SUMMARY

Harvard-trained geriatrician and award-winning author Louis Aronson introduces a revolutionary perspective on growing old in her book, “ELDERHOOD: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life.” Sharing stories from her personal and professional life, and drawing from history, Aronson offers clarity and understanding about “elderhood,” the third and final stage of life after childhood and adulthood and a period that can span up to 40 years or more. With new insights into aging, medicine, and humanity itself, Aronson teaches us how to reframe these later decades so we can better prepare for and thrive during our final years.

KEY POINTS

• Everyone approaches the topic of aging with some degree of negativity, illustrated by Berkeley professor Guy Micco.
• “Old” and “elder” have identical denotations but very different connotations.
• Elderhood has multiple stages, so we need to adopt clearer nomenclature, such as “senior,” “old,” “elderly,” and “aged.”
• Health and function and how we engage with life can best define our age.
• Good caregivers connect with older people the way those in a good marriage would: they let the older person speak for him/herself; the two look at each other; they laugh with each other.
• Just as we learn to take care of children, we need to become comfortable taking care of people in the last stage of life.
• Choosing to not dye gray hair is one way to let go of internalized ageism.
• Data shows that becoming socially isolated is like smoking 15 cigarettes a day your whole life.
• A Harvard longitudinal study on happiness shows that happy adults accept changes and adapt as they go, resulting in optimism and good health.
• Making friends and creating new relationships makes for happier adults.
• The number one fear adults have is getting cancer; the second is getting dementia.
• Exercise is the best way to prevent or delay dementia.

QUOTES FROM ARONSON

• “In medicine, we spend most of most days really dealing with some pretty intense things that fill us with emotions and feelings and thoughts and experiences that are the stuff of literature.”
• “Elderhood, or the specter of being seen old by others...pretty much starts somewhere between 60 and 70 for most people…but if you’re in Silicon Valley, and if you’re over age 30 or 35, you’re already old.”
• “People start getting happy in their late 50s, and their happiest time of life…is, hands down, the 60s and 70s.”
• “When asked the recipe for a good old age, I often give a list: good genes, good luck, enough money, and one good kid, usually a daughter.”
• “A majority of the most powerful people in politics and many other industries are people in their 60s and early 70s.”
• “We have created a society where we do everything possible to stay alive yet dread being old.”

BUY Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life

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