Does the Medicare Part B Premium Increase in 2016 Affect You?
A Sound Decision

A Prescription for "Happy Aging"

MusingsAging is what you make of it -- and maybe we can all take comfort in the fact that aging is an inevitability for everyone. In a thought-provoking blog post for the Brookings Institute, Robert Holzmann ponders the world's aging population. He says "Population aging is likely the most important socioeconomic change since the dawn of mankind, the importance of which equals that of climate change." He suggests that, with increasing life expectancy, "the best response is generally to lengthen individuals’ working lives (i.e., defer retirement)."

But working longer has its own challenges. Holzmann writes, "Three necessary ingredients for promoting longer working life are clear: individuals must be skilled, healthy, and motivated. The policies to achieve this, however, are not well understood or available. ...Population aging can only be successfully addressed with innovative pension, labor market, and other reforms that encourage and enable older people to stay healthy, skilled, and motivated."

As to the prescription for "happy aging," Holzmann says research "identifies four key areas for individual action:

  • Have a purpose in life that is on your mind when you rise and get ready for the day. E.g., a paid or unpaid job, a hobby, or another occupation that makes life worthwhile;
  • Exercise—it helps one to stay healthy, reduces stress, and is a natural fountain of lifelong youth. A healthy lifestyle strengthens the outcome;
  • Stay socially embedded through family, friends, or other forms of social interaction, as these established psychological mirrors are critical for individual wellbeing; 
  • Take care of the 'birds and bees,' a major part of one’s humanity throughout life."

Read Holzmann's entire post here.

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)