Live Longer Better
  • Your journey
    • More About the Optimal Ageing Programme >
      • About Muir Gray
      • Muir Gray's publications
    • Coping with Lockdown
    • Using the right words right; ageing, fitness, disease and beliefs >
      • Bad language about older people
    • The Lockdown Wellbeing Programme >
      • The Daily Mail series
    • the Daily Dozen + 30 for 4S fitness
    • What is happening as we live longer >
      • Your monthly briefing
    • LLL for LLB
    • The environment is tough >
      • Retirement has benefits and risks >
        • Join the Challenge Hub
      • Some people got a better start than others
      • the impact of isolation is now recognised
      • The physical environment is the cause of many problems blamed on ageing
      • Poverty affects too many older people
    • the Living Longer Better Programme >
      • what would a good life in your late 80s be likel
      • What do you fear most and want to avoid
      • Start to write your Living Longer Better Plan
      • Think positive
    • How to reduce your risk of a bad death
    • My diary & daily routine
    • My health record
    • My housing
    • Othercare - Supporting someone else
    • About the OxAP >
      • Muir Gray's Bookshop >
        • The Antidote To Ageing
        • Midlife
        • Sod60!
        • Sod70!
        • Get Moving
        • Eatwell!
        • Dr Gray's Walking Cure
      • Here is the news
  • Get physically better
    • Increase strength, stamina, suppleness and skill >
      • Strength
      • Stamina
      • Skill
      • Suppleness
      • Work hard
      • Brisk walking >
        • Virtual Walking
        • Restart Sport >
          • Restart swimming
          • Restart tennis
          • Restart football
          • Restart cycling
          • Virtual Cycling
      • If you have difficulty walking briskly
      • Join a Gym or Wellness Hub >
        • Meet others for fitness >
          • Silver sneakers
          • Age UK Generation games
          • Join a Gym, Fitness Centre or Wellness Hub
          • Find a personal trainer
      • Find a Trainer
    • Reduce your risk of disease >
      • Eat Well
      • Stop smoking
      • Increase activity - physical, cognitive and emotional
      • Watch the alcohol
      • Accept the offers from the NHS screening programmes
      • We need a revolution
    • Look after your body >
      • Happy and Positive Birthday >
        • Sod 60!
        • Sod70!
        • Sod It! Eat Well
        • Sod Sittin, Get Moving!
      • Skin maintenance
      • Teeth and gum maintenance
      • Feet maintenance
      • Bone, joint and muscle maintenance
      • Bowel maintenance
      • Brain maintenance
      • Mind maintenance
      • Heart maintenance
      • Lung maintenance
      • Waterworks maintenance for men
      • Waterworks maintenance for women
      • See as clearly as possible
      • Keep your Hearing as acute as possible
    • If disease occurs - Optimise Your Healthcare >
      • Living with a common condition >
        • Arthritis
        • Cancer
        • COPD _ Bronchitis
        • Diabetes
        • Dementia
        • Heart disease
        • Parkinson's Disease
        • Stroke
      • Making a big decision >
        • Should i have a hip replacement ?
      • Consequences of common conditions >
        • Loss of status
        • Disability and handicap
        • Isolation
        • Depression
        • Frailty
      • Look out for social as well as drug prescribing >
        • Enjoy Activity Therapy
      • What you can do to help the NHS even more
  • Think better
    • Train your brain ; we now know the brain can get fitter at any age
    • Understanding Dementia & Alzheimer's Disease
    • Reduce your risk of dementia >
      • Stimulate your brain more every year >
        • Learning new skills and build on your assets
        • Get even more engaged
      • Protect your brain >
        • Sleep better
        • Get more active
        • Avoid over medication
        • Control stress levels
        • Air pollution and dementia
      • Keep the oxygen flowing
    • Combat depression
  • Feel better
    • Stay engaged and don't lose your sense of purpose
    • Feel even better by helping other people even more
    • Meet others like you
    • Optimise the Internet >
      • My Virtual Reality
    • Join others for a Daily Service
    • Feel better by visiting Great Places >
      • Visit the great Museums
      • Visit the great libraries
      • Visit a National Trust treasure
    • Feel better through music >
      • Join a concert party
      • Your virtual choir
      • Music for Moving
    • Feel better by reading, listening and watching with other people >
      • Kindling Book Club >
        • Crime
        • Classics
        • Health
      • Audible Book Club
      • Your BBC
      • Your Film Club
    • Feel better by learning new skills and ideas
    • Feel better by joining a club to play games and meet others >
      • Chess Club
      • Bingo club
      • Bridge Club
    • Feel better by supporting nature >
      • Visit the great gardens
    • Feeling Better by Going Down Memory Lane >
      • Sporting memories are powerful
  • Understand better
    • Ageing is a normal biological process
    • From 40 to 90 loss of fitness is serious
    • The effects of disease are often compounded by loss of fitness
    • Negative beliefs and attitudes have a huge impact
    • The importance of planning with purpose
    • The Ageing Brain and the Maturing Mind
    • Strength and Power can always be increased
    • Skill and co-ordination can be improved at any age
    • Stamina can be improved by brisk walking
    • Suppleness can always be improved and stiffness always reduced
    • Activity Therapy is of vital importance

Four processes are taking place as we live longer


WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME ?

Most people, including most clinicians have a muddled concept which they may refer to as ‘ageing’ or ‘growing older’, which they perceive as inevitable. terms they may use as synonyms. The core message of our work is to help people see there are four processes that take place as we live longer – ageing, loss of fitness, disease and beliefs and attitudes that need defining ,so too does  a condition newly defined by the medical profession – frailty 

 
  • Ageing a normal process , starting as the dominant theme from about 30 , but Bradley Wiggins set a new 1 hour record at 35! The effects of ageing are a loss of maximal ability eg pulse rate and a loss of reserve or resilience, that is ability to respond to challenges. The rate of ageing is influenced  by genetic and epigenetic factors but is not a cause of major problems till the age of 90
  • Disease an abnormal process, sometimes related to ageing but more often due to lifestyle and environmental problems 
  • Loss of fitness, resulting from inactivity and having an impact from the age of the first car or the first sedentary job which often occur together, usually in the early twenties the effects loss of fitness are a loss of maximal ability eg muscle strength and a loss of reserve or resilience, that is ability to respond to challenges. These are very similar to the effects of ageing which is one reason these two process are often confused.
  • Growing older, a social process, influenced by personal beliefs and social culture 

There are two other terms that describe not the normal process of ageing and growing older, often complicatedly disease and loss of fitness but abnormal conditions which many people, including many health professionals still assume to be normal. these are frailty and dementia 
  • Frailty,  a distinctive health state related to the ageing process in which multiple body systems gradually lose their inbuilt reserves.  It is also important to recognise prefrailty. If frailty is “the presence of three or more out of five indicators: weakness (reduced grip strength), slowness (gait speed), weight loss, low physical activity, and exhaustion.  People with one or two indicators are classified as pre-fail
  • Dementia, impairment of the functions of the mind sufficient to make independent life impossible, with the two most common causes being Alzheimers Disease and vascular dementia caused by impairment of blood supply of the brain 
We now know that frailty and vascular dementia can be prevented or delayed.
 
The four terms ageing, fitness, disease and growing older are inter-related in the following ways 

Inter –relationship of Ageing  with the three other factors
With FitnessThe ageing process reduces the capacity to be resilient in the face of challenges for example the challenge of inactivity  therefore fitness is more easily lost, but can be regained at any age. Also the effects of both ageing and loss of fitness are very similar – loss of maximal ability and loss of resilience or reserve 
With Disease -The ageing process increases the risk of some diseases but most diseases which cause premature mortality are preventable.
With Growing Older -The ageing process and the process of getting older are limited by the beliefs and assumptions of people of all ages, many of which are wrong. Ageing by itself causes relatively little problem till the age ninety

Inter –relationship of Loss of Fitness with the three other factors
 With Ageing -Fitness becomes more important as the ageing process takes places because the best possible performance becomes closer to some crucial levels below which independence is compromised and therefore the fitness gap needs to be minimised.
With Disease  - Fitness loss is accelerated when disease develops because of the direct effects of the disease and the indirect effects, for example from the belief that rest is best for older people with long term conditions.
With Growing Older -Fitness is often associated with youth.

Inter –relationship of Disease with the three other factors
With Ageing- Disease is sometimes the result of cellular changes due to ageing but at least as often is caused by lifestyle or environmental factors.
With Fitness- Disease often accelerates the loss of fitness and it is always important to prescribe physical activity as well as medication. Disease can cause disability and this may lead to handicap. The degree of disability is determined not only by the severity of the disease and the effectiveness of therapy but also by additional loss of fitness and although some loss of fitness is the direct result of the disease some comes from pessimistic beliefs and attitudes  Frailty is a condition resulting from multiple conditions, complicated by the effects of ageing, in which there is significant loss of resilience to a degree that makes minor deviations from the steady state such as an infection liable to cause sever deterioration
With Growing Older -The effects of disease may be incorrectly attributed to ageing as a result of ageism.
 
Inter –relationship of Growing Older with the three other factors
With Ageing -Beliefs about the effects of aging are over pessimistic and this leads to unduly negative attitudes towards, and of, older people.
With Disease- Beliefs about disease and ageing too often result in the assumption that disease is inevitable whereas many diseases can be prevented, postponed or managed effectively.
With Fitness- Wrong beliefs about the benefits of physical, mental and social activity lead to inactivity and preventable decline due to loss of fitness.
​

Inter-related actions 
Because the causes of decline are inter-related so too are the solutions 

To explain and promote these solutions is the mission of the Optimal Ageing Programme by
  • Understanding ageing
  • Getting fitter, physically , socially and mentally
  • Reducing the risk of disease and the side effects of disease
  • Being positive
Proudly powered by Weebly