ladies and gentlemen we are on a roll and today we're going to talk about how
you can develop your own individual longevity plan transform your ideas
about aging with a house call from public radio host and family physicians
or by Pastor whether you're 20 or 30 whether you're 50 or 60 small changes
that you make today can make a profound difference tomorrow with medical advice
and common sense humor and insight dr. paster will show you how to live a long
sweet life next funded in part by the million dollar roundtable foundation the
million-dollar roundtable is an independent association of international
life insurance and financial professionals this program was made
possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you thank you
dr. Zorba paster is a medical school professor public radio show host author
and family physician who has been in practice for more than 20 years I love
seeing patients I love having what i call that golden moment that chance to
help someone change their life it's a very powerful experience he balances his
professional responsibilities with his family friends and time spent in nature
an avid gardener and chef he combines these passions as often as possible in
his own longevity plan you know the key to longevity is not just diet and
exercise its attitude hopefulness is the elixir of life now join dr. Zorba paster
as he transforms you're thinking about aging and shows you the path to a long
sweet life
thanks for coming longevity you know longevity is a buzzword it's really the
buzz word of the day you can hardly open up a magazine or a newspaper you can
hardly listen to public radio or watch Public Broadcasting without seeing
something about longevity and why is that well as a society because we're
getting older I know the fashion magazines tell you that you're getting
younger but you're not going in that direction you're going in the other
direction but I have good news we have gained more longevity in the last
century than we did in the previous 2500 years a baby born today on the average
will live 27 years longer than a baby born in nineteen hundred that's an
amazing difference whether you're 20 or 30 whether you're 50 or 60 small changes
that you make today can make a profound difference tomorrow that's why I'm
always shocked when I go around the country coast to coast and I talked
about this before I get up and speak people say to me I don't want to be that
old that alt you know analyze that statement and what you'll find is a
stereotype a prejudice an idea that when you become old you'll become feeble
you'll become frail you will become disabled and dependent and in fact that
is not the case if you look at medicare statistics and they've been keeping
great statistics for the last 25 years there has been a one to two percent
annual drop in disability every single year among the elderly people 65 years
of age and older there are fewer disabled people today than there were
when Ronald Reagan was president and when you look at nursing home beds well
if you think you're going to end up in a nursing home bed think again there are
fewer nursing home beds today than there were 25 years ago ladies and gentlemen
we are on a roll and today we're going to talk about how you can develop your
own individual longevity plan how you can live what I call the long sweet life
which vibrant which is energetic which is
robust but first we have to talk about what old age is you know old age is 25
years older than you are today right not when you were 10 what was old 25 you
remember that you remember that my daughter vanessa is teaching camp and
when she's 17 and the kids there want to know if she's double digits I said
believe me I'm double digits when you're 25 it's 50 when you're 50 it's 75 and
when you're 75 it's 100 and I have to share a story with you i was talking at
a senior citizen place a couple of days ago and this little old guy came up to
me wonderful little olga came up to me just spry as you can be and he said to
me dr. paster how old do you think I am I have learned never to answer that
question I said 60 he said no I'm 102 I said wow you don't look a day over 80
which he really didn't he said pardon me what his old age to you and he looked up
and he smiled and he said a hundred and three
and then he winked and he said to me and my life is great but you know life isn't
always great for all of us I mean sometimes the road can be bumpy and when
I went to medical school back in the 70s my road was bumpy too so picture this
i'm in chicago at the university of illinois i have to go to cook county
hospital in a dangerous neighborhood every day it's november i woke up in the
dark I went to sleep in the dark I did not have enough money for my tuition or
my books I didn't have enough money for my rent and I didn't have a girlfriend I
was depressed I really I was depressed and I was debating whether or not to
drop out of medical school so I borrowed $25 to take the Greyhound bus to go to
San Francisco that's how much it cost 25 bucks round trip on the ground bus I can
see that plenty of many of you remember that fifty dollars was unlimited travel
anyway went to San Francisco and I sat zazen at the zen center of san francisco
now for those of you unfamiliar with sitting zazen what you do is you sit you
sit calming your breath facing a wall to clear your thoughts and come to your
true essence that's what you do and I would do that generally at the Zen
Center at about five thirty in the morning and they called you by banging
on a drum now on that drum was a Zen Cohen a Zen Cohen is a riddle it's a
riddle made to make you think that's what it is and they would bang three
times and it's set in that drum attention great is the problem of life
and death time passes swiftly by and opportunity is lost each of us should
strive to awaken awaken take heed do not squander your life and I realized that
for me giving up medical school at that point would really be a squander I mean
it was hard work to get into Medical School and I wanted to really continue
with it but that's when I had my epiphanies my first epiphany was I
realized that I was going to be a doctor every day as I do in my office
physician one on one with the patient and what I call that golden moment that
chance that I have to change someone's behavior very powerful and very
rewarding but that's when I really also realized that I had a more public self
that's when I began writing about health and wellness that's when I began
lecturing about health and wellness and frankly that's what I'm doing right here
today but my other epiphany was even more powerful I realized what I was
unhappy with with Western medicine Western medicine has something I call
the technological imperative the technological imperative is if you can
measure it it must be true and if you can't measure it it must not have as
much meaning