Have we stopped ageing?

I couldn't have put it better! Totally agree.

I heard it too. Its like 60 is the new 50 etc but taking it up to 70 being the new 60. Soon it will be 90 being the new 80, actially i think it is already.
Certainly times have changed with 50 and 60 year olds not being or seen to be old as in generations past, but yes there is still the odd ache and pain to deal with as we age, but generally i would say as i too approach 70, its a shock to realise quite how old i am. Even if i dont feel it. No getting away with being late middle age anymore methinks.

I suppose what i am trying to say is we generally dont feel as old As past generations, and still expect, health notwithstanding, to carry on doing what we have always done. I must have missed the bit about working longer/employment. Having started full time work straight after my 15 th birthday, and having saturday and holiday jobs since 13, i think i have done enough to enjoy retirement now.

Today's 70's may be like previous 60's but I am able to tell you that at 80 I am mostly k*******d.I have arthritis in several joints, going upstairs is very hard, I do still love a bath occasionally but need a stool to climb in and out.
My appetite has waned but that is ok because my love of cooking is also going.
I cannot walk very far but loved walking 10 years ago.
My hearing and sight are still good, I have all my own teeth , it is the rest which is wearing out.
Oh have I mentioned being ready for bed at 9pm every night?
It wasn't an 80 year old who compiled those statistics, but I do think I was pretty good at 70.

9 pm is late ann!! We've had middle daughter and her two under sixes here for a week and I am totally jiggered. We do wake up very early - out of habit.

I tend to agree that we stay younger for longer - mostly!! DH only stopped working full time in November last year and he is now 72.

I think the actuary was probably not 60 herself, or she wouldn't have said what she did say.
70 is not the new 60 at all. We may look younger than our parents generation and think younger, but the bodily things let us down.I cannot do what I did easily ten years ago.

Yes, I heard the broadcast and thought it was b*****it.

I am fortunate I am ageing well physically, but what I have noticed from around the age of 60, is a gradual decline in stamina. I was always very much a duracell bunny always on the go when everyone else had stopped, but no longer, I am the bunny with the really cheap less powerful battery.

A late night or a short night and I am totally exhausted the next day, a very busy day and the same again. Sometimes an exceptionally busy day will knock me out for the following two days.

At 60 I had no health problems whatsoever, but on reaching my 70s I developed several age-related ailments. I am glad I am not expected to work full time! I feel for those for whom the age for retirement seems to be moving away from them!

I am another one who reached my three score years and ten reasonably fit and healthy. Then it all seemed to fall apart, heart attack, pneumonia, arthritis, knee replacement etc. I have been retired since 2003, and know I just could not have carried on working. Like many others I tire easily and often need a snooze in the afternoon. If the "olds" go on working and filling positions, how will the younger generation fare in the job market?

Glad you all agree, it's not just me feeling my age! I'm sure we are, on the whole, fitter and healthier than people of our age a generation or two ago, but in ten years we have aged .... well, something close to ten years. Our life expectancy may be creeping up, but there isn't necessarily a slowing down of all the ageing processes at the earlier stages.

Having posted on the 'what I've done since I've got past 50' thread about some of the upbeat things I've done I'd like to come clean on here. Yes, I've got to grips with new dances of late and lost weight HOWEVER, I've got two hips that need looking after and I certainly can't stay on my feet all day as I used to. My eyesight needs help and I get quite low when my tinnitus seems particularly bad. That being said its great to keep up with interesting hobbies and try new things. I have wrinkles and saggy bits and certainly could not pass for under 50 but I have no intention of having anything artificial done. I will just keep up the activities, be the fittest I can be for my age and stage and balance that with knowing when I need to put my feet up and just chill.
Pretending we do not age is plain daft....we do....we cannot hang around forever....we just owe it to ourselves and those who love us to be as healthy as we can and to still enjoy what we have.
Thankfully we do not now all hit 30 and get a perm and have our teeth out.......but we do have to acknowledge that at 60 or more we are not quite as resilient as we were.

At 65 I am fit, can do quite a lot but do not have the stamina I used to have. Those just a little younger than me have to work to 66. I was exhausted when I retired at nearly 62 and can't imagine still working full time.

You are so right grannyticktock. We are just kidding ourselves if we think 60 is the new 70, or 50 new 70 as my sister informed me recently! You are lucky if you remain fit at 70 but it's silly to deny advancing age as some of my friends do. I just feel lucky to be still alive to enjoy life and grandchildren, and however young you may look, and feel, or however many times you go to the gym you cannot deny the fact of aging. Just get over it and enjoy each day as it comes I say. I certainly wouldn't enjoy working into my 70s. Who on their death bed wishes...........??

I'm really pleased that it isn't just me who gets tired.

I'm 69 in January and have debated going to the doctor's to see if there is something wrong with me as half a day with dgc floors me!

Well done grannyticktock for noticing that statistical nonsense. Obviously a 70 year old can't be as fit as a 60 year old ten years ago.
20 or so years ago seems more likely.
In my experience (I'm 66) and the experience of my friends and family, in your sixties little problems start creeping in or worsening. Arthritis worsens, new knees or hips, are needed, heart problems or diabetes set in. We're more tired. We're still active usually, but coping with numerous small health issues. Most people I know feel that they couldn't work full time as we near seventy.
I feel very sorry for future generations who will need to work until nearly seventy.

I'm 80 and looking back to when it all started to go down hill it was at 75. No one who is under 60 can imagine what life will be like at 80-
I was operated on at 72 it was an ear OP so I was bodily still fit and fully dressed in hospital. My entry form had nothing ticked apart from high BP.
As I have just written 75 saw the end of that and when it is hot and humid as it is in S.Germany at the moment I am housebound.
But I:m happier than at 40 or 50!

I'm 65 and working full time. It's not the work I have problems with although sitting at a desk all day is definitely not helping my dodgy hip! Every time I get up for breaks or loo visits, I have to give it time to settle before I can walk. No I find the biggest problem is at home or, if you like, the life side of the work/life balance. When I get home, I'm shattered and I'm really lucky my partner cooks dinner most nights. Fitting everything I need to do into the weekend is becoming impossible and I have had to drop my, never fantastically high, housekeeping standards. I haven't had the time or energy to do any shopping for ages and this recent idea of a 10 min brisk walk each day seems impossible. However I like my job and the team I work with, so I'll carry on as long as I can. Another year will be enough I think.

The phraseology was wrong I agree, but it is true to say that todays 70 years olds are, in general, much fitter than 70 year olds in the past. When I look at old photos of 50 & 60 year olds from the 1950s, as an example, they are old ladies - not only did they look old, but they acted old and thought of themselves as old.

I recently visited a niece I hadn't seen for 40 years. She said 'I was expecting an old lady with grey hair and a walking stick' ?

There are some jobs that would be well nigh impossible for most 70-year-olds. Would you want your grandchildren, starting school, to be taught in Reception by someone older than their granny? If you collapsed and had to call an ambulance, would the arrival of a septugenarian paramedic reassure you? Or if you needed delicate surgery, and the surgeon was old, with trembling hands and failing eyesight? There won't be enough "back-office" jobs for all the elderly, and yet they won't be fit for many front-line services.

My hands don't tremble? I don't need glasses? I'd be quite happy for my GC to be taught by an older (experienced and probably unflappably) granny. And if I collapsed I'd be grateful for anyone coming to my aid.

Bloody hell! This is blatant ageism - from those who ought to know better.

Anya, not everyone's hands tremble, but some do as people get older. If you reach 70 with the keen eyesight of a 30-year-old, you're extremely unusual and fortunate.

Could you could work a full week in a Reception class and not be on your knees by the end of it? "Unflappable"? I'd be a nervous wreck, as would many grandparents here who find a day with two or three (let alone 30) small children exhausting now.

If you could give CPR to a body lying on the floor, then haul the patient onto a stretcher and help run with it to the ambulance, and keep doing that all day, every day..... well, you would have to be a most exceptional 70-year-old!

Think yourself very lucky if at 70 you still have the mind, body and full faculties of a 40-year-old; most of us find that this is not the case and recognise certain limitations, both in ourselves and in our friends. We may make up for it in wisdom and experience, but there are jobs where these don't count for much, and where strength, stamina and swift reactions are crucial.

I largely agree with Anya. But does it have to be all one way or another?

I have a friend whose hands have trembled since she was in her 40s and I've worn glasses since my 30s. And i do get tired by the dgc but that's because I'm not used to having them around.

DH did a really responsible job until last year. I think all his patients survived!

We are definitely much more able than the previous generation were at our age.

I really do not think such a thing as how people age can be generalised. All of of us age differently, depending on genetics, how we look after ourselves, what our jobs/hobbies are/were. Going through our family history it struck me that all of my grandparents died in their sixties, the previous generation made it into their seventies and beyond. (My grandparents did not have overly physical out door jobs). Our generation probably made good use of our legs, played outside as children. What of the current parents, very few of them walk their children to the school DGS goes to, the smallest journey must be by car. We notice when we take DGS to the park there are very few children out playing. What will they be like in old age? Then there are the numbers of obese children and adults nowadays. In the future lifespan may be generally shorter than now, different variables.

Quite right Silverlining 48....I had my first holiday/Saturday job at 11... a milk-round... you know the things glass bottles/in metal crates ... that had to be thrown onto a 'milk float' at 4.30 a.m. 7/8 hours later when my day was done I'd walk 1.5 miles home to be allowed to do my chores for mum.Usually brushing down the stairs and landing with a stiff brush and then washing the paintwork of same.... not forgetting the hallway as you went. Then I could go out to play with friends. No probs... I was fit as a fiddle. 53 years of legal/tax paying work followed and managed to fit in the laziest husband in Christendom and two kids. Now two grandkids take up my time and my energy ...what's left of it. Indeed we now have release from 'work' and can possibly relax we've earn it!! Time to get up and start prep for Sunday roast beef and seven members of my family..... Hey-Ho !!