree, in the inner trunk or roots, so that the beautiful tree fell in some storm that left the others undisturbed. In his book, Healthy Aging , Andrew Weil, MD, laments that in much of what passes for “anti-aging medicine” today is an emphasis on the appearance of youth. Plastic surgery, Botox, skin peels, muscle building supplements are big business. Dr. Weil goes on to fill the book with actionable ideas for healthy aging and the “compression of morbidity.” What is that? Compression of morbidity is the concept of staying healthy and active until a short time before death in old age, rather than the gradual decline over decades that is m...