Old, but Not Retiring -WP

[Rose Siding]

The Miuras are among the fast-growing ranks of super-seniors -- Japan's extraordinarily fit old folks. In a country where the average life span has extended to 81.9 years, Japan's elderly are not only the longest-lived but statistically the healthiest seniors in the world. The typical Japanese now enjoys at least 75 years of relative good health, according to the World Health Organization. That exceeds by nearly six years the average for Americans -- who rank 23rd -- and by three years the average for the French, whose seniors are warming the benches in seventh place.
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Studies indicate a multitude of reasons for the health of older people, with most citing a traditional diet heavy on fish and light on red meat, as well as the consumption of high-fiber rice. A national survey in 2000 showed that almost 63.6 percent of seniors don't overeat, 49.6 percent exercise regularly and 64.2 percent sleep well.

Older Japanese additionally have lived through the hardships of World War II and its aftermath -- and, in some cases, through the difficulties of World War I and the 1904-05 Japanese-Russian war. Those periods, geriatrics experts say, toughened older Japanese -- and they stayed tough even as Japan evolved into the world's second-richest nation after the United States.
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.....In 2002, the United States, with a population of 283 million, had roughly 50,000 centenarians, but only about 13 percent of them were living independently. In contrast, in Japan, a nation of 128 million, there are 23,000 centenarians, with about 35 percent of them living independently, according to government statistics and research studies in both Japan and the United States....
The Health Ministry is working with the Miuras to develop a nationwide health program in which the elderly would receive subsidized gym memberships as well as training at senior centers......

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A555-2004Oct26_2.html

[shelley806]

1. Very interesting article

Thank you for posting. I was surprised the first time I looked up the US rank in World Health Statistics--another media lie by omission. Categories I thought we would rank very high in, were poor. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with no national medical plan, awful insurance, and an overreliance on the pharmacy industry that is pushed to the public, with side effects that frequently are worse than the "illness."

[Rose Siding]

2. I've seen that data, too.

Every time I see reports on new medical research, I feel almost resentful. The cures and the medicines will only benefit the wealthy.

I loved the part about Japan wanting to subsidize health clubs. How forward thinking!

[Carolab]

3. Yes, Eastern societies actually VALUE their elders

here, they just want to strip us "geezers" of our hard-earned pensions and any health care plan and throw us into the streets. Take a lesson, youth of America!!! Show some respect. A lot of us are pretty damned well-educated and useful. I wouldn't throw us away. We can be pretty useful, too, working politically, you know.

[aquart]

4. I would like to mention that we NUKED these people.

I feel a sudden desperate craving for sushi.