The importance of health in old age

The core value of elderly health has always been not only that the elderly themselves suffer less, but also the core chassis for a family to resist risks, and the basic premise for the efficient operation of the elderly care resources of the entire society.

Don't tell me, I was a volunteer at a community elderly health station a while ago, and the uncle Zhang I met is the most typical example. Before he retired, he was the main basketball player in his workplace. He always felt that he had a strong body. He took medicine for high blood pressure only when he thought about it, and refused to quit smoking. His children still found it annoying after they tried to persuade him too much. He said, "I have lived for most of my life and have never experienced anything. This little problem is nothing." As a result, he had a cerebral infarction during the cold wave last winter, and he was rescued with half of his body paralyzed. He was originally responsible for picking up his grandson from school every day, and his wife went to square dances with the little sisters every day. His son and daughter-in-law were raising money to change to a room in the school district. Now everything was in chaos: the wife had to work 24 hours a day. Watching him and feeding him, his son had to take two days off a week to take him for rehabilitation. The monthly rehabilitation fee for intensive care was only 8,000 yuan, and half of the down payment for a house in the school district was taken away. The family, which was once a lively family, now had little time to sit down and have a good meal.

Speaking of the current value of elderly health, there are actually two completely different analytical perspectives, both of which are quite real. One type is the pragmatist who calculates economic accounts. I talked to a chronic disease management doctor at a community hospital before, and he calculated an account for me: now the monthly pension for an ordinary retired person is only 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. If the chronic disease is not controlled and develops into disability, the cost of staying in the rehabilitation department of a tertiary hospital for one day is equivalent to half a month's pension. Even if the patient is raised at home, the starting price of hiring a live-in caregiver is 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. If the child resigns to take care of his or her children, the loss of income will be countless. On the other hand, if you spend two to three thousand a year on regular physical examinations, influenza and pneumonia vaccinations, and regular follow-up for chronic diseases, the return on this investment will be at least 1:10. To put it bluntly, "the health of the elderly means making money for the family" is really not an empty statement. There is also a group of humanistic people who value the quality of life. Grandma Li downstairs is 82 this year, and her diabetes is very well controlled. Last month she took the high-speed train to Chongqing to see old comrades she hadn’t seen in 50 years. She also made a bunch of videos of eating hotpot and visiting the Jiefangbei and posting them to family groups. She is more energetic than many people in their 50s and 60s. She always said, "If I can't even go downstairs, let alone go to Chongqing, I won't even be able to eat hot fresh strawberries from the wet market downstairs." For the elderly, health is essentially the confidence to control their own lives. Being able to decide where to go and what to eat today is better than any number of supplements.

Of course, many people think that "there is nothing wrong with old people, why bother messing around". This is actually not completely unreasonable. Functional degradation caused by aging is an objective law. Forcing the elderly to run five kilometers a day and eat vegetarian meals like young people is prone to problems. I have met an aunt before. Her children forced her to walk 10,000 steps a day. She already had degenerative lesions in her knees. After walking for half a month, she was in so much pain that she couldn't get out of bed. There was also an elderly woman who stopped taking regular antihypertensive medication because she believed in health care products, and ended up suffering from cerebral hemorrhage and was admitted to the ICU. Nowadays, the academic circles are actually advocating "moderate health management". There is no need to pursue "no disease and no disaster". As long as the indicators of chronic diseases that can be controlled are stabilized and the ability to take care of one's life is maintained as much as possible, the standard is already met. There is no need to put too much psychological pressure on the elderly.

Speaking more broadly, this matter is actually not just a private matter for each family. I was particularly impressed by the data from the National Health Commission posted on the walls of community hospitals: 75% of people over 60 years old in my country suffer from chronic diseases, and there are more than 40 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people. If the chronic disease control rate of the entire population can be increased by 10%, the country can save tens of billions of medical insurance expenditures every year. This money can be used to build more canteens and community rehabilitation centers for the elderly, which can help more elderly people. It is a completely positive cycle. I have been staying at the inn for the past two years, and the most intuitive feeling is that the conditions of healthy old people and old people who have been bedridden all year round are really very different: the healthy old people get together to sing popular songs and go hiking, and some people do live broadcasts to sell the vegetables they grow, and their eyes are bright ； Most of the elderly who are bedridden all year round talk little. Many people say privately that they feel like a burden on their families. The psychological drain is actually worse than the physical pain.

To put it bluntly, when we talk about the importance of health in old age, we are never talking about "longevity". It’s because your dad can go downstairs to buy cigarettes and bring you a bag of your favorite oranges. It’s because your mother can pick up vegetables and make dumplings for you after dancing in the square. It’s because the old couple can set up a table of your favorite dishes in the kitchen during the Chinese New Year. It’s because you work overtime until late at night and doesn’t have to panic and answer emergency calls from the hospital. It’s because the family’s life is safe and stable, without sudden storms. This is more important than anything else.