I recall when I was much younger, I lived in an area with a large number of retirees. While many seemed active, I also knew that during the winter, when there were nearly a million more seniors than the other time of the year, it was near impossible to get in to see a doctor or hospital unless it was serious or an emergency. Not only did the influx of winter visitors clog the roads, stores and restaurants but they really clogged up the medical world. Additionally, there was an abundance of nursing homes in the area due to the number of retirees. In our early marriage, my wife worked the geriatric floor in a hospital in town and during the winter, there was never an empty bed.

As young man, I along with many others, saw seniors as being those with chronic illnesses and being old and decrepit. Aging was something I did not look forward to.

In many of my previous writings, I talk about how the risk of developing different cancers, dementias and other health conditions increase with age. If you add all of those risk factors together, one would wonder how anyone could live past the age of 65. But again, I recall someone adding up all of the different things you can do to your car to increase your gas mileage and he found that if you did them all, it would save you over 115% mileage, meaning you would have gasoline overflowing from your tank.

With such a view on aging and overall health, I found it surprising to read that the majority of seniors give their health a positive rating, according to the following report:

A common myth about aging is that older adults are burdened by illness and feel lousy much of the time. In fact, the opposite is usually true. Most seniors report feeling distinctly positive about their health.

Consider data from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (the most recent available), administered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When asked to rate their overall health, 82% of adults ages 65 to 74 described it as excellent (18%), very good (32%) or good (32%) — on the positive side of the ledger. By contrast, 18% of this age group had a negative perspective, describing their health as fair (14%) or poor (4%).

This trend toward positivity is also evident among adults age 75 and older: 73% of this group said their health was excellent (12%), very good (28%) or good (33%), while only 27% gave a fair (20%) or poor (7%) evaluation.

The report went on to ask how this could be true since about 60% of seniors have 2 or more chronic illnesses including arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease along with more physical impairments related to age.

Their answer to the apparent conundrum is:

The answer lies in how older adults think about their health. For many, good health means more than the lack of illness or disability. The components of health they tend to value more are vitality, emotional well-being, positive social relationships, remaining active and satisfaction with life, while poor physical functioning plays a less important role.

“Being healthy means being able to continue doing what I like: going to the theater, organizing programs, enjoying the arts, walking,” said Lorelei Goldman, 80, of Evanston, Ill., who has had ovarian and breast cancer. She also describes her health as “good.”

“I have all my faculties and good, longtime friendships,” Goldman continued. “I used to be a bad sleeper, but now I’m sleeping much better. Almost every day, there are moments of clarity and joy. I’m involved in a lot of activities that are sustaining.”

When I shared this with my wife, she easily related to the reason. She is 68, has osteoarthritis in her hip joint, along with low thyroid function and takes a medication to counter an irregular heartbeat. She is active, social, loves to keep busy and always doing something. She often tells people that life began at 50.

I’m 67, am a type-2 diabetic, have high blood pressure, extensive neck and spine damage, bad knees and achy thumbs, but I still enjoy gardening, yardwork and woodworking. If I concentrated on my aches and pains, I would be an invalid, but since I’m still able to get up and move around and do things, I would say my health is good, relatively speaking. I know it could always be worse.

It comes down to our outlook on life. If one is pessimistic, they would say their health is horrible, but with an optimistic outlook on life, even aches and pains can be part of a positive attitude on one’s health. I’ve seem many a report that says a positive attitude helps one live longer and if you go around feeling that you’ve got one foot in the grave, the rest of you will probably soon join that foot!