Re: Centenarian breakfast: seaweed and eggs

[Guest guest]

Hi folks:

Worth noting that if the data in that article are correct the

percentage of the population over age 100 in the US is EXACTLY the

same as the percentage in Japan. (But three times as many are able

to take care of themselves in Japan).

Rodney.

> Here's the story:

>

> Old, but Not Retiring

>

> By Faiola

>

> TOKYO -- As dawn breaks over the world's largest metropolis,

Keizo Miura,

> a sinewy centenarian, is already dressed in his charcoal gray

tracksuit and

> pumped to sweat.

>

> Before a hearty breakfast of seaweed and eggs, Miura races

through his

> indoor exercises, wincing as his neck -- still tender from a

collarbone

> injury -- momentarily reminds him that he was born in 1904. The man

who has

> become a role model in graying Japan sucks it up, shaking off the

pain the

> way he did last year when he skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at age

99. In a

> Tokyo minute, he is out the front door for his daily two-mile power

walk.

>

> " I still feel good, " said Miura, who in 1981 became the oldest

man to

> scale Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest peak, and is training for

an

> expedition to the Italian Alps next year. " There's really nothing

so amazing

> about me . . . but my son, now he is amazing. "

>

> That would be Yuichiro Miura, 72, who in May 2003 became the

oldest man to

> reach the summit of Mount Everest after a two-month assault on the

world's

> highest peak.

>

> 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.

>

> Inside Yuichiro's bustling office in hip Harajuku, a Tokyo

neighborhood

> packed with spiky-haired, nose-pierced teenagers, the robust and

bright-eyed

> climber said he and his father are not alone in this nation's

astoundingly

> healthy class of senior citizens.

>

> " Older Japanese are remarkably healthy, doing things at their age

that most

> youngsters couldn't do, " said Yuichiro, who looks as if he could do

arm

> curls with a neighborhood punk in each hand. " People over 65 here

are

> climbing mountains, going to China to plant trees, traveling abroad

to teach

> Japanese. It's about diet, it's about exercise. . . . It's about

making the

> most out of a long life. "

>

> The extraordinary number of robust seniors means that many are

able to

> embrace their twilight years with a gusto and sense of adventure

once

> reserved for the prime of life.

>

> This year, a group of 11 Japanese retirees -- with an average age

of 63

> and a team leader clocking in at 78 -- walked across China's

Taklimakan

> Desert along the ancient Silk Road. For 73 days, they trekked about

750

> miles in the steps of the 19th-century Swedish adventurer Sven

Hedin,

> braving evening frosts with temperatures reaching 15 degrees below

zero.

>

> This month, Minoru Saito, 70, set sail in hopes of becoming the

oldest man

> to circumnavigate the world alone without stopping at a single

port. In May

> 2002, Tamae Watanabe became the oldest woman to reach the top of

Mount

> Everest at age 63. As of December 2003, two Japanese in their

seventies, 22

> in their sixties and 44 in their fifties had climbed 8,000-meter-

class

> (26,000-foot) Himalayan mountains, according to the Japan Himalayan

> Association.

>

> A popular TV commercial features Minoru Nozoe, 68, a farmer, doing

> gymnastic twirls on the high bar. Almost half a million seniors

gathered

> last month in Gunma prefecture for a sort of elderly Olympics where

they

> competed in martial arts such as kendo as well as soccer, swimming

and the

> marathon.

>

> The Japan International ation Agency, an organization

similar to the

> Peace Corps, has seen a sharp increase in the number of seniors

volunteering

> overseas in the past decade. Japanese retirees are now helping to

develop

> new sewage systems in Bolivia and modern farming techniques in

Cambodia.

>

> With one in five citizens older than 65, spending by seniors --

who on

> average have far more savings than most of their peers in the

developed

> world -- drives rising consumer demand as Japan emerges from a 13-

year

> economic slump.

>

> Without doubt, not all elderly Japanese are healthy, and their

longevity

> is both a blessing and a curse. Along with the nation's low

birthrate,

> covering medical and pension costs for seniors is widely viewed as

the most

> significant long-term problem confronting Japan. By 2017, an

estimated 27

> percent of the population will be older than 65, rising to 35.7

percent by

> 2050, according to the National Institute of Population and Social

Security

> Research.

>

> But government projections indicate that relatively robust

seniors may at

> least help blunt some of those costs. Despite the high cost of

living, for

> instance, medical costs per person for Japanese older than 65 are

still

> slightly less than those for their American counterparts -- about

$6,500 per

> person in Japan compared with $7,055 in the United States,

according to

> government statistics.

>

> " Japanese seniors are not only living longer but their health is

generally

> excellent, and as a group, they appear to be getting healthier, "

said Koichi

> Ando, assistant director of elderly affairs at the Health

Ministry. " They

> are doing more and more exercise, while younger Japanese are

spending more

> time sitting and scanning the Internet. "

>

> 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.

>

> In rural areas, the elderly tend fields and gardens for hours a

day. Urban

> seniors, meanwhile, live active lives in cities such as Tokyo,

where getting

> from place to place is often easier without a car. Despite Japan's

high-tech

> society, most subway stations do not have escalators -- meaning

substantial

> walking and stair-climbing, whether people like it or not.

>

> " As opposed to America, seniors in Japan do not have to purposely

go out

> and seek exercise -- everyday life makes them more slim and

healthy, " even

> while they maintain very high nutrition, said Makoto Suzuki, a

professor of

> human welfare at Okinawa International University. " It's a winning

> combination. "

>

> That combination holds true even for the very old. 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.

>

> A government-backed national health system also makes low-cost,

> high-quality medical care available to every citizen. But society is

> grappling with how to continue to pay the price as society ages.

>

> Since 1973, citizens older than 70 have received subsidized

medical care.

> But Japanese families, which traditionally care for their elderly

at home,

> are finding their own expenses increasingly high as their relatives

live

> longer.

>

> Japan's pension system, meanwhile, has reached its breaking point -

-

> hitting a record deficit of $7.7 billion last year. The shortfall

forced the

> government into a highly unpopular overhaul of the system this year

in which

> younger Japanese and their employers will be forced to gradually

increase

> the percentage of their salaries that goes into the system, from

13.58

> percent today to 18.30 percent by 2017. Some critics say even that

overhaul

> may not be enough to avert a fiscal crisis.

>

> " Japan's birthrate is very low -- and it begs the question of

whether

> there will be enough actively working young people over time to

cover the

> costs of the expanding aging population, " said Yasuhiko Yamazaki, a

pension

> expert at the Kanagawa University of Human Services. " The issue of

how to

> support our long-lived elderly is going to remain Japan's most

vexing

> problem. "

>

> 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. " We hope to make older

Japanese

> stronger so they can live independently, caring for themselves in

order to

> relieve the pressure on the nation, " Ando said.

>

> Keizo Miura, a longtime forest ranger, had not spent a single

night in a

> hospital until this year. After climbing hundreds of mountains and

skiing

> thousands of slopes, he slipped and fell in July while training. He

cared

> for himself, living independently, even after his wife died in 1993

at age

> 80. Now, however, one of Miura's daughters has moved in to help him

> temporarily.

>

> Even with his still-healing collarbone, Miura is strict about his

exercise

> ritual -- now the subject of two books in Japan. He begins lightly,

with

> " jaw stretches " -- opening and closing his mouth like a fish

gasping for

> breath. " It's to keep my skin in good condition, " said Miura, who

uses a

> hearing aid. " And to have fewer wrinkles. "

>

> Neither Miura nor his son, Yuichiro, describes himself as a

health freak.

> Rather, Yuichiro said, it is more about a desire to " live life with

> passion. "

>

> For father and son, that passion is mountain climbing and skiing,

these

> days funded mostly by corporate grants and Japanese media outlets.

While his

> father is planning on three weeks in Canada next month to prepare

for Alpine

> skiing next year, Yuichiro -- who has already climbed the tallest

peaks of

> the seven continents -- is busy opening a new low-oxygen training

center in

> Tokyo. He plans to train there for his next attempt at Everest, set

for

> 2008.

>

> " I'm not thinking about my age, because this isn't about age, " he

said.

> " You know what it's about? It's about wanting to get to the top. "

>

> Special correspondent Akiko Yamamoto contributed to this report.

[Guest guest]

To be fully functional and independent til a respectable age is where it's

at AFA I'm concerned. As I've said many times on this board, I'm aiming for

my mother's legacy: independent til the age of 97 1/2, dead at almost 98.

I'll be thrilled if I get there.

My mother had arthritis and HBP, neither of which prevented her from a full

healthy life til near the end. Let's see if I can avoid both.

To those who would say it's a slam dunk 'cause I've inherited good genes, I

would say, not necessarily. Father died relatively young (70) . Two

brothers died even younger (in their 60's).

on 10/27/2004 10:35 AM, Rodney at perspect1111@... wrote:

>

> Hi folks:

>

> Worth noting that if the data in that article are correct the

> percentage of the population over age 100 in the US is EXACTLY the

> same as the percentage in Japan. (But three times as many are able

> to take care of themselves in Japan).

>

> Rodney.