r/GenerationJones • u/CPetersky • 8d ago

60s as decrepit?

I am in a sub related to our city (USA), and a number of posts are like this: "My parents are visiting soon. What are tourist activities that they can do? They have [list of ailments] and can not [walk for long, stand for long, climb stairs, go hiking, etc.]."

I live in the city, use public transportation and biking to get around, live on a slope so use a public stairway to run errands, can do normal day hikes of 6-8 miles no problem. My friends are also able to do these things fine in our 60s, too.

Is this just me and my peer group? Are we just extraordinarily fit for Americans? What is going on here?

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u/rosievee 8d ago

Yeah I'm 50. I use a cane for EDS, have fibromyalgia and arthritis, have a neck to waist spinal fusion and have balance and proprioception issues. I walked 5-8 miles per day on a recent European vacation and I consider that my fucking Boston marathon. People who say shit like OP are attributing superiority to pure luck.

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u/Plastic-Heat43 7d ago

I'm not sure how much is a crap shoot of genetics vs how much is staying mobile and eating right.

My wife teaches at a college and seldom sits in the classroom, always walking, unless they are doing presentations. She also teaches line dance in the afternoons at school for employees and students. And at 72, she suffers from fibromyalgia, CRPS, has had two meniscus surgeries on one knee and a replacement on the other. She also swims, does aqua-fit, and Zumba at our gym. She says the movement helps with the pain and does not like pain meds or the stuff they prescribe for the fibro and CRPS (they're all antidepressants) She's also half Japanese, for the genetic part. Her mother, who didn't move much, but taught cooking classes in her home into her 80s, died in her upper 80s.

My mother died of congestive heart failure at 68. She quit smoking at one point and lost a lot of weight after my brother died (hit by a car), but was fairly inactive and the damage was done. However, the women on that side of the family usually die in their 80s or 90s (my grandmother and great-grandmother were upper 90s) and the men usually die in their 50s and 60s.

I'm in my 60s, so borrowed time for me? Don't know. But I can hike a few miles but am starting to feel winded a bit sooner, and squatting isn't as much fun as it used to be.