It is now quite trendy to be in Middle Age. For some, it means slightly less responsibility for families where children are now older. Many middle-aged people are deciding how long to continue to work for and this is probably dependent on finances and superannuation (in some countries), health and drive. In other countries, there are no superannuation funds or government support systems so middle-aged people work for as long as they can and then it is up to their families to support them in some way.
Some people in this time of life may still have older family alive and have roles involved with these people, while there are more and more services available to assist with these older family members this allows those in middle age much more time to do activities that they ‘wish’ to do where time and finances allow this happen. On the flip side, particularly for women in this age group, they can do activities that they would not have been able to do in their younger days due to the ‘expectations’ of society and family.
Now that the world is much more accessible for many more people, those in middle age can enjoy this in regards to technology and travel, whereas previous generations would not have had any of these opportunities so readily available.
The use of technology has increased the understanding of many different areas of life and in the world and therefore the cognition of the middle age is less likely to be an issue or declining. However, due to having a diet in the recent times with lots of processed foods and the stress of work and family, this age group is seeing the highest amount of chronic health issues than in previous generations and this is costing individuals and governments a significant amount of money.
Many health issues are being identified as having a lifestyle component and therefore the medical model needs to think, research and apply a different approach to these illnesses which we are slowly seeing in mainstream medicine. It seems that the changes required by medicine have been slower to change than in younger generations where people have decided to take control of their lives and their health and not rely on the cure approach to medicine but a preventative approach. This has been discussed in previous posts about the paradigm changes being seen in health and medicine.
There are some things to think about on a bigger picture for medicine, complementary health services, generational differences in health and their approach to their health.
More info here.
Have a great weekend.
