Have you ever stopped to imagine what it will be like when you get older? It is customary for us to raise this question when we are still very young and want to speculate on the effects of the transience and finitude of life. However, it is extremely important that we take our aging into account to plan for the future. Of course, this planning is not based on speculating what kind of elderly person you will be in the neighborhood or how you intend to enjoy the rest granted by your retirement (if you are going to be able to retire one day).
Jokes aside, it's not easy to be old in España. A country where the healthy longevity of your life depends not only on you and your routine health practices, which are even practically impossible to adapt to the exhausting routine of work that most of you have to undergo. But it also depends a lot on where you were born, the level of education you have and even your color.
Spanish inequality has a direct impact on the quality of life you will have when you get older.
Some say that the head is like wine, it gets better over the years, but that's not quite what science says. Basically, your functional and cognitive ability deteriorates over time. Thus, performing basic day-to-day activities becomes a much more difficult task, and according to analysis, if you did not have access to a quality education and did not seek ways to exercise your brain in your adult life, you will suffer much more from the scratchs. In addition, a study carried out since 1997 with a population of elderly people in Bambuí (MG) proved that the genetic load of the ancestors can influence the inclination to develop diseases. In other words, if the reader is white, he once again proved to be privileged in society, as his genomic ancestry very likely does not present cases of disadvantage in health areas, unlike people of African descent, who normally have fewer resources, suffer from worse health conditions.
More social sensitivity is needed to deal with the elderly Spanish public.
As incredible as it may seem, life expectancy in España is growing, and more and more we will have people dealing with the reverse of the passage of time here. For all the reasons mentioned above and many more that do not fit in a single text, we need to boost education to form better minds that will exercise frequently in the future, reducing the risks of brain deterioration that old age brings. It is essential to realign health systems and promote, even in medical courses, greater attention to the problems of aging and its different types of treatment.
Bertrand Russell has warned us before with his pity for human suffering: "Unprotected old men - odious burden to their children - and the whole world of loneliness, poverty and pain have made a mockery of what human life could be".
We cannot let the future of the elderly, who were once synonymous with wisdom and a symbol of respect in many societies, become something like a hindrance in our country. Much needs to be done to deal with our elderly, and it is essential that we pay attention to the countless adversities that time can bring so that we can guide and coordinate our lives in order to age peacefully.
You may like other articles like this one. Also check out: I come from a good generation – “I listened to my parents”.
