Fast Living: Slow Ageing

katem | November 16, 2009

I realised that I was unable to live life fully in that state, but didn’t have the wherewithal to change.

 

It was a fairly classic mid-life crisis. In my head I was just getting ready to grow up and start my life in earnest, when the door with the sign on it spelling ‘youth’ slammed shut behind me. 

 

I’d always assumed that by the time I hit 40 I’d be successfully navigating parenting, financially secure, healthy, at my peak; you know, "it doesn’t get any better than this” – that kind of thing!

 

In reality what I was confronted with was a bunch of health issues, including being overweight. I didn’t exercise and was suffering from stress and burnout. 

 

I wanted to find some answers. Back then I wanted to stop ageing completely, but as I went along I realised I’d have to actually grow to like it because it wasn’t going to go away.

 

The nail in the coffin at the time was that amongst all those boring health issues, I’d also lost my friend libido, so I set off to find her.

 

I went to see an endocrinologist to get a testosterone patch (I was always one for a quick fix back then). The doctor took one look at me and said “my husband is a psychiatrist”. As she was the second person that week to suggest seeing a shrink I thought, “I’d better do something about this, I obviously appear a little nutty”! 

 

So off I went to see the shrink and 5 minutes into the session joined the 14% or more women my age popping anti-depressants. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had a disastrous reaction which led me down the path to the development of a book.  

 

I had to go outside the traditional medical system find the health solutions that suited me as an individual. To cut a long story short, I started to get better but it was a very slow and confusing journey. 

 

There were no industry-recognised standards and no recognised ‘best practice’ around the field of anti-aging; there is still no such thing. There were lots of well-intentioned doctors and other health practitioners going to conferences and being educated by pathology and supplement companies, but I wasn’t convinced that the market was organised to deliver on the promise of slowing my ageing process. 

 

I realised that to age differently, I’d need guidance from a raft of people.

 

As a business consultant, I recognised  that we expend more effort on the planning process in our businesses than we do on our bodies and that the same strategic planning processes should work when applied to our health. Effectively I wanted to develop a strategic management plan for my body.

 

I wanted to know that when I ate certain foods or supplements, did certain exercise or brain interventions that they actually worked. I didn’t want to get 30 years down the track to then realise it had all been a waste of time.

 

Finally, I realised through my journey that the rules are changing rapidly so it is dangerous to be dogmatic. Sure we know we need a healthy diet, to exercise and to manage stress. But that’s just the start. 

 

As with most things, the devil is in the detail. What’s the right food for my genes? If I have a brain with some irregular brain patterns, then what’s the right kind of stress management for me?   

 

The more we get to know ourselves as individuals, the more we need to challenge the ‘one size fits all’ model. I wanted to create a set of guiding principles so that regardless of change, we would be able to safely navigate our choices as consumers. So the slow ageing philosophy was born.

 

Fast Living, Slow Ageing is a result of my journey. Over the past seven years I consulted with more than 50 doctors, scientists, health practitioners and consumers. 

 

The book covers most aspects of ageing, what happens, what we can realistically do about it and how we can measure our progress.

 

It provides strategies and options so we can successfully implement new health behaviours that focus on slowing ageing; behaviours that impact disease prevention, maintenance of structure and function and quality of life.

 

The key thing I learnt was that it is important to not let time run away from you and that you have to find a way to age where you savour your life to the full. It is all about conscious and conscientious living. 

 

We can age with vitality. 

 

I believe that attitude and conscious engagement in life as we age is the single most important thing whether applied to dealing with muscle loss, decline in brain function, weight management or a hearing loss.

 

Our attitudes really matter because they can lead to proactive health behaviours that can slow ageing.