Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/13061
JULY 2010 HEALTH & HAPPINESS 52 FEATURE : LONG LIVE LIVING LONG That's not to say that they'll be leaving the workforce. On the contrary, the Labor Bureau of Statistics estimates that working seniors 75 and older will soar to about 83 percent by 2016. While their numbers are small — 0.8 percent were employed in 2007, the BLS reported — they're a group that experienced the biggest gain, 172 percent between 1997 and 2007. The graying of the workforce has been partly attributed to changes in retirement benefits, inflation and personal outlook. How we're aging has created new sub-disciplines and fields of study. In 2003, researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine discovered an inheritable gene mutation that helps people live longer lives. Advancements in medicine, greater emphasis on preventative care and genetics all play a role in explaining longevity. Longer lives are also changing health care — from how the needs of multi-generation seniors are addressed at hospitals to how the country's health care system prepares to absorb aging Boomers. It also boils down to attitude, said Dr. William Lyons, doctor of hematology, medical oncology and geriatrics at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. "One of my 84-year-old guys came in yesterday, and he said, "You can't prevent yourself from getting older, but you can prevent getting old,'" Lyons recalled. Lyons said his longest-living patients are creative, maintain healthy eating and exercise habits and — most telling — live in contentment. "To me, the most important thing is to keep your brain active," said Dr. Myrvin Ellestad, founder, medical director and Emeritus of LBMMC's renowned Heart and Vascular Institute. "How do you do that? Well, you stay involved in things." For the 88-year-old Long Beach resident, that means maintaining a full schedule. Describing himself as a "bootstrap cardiologist" who came into the discipline while working at Seaside Hospital, Ellestad in 1954-55 established the Institute. He plays tennis, but recently had to give up skiing. He regularly writes and edits for national medical journals, and is himself an author of several books. One of them, the industry standard Stress Testing is now in its fifth edition and printed in five languages. He's a regular contributor to the Pasadena-based group, Skeptics Society, and is currently working on his latest book, a history of the Heart and Cardiovascular Institute. "Once you're recognized as an expert, you're kind of under the gun to keep producing," Ellestad said with a hint of a smile during a busy May afternoon at his LBMMC office. Ellestad is also involved in a national study to identify people at high risk of coronary disease — namely, observing heart blood flow in individuals with narrow coronaries. The patients in the research have been implanted with pacemaker-type devices to track their hearts. LBMMC is the only West Coast medical institution involved in the study, Ellestad said. "If you keep looking for answers, you might just find them," he said. "I'm a great believer that you can probably continue to learn as your brain is working." Alice Flaig, an Oklahoma transplant who drove west to California in 1926 with her family can relate. "I've always been thin and I've always been active," said Flaig. Frequently recognized for her volunteerism, Flaig has devoted nearly 13,000 hours to Seaside Hospital, and, when it opened its doors in June 1960, LBMMC. Over the years, her work has entailed sorting mail, assisting patients with their meals, running urine samples and blood counts to nurses.