The faces of the wisdom years
With love and celebration, four authors on the range of experiences in the wisdom years.
There are so many great writers with so much terrific info on Substack. Here’s a taste of four posts that explore and celebrate the faces of the wisdom years.
From Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA of The Habit Healers, The Wisdom Years: 7 Habits That Make Aging a Superpower. I get so tired of all the energy and time aimed at preventing, hiding, or denying aging. There’s a lot to be said about enjoying a time in our lives when we can finally be who we want to be, not what so many others have wanted us to be. So I love her “wisdom years,” even if her suggestions weren’t also magical, upbeat and science-backed.
From Mary Braun Bates, MD of Doctoring Unpacked, the story of what it looks like when the wisdom years are wavering: Discovering Dementia at the Eleventh Hour. Whether you’re dealing with aging parents, or worried about someone you love, here’s what early dementia can look like—including the signals you may be seeing that the person you love is denying, and how to work with care providers to take it one step at a time when ‘no rush’ may be more important than ever before.
And then, dementia itself. On Women Untamed, there is no topic that gets more views than posts on memory loss or dementia. Everyone worries about it. So I love What If You Had a Fabulous Day? Does it matter if you can’t remember it? from the team at Crow’s Feet: Life as we age. This is quite a team and quite a site, by the way; we’re adding it to our recommendations.
And then, good news from another Crow’s Feet author, a post on why Rumors of Your Dementia Risk Have Been Greatly Exaggerated. Yes, there will be more numbers of cases of dementia, largely because the huge Boomer demographic blip is aging, despite our best attempts to repel it. And aging is the highest risk factor for dementia. But the rate of dementia has actually been falling. 23% of those born in 1905 contracted dementia—part of why it’s so feared—but the rate has been falling since, to 8% for those born in the ‘40s. And if we make it to our 90s, it’s even less than that. Dementia isn’t as inevitable as headlines have led us all to believe, so take a deep breath and another look at that first post from Dr. Marbas. [In case you hit a paywall to the Duke University research referenced in the NYT in this post, here’s a free link to Dementia may not always be threat it is now; here’s why.]