The long and short of living long

Shigeaki Hinohara, 97 years and four months old — only two years and eight months shy of a century — is not the world’s oldest person alive. At 115, American Gertrude Baines is 18 years older. Another Japanese, Chiyo Shiraishi, is 113 years old. But at 97, according toJapan Times, Shigeaki is one of the world’s longest-serving physicians and educators. Since 1941, he’s been treating patients at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo and teaching at St. Luke’s College of Nursing. Always thinking out of the box, he designed St. Luke’s so that the hospital could operate even in the basement, corridors, the chapel, etc. People thought he was sick in the head until terrorists launched an attack on the Tokyo subway and St. Luke’s was able to treat hundreds of victims even in the most unconventional places.

Certainly no scaredy-cat, Hinohara survived a hijack with flying colors when he was 59, handcuffed to his seat for four days.

By the time he celebrated his 75th birthday, he had come up with some 150 books, one of which is Living Long, Living Good that has sold more than 1.2 million copies. He founded the New Elderly Movement to inspire others to live a long and happy life.

Believe it or not , living in the twilight of one’s years does have its perks, according to an old sage. For one thing, in a hostage situation, you’re likely the first to be released. You can eat dinner at 4 and sleep at 8 p.m. You can live without sex (but not your eyeglasses). Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can’t remember them either.

But to go back to Hinohara and to make a long story short, he gives some prescriptions for a long life, as published in Japan Times:

• Energy comes from feeling good, not from eating well or sleeping a lot. Remember when we were children we were having so much fun that we often forgot to eat or sleep? We should keep that attitude as adults, too. We shouldn’t tire our body with too many rules such as lunchtime and bedtime.

• All people who live long — regardless of nationality, race or gender — share one thing in common: None are overweight. Now, that’s a weighty statement. So, how does Hinohara stay lean and mean? For breakfast, he takes coffee, a glass of milk, and some orange juice spiked with a tablespoon of olive oil. Lunch is milk and a few cookies, while dinner is veggies, a bit of fish and rice, and, twice a week, 100 grams of lean meat.

• Always plan ahead. Hinohara’s appointment book is already full until 2014. And in 2016, at 104 years old, he plans to attend the Tokyo Olympics. Talk about forward planning.

• There is no need to ever retire, but if one must, it should be a lot later than 65. Agree! The current retirement age was set at 65 half a century ago, when the average life expectancy in Japan was much lower.

If we may add this nugget of wisdom: A retiree once lamented that to be retired is to be twice tired — first, you’re tired of working and then, you’re tired of not working.

• Share what you know. Every year, Hinohara conducts 150 lectures, some for 100 elementary-school children, others for 4,500 business people.

• When your doctor recommends you take a test or have surgery, ask whether he would recommend the same for his/her spouse or children. Contrary to popular belief, doctors can’t cure everyone, so why cause unnecessary pain with surgery? Hinohara thinks that music and animal therapy could be your best bet.

• To stay healthy, always take the stairs and carry your own stuff. Hinohara takes two stairs at a time, to get his muscles moving.

• Pain is mysterious, and having fun is the best way to forget it. Hospitals must cater to the basic needs of patients, and we all basically want to have fun.

• Don’t be crazy about amassing material things. Remember: You don’t know when your number is up, and you can’t take it with you to the next place.

• Science alone can’t cure or help people. Illness is personal. Each person is unique, and diseases are connected to their hearts. To know the illness and help people, there is a need for liberal and visual arts, not just medical ones.

• Find a role model and aim to achieve even more than they could ever do. Hinohara’s role model was his father, who went to the United States in 1900 to study at Duke University in North Carolina.

• It’s wonderful to live long, especially if you share your life with others. Like Hinohara, who has worked as a volunteer since he was 65. He puts in 18 hours, seven days a week, and loves every minute of it!

In short, there are no shortcuts to living long.

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Hear ye, heal ye

Dear Consumerline:

I just want to add to your “Listen to nice music” from Trudeau’s do’s and don’ts and would like to recommend “Harp Hits for Healing” CD played by Noelle Cassandra and produced by the Dominican Sisters of Regina Rosarii (on Scout Fernandez, Quezon City). There have been many stories from people who have been positively affected by the harp instrumental of Noelle Cassandra — from simply reducing stress to getting the elderly from depression into active life participants again. Available at Regina Rosarii Center for Contemplative Prayer, 70 Scout Fernandez St., Brgy. Laging Handa, Quezon City, Philippines, telephone numbers 372-5327 and 09192694286.  E-mail info@reginarosarii.org.

— ROXANNE ANG

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