The Denial of Aging: Perpetual Youth, Eternal Life, and Other Dangerous Fantasies

by Muriel R. Gillick

You’ve argued politics with your aunt since high school, but failing eyesight now prevents her from keeping current with the newspaper. Your mother fractured her hip last year and is confined to a wheelchair. Your father has Alzheimer’s and only occasionally recognizes you. Someday, as Muriel Gillick points out in this important yet unsettling book, you too will be old. And no matter what vitamin regimen you’re on now, you will likely one day find yourself sick or frail. How do you prepare? What will you need?

With passion and compassion, Gillick chronicles the stories of elders who have struggled with housing options, with medical care decisions, and with finding meaning in life. Skillfully incorporating insights from medicine, health policy, and economics, she lays out action plans for individuals and for communities. In addition to doing all we can to maintain our health, we must vote and organize―for housing choices that consider autonomy as well as safety, for employment that utilizes the skills and wisdom of the elderly, and for better management of disability and chronic disease.

Most provocatively, Gillick argues against desperate attempts to cure the incurable. Care should focus on quality of life, not whether it can be prolonged at any cost. “A good old age,” writes Gillick, “is within our grasp.” But we must reach in the right direction.

Genres: Nonfiction, Health, Medical

352 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2006

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is highly impressive. Gillick writes clearly for both patients and doctors at the same time, laying out medical options, costs, benefits, and priorities for elderly people. She applies the results of numerous recent clinical trials to identify what is commonly counterproductive, and how to assess what is most appropriate for particular people at various stages of aging. Along the way, she exposes the costs of popular age-denialism. Maybe the best parts concern her insights on how old people maintain their sense of meaning and purpose.

[Sevenponds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is American medicine in denial of the need to reform end-of-life care for baby boomers? The Denial of Aging by Muriel R. Gillick, M.D. is an account of Gillick’s experiences with her elderly patients (often baby boomers) and their children. Although 60 may be the new 50 and 70 the new 60, Gillick says you can take this attitude so far; we can only rely on vitamins and exercise to push us through the indignities of old age for so long. American medicine is in denial with “physicians [being] taught that the goal of medicine is to stave off death.” Heroic measures are often taken to save patients, but the fact is that an elderly patient may not warrant the full arsenal of medical treatment; invasive treatments for diseases like cancer can often make the remaining time a patient has left more painful. It’s just one example of the Western obsession of a war on death and disease – one that is costing us billions of dollars.

Rarely is a voice raised to consider stopping to screen for certain diseases at a certain age. Does it make sense to test and treat for slow growing prostate cancer in men after a certain age?

[Continued]

Full SevenPonds Review:
http://blog.sevenponds.com/lending-in...

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides a great, straight-forward overview of many important facets of growing old, and doing it in the United States now. It talks about the problems of concurrent over- and under-treatment of important medical problems and how trade-offs should be approached. It talks about limitations of Medicare for financing chronic conditions, and for addressing the blurring of the line between social and medical problems as people age. It talks about the challenges of SNFs and assisted livings facilities to meet quality of life, rather than safety and regulatory, goals. And it talks about the importance of physical and meaningful activity for older adults in structured ways as they age, offering examples of how older adults may envision spending their very old age. It tackles the problem of balancing between safety and quality of life, as well as between autonomy and interdependence. It's well-written and centers around perfect examples. It provides social and policy initiatives that really could be adopted to better use our resources and position older adults to thrive.

[Sharron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though this book was published in 2006, I have no reason to believe that Dr. Gillick's statement that "The latest prediction is that if you are just now turning 65, you have nearly a 50 per cent chance of spending some time in a nursing home before you die" is any less accurate now that it was when written. And, of course, even if you are lucky enough to be in the half that doesn't end up in one, someone you live with or are responsible for will likely do so. As a result, reading this book is very prudent thing to do. After all, we are all going to die. It's just a matter of when, where, and how. And as Dr. Gillick makes clear, we have a good deal less control over such questions than we presently delude ourselves about.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 2006 by one who's a doctor and associate professor at Harvard Medical school, this book gives practical advice on end of life care, nursing homes and assisted living.

A must-read for the elderly and their care-givers.

[Megan]

what could be better than an old biker guy riding a girl's bike with a basket and flowers? I will tell you what is better... nothing.

[Joette · Rating 5 out of 5]

She has a thesis and makes cogent arguments. Everyone who helps make policies should read this book.

[Ruthmarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's probably worth revisiting the author's ideas every now and then as we get in our '60s and more. Definitely food for thought.