Aging is a result of the deterioration or breakdown of the normal function of the body. This being the case, Healthy Aging focuses on keeping all your parts working as well as possible for as long as possible. As simple as this may sound, the "diseases of aging" get more attention than "staying healthy throughout life".
Here is a prime example of a common attitude toward aging, as describe in "Your Inner Pharmacy".....
"Typically, when someone experiences a painful joint, the first response might be, “Well, I guess I’m getting older.” If the joint pain continues and expands to other joints, the common response is, “I must have arthritis; therefore, I need a medication.” The questions then become, “Which medication should I take?” and “Who is going to pay for it?” This is the typical old “treat the disease” approach that many of us attempt to apply to chronic disease because it worked so well for acute and infectious diseases.
We are all subject to those attitudes. Yet in creating and implementing your health plan, not only do you disconnect yourself from some of the old attitudes about disease, but you help to reinforce new attitudes about health. Let’s take that same joint pain and ask a different set of questions from a perspective of health. The first questions to ask are, “Is something malfunctioning in my body? If so, what is it and what can be done to correct it?” The next questions are, “What is triggering my problem? Is it something I am doing or possibly something I am not doing?” Another question is, “Who can help me to answer these questions, to improve the function of my body, and to guide me to do whatever it takes to correct the problem?”
Can you see the difference? Still, every day, children and adults who watch television receive thousands of messages programming them to think a certain way about their need for one medication after another. In the future, each time you are exposed to advertising for medications, simply change your response. Instead of immediately thinking, “Do I need that medication?” ask yourself if there is a way you may be able to get your Inner Pharmacy to produce more of the good chemicals and less of the bad chemicals in order to help your body regulate the symptoms in question."