Squaring your curve

My goal is to live until I die. I mean, really live. Be physically active and mentally sharp.

So the question is “what do I need to do to accomplish my goal?”

If I do nothing, my health will deteriorate along the Traditional Decline curve in the graph below.

This is a hypothetical graph. There are no data available to support such a graph, so I’ve drawn the graph to represent what I perceive approximates reality. The “State of Health” ranges from perfect (100) to death (0).

Most people go through three health stages:

• An independent stage, during which the body is healing and repairing itself, as it was designed to do, without a prolonged period of drug use,
• A dependency stage, for which one or more drugs are needed every day to live with one or more disorders, and
• A disability stage, where limited physical mobility or mental capacity require additional assistance in addition to daily drugs.

Since the life expectancy of a baby boy born today is 76 years, I’ve drawn the “Traditional” curve to terminate at 76.

If I do nothing to prolong my health, my health will decline something similar to the “Traditional” curve. I will go through a stage where my doctor prescribes one or more daily medications to relieve the aches and pains and other symptoms that are commonly associated with aging. The side effects from the drugs will lead to other problems and my doctor will have another pill to deal with that.

The age at which I enter this stage will depend on my personal health conditions and my choice of health care professionals. If I choose a medical doctor, I most likely will be put on one or more drugs. If I choose a natural health practitioner, I most likely will not.

If I want to prolong my health, I have to make it happen. We call that “squaring the curve.” I first heard this term used by Clinton Howard, founder of RBC Life. Mr. Howard’s goal is to help people square their health curve. It’s also Dottie’s and mine. 

The most common things that people do to square their curves are 1) lose weight, 2) exercise, and 3) stop smoking. These are helpful, but if you are really serious about prolonging your health, you will do more.

I’ve created a list of guidelines for making healthy choices if you want to go the extra step. You can find them here.