This will come as no great newsflash to you, but we are a culture that is absolutely obsessed with you. It seems as if we would do or spend anything that is necessary to retard the aging process including finding the best anti-aging treatment available. We do not like the idea of growing old and are therefore in denial of it. We like to remember ourselves and our youth when we have healthy, radiant glows that we thought would shine on forever. We seek anti-aging treatment, justified in our need to erase the life-battle scars we might otherwise be proud to show off, were white teeth, shiny hair, and perky this or tight that not so sanctified. How many times have you heard the old lament that youth is wasted on the young. I for one am kind of tired of it. In another respect, it is fair to acknowledge that, as my septuagenarian friend says, as we age we fall apart. Our eyesight grows progressively worse, our hearing begins to fade, and our bones and organs start to fail us. Our skin is probably our biggest tormentor. It dries and cracks and mars, revealing the effects of a lifetime something that has been dubbed free radical damage. Evidently, as we age, our skin exfoliates less often; sebum production slows; and therefore less oil flushes the skinthereby drying it. As well, a flattening of skin layers occurs, subsequently causing thinner skin. Collagen stabilizing enzymes decrease. Blood vessels thin out, preventing the usual blood flow. Now this all sounds rather depressing as it? Well, it's not my desire to bum you out so I'm sorry about that. Enter Botox, elastin enhancers, and the hundreds of other miracle cures that are used as anti aging treatment. Make the lips of a fuller, get rid of those wrinkles around your eyes, flatten your belly. The splaying of nose bonesa natural phenomena in the aging processgot you feeling less than ideal? Plastic surgery is growing ever more popular. ED (erectile dysfunction) reminding you high school football stud years are now nothing more than pages in a yearbook? Go for the infamous or most touted ED drug. They surely are easy to find with their ads splashed all over our televisions on a daily basis. They can actually be quite embarrassing. But despite all our anti-aging treatment and fixation (not because of it), the ravages of age continue to march on. Yes, we most certainly are living longer lives so that has something to do with our obsession with youth. Sometimes we can even look better through modern science. Again, this is not necessarily due to minor or occasional anti-aging treatments, but more likely to evolution, preservatives, and poisons, and let's not forget that healthy diets play a large role, exercising often, and getting plenty of healthy rest. Romeo and Juliet, for example, were they alive (and real) today, would not be worrying about marriage at fifteen (which was not the source of the tragedy, anyway) but at the 30 or maybe even 40. So regardless of, in spite of, or maybe with the help of SOME anti-aging treatments, attempts, and so-called cures, those of us eligible for anti-aging treatment are in our mid- to later yearswhen quality of life really does come into play and we begin to become more concerned about our appearances. By the same token, I believe that some people really couldn't care less about material gain or other external, superficial forms of nurturing and are just beginning to invest in our holistic health. We are coming into understanding peace, prayer, serenity, solitude. It is these people that will truly find solitude. We have also discovered what works and what doesn't to some extent as far as anti-aging treatments go. We know anti-aging treatment plans (outside of healthy, natural efforts) do not conquer aging or death. They just contribute to drawing out, prolonging, or holding it at bay a bit longer. |
