AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016 - 26

FLY WELL

The living daylights

BY DR. JONATHAN M. SACKIER

Maintaining health to die another day
I'M BRITISH, I like James Bond: 007, License to Kill.
With a nod to silver-screen deaths, research has paraphrased a Bondian lyric, "living's in the way we die."
I don't want to scare the living daylights out of you,
but recent research published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences from the University of
Chicago examined health and aging. Psychologists,
sociologists, and geriatricians followed 3,000 men and
women aged 57 to 85. They looked at medical histories
and plotted five-year mortality. The research modeled

Pilots are largely a happy bunch, and we tend to
congregate at airshows, $100 hamburger retreats,
and airport breakfasts. Just as well, for research
confirms that unwanted solitude is associated with
more illness and shorter lifespans.

DR. JONATHAN SACKIER

answers AOPA
members' medical
questions through
the AOPA Pilot
Protection
Services program
(www.aopa.org/
pps).

26 | AOPA PILOT August 2016

how factors such as psychological well-being, mobility,
and health behaviors are linked to overall health. Once
people were older, regardless of prior problems, they
did OK. That is why age alone is not a factor when considering fitness to fly. Obesity is rampant in our country
and has its own health consequences, but was additive
to items the scientists identified.
In my efforts to inspire my fellow aviators to do
some straightforward things to avoid disease, I have
beseeched people to lose weight, eat wisely, exercise,
and tell their doctor, "No, please don't palm me off
with platitudes." But there are other missions you can
embark on that lead to a long and serene life.
Pilots are largely a happy bunch, and we tend to
congregate at airshows, $100 hamburger retreats, and
airport breakfasts. Loneliness is not a characteristic of
our community. And just as well, for research confirms
that unwanted solitude is associated with more illness
and shorter lifespans. This might be because loners are
less likely to embark on pursuits that inspire healthy
behaviors. Sitting alone at home is inherently unhealthy,
suppresses immunity, worsens mental illness, and is as
bad as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Absence of stimulating, fun company is bad news, so if you have not been to
an AOPA Fly-in, sign up-it's good for your health. And
if there is nobody close in your life, whether from Russia
with love or just around the corner, make an effort. You
are doing yourself a big favor.

Prior Fly Well articles have addressed sleep
apnea, now a focus for aviation medical examiners and the FAA. Even absent that problem, poor
sleep habits will shorten your cockpit hours-actually, all your hours. So commit to improving your
time asleep. Although screen time before bedtime is
not a good idea, consider installing a caffeine consumption app to train you to defer coffee drinks later
in the day. Also, wearable electronics can now help
evaluate sleep time and quality, and inspire one to
do better.
Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy: If one does not
exercise, weight is gained, muscle wastes, and exercising becomes harder. This vicious cycle has obvious
consequences. Focusing just on walking shows that
trouble ambulating leads to an earlier date to never
walk again. So, use it or lose it.
Osteoporosis, or bone thinning with age, can lead
to fractures and even death. And these researchers
ascertained that even one fractured bone after age 45
is a marker for an earlier demise, most commonly in
Caucasian women. Maybe a broken bone or two is a
marker for someone who takes chances and may succumb eventually. Or, maybe fractures occur in people
whose bones are a bit more brittle. More reason to get
checked out for osteoporosis if your doctor concurs
you are at risk.
In The World Is Not Enough, a villain named Renard
is incapable of feeling pain because of a bullet lodged
in his brain. Such sensory loss might seem appealing,
but for self-preservation pain is valuable-if not pleasurable. Anosmia, on the other hand (or nose), is an
inability to smell and may be congenital, follow a head
injury, nasal infection, meningitis, or as a symptom of
various neurological diseases. It also independently
affects life expectancy-maybe because one cannot
smell a gas leak or food that has passed its sell-by date.
Or a cockpit fire.
In writing these columns I always try to find a
quantum of solace to end on a happy note for my readers. Bond is like a good pilot: He always completes the
mission, defeats the villains, and lives to die another
day. Like a serious aviator, he uses intelligence, professional support, and technology. And he runs around a
lot. Do likewise.
AOPA
EMAIL jonathan.sackier@aopa.org

http://www.aopa.org/pps http://www.aopa.org/pps

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2016