There's a reason humans live twice as long as our nearest biological cousins, says a Harvard-trained gerontologist who visited Medford Thursday.
Old people are "the glue that holds us together," Dr. Bill Thomas told a crowd of nearly 400 seniors gathered at Medford's Red Lion Inn. He said humans passed on their accumulated wisdom through elders for thousands of years before there was writing.
"You cannot have a healthy human community that does not have the voice of elders in it," he said. "You cannot teach young people how to live without elders."
Thomas spoke during a seniors' health and wellness conference organized by Sen. Gordon Smith and at least a dozen local sponsors. Thomas writes and speaks widely on the role of seniors in modern society and the need to create a new elderhood that fits the way we live now. He's also a visiting scholar at AARP.
Smith chairs the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. Kimberly Collins, committee spokesperson, said Smith plans to make the senior wellness conference an annual event that will be scheduled in a different city every year.
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Thomas illustrated the intergenerational role of grandparenting by asking his audience how many of them had a close relationship with a grandparent. When at least half the elders in the room raised a hand, he observed "Those men and women long gone are still in this room. Their influence is with you even now in this room."
Thomas said it's important for people in their 60s, 70s and beyond to take responsibility for their own health care as a step toward changing society's view of them as broken-down versions of their former younger selves.
"You need to be an equal partner with your doctor," he said. "You have to know as much about your medicines as your doctor does."
Thomas said too many elders take more drugs than they should, and the resultant side effects and drug interactions cause more health problems than they cure. He said Americans spend more treating those drug interactions and side effects than they spend on the medicines themselves.
He said elders often fall prey to television advertising for new drugs that are far more expensive, but no more effective, than their older, generic counterparts.
"Those advertisements are really toxic," he said, noting that over the past 10 years, one in every five new drugs that came to market has been withdrawn or had warnings added to their labels.
He said elders should give each of their physicians a list of all the medicines, supplements, herbs, and vitamins they take.
"They're going into your body," he said. "Your doctor needs to know."
Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492 or e-mail:bkettler@mailtribune.com
