My young and old...
Gerontologist: old age can be postponed even without the elixir of youth
Alexander Natruskin, RIA NovostiParents can provide a person with long years of life and good health in old age even before he is born.
Vladimir Shabalin, director of the branch of the Russian National Research Medical University of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation "NCC of Gerontology", Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, told in an interview with RIA Novosti Lyudmila Beskorovaina on the eve of World Health Day about how to stay young longer, how many diseases Russians accumulate by the time they retire and how medical care is organized in Russia for the older generation.
– Vladimir Nikolaevich, you have repeatedly noted that you should not count on the creation of the elixir of youth, but you need to make a lot of effort yourself to increase life expectancy. Where to start and at what age?– The search for the elixir of youth or the gene of immortality is constantly being exaggerated in both scientific and popular literature.
However, it is quite clear that none of the proposals have yielded results. All the demonstrations are on mice and that's it. There is no reliable fact that this or that drug, or physical impact, I mean electromagnetic, led to the fact that a person provided himself with an increase in life expectancy.
It takes a lot of effort to do this. Even before a person is born, parents should take care that their child becomes a long-lived person. First of all, expectant mothers and fathers should not take toxic products at the time approaching conception and conception itself. During the intrauterine development of the child, the mother needs to monitor her health, because the body of a woman and a baby is a single system. Therefore, you should not take any extreme actions that can bring pleasure, but cause side effects.
It is also important to pay attention to the psychological structure between the parents and the psychological state of the mother herself, because everything that a woman experiences affects the development of the child. And parents should also instill in their children an understanding that they need to take care of their health.
– And in adult life, what rules should be followed to stay young and full of energy longer?– First of all, there must always be a load, both physical and intellectual.
Otherwise, a person will degrade. As an athlete trains, he develops muscle, bone and other systems, so the human brain must constantly have a load.
It is necessary to engage in hardening, think about sleep hygiene, but most importantly – about the hygiene of the soul. After all, the brain is our main control system. And a lot depends on the condition in which we will keep it. Yes, we can't always manage our emotional sphere, but we need to learn this. If we respond to minor annoying elements with a violent surge of emotions, nothing good will come of it.
Another rule is healthy eating. But do not stick to exotic diets. What a person is initially used to, that complex of products should be applied. But as we age, it is necessary to control the ratio between animal and vegetable food, to make a shift in favor of the second.
– A whole branch of medicine – gerontology - deals with biological, psychological and social aspects of aging. What is its main task?– Gerontology is the result of everything that happens to us.
And all medicine actually works for gerontology. The tasks of gerontology are to ensure the maximum life expectancy of a person with its high quality. The tasks of medicine in general are exactly the same.
All the technologies currently offered by scientific medicine and the pharmaceutical industry are able to provide a decent quality of life to people in old age.
If we talk about aging itself, it should be divided into physiological and pathological. For the first one, we must create all the conditions for it to flow in this physiological channel. For the second – to build all possible obstacles. And we have certain achievements in the fight against various types of pathological abnormalities.
– How many diseases on average accumulate in a person by the age of 60, by the time of retirement?– It is believed that on average, by the age of 60-70, a person has five to seven chronic diseases, which are periodically layered with acute diseases.
First of all, of course, these are diseases of the cardiovascular, nervous, musculoskeletal systems. Therefore, in youth, it is worth paying attention to the prevention of these ailments.
One of the clearest examples may be osteoporosis in women. If they had paid attention to bone density at a young age, increased bone mass, of course, the number of cases of osteoporosis in old age could have been reduced.
– How is the system of providing gerontological care to the population organized in Russia?– About six or seven years ago, a full-time unit "geriatric doctor" appeared in our healthcare.
Unfortunately, so far this position is entering medical institutions very slowly. Even in Moscow, not all polyclinics have such specialists. We have only one student department that trains geriatricians – at Samara Medical University. Gerontologists are also taught at the faculties of advanced medical training, but only therapists and general practitioners are allowed there. But we also lack specialized geriatric specialists: ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists, endocrinologists and others. In Europe and the USA, the emphasis in the training of geriatricians is on narrow specialists.
If we compare gerontology with the pediatric service, then the latter has a clear differentiation, a systematic approach. There is the chief pediatrician of Russia, narrow children's specialists: pediatricians-cardiologists, pediatricians-endocrinologists, pediatricians-neurologists and so on. But the older generation is approaching the number of indicators of the child population. But there is no chief gerontologist in Russia, there is no systematic approach to the organization of the gerontological service. There are elements, multiple elements, both in the medical service and in the social service, which provide for the elderly at the proper level, they work, but separately, there is no coordination of actions.
– Do Russians know that they can bring a grandmother or grandfather to a geriatrician, as a child to a pediatrician?– I think people are well informed.
The problem is different. Where, for example, will they take their grandmother if there is no geriatrician in the polyclinic? It remains only to go to a specialized institution, and a specialized institution cannot provide for all the needs of the elderly population. It is necessary to change the attitude to the gerontological service, and build it according to the principles of pediatric.
– Experts note that the world's population is aging rapidly. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the working-age population of the country will decrease by 12% by 2030. The question of increasing the retirement age constantly arises. How do you think it is possible to increase the working age so that a person has the strength to work longer if he wants? – The problem of demographic burden is more far-fetched.
During the 20th century, the average life expectancy doubled. It's exceptional, it's literally an explosion. At the beginning of the last century, the average life expectancy was 35-40 years, at the end – 70 years. But nature takes care of us, it has not just extended the period of life chronologically, it has made sure that our biological age is also pulled up to chronological boundaries, which are constantly expanding.
Back in the 16th and 17th centuries, a man of 40 was already a very old man, and now, according to WHO, the boundaries of young age reach 45 years. All biological capabilities of older age groups have also increased. Now the vast majority of people aged 60-70 do not consider themselves to be elderly, they consider themselves socially and economically active representatives of society.
As for retirement, I think it should not correlate with age. The pension should be related to work experience: a person has worked for 40 years and has gone on a well-deserved rest, if he so wishes. For the disabled, of course, separate social conditions are necessary.
When a woman is 55 years old, and they write in her work or pension book that an old–age pension has been appointed, this is a psychological blow. It is necessary to approach the issue of pensions creatively in order to solve financial problems and not offend the population.
I am sure that there can be no demographic pressures. People of older age groups themselves strive to continue working, especially in the intellectual sphere. For example, 40% of pensioners now work in Moscow. In general, the concepts of "retirement age", "disabled age" should be removed from our everyday life, because there is no working age. There is only an able-bodied or disabled person. These concepts need to be operated on.
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06.04.2012