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In this health video you will learn how aging baby boomers are affecting the health system. http://www.ihealthtube.com

Transcript

Raena Morgan: Hi, I’m Raena Morgan with iHealthTube and we’re going to be speaking with Lyle Hurd, the publisher and editor of totalhealth magazine. This is a widely, nationally distributed magazine with a wealth of information in it. And today we’re talking about the concerns over Baby Boomers and aging. Welcome Lyle. Lyle Hurd: Thank you. Raena Morgan: So this is cause for concern, is it not? Lyle Hurd: Well it is. Just recently a nationally syndicated story ran in the newspapers. It talked about the fact that right now there are something like 78 million Baby Boomers. With the perspective of the longer lifespan that we have in our country today, those Baby Boomers, by the time they get to the age where they’re going to need some sort of caregiver, which will be 15 or 20 years possibly, are going to be in the situation where there are not, literally, going to be caregivers available. Which means that these individuals will have to be taken care of in the home; there probably won’t be institutions for everyone. What we are talking about is understanding in life, as early as you can, certainly as an adult, that you must do what you can do, relative to “age management”. Not anti-aging, because you can’t do anything about that—“age management.” Raena Morgan: “Age management” is a concept that you’ve developed that you have a lot to tell us about. Lyle Hurd: Well “age management” is really something that begins early. Well, first of all, the most insidious disease and deadly disease that we have in our society is aging. We all are going to age. Age expectancy has gone up to 80 now. I think we said in one of our discussions before that if you eliminate all the disasters that take place with people that expectancy is probably 85, or a little bit over 85. The sooner that you understand that your basic health profile, which includes diet, nutritional supplementation, exercise, attitude, being involved with your community and people around you, the better. If you start, and take on, very seriously, all of those parts, particularly nutritional supplementation, as we must support all of our organ systems, then you have a lot of control over what’s going to happen. You won’t have to worry so much about being in a situation where you’re going to have to rely on other people and other dollars that may not be there, to help you survive. Raena Morgan: So what you’re saying is that we can start taking care of ourselves now at any point to circumvent what is looming ahead, with what do you say, 78 million Baby Boomers? Lyle Hurd: 78 million Baby Boomers and then there are all of us in the generation right prior to that. You know the statement that: “Today is the first day of the rest of your life” always is true. And we understand our antioxidants needs. If we understand what we need to do to maintain a heart that works well, which gets into, among other things, weight—I mean if you’re 30 lbs. overweight or 35 lbs overweight, every time you take a step you’re carrying an extra 35 pounds two, three or four miles. But primarily we need to know that you can’t count on your food for the nutrition that you need. The food we eat today is primarily processed, and it’s not all raw; it’s cooked and that’s okay, it tastes good. But most of it is pretty much devoid of the nutrition that we need. Raena Morgan: So our food is denatured. We’re not getting the nutrients that we need from our food supply. So you’re saying that one of the ways that we can really be proactive is to supplement? Lyle Hurd: It begins with a good multi. And it begins with a multi that may be oriented to women, or maybe oriented to men. It begins, and continues with a multi that may be specific to people who are seniors. And you know the other thing is that you can go into your drugstore, or grocery store and you can see a “One a Day” vitamin, because that’s what the brand name is, but a “One a Day” vitamin for $18.95 for a month’s supply. Now everything in our economy is normally six times more than whatever the basic ingredient is. So you’re looking at something for 30 days that would be about $3.00 dollars worth of ingredients. You really need to also then look at the source of the supplementation. And you need to understand just exactly who you are buying it from, and then you need to know how they interact with each other. There’s a lot of education that goes behind that. But definitely nutritional supplementation is an imperative. Raena Morgan: So you can get a lot of education from your magazine, totalhealth? Lyle Hurd: Yes, totalhealth. The internet is terrific. We work with a few organizations and we have about a thousand articles that are on our particular website. I know that Swanson Health website, which we work very closely with, refers their customers to that website. So you should find something, I would think, in the area that you’re interested in. but you can always Google. You have to make sure you understand the source though, ‘cause if it’s someone who’s trying to sell you something, that’s great if whatever it is efficacious. And it’s important that you can find a source that you can rely on, hopefully a source that has a wide range of products that you can draw from.Then you really need to be a book buyer and a reader because there are some wonderful books that have been put out on these ingredients and on programs. Raena Morgan: So you need to investigate. You need to educate, investigate, and be proactive. And in terms of being care takers, with all of these Boomers aging, and like you say, the other age group that’s ahead of them, won’t some people be chronologically older while some people are biologically younger? And….might one spouse…wind up being the caretaker for the other one? Lyle Hurd: That is a very significant problem for us, not only in fact, but morally, ethically, logistically, whatever it is. You know it’s interesting… two people are 50 years old, and they go to a seminar, and it’s a good seminar and they listen to what’s being said. And it says if you want to get involved in “age management.” It says you can do that; you can start today. And one of those people says, “That’s what I’m going to do.” And the other person, for one reason or another says, “I don’t really care to do that. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to take the time.” I’m not saying that that’s going to mean you’re going to be 20 years younger than your chronological age, but we’re running into a society today where there are a number of people where both people in the relationship are 60 years old, and they’ve been in a relationship 30 years, 40 years. And one of them….is biologically 10 years older than their chronological age, and one may be 10 years younger. That can be because that’s just nature, or it can be because of how they’ve handled themselves. But we really can end up in a situation where there are a great number of people that are caretakers for a partner for seven or eight years, while…that partner is dying for one reason or another from something that maybe they could have avoided. Then they have to restart their lives 10 years later at age 70, with the prospect of being around another 20 years, you know. We can’t rely on our children. It used to be, in my day, that people went back to their children’s home. Then again, because of the fact that we are in a reactive health care system, it’s pretty tough to rely on the health care system. For people that are healthy it’s pretty tough. I don’t know what kind of doctor you go to but I do know that most people either go to a doctor whose practice is owned by a hospital or its run by an HMO. And you have a fifteen minute appointment, and when you go to that appointment you’ll notice that there’s a whole waiting room full of people, half of whom are senior citizens who have a problem that came up today and that they have to see somebody about. So basically you need to learn to be co-captain of your own health care team. Raena Morgan: Co-captain of your own health care team. Lyle Hurd: That’s right. Raena Morgan: Well thank you Lyle for talking with us. We’ll have to meet again and discuss this concept of “age management” because I think it’s very, very important. Lyle Hurd: I’ll look forward to it. Raena Morgan: All right. Lyle Hurd: Thank you.