It is very common that we pray for long life; but we do not want to get old. Living long will surely come with ageing so it is unrealistic to expect to remain as virile as when you were much younger.
There is gradual diminution in the efficiency of the body’s organ-systems as one lives longer which manifests as aging and aging in turn leads to old age. In other words, ageing is a journey; while old age is a destination or ageing is a process; then old age is the product.
There is a group of diseases which is known to be associated with old-age called degenerative disease. As one ages, at one point or the other, some of these conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, cancers, Arthritis, Hypertension, Diabetes etc, may begin to surface. However, that is not to say that every aging person must suffer degenerative disease or it must occur at a particular age in life; there are variations based on individual’s genetic makeup and environmental exposures.
Some individuals may never have it throughout their aging process; others may develop it at an unusually early stage in life, while majority will have it at various ages as they age. Most of the time in clinical practice, when a patient is diagnosed of one of the degenerative diseases, one of the usual responses is “but I do not have it before”, then I respond immediately “you do not have these gray hairs before either” and they become mute or just laugh.
Old age is not to be denied and feared; but to be embraced and managed. Then if we must embrace and manage old age, we must also be ready to embrace and manage all that portend it and as such, you will not be dismayed if you probably encountered any of these as your age counts in numbers; but rather you will just smile and remember that God has answered your prayers of long life.
