New illnesses

[Migmam]

A couple of years ago I could see how a relative of mine was fading because one of those new illnesses of today called senile dementia and parkinson.
That made me think about the sort of live that we're living now and what is the trigger for those new illnesses.
When I was very young all my old relatives were dying of different illnesses but always very sane and sensible.
We are extending the life of our body because all the improvements in technology and medicine. But what about our mind?
is it worth the extend life in all conditions?
Why the people who lives in the country (not in a city) doesn't have those kind of illnesses?
I think that we have to recover an old way of living, more calm, less ambitious and enjoying more our lives but not with things like a car, or a yacht, I'm talking about family, friends, literature, music....

[Jamie (K)]

Migmam, those illnesses have been with us since the beginning of time. They're not new to humanity; they're just new to you. There were people in my neighborhood who had diseases like that decades ago, when I was a child, and my father told me about people who had them when he was a child, and that was right after the turn of the century!

One reason more people get those illnesses is that they now live long enough to get them. When I was a kid, most people who were 65 had only a few years left of life, unless they were in a family like mine, where people lived to be 90. This has changed, and people now live so long now that in my country I now think someone died "young" if he was only 76!

Another reason we see more of these diseases is that doctors are now able to diagnose them better. They didn't have the tools available to them.

Your question reminds me of one that people ask in the United States all the time. They remark that you meet SO MANY WOMEN nowadays who have had breast cancer, and they remember that when they were young they never knew anyone who'd had breast cancer. Then they automatically assume that breast cancer must be hitting more women than before, and that something about the modern lifestyle is causing it. However, the modern lifestyle is not giving more women breast cancer. The reason that, in the old days, people never saw women from day to day who'd had breast cancer was that in those days almost any woman who'd had breast cancer was dead. There are not more breast cancer victims now, but just more breast cancer victims who are still alive.

I agree with you that the meaning of life, and the way to health and happiness is not in material things. However, it's my opinion -- my own PERSONAL opinion -- that people who spend too much of their lives sitting around caf?s and yacking with friends, like they do in Mediterranean countries, get soft in the head earlier than other people do. I could be wrong.

[Migmam]

Hi Jamie. Thanks for your post. I didn't have time until now to read it. A new baby has come to our home!!!

I agree with you and I realized that people who have any kind of responsibility in their lives makes them live longer and more sensible.
I remember the case of an old woman that had to take care of herself and her horse. Everyday she has to get up early to feed the horse, clean the house, etc.. Once his son decided that it was about time for her to not have any responsibility at all so he took her with him.
Six months later she had senile dementia and a year later she died...

[Conchita]

Congratulations on your new baby, Miguel Ángel, and welcome to the exciting (the range of adjectives will get wider and wider) world of parenthood! You've certainly crossed an important threshold in your life.

[Pamela]

Hi Miguel,
Let me join Conchita's congratulations!!! A gush of words is not sufficient to express how greatest parenthood is! I wish you to have happy and unforgettable moments with your baby galore!