Consumer Focus Column: Are You "With Aging" or "Anti-Aging"?

Katie Sloan, AAHSA Consumer Focus Columnist

“It’s good to be young, but getting old isn’t half bad either.”

That’s the opinion of Kenji Toba, a professor of geriatrics at Kyorin University in Tokyo. Toba is the eternal optimist – and we could learn a lot from him.

Got wrinkles? Don’t worry about it, he says. Those lines on your face are “indelible evidence of maturity.”

Getting forgetful? That’s only half the story, says Toba. Your memories may fade, but your thoughts and feelings become richer as you age.

It’s no wonder that Toba doesn’t like the term “anti-aging,” which we have come to associate with skin creams and vitamin supplements that promise to keep us young forever. Toba prefers the term “with aging.” Instead of fighting the aging process, he says, we really should be looking for ways to see aging as something natural – and to embrace it gracefully and gratefully.

Reading about Kenji Toba got me thinking about the words we use to describe aging – and what that language says about our attitudes toward older people. Think about it. When we talk about 85-year-olds, do our words focus on “disabilities” and “deficits” or do they recognize “abilities” and “assets”? As providers of long-term services and supports, do we “care for” older people or do we find ways to “empower” them?

The language we use may seem insignificant at first blush, but we can’t ignore the power of words to form our perceptions and direct our actions.

What words should we stop using when talking about aging and older people? What new words should we adopt? I’d love to hear your suggestions.