As we grow older, “we have to accept that Getting older is a win toosays clinical neurologist and writer Susan O’Sullivan, author of… The era of diagnosis Ariel, his latest book, explains how the medical obsession with labels is making us sick.
Regarding the advice he gives to the elderly in the face of inevitable aging, he answers clearly: “I know that my mind is aging and that my memory is no longer what it was, but I also know that I have more common sense and wisdom than ever before. We must appreciate the aging of the body, accept that imperfections will occur and appreciate everything we have achieved. Do the sensible things we all know – eat well, move, sleep – but enjoy life. “I would rather live to be eighty than to be 100 and take a million medications.”
O’Sullivan – who was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1966 – has spent more than three decades Listen to the secrets of the human brain and body. An MD from Trinity College Dublin and a specialist in neurology at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in London, she also worked at the Royal London Infirmary, where she treated hundreds of patients with neurological and psychosomatic conditions.
Author of reference books such as It’s all in your head (Wellcome Book Prize 2016), Convulsive brain and Sleeping beautiesO’Sullivan spoke to La Vanguardia as part of the launch of his latest publication.
“Since we underestimate the elderly, We resist the inevitable things of aging. Menopause is a natural stage of life, but it is talked about as if it is a disaster in the making for any woman. It is true that it may be a terrifying experience for some, but for others it is a positive experience, and for the vast majority of women it is a neutral experience.”
Sleep has also been considered pathologicalHe says. The truth is that “as we get older, we sleep less, but for some reason, popular culture, in the form of books and podcasts, has programmed many of us to believe that if we sleep less than seven hours, something terrible could happen to us.” And nothing happensAccording to her, “Sleep is important, but the best way to measure it is whether you feel alert during the day.” It’s that simple.
In the context of an aging society, he notes in the book, “It stands to reason that because of a loss of mental and physical agility, a person ends up going to a doctor in the hope that this professional can reverse the course of aging, and if that is not possible, Provide us with a medical label This will give us the ability to forgive the signs of aging that we already have.
“The expectation of always being healthy, of aging gracefully, of having a body and mind that responds to us, has not allowed people to prepare for the inevitable physical decline that affects us all,” he continues.
She added in an interview with La Vanguardia newspaper, “Women are constantly encouraged to maintain the expectation that if we live a certain way, We can maintain or extend our youth As much as possible. But that conversation overshadows another, more prosaic conversation: how the body and mind change as we age.
One result, according to the neurologist, is that this “makes us Not ready for changes That arrives. I’m now in my 50s, and as with most people my age, I’ve noticed that something that used to heal quickly now takes months. I almost always sleep regularly, and my memory is getting worse. If we talk about a movie or book, it is very difficult for me to remember the name of the author or director. I understand that these are all normal parts of aging, which begins at age thirty. “We value young people so much that we have unrealistic expectations about those changes.”
Is this a vision? Excessively negative About the inevitable physical changes of age? She responded, saying, “I don’t want to be negative, now I also have knowledge and wisdom. I have gained experience, I have become more moderate and more rational, and I have the amazing parts that come to us with age.”
“We have to accept that to the extent we can Confirm some aspects of aging with a healthy life“But the expectation of preserving youth beyond what is possible leads us to look for medical solutions, and this is not always positive.”
He concluded: “We must have Realistic conversation “On how the body changes to understand the difference between the changes we can expect and those that really require medical attention.” There’s a lot of common sense, in times of a lot of hasty diagnosis.
© Rosanna Carceller. Vanguard.
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