Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi. 2002 ; 104(12): 1160-6.

[On the lifestyle of the aged from the view point of holistic medicine]

Hinohara S.

St. Luke's International Hospital.

The population of the elderly in Japan has rapidly increasing. I want to introduce the new movement of "the new elder citizens of over the age of 75 years old". The average life expectancy of Japanese newborn is 77.10 years for males, and 84.62 for females. Yet the birth rate in Japan is low (1.22). Therefore this will further reduce the number of the productive and young age group would support the seniors. This is why the elderly support ration will come down by more than half eventually to end with 50%. In preparation for such changes to occur ageism, which is an attitude of discrimination according to age, must be vanished. Aged people should be evaluated by individual physical and mental strength, rather than by mere chronological age. Forty years ago, definition of seniors in Japan was "age 65 and over". At that time in the 1960's the average life span of the Japanese was 68 years. However, in the subsequent 40 years, the average life expectancy is in around to 81 years. So, I believe that seniors should not take care of by those from age 20 to 64; rather, they should be self-reliant and engaged in social activities. In view of this, in September 2000, I proposed a change in defining seniors. In stead of "age 65 and over", seniors should be "age 75 and over". As the result, the association for the New Elder Citizens has been organized. Those of us who turn 75 in the year 2000 were 20 years when World War II ended in 1945. I believe those seniors over 75 have a mission to tell the next generation the many lessons we have learned during wartime experiences. Besides it is recommended that those new elder citizens are encouraged to live their further life under the following slogans: 1. to love 2. to begin and create 3. to preserve (with hardships, so as to learn sympathize with others who are under strain). We already started the cohort study of coming 10 years of those new elder citizens by investigating annual physical check up and their behavior and environmental elements as well as genetic study of aging process including senile dementia. Many of these Japanese elderly people have selectively good health physically, mentally and spiritually. Japanese word "Kenko" (health) consists of two Chinese characters. The first means a state of great strength, fullness and self-support. The second character of Ken-ko means "peacefulness", or serenity of mind without stress. It means holistically healthy entity. The root of the English term "Health" goes back to the 16th century Anglo-Saxon word, "HÄl". It embodies such concepts as "whole" or "heal" or "holy". It means that a healthy state prevails in the whole human being even if individual parts of body may be afflicted in some ways. As time passed, the human body necessarily declines in its functional capacities. However the elderly persons do have high spirituality. However he or she may continue to feel a sense of fulfillment and serenity. Those are hope that even if we have an illness or a handicap, we can still be reborn as healthy individual. Being holistically healthy means that these aspects of wellness "body", "mind" and "spirit" are integrated into the well being of a whole person. The New Elder Citizens are invited to participate the cohort study for 10 years. The results would suggest that their way of living and environmental factors would reveal most important as compared with the hereditary gene factors.