Nobody wants to get old, but it's inevitable. It happens to everybody. If you're lucky. It's part of living. The day we were born the race is on. How we get there, and how we manage our health, physically AND mentally, is key.

 

Everyday is a challenge to dodge a blizzard of things that can get in our way and derail a normal healthy life. In terms of cardiac function, the toll of time is not as severe as the toll of inactivity. Hippocrates got it right about 2,400 years ago, explaining, "That which is used develops; that which is not wastes away."

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The proportion of older persons is increasing at a faster rate than any other age group, and the fastest growing group is that of persons 80 years old or over.

 

In the more developed regions, older persons already outnumber children under fifteen, and globally they will do so by 2045. As old-age mortality continues to decline and fertility remains low, the proportion of older persons continues to increase. 

--- United Nations Population Fund

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Social isolation is a growing epidemic, world-wide

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“We’re not meant to be lonely as a species,” said Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioral sciences at the London School of Economics. “If you were to think of the most significant interventions to improve life expectancy, after quitting smoking, it’s: Don’t be lonely.”

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More than half of U.S. adults (58%) are considered lonely.  Social isolation kills far more people in the West each year than terrorists and murderers, and it costs the public enormous sums in unnecessary health costs.

 

Admitting we’re lonely can feel as if we’re admitting we’ve failed in life’s most fundamental domains: belonging, love, attachment. It attacks our basic instincts to save face, and makes it hard to ask for help.

 

Social connection is a fundamental human need, as essential to survival as food, water, and shelter. Despite current advancements that now allow us to live without engaging with others (e.g., food delivery, automation, remote entertainment), our biological need to connect remains.  

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A variety of technologies have quickly and dramatically changed how we live, work, communicate, and socialize. These technologies include social media, smartphones, virtual reality, remote work, artificial intelligence, and assistive technologies, to name just a few. These technologies are pervasive in our lives.

 

The steps to tackle loneliness aren’t grand, high-tech or expensive. In fact, one of the strategies is simply to get people back into old-fashioned patterns like eating meals together, holding parties and volunteering to help one another out.

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Americans spend an average of six hours per day on digital media. One-in-three U.S. adults 18 and over report that they are online “almost constantly."

 

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation:

 

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community the percentage of teens ages 13 to 17 years who say they are online “almost constantly” has doubled since 2015.

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Social connection is a significant predictor of longevity and better physical, cognitive, and mental health, while social isolation and loneliness are significant predictors of premature death and poor health

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Growing ideological divisions in America are fueling skepticism and even animosity between groups across the political divide: sentiments of enmity and disapproval between Democrats and Republicans more than doubled between 1994 and 2014. It's time to switch off the bullshit and get on your bike!

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"Our 70 PLUS, EASY RIDER promotion, like golf, is as much about social interaction as it is about riding a bike."