Speaker: Benny Ko
The speaker will use information from his medical experience, his research, and his personal connections to 'super agers' to describe actions that improve the chances for living more actively for longer. The talk will also include recent research on longevity.
Benny Ko is a retired physician and member or the American Society of Radiology. He is a long-time Scientech Club member and is vice president of the Scientech Foundation.
Program: How to Live to 100 -- and Like It!
Speaker: Benny Ko, MD (retired radiologist and radiation oncologist), Scientech Club member and Scientech Foundation vice president
Introduced By: Marty Meisenheimer
Attendance: NESC: 98;Zoom: 27
Guest(s): Bob Becker, Raymond Malenki, Dean Pfeifer
Scribe: Terry Ihnat
Editor: Ed Nitka
Talk’s Zoom recording found at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/10272025.mp4
How to live to 100 … and live happily
Life expectancy in the U.S., overall, is 78.4 years with males 75.8, and females 80.1 years. In the past female life expectancy was much less due to the deaths in childbirth. Hereditary diseases such as Huntington’s chorea, caused by a genetic problem on one gene can affect longevity, as well as familial diseases that can involve multiple genes. If we have a hereditary disease at this point, we’re likely stuck with the problem. But with gene splicing, in the future there may be some hope. Longevity itself can be a familial tendency
Preventative measures we can take include getting a family doctor for annual checkups, baseline studies, bloodwork, and a range of things such as colonoscopy, chest x-rays -especially in smokers, pap tests, and mammograms. We should also keep a copy of our medical records and medications. These can be put on a thumb drive.
Next we should avoid high risk behavior. If we smoke, we should quit. If we drink, it should be responsibly; we should exercise, wear seat belts, eat healthy diets with low fat and plenty of fruits and vegetables and protein while avoiding pre prepared food, excess sugars and salt. We should maintain a healthy weight and use mobility devices such as canes, walkers or wheelchairs, if we need to, so we can socialize while protecting ourselves. We should be observant of our stools and urine, looking for blood, consistency, odor, appearance changes and alerting our doctors if something doesn’t look right. We should watch for limb swelling, watch for bruising and changes in sensation or skin eruptions. We should incorporate intimacy into our lives and nurture relationships. If you have no relationships, you should seek them out by being active in the community and getting involved in service projects.
Health access is important as is the quality of health access. We should know what medical resources are available. Environmental impacts on longevity can include our neighborhood’s local/regional pollution and crime levels.
We should love our brains and work to save our minds. 14 factors that contribute to dementia are smoking, excess alcohol, diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, depression, head trauma, obesity, air pollution, low education, lack of physical activities, losses in social contacts and friends, hearing and vision impairments.
Love your body and make it perform. Do exercises to maintain balance, flexibility, stamina, strength and agility, joint health and seek friends for mutual support in this process. Some helpful exercises as demonstrated by Dr. Ko were walking with the interval rhythm (i.e. speeding up to elevate the heart rate and start sweating and then slow down and repeat this over and over.), wall pushups, sitting leg lifts, sit to stand graduating to squats without the chair, and standing heel raises on two legs, graduating to one leg and bird dog hold progression as demonstrated by Dr. Ko. These things work for pets as well; keep them happy and in good nutrition while providing regular health care and daily exercise.
Some good news is that the prevalence of centenarians is increasing, and in the past 20 years numbers have doubled due to great medical progress. As for our physical health, we should accept it with grace and deal with it with courage and choose to live in peace and joy while avoiding anger, hate, resentment, bitterness, and retribution. These should all be shed while we recycle the kindness that we receive.
And finally, it is recommended to get a living will, to be done while we’re healthy and cognitively sound, to direct care at the end of life and lessen the burden on family at a difficult time.
A resource for physicians is mdedge.com with online knowledge and quizzes.
Questions regarding supplements and vitamins were asked. If one is on a regular diet and has no other reason to take them, they are not necessary but they can be used for specific problems.
Colorectal cancer screening should be started at age 45 for those with routine risk.
Anecdotally, there was mention that cataract surgery can improve distant vision.
Benny Ko
