The third age: why you need to fight ageism and how to achieve longevity

Vladimir Filippov, Department of Labor and Social Protection of Moscow: “It’s not so much you lived, but how much and how you lived
you will still live"

It is important not so much to restore health assave it. We are accustomed to resorting to the help of specialists when we feel unwell. But medications, surgical interventions are already emergency help. Experts say that medicine contributes 35% to life expectancy and our health. And somewhere 2/3 is genes, heredity and lifestyle. To live long, we must pay more attention to our way of life. At the beginning of the last decade, the average life expectancy in Moscow barely exceeded 70 years, and today it is already 78 years, and we expect that after 2030 the life expectancy will be about 86 years. Today, there are about 3 million pensioners in Moscow, and after 2030 their number will exceed 4 million. In a few decades, the elderly will become both a powerful electoral base and the main consumers of goods and services.

Vladimir Filippov- Deputy Head of the Labor Department andsocial protection of the population of the city of Moscow. Supervises the organization of work on the implementation of events for older people in order to improve their quality of life, active longevity and social adaptation in society.

Historically, in the XX century, there was a negativeperception of old age. But in the past few decades, we have ceased to be ashamed of age, we understand that these are just numbers, and it is important not how long you have lived, but how long and how you will still live.

There is probably not a single person who is notI knew that eating fried food at night is harmful, it is better to minimize alcohol, you need to walk at least 10 km a day, sleep for seven hours and it is better not to experience bad emotions. But if there is dirt on the track, there is no sports community, and friends are calling to the bar, then talking about a healthy lifestyle in practice is quite difficult. Therefore, the mayor of Moscow made a decision, first of all, to invest in infrastructure. We started with parks and pedestrian areas in the city so that we could walk 10 km a day in a pleasant environment.

The hardest part is changing consciousness. If a person has never gone to dance, singing, painting or learning foreign languages, then it is difficult for him to start. But advertising, the image in the media, word of mouth have their effect. Today, the overwhelming majority of participants in Moscow Longevity (a free leisure program for pensioners - Hi-Tech) even go to four activities a week.

We form healthy lifestyle habits. We agreed with the health department, and now each local therapist gives a brochure, the so-called recipe for longevity, with recommendations: what activities in the area you can start to attend right from that day for free. We also prepared a classifier of activity, which is indicated for certain chronic diseases, recommendations where you can go and what to do. This is how the project helps combat social exclusion.

Tatiana Drozdova, Young Old: “The question is not to impose any activity on people, but to expand the space of freedom for everyone in our society”

Traditionally, older age was perceived asperiod of decline. There are a lot of stereotypes about older people that go back to the 20th century: they are not in the context of modern culture, they do not know how to learn, and so on. This is called ageism, when older age is less valuable than younger and middle age. And such pressure on a person can really begin from the side of society already from 45-50 years. A person can spend another third or a quarter of his life feeling unwell. It is not normal. And in response, the trend of aging liberalization is developing in society. This is a release from the notion that only middle-aged and young people have value in our society, a refusal to hide their age, a search for a new identity of an older person.

Tatiana Drozdova— co-founder of the Young Old team, socialentrepreneur and activist in the fight against ageism and age stereotypes in Russia. Co-founder and content director of the Young Old Festival, an annual event for older city residents. Since 2015, he has been researching the lives of older people and developing education, services and environments for people of the third age.

This is a global trend. Older people appear in those areas where they did not exist before or were few. For example, in education, not as teachers, but as students. People study all their lives, improve their qualifications after 50-60 years. And they even go to other areas and find themselves in new, interesting areas. For example, older people appear in the world of fashion and gloss, which has traditionally been dominated by youth.

The question is not to impose anyimages, but in expanding the space for making decisions about yourself. Only freedom makes it possible to implement the strategies of a successful older age. By themselves, they are a set of banal life advice: as long as possible you need to professionally self-actualize, take care of your health, and so on. But a new identity is needed to follow these tips.

We in the Young Old team are trying, with oneparties, to fight ageism, create communities so that people seek and find support in each other. On the other hand, we try to do as many educational programs as possible that provide the principles of success at an older age. But again, I repeat, the question is not to impose on people some kind of activity that they absolutely do not want, but to expand the space of freedom for everyone in our society.

There are many projects that deal witheducation in the field of combating ageism. In addition to our annual festival "New Senior", which is dedicated to the strategy of success in older age, there are also portals "Baba Deda", "Active Age". Our team designed the educational part of Active Age. There are companies that develop intergenerational teams. For example, this is IKEA, from which you can learn how to treat older people in a team. And any organizations will have to restructure their activities so that people of age find a place in them.

There are many people in the world who have lived for more than 100 years. Some of them are still alive and quite healthy.

Famous long-livers of the world and Russia:

  • Zhanna Kalman(1875–1997), France. She lived 122 years, recognized as the longest living person on Earth, whose date of birth is documented.
  • Sarah Knauss(1880–1999), USA. She lived to be 119 years old and called the secret of longevity that she doesn’t worry about trifles.
  • Tanzilya Bisembeeva(1886–2019), Russia, Astrakhan region. She lived 123 years and never saw a doctor.
  • Kane Tanaka(b. 1903), Japan. In 2020, it celebrated its 117th anniversary. Lives in a retirement home in Fukuoka, writes poetry, solves problems in mathematics. The secret of longevity is family, healthy sleep and proper nutrition.
  • Ekaterina Anischuk(b. 1903), Russia, Novosibirsk region. At 116 years old, he feels well, does housework, and tells stories from his life. Claims that he lives a long time thanks to water from a holy spring.

Mick Cornett, Mayor of Oklahoma City (2004-2018): "I decided the whole city would start dieting."

I was the mayor of Oklahoma City. We have 650 thousand. people of the population, and most of them were obese. We have changed the infrastructure of the city. Previously, it was focused on cars, but I decided to create wellness centers, a space for running, cycling. After 10 years, the city has changed a lot. We have become one of the healthiest cities in America.

Mick Cornett— Mayor of Oklahoma City (2004–2018), OklahomaUSA. The first mayor in the city's history to be elected to a fourth term, and currently holds the record for longest serving mayor among the 50 largest cities in the United States. Organized a large-scale campaign to combat obesity among residents of Oklahoma City, while changing the entire infrastructure and cultural life of the city.

I was obese too, I weighed 218 pounds(98.8 kg - "Hi-tech"). And I decided that the whole city would start dieting. Losing weight was difficult. It's much easier to do this as a team, not alone. That's why we thought we needed to involve the whole city. We decided we needed to talk to the business community and develop weight loss programs for employees. Human resources departments were also involved to design prizes for people who were doing well. We decided to talk about a subject that is uncomfortable and awkward to discuss. I talked about my problems, how I struggled with weight, and for the first time obese people were able to talk to each other. We have seen that when such a complex problematic object comes to the surface, it becomes easier to deal with it.

We also created a number of features to helpto live an active lifestyle. When a person wants to lose weight, it is necessary not only to exercise, but also to change their eating habits. Oklahoma City has introduced a cultural program that has helped people change their lifestyles. In terms of the health statistics we tracked, they have improved a lot throughout the city over this time. The number of strokes and heart attacks has decreased, and we have achieved success in all aspects. People ride bicycles, run, do various sports. We see more and more people who take care of their health. We started talking about obesity so that people would not be afraid to discuss this problem in schools, in offices, and it really helped us change our identity. This, of course, did not happen overnight, but colossal successes have been achieved in 15 years.

"The main thing is to support your children, not friends, but the young, kindred generation"

Valentina Yasen, model of Oldushka agency, model of the year 2018 according to Glamor magazine

Elena Dmitrieva, project “Skiing Dreams. Silver age ":" We consider sports as a way of socialization "

Dream Ski is the focal point forsports rehabilitation. It was originally created for children with cerebral palsy, autism and other complex diagnoses. Two years ago, thanks to a grant from the Mayor of Moscow, we got the opportunity to go skiing and roller-skating with thirty Moscow pensioners for a whole year.

Elena Dmitrieva— Project Manager “Dream Skis.Silver age" ANO "TSSPA "Dream Skis" of Sergei Belogolovtsev." Over the two years of work, the project has become an integral part of the All-Russian Rehabilitation Program for People with Disabilities. As part of the project, people of retirement age received a unique opportunity to learn new sports, diversify their leisure time, and become volunteers at sporting events for children with disabilities. The program uses various sports activities (alpine skiing, roller skating, elements of team and team sports) for physical rehabilitation and prevention, without limiting participation by diagnoses, age, sports skills and physical development.

We called these people, we tried to beat themmistrust that mountain skiing classes in Moscow can be free. They said that we had individual classes with highly qualified instructors, each of whom was trained in a special course from the Lesgaft Institute - this is the oldest university in our country that deals with the problems of adaptive sports, including for the elderly. And now the year has passed in excellent cooperation. These were people from seven Moscow territorial centers. We defeated the long-held belief that adults 55+ cannot engage in highly coordinated sports and that it can be safe.

Classes were held on training slopes, workedhighly qualified instructors, no one put on a slide or pushed in the back. All our lessons are structured from simple to complex. We select equipment, communicate, warm up, learn to fall, squat, roll. Moreover, we started with alpine skiing, because it is believed that roller-sport is more difficult. We understood that all our participants are age groups, our youngest women were 57 years old, and the oldest male participant was 81 years old.

We do not aim for records, we considersport as a way of socialization: so that people understand that they can still do a lot, despite their age. These 30 people were engaged all year. Five lessons on alpine skiing, five lessons on roller skates in the roll hall or in the parks of Moscow, in the summer - collective sports. Nordic walking is great, but a little extreme makes the blood go faster.

Our project already covers five regions: Moscow, Moscow region, Udmurtia, Chelyabinsk region and Altai Territory.

Amazing Achievements of Third Age People:

  • On May 23, 2013, Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, at the age of 80, first conquered Everest. Earlier I tried to climb to its summit at 70 and 75 years old, but could not.
  • In 1999, the Norwegian Bjarne Melland at the age of 100 for the first time in his life jumped with a parachute from a height of 3,200 m.
  • Yuri Semenovich Taikov from Ivanov in 2006, at the age of 75, passed the exam in mathematics, and 10 years later he successfully wrote an essay.
  • Andora Quinby from Pennsylvania, USA, at the age of 78, started weightlifting. At 88 years old, she lifted a barbell weighing 45 kg.
  • Leontine Vallad from Geneva, Switzerland, became the winner of a beauty pageant at the age of 70.

David Agus, Institute for Transformative Medicine. Lawrence J. Ellison: "The key factor in longevity: 6% genetics, 94% lifestyle"

Older people need to keep the goodstate of the brain. If you are retiring, you must find another occupation to keep you comfortable. People should force themselves to do something, but stay healthy.

A key factor in longevity: 6% - genetics, 94% - lifestyle. No need to smoke tobacco. For muscles to work, you need to walk. You need to arrange your life so that it makes you move constantly. You are responsible for your life and health - no need to say that you will go to the doctor and he will help.

David Agus— founder of the Institute of Transformative Medicinethem. Lawrence J. Ellison at the University of Southern California. One of the world's leading physicians and a pioneer in biomedical research. A leader in new technologies and approaches to personalized healthcare, he holds leadership positions at the World Economic Forum and other prestigious organizations.

It is very important to eat right. Eat real, unprocessed food three times a day. And do not have any snacks between meals. You need to move so that you have an increased heart rate for 50 minutes a day. You need to go out into the street for the brain: it is designed so that we do some kind of physical exercise.

Personally, I go to yoga twice a week. I don't like yoga, but I go outside my comfort zone. I play tennis a couple of times a week because I like running outside. Three times a day I eat at the same time, protein and fat in each meal. I eat, for example, a salad with protein for breakfast, chicken, fish and very little alcohol: a couple of times a week wine and a few days a week without alcohol. I try to go to bed and get up at the same time. If you do this, the vascular system works 23% better.

According to research, the sooner you start thinkingabout health the better. The problem of maintaining health is that if you do something today, you may not see the result for another 10–20 years. But at the age of 20-30-40, you need to start changing in order to live longer.

See also:

- Look at the 3D map of the Universe: it was compiled for 20 years and it has already surprised scientists

- Parasites need to be saved. Scientists even came up with a special plan for this.

- Putin allowed the clear cutting of forests on Lake Baikal. What will happen now?