I read in the news recently that “healthy life expectancy” of UK males had fallen to 61. If you’re not quite sure what this means it’s the age to which the average person can expect to be healthy.
I am 74 so this gave me pause to wonder about what “healthy” meant and if it was a zero-sum game, as they say.
For instance, I have a pacemaker, high blood pressure, enlarged prostate and take half a dozen pills every morning; not the obvious definition of “healthy”. On the other hand, I am in no pain (thankfully), none of those ailments impact adversely on my activity (I regularly cycle 100 miles a week) and I seem no less active than my younger friends. (Yes, I do have some!).
So the question is, “Am I healthy or unhealthy?”. The answer may be that the two are, curiously, not mutually exclusive.
To satisfy the doubters
That this is not true verse
I offer up this doggerel
Which I find even worse.
