Being Mortal

people maynot realizethat theyhavecavity and gum problemsuntil it’s too late. Inthe course ofa normal lifetime,themusclesoftheja ...

becomegraduallylessabletorunasfarorasfastasthey usedtoorto climba flightofstairswithoutbecoming short of breath. As the heart mu ...

difference—theycannotbestopped.Ourfunctionallung capacitydecreases.Ourbowelsslowdown.Ourglands stopfunctioning. Evenourbrains sh ...

Theideathatlivingthingsshutdowninsteadofwearing down has receivedsubstantial support in recent years. Researchers working with t ...

Germany,notesthatonly 3 percent ofhowlongyou’ll live, compared with theaverage, is explainedby your parents’longevity;bycontrast ...

thegenenearby.And,iftheentirecelldies,othercells can fill in. Nonetheless,asthedefectsinacomplexsystemincrease, thetimecomeswhen ...

also graduallyyellows thelens.Evenwithoutcataracts (thewhitish cloudingof thelens thatoccurs withage, excessiveultravioletexposu ...

Throughout most of human history, a society’s population formed a sort of pyramid: young children represented the largest portio ...

programs in adult primary care medicine have plummeted, while fields like plastic surgery and radiologyreceiveapplicationsinreco ...

THEGERIATRICSCLINIC—OR,asmyhospitalcallsit,the CenterforOlderAdultHealth(eveninaclinicgearedto people eighty years orolder, pati ...

she’dstartedwearingapad.She’dalsohadsurgeryfor coloncancerand,bytheway,shenowhadalungnodule thattheradiology reportsaidcouldbe a ...

breakfastthat day. Cereal anda banana, shesaid. She hatedbananas,butshe’d heardtheywere goodforher potassium, so she was afraid ...

triage by zeroing in on either the most potentially life-threateningproblem(thepossiblemetastasis) orthe problemthatbotheredhert ...

muscle weakness. Elderly people without these risk factorshave a 12 percent chance of falling in a year. Those with all three ri ...

willtakecareofitself.Andifitdoesn’t—ifapatientis becoming infirm and heading toward a nursing home—well, that isn’t really amedi ...

Next came not a fall but a car accident. Backing her ChevyImpala outofher driveway,sheshotacrossthe street,overthecurb,andthroug ...

investigatefurther.Shestilldidn’twanttotellthefamily aboutwhathadhappened.Butsheknewthiswastrouble and after a while finally tol ...

ailmentsbesides—anelderlywomanatriskoflosingthe life she enjoys—andwe hardly knowwhat to do and often only make matters worse. S ...

Instead,itwasjustgeriatrics.Thegeriatricteamsweren’t doing lung biopsies or back surgery or insertion of automatic defrailers. W ...

Butthedismalfinancesofgeriatricsareonlyasymptom ofadeeperreality:peoplehavenotinsistedonachange inpriorities.Wealllikenewmedical ...