Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash
Advances in medicine and new discoveries in the medical field have helped us live longer, healthier lives. According to the World Health Organization, while life expectancy varies from country to country, on the whole, it has risen by five years across the world since 2000. The number of years of good health that we can expect is now much more than it ever has been, leading many to enjoy more years of productivity and thus retire later. However, while the way we age has changed, the way we measure aging has not.
Society still measures aging in terms of chronological age – this is defined by the number of years that have passed since one’s birth. However, this measure does not tell us much else besides how much time has gone by. The problem with this is that we reduce people to a mere number and define them by this, leading to unnecessary generalisations about our more mature citizens and causing many to deny them a wealth of opportunities based on their chronological age.
This ageism also runs through into our own lives and affects the way we think about ourselves and what we are capable of. We may underestimate ourselves based on society’s measure of age and because of this, achieve less than we are actually capable of with our low expectations. We may fail to sufficiently plan for our golden years and, as a result, deny ourselves many valuable opportunities because we fail to recognise our longer futures.
Instead of using such an outdated measure as chronological ageing, why not measure ourselves in terms of biological aging? Our biological clock is a much more useful predictor of our capabilities and limits. Additionally, when we pay more attention to our biological clocks, we are far more likely to take better care of ourselves and make better lifestyle and nutritional choices that will help us stay healthier for longer – rather than accepting health conditions as simply a result of chronological aging.
It’s high time society changes its preconceptions of aging and adopts a much more accurate measure, revealing the wide variation in how our mind and body responds to the passage of time.
Do you agree? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so please do share your opinion in the comments below.