December 17, 2009

Not me

Ben Shott laid out a pretty comprehensive chart of data from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project in the New York Times.

So get your stuff in order if you are a woman nearing 80 or a guy pushing 75 because it seems that this is the current life expectancy for you. If you are part of the population that simply doesn't age...i.e. you have a personal relationship with Dr. Galea and can get a hold of his growth hormone, or you are an on-line dater and clearly never age, indeed, you seem to remain at a "certain age" for years at a time, or you see your plastic surgeon with the same frequency you have your teeth cleaned, this won't apply to you.

Anyhow, in order for me to make sense of his chart, I focused in on the 57-64 year old and attempted to synthesize a picture of what that person looked like. I selected the highest percentage in each category to paint this picture.

Ready?

An arthritic, doesn't drive at night, relies on their partner if they have one, but thinks that their most recent relationship is not emotionally satisfying. 

Shall I go on? Oh, why not.

Blood pressure is in the 134/83 range and currently drinks, but doesn't smoke. Oh, and BMI puts them into the obese or very obese category.

And lastly, a woman won't have sex unless she is in love with (the) partner. As for the men, he believes that adultery is always wrong and sexual ability decreases with age. (clearly, this last statistic validates for me that this study didn't poll athletes and elected officials and the fertile septuagenarians, pushing baby carriages.

So there you have it.

I didn't make it up.

I just don't know ANYONE like the folks depicted in this data. 

Okay, maybe I lied. Maybe I know one or two. Just not you or me.

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