Is 50 really the new 30?

(I am writing the next few blogs while Roland is in Italy with his entire family for a well-deserved extended vacation. These are big "blog shoes" I am going to try and fill...so wish me luck.  Eddie Habibi)

The new phrase I keep hearing these days is "50 is the new 30."  Is this just the wishful thinking of some of us baby boomers or is there some truth to it?  Is it possible to turn back the clock on the aging process? 

 

Possible or not, fighting the physical and the health-related effects of aging is something most of us think about – and some of us do something about.

 

I happen to personally know someone who is doing the best he can to counter the impact of aging. Yes, in fact that individual is none other than our own President and COO, Mr. Roland Heersink, who will be turning 50 in just a few short months. Over the last year or so, Roland has been on a strict fitness mission preparing for his family vacation.  

 

If you know Roland, you know how driven and competitive he can be. Well, when they planned the family vacation earlier this year, Roland set out a goal for himself to be the fittest (baby boomer) on the fine beaches of the Mediterranean.  So over the last few months, Roland kicked it up a notch and intensified his workouts, and by the time he was leaving for vacation you could see the new and improved Roland.  He even claimed to have developed his “six pack” abs.  (More than we wanted to know, of course.)

So, how do you measure aging and how do you slow the process?  An entire anti-aging industry is developing and billions are invested every year toward the secrets of and the counter-measures to aging.  Occasionally, we hear claims of a “silver bullet” to slow, and sometimes to even reverse, the aging process.  But like anything else in life, if it sounds too good to be true…it is.

 

Age can be measured in different ways: chronologically, biologically, physically and emotionally.  Regarding the first two, unless you can find a time-machine or are willing to mess around with the human DNA, there is nothing any of us can do to slow down time or the aging of our cells naturally.  The other two – physical and emotional – we have some control over.  In fact, these two measures of aging are quite interactive and difficult to decouple from one-another.  

 

Exercise and a healthy diet go a long way toward physical and emotional fitness.  While we can’t control the passage of time or the aging of our cells, we can have total control over what we eat and how much exercise we get.

 

Even if 50 isn’t exactly the new 30, being fit and healthy has proven to extend the longevity and the quality of life…and that in itself is worth the effort.

 

So, let’s wish Roland a fun-filled vacation and hope that the baby-boomer-babes on the Italian beaches are not bothering him to much… 

Comments

[Michael]

First update in three months -- and not from Roland!?! Maybe he's been working out too much? :-) On a serious note, though, what's alarming is the trend in child and adolescent obesity, and its associated long-term effects on health. Perhaps in a couple of decades we'll read a blog on "30 is the new 50".