After 40 do you start falling apart

fingerguy

fingerguy

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#1
I am 43 going to be 44 in May. Since turning 40 I have:
  1. Now become allergic to Posion Ivy which before I could have rolled in it and never catch it
  2. Now have allergies
  3. Trouble getting off the floor
  4. A tooth broke
  5. Saying things like "Damn kids" or "Back in my day"
  6. Actually having to do the math to confirm how old I am
  7. Trouble remembering anything anymore including why I walked into a specific room

I am sure there is more but that is all I can think of for right now.
 
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#2
fingerguy said:
I am 43 going to be 44 in May. Since turning 40 I have:
  1. Now become allergic to Posion Ivy which before I could have rolled in it and never catch it
  2. Now have allergies
  3. Trouble getting off the floor
  4. A tooth broke
  5. Saying things like "Damn kids" or "Back in my day"
  6. Actually having to do the math to confirm how old I am
  7. Trouble remembering anything anymore including why I walked into a specific room

I am sure there is more but that is all I can think of for right now.
Click to expand...

Yep! Get used to it.

I get down; but, I can't get up!

Hair growing quickly from places I never had hair before. Thankfully, I still have a full head of hair and not losing any.

I can agree with some of your list as follows:

  1. Now become allergic to Posion Ivy which before I could have rolled in it and never catch it
  2. Now have allergies
  3. Trouble getting off the floor (don't sit on the floor with your legs akimbo)
  4. Saying "Back in my day"
  5. Trouble remembering why I walked into a specific room
 
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#4
If you don't start falling apart before that. Getting old is not for wimps.

1 is simple sensitisation - a very standard thing for many allergens.
So is 2.
3 is where "actually doing more exercise really, rather than just meaning to" will help (as well as other areas you have not hit yet.) It's hard.
4 will only be the first of many. You will buy your dentist a nice new car in the coming years. Brush and floss more. Try to find or keep the unicorn job that has dental insurance that's not a complete joke.
5 - yup, you're an old ...
6 it's not that hard. go by decades, count forward or backwards - you were apparently born in 74, so in 2014 you were 40, in 2024 you'll be 50, add or subtract 5 or less to get to the current year.
7 why am I here? What am I writing? (more seriously, lists.)

When considering your approach to 3&4, remember that cancer and heart disease are either waiting in the wings or already sneaking up on you.

Also, you will soon have more use for a nose and ear hair trimmer than you can even begin to imagine.
 
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#6
Usual grumbles:
* I walk down stairs, or on hills, or on the flat. Everything is fine. I try to climb stairs, "CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!"
* You know how you go to restaurant, open the menu, and read through all the good things they offer? Not without my damn reading glasses, apparently.
* Odd, single, thick hair that grows randomly out of my cheek.
* I used to be the one to open the recalcitrant jar lids in my household. Now I have to resort to tricks (dessert spoon resting on the jar and jammed under the lid. Pops off easily.)
* The war between 'Falling asleep by nine' and 'Insomnia' - I might win one battle, but the war continues.
 
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#9
Gotta say that I'm more worse for the wear at 50 than I was 10 years ago even.

At 40, I had been a competitive mountain biker for about 15 years. Had shattered my elbow when I was 39 and was off the bike for a long time, but still competitive when I started riding again and medalled in a few races the year I turned 40. I used to do a LOT of XC skiing int the winter after messing up my knees doing freestyle DH skiing in my youth.

But between 40 and 50, I've:

- broken 5 ribs in a bike accident, permanent loss of sensation on my thighs from a L2-L3 spinal compression
- severed nerve and tendon in left index finger - surgery saved the finger, but lost range of motion and utility; had to curtail my weight training for a very long time as I couldn't pick anything up in my left hand for months.
- lower back injury; kept me off the bike and out of the gym for a hear; ongoing sciatica if I'm not careful.
- Achilles tendon injury; sports related and ended my winter activity of curling 2-3x per week. That was two years ago and I'm just now able to walk with almost no pain.

I guess my thinking was that I could do all the stuff I could do with the same intensity that I could when I was in my 20s and 30s. But all this has conspired to reduce my athleticism and intense activity levels to almost zero. Food and booze intake has increased as well. The sedentary lifestyle has added a good 60-70lbs on my frame. Fighting weight for me was 195-200lbs. Haven't seen that for a long time. Even going on a spirited recreational bike ride with my buddies is out of the question, I'm so far gone. I think my lack of fitness is why I'm dealing with pneumonia right now instead of just a 2-3 day flu.

That said, I do a lot of off-road motorcycling and regularly work around my cottage (building stuff, clearing bush, chopping wood, swimming, kayaking, snowshoeing, etc) so I'm not a complete lump. It's gotten to the point that I'm considering dusting off the golf clubs and having that be my main "sports" activity!

So, all I can say is - keep active and try not to hurt yourself in your 40s! You're not in your 20s anymore you know....
 
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#10
I picked up allergies, not the food kind but the environmental kind, when I turned 40. Almost to the day.
My memory isn't what it used to be for new stuff, but old stuff I remember super well.

-Mike
 
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#12
Pah, "Age is all mind over matter. If you don't mind it don't matter" *
My friend @Gorn likes to tease me about my age. I don't mind because it don't matter. :D
I choose not to identify myself as an old guy you can , we all get to choose we want. A lot of us choose to identify ourselves as a bassists.
Now get out there and rock your bass!


*Satchel Page
 
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#13
simple answer to the title question:

Yes

get used to it

you've more or less reached the half way point of your life and from here it's all downhill. . . kinda like a roller coaster that just reached the top of the big climb and slipped over the edge into it's free fall.

Just try not to break any bones along the way.
 
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#14
"It's not the years, it's the mileage." --Indiana Jones

For me it started around 32. I developed neck and shoulder problems--compressed disk, bursitis, pinched nerve, etc. This was most likely due to my football playing years.

Early 40's--mild case of arthritis and spinal stenosis in the neck.

Late 40's (present)--tendonitis in the left elbow, which the doc said was definitely caused by too much bass/guitar playing. This has more or less kept me sidelined since August, but there has been much improvement--for example, I can now pick up a bottle of beer without excruciating pain.

But on the bright side, I still have never had a cavity in any of my teeth--of which I still have the full original set, except for the one I cracked on an ice cube a few years ago--that one's been replaced by an implant.
 
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#15
We all do it. I’m 58 so you’re a bit early. I just spent two hours doing an initial visit and evaluation with a pain management doctor. We came up with a plan to make living with my knees and lower back tolerable. I think a lot of my issues come from racing dirt track cars and being in construction/remodeling/maintenance in my 20s and 30s.
 
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#17
Yes and no.

I had bursitis surgery on my right knee at 42 (Now 46). I can't put my right knee on the ground anymore. No padding whatsoever left.

I got glasses at 40 on the dot.

I have to eat well and keep moving to keep my blood pressure down. That's new.

However, I still have all my hair and it's black. I still get carded for beer sometimes. I'm pretty fit and active. Nothing else seems to be killing me lately. So I'm holding steady.

When I go to a class reunion everybody I went to schoool with looks like they got hit by a truck.... A fat truck. So I feel pretty good about myself. :D
 
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#19
Here is my old band, they didn't want to hear about my aches and pains. They also didn't mine that I am old, so why should I?

revlove2.JPG
 
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