Can the Burden of Old Age Be Lightened?

There is a firmly rooted belief on which people in general are almost unanimous: that old age and death are one and the same; indeed, most people would rather have their lives end early than suffer the pains and afflictions of old age...

Yet this dread of old age has, in most cases, no justification, for in believing this, people take it as settled that the loss of the thinking faculties, the decline of the personal powers, and the aggravation of accumulated bodily pains are inevitable matters from which there is no escape...

But "Basilevich," on the basis of wide and comprehensive studies, was able to conclude that natural old age, though there is no avoiding it, can come unaccompanied by any bodily pains or morbid developments...

These conclusions were the result of the researches and experiments which "Basilevich" carried out on 72 villagers and farmers in Ukraine, and 38 (14 men and 24 women), and 34 who had reached the age of one hundred (32 men and two women) — Basilevich uses the term Macrobiates for these people of advanced age. The

tests proved that all of them, except 19, had no need of medical care: they were open-minded, active, capable of carrying on light or moderate work, and felt a pleasure in living. They also showed that most of those who reach the age of one hundred are men, although between the seventieth and the ninetieth year there is a greater number of women than of men.

Furthermore, these tests carried out on these people of advanced age showed a harmonious interworking in all the organs of the body, its cells and its systems, since the developments of senescence come upon them in a general way; the body therefore always remains fit for balanced work. Basilevich adds that these developments are natural characteristics of the close of a stage of life, but that they were not accompanied by symptoms of pain or disease, such as breakdown in the muscles or fracturing in the joints. It is true that the muscles slacken in vigor from what they were before, yet they always remain capable of meeting the body's demands, which lessen gradually day by day...

Nor was there any drop in blood pressure, and an average of 75% of them were within the normal limits — and though the process of breathing may have weakened somewhat, there is a perceptible rise in the amount of oxygen taken up by the cells.

What particularly aroused Basilevich's astonishment was the capacity of the aged body to work with complete regularity and harmony, and the fact that no debility or weakness crept into the nervous system. It is true that the voluntary movements grow feeble and sluggish, and the faculty of perception weakens and dulls; and in two cases only were senile disorders found — but the aged person who is sound of body is ever alert, is not subject to emotional crises, finds no difficulty in sleeping, and despite the lagging of his appetite for food, he finds pleasure in taking it. In a word, he is fit to enjoy the life he knows well and finds happy...

And after all this we ask... what, then, is the secret of this happy old age?... The answer is that heredity, and a body free of diseases — especially in the early years — are two factors necessary for creating this phenomenon and for reaching this satisfying result... Of the 72% on whom the tests were carried out, it emerged that 75% of the fathers and 50% of the grandfathers had reached a hale old age... Moreover, most of these people of advanced age had enjoyed sound, good health throughout the years of their lives; and it is perhaps to be noted here that these people did not abstain from taking alcohol and tobacco, nor did they resort to a sheltered, pious life to guard them from disease: all of them were accustomed to an active, merry life, all of them were married, most had married more than once, and all had begotten children...

Basilevich concludes by saying that the average natural age a human being can attain ranges between 100 and 120, although at the present time people rarely reach this age. He then proposes that instead of struggling to extend the span that has been considered, medically, the utmost limit of life, we should direct our powers to preventing senescence and death accompanied by disease; and if we can bar the way against the infiltration of the diseases of senescence, then healthy old age will become the rule and not the exception...