I remember walking toward my grandmother’s hospital room, seeing her from the hallway, a respirator rhythmically pumping her chest up and down. I had come home from college, having been told she likely didn’t have much time left. She had been sick on and off for many years, but had always maintained a “healthy” attitude. She was always pleasant, always had a smile on her face, and was the stereotypical grandmother.
Walking into that room shook me a bit. I had been extremely fortunate, as I was in college and still had all four grandparents. Other than distant relatives, I had been pretty void of family deaths. My hardest hitting blow until this experience with my grandmother was the loss of our dog, Nikki, a decade earlier. That hit hard enough to keep me from having another dog for another twenty years.
As she laid unresponsive on the bed, there was a startling motion that would occur about every five seconds… her body would move as the respirator forced a burst of air into her lungs. That motion, and the noise that respirator made, is burned into my brain. The first thought I had as I sat there in that hospital room is that my grandmother was already gone. My thoughts then went to confusion… why are they doing this? The doctors knew she would not recover–could not recover. They managed to keep her alive for, if I remember correctly, a week or two… in that exact state.
This was my first realization of a fundamental flaw in our modern medical system… that death is failure. Why is it a flaw? Because we all die. Death is inevitable. But because death is considered failure, they will do anything and everything to keep someone alive for as long as they can.
Your first response might be, “Duh, of course they want to keep people alive. That is the job of a medical doctor.” Yes, we want to live as long as we can, but quality of life is a huge factor. You and I may differ, but I am much more interested in the quality of my life than I am in the quantity of my life. And a major flaw in modern medicine is that quality of one’s life is often overlooked.
There was a time when our elders were revered. They maintained a critical role in the tribe, helping to care for the children, continuing to forage for food, and sharing their vast knowledge to help guide the next generation through tough times. They, after all, had experienced past hardships and catastrophes. They knew how they had survived those difficulties. The younger tribe members did not have encyclopedias or Google. They had to rely on the wisdom and help of the elders.
Without the chronic illness that plagues us today, our ancestors were able to continue contributing. The average lifespan was shorter than it is now, but that average was brought down heavily by infant deaths. If two tribe members lived to be 80, and two tribe members died at birth, the average lifespan of those four is 40 years. The truth is that a good percentage of our ancestors lived into their 60s, 70s, and 80s. But what’s more important is that they did not have obesity, diabetes, heart disease, or other chronic illnesses that plague our elderly today.
Today, our modern western lifestyle leads to ill health. This ill health destroys the quality of our lives. Our modern healthcare system steps in to treat conditions, but fails to focus on maximizing health. So, we are left to grow older, but become unable to contribute to the well-being of the tribe. Our elderly, instead of being revered, valued, and needed by the tribe, are looked at as a burden on the tribe.
Modern medicine keeps people alive longer, but the quality of that life is usually poor. According to the Lown Institute, more than 40% of older Americans take five or more prescription drugs, and nearly 20% take ten or more. All you have to do is look around to see that quality of life is declining.
If your biggest concern is with quantity of life, stay the course, listen to your medical doctor, and follow the recommendations of our government agencies. Do that, and you might live to be 80, 90, or even 100. You will likely spend the last 10, 20, or 30 of those years incapacitated, stuck in a wheelchair or nursing home, struggling with dementia or Alzheimer’s, and/or unable to care for yourself.
If you’re more interested in quality of life, you must commit to living a lifestyle that is more natural, more active, and more congruent with the one our healthier ancestors lived. Whole, real foods, daily movement, high-quality sleep, meaningful work, and a strong sense of community will help extend your life, but more importantly, they will boost the quality of your health.
I don’t know how much more time I have on this planet, and I know medical doctors can keep me alive longer using drugs and technology, but I am much more interested in the quality of the years I have left. Extending my life is not nearly as important to me as improving the quality of my life. Make quality of life a priority. And remember, death is not failure. As they say… nobody gets out of here alive. We are all going to die. Not living fully is failure. There is a big difference between being alive and truly living. I’m focusing on the latter, striving not for the longest life, but the best, fullest, and most experience-filled life possible.
