The Dangers of Ageism

A Book, Chocolates & a Favorite Saying

June 2024 will mark my ninth month in the retirement phase of life. Studies by gerontologists caution the adjustment to retirement as a potential trigger for physical and mental health issues. So far, so good, I’m embracing the opportunities life after work has to offer. Despite several tumultuous years of loss and grief preceding this time, I am optimistic for the future. This morning I finished reading a book, Why We Die, written by a molecular biologist who is the winner of the Noble Prize in Chemistry. Despite his lofty background, the book is easy to read and incredibly interesting.

My biggest takeaway from the book is taking care of your mind and body while you are younger is helpful for longevity. Risky lifestyle behaviors, contracting illness, or unlucky genetics, also impact our lifespan and how we age. Auntie Judy, a spry 80-year-old, says, “Only the living get old.” I love her sentiment. Reaching an older age and having relatively good health and a clear mind to enjoy life is a blessing.

The oldest person studied in Why We Die was a French woman who died in 1997. She was 122 years old, smoked most of her adulthood except the final five years of her life, and ate two pounds of chocolate a week. There are always outliers!

Photo by Kyaw Tun on Unsplash

For this reason, the concept of ageism baffles me. Most people strive to live a long healthy life, they want to watch their children grow into adulthood. In American advertising, elderly people are rarely portrayed positively. Did advertising executives miss the memo that Boomers (age 60-78 years old) hold 51.8% of the wealth in the U.S.? Millennials (aged 30-44 years old) own about 9.3% of the U.S. wealth according to Statista.

Youthful advertising/marketing employees are filling health clubs, registering for marathons, and doing everything they can to stay well and live long---yet their end goal will make them the target of ageist messages they perpetuated.

Ageism is more serious than thoughtless advertising. Ageism refers to the stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination towards oneself and others based on age according to the University of North Carolina’s Center for Aging and Health. Dr. Jan Busby-Whitehead is the Director of Geriatrics at the Center.

Her example illustrates the danger. “If, for instance, a family member has a negative stereotype about aging and doesn’t take their elderly loved one to get medical help,” Dr. Busby-Whitehead says, “If they just say, ‘oh, everyone this age has memory loss, everyone this age can’t walk or everyone this age has bladder leakage,’ then the older person may not get the appropriate help they need.  A treatable cause of memory loss is a low Vitamin B12 level, and this can be improved by taking the vitamin either as an injection or as a pill.

A problem with walking might be improved with physical therapy. Many causes of bladder leaking are treatable.  So, a clinician must evaluate any symptoms that affect the older person’s function.”

Advertising’s constant drumbeat of messaging combined with family members harboring negative stereotypes about aging can lead to more than delayed medical intervention. “Ageism is probably the most under-recognized unconscious bias,” said Sonja Rosen, MD, chief of Geriatrics at Cedars-Sinai. “It can contribute to cognitive decline, more hospital stays, disability, worse health and quality of life, and depression. Over the long term, these attitudes shorten lives.”

Not everyone is going to age like celebrities Martha Stewart (83 in August); Hallie Berry (58 in August); Dick Van Dyke (99 in December); Gladys Knight (my birthday twin, turns 80 in a few days), or Stevie Wonder (who turned 71 on May 13^th). All we can do is try our best to cope with the changes that come with getting older and remember Auntie Judy’s saying, “Only the living get old.”

Me? I’m going to buy a couple of pounds of chocolate!