Facing a Challenge

Facing a Challenge
By: Dr. Roger Landry, MD, MPH

 As we age, we are likely to encounter problems, everything from arthritis to cancer to heart disease. But facing a challenge does not mean you’ve failed. For example, getting cancer, or heart disease, or even cognitive impairment, doesn’t mean it’s your fault. It just means you must deal with it if you are to age successfully.

Maybe it was something you did that made you more susceptible, maybe it wasn’t. But, this is a fork in the road for you. Your life’s long path has crossed one of the many threats to your aging well, and if you’re going to stay on your current path to high performance and successful aging, then you must accept its presence and manage it to maximize the quality of your life. No beating the breast and saying, “Why me?” or “I should have prevented this.”

There are, in fact, three kinds of prevention. Primary prevention is all about preventing new cases of a disease or condition. Secondary prevention is about identifying disease and conditions early in order to limit the spread or impact of the disease. And tertiary prevention is about minimizing the negative effects of the condition by treating symptoms and complications.

Aging successfully is about avoiding or preventing occurrence of a disease or condition whenever possible, or identifying it early to prevent it from taking hold, or, if it does become established, limiting its negative effects. How we choose to live in the face of adversity IS something we can do something about. Learn more by reading Tip #5 in Live Long, Die Short: Lower Your Risks.  Live Long. Live Well!