The Man From Okinawa (Investigating the world's Longest Lived People)

I like old people. This is what I spend the better part of my day working, when I not riding my bike or having fun.  I provide house calls with a team of (MD, NP, OT,PT,SW) to small group of unattached (cannot find a family doctor-or outlived them!) homebound elderly and their families who would otherwise go without. I don't think its sad, working with old people--seeing the humour in what old people have to say and think is great. They average age is about 80 yrs. to 103 yrs. (oldest old) some with lots of medical problems. They are the types of people whom disappear from the medical system (or is the other way around?) at a time when they need it the most and coast without little medical care.  The service is to catch people in the window of time so they don't fall to far behind and at this stage in life, their wishes to not become medicalized.  I don't like to tell people exactly what I do and its not because I don't want people to know, it is because our team is afraid of the endless and growing need !   

So, here some great video about how to live longer so I don't have to visit you at home when you grow old!      

The video above is part 1 of a study conducted in search for the secrets of long life.  They identified that a couple of communities have stumbled on the answer.  One of them is the remote island of Okinawa where people live longer than anywhere else on earth. They don't mention in this short video, but in the longer episodes they talk about Ikigai.  "Ikigai" (icky guy),  which means "why do you get up in the morning?".  Ikigai is a concept used to describe one's well being. The difference between well being and ikigai is more concerned with the future vs present/desire for the future allows one to feel ikigai. It is your highest level of individual desire and motivates you to the future (vs. present).  Despite it's importance among Japanese older people,  it is a complex process and its role in mental and physical conditions are difficult to measure.  We cannot measure ikigai-but I believe it directly impacts longevity.  It is considered a universal human experience. The lack of ikigai is related to increase mortality of older people.

What is your Ikigai?   ...cycling :)

Over the next couple of years Canada (Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging) will be conducting a very large study of 50,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 85 for at least 20 years. The study will collect information on the changing biological, medical, psychological, social, lifestyle and economic aspects of people's lives.  These factors will help us understand how both maintaining health and the development of disease impact people as they age.  It will be one of the biggest studies in the world to do so..... http://www.clsa-elcv.ca/