The Characteristics Of The Baby Boomer Generation

The Baby Boomers are a whole new generation when it comes to anti-aging. Let us take a look at the characteristics of the baby boomer generation and why they refuse to age.

Who Are The Baby Boomers?

Baby boomers are the generation born after World War II. Also, known simply as “boomers,” they are named after the unprecedented post-war spike in birth rates, referred to as the baby boom.

Typically, baby boomers are people born between 1946 and 1964.

Characteristics Of The Baby Boomer Generation

These are the common characteristics of this amazing generation:

• They are strong and focused in their work ethic
• They are competitive
• They are independent
• They are resourceful and goal orientated
• They are self-assured and value their relationships
• They don’t get ‘old’ easily

Aging Baby Boomer Style

The characteristics of the baby boomer generation are quite common – growing older doesn’t mean growing old. The idea of getting old just doesn’t seem to exist for most of them.

Let’s look at the approximately 39 million women that were born between 1946 and 1964. They have redefined social and political landscapes and now they are redefining youthfulness as ‘positive aging.’ And they are actually living longer and better than their predecessors.

Why is this?

Well for one baby boomers and beyond are fortunate enough to be born in an era of constant medical discoveries and advances. In this century alone a woman’s life expectancy has increased by 31 years and a man’s by 28 years.

The average woman lives to be 79 and the average man 74. The rate of disabilities among older people has dropped dramatically because of medical breakthroughs, better nutrition, and a huge decline in the smoking of cigarettes.

Hormone-replacement therapy has come to the fore when it comes to the prevention of heart disease, osteoporosis, and certain cancers. The effect of a healthy diet including vitamin D supplementation and calcium has improved the health of many who would have otherwise been sickly.

Gender-based biology has been examining the biological and physiological differences between women and men and this field has made remarkable discoveries. For instance, it is now a known fact that women who smoke are 20 to 70 percent more likely to develop lung cancer than men who smoke the same number of cigarettes.

Women are also more likely than men to suffer a second heart attack within a year of their first. Women also metabolize medications differently from the way that men do. We have access to a mind-boggling amount of health information at the moment. We are now better equipped to make informed health-related decisions that can affect the length and quality of our lives.

Think about it, when our moms were young, people who ate more vegetables than meat and exercised regularly were considered weird. The consensus in those days was that you must accept that you will eventually get old and sick. Not anymore thank goodness. Our generation has a new focus and that is to prevent age-related diseases before they strike.

It is now well-known that a healthy diet and regular exercise help to prevent many of the illnesses associated with aging such as cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease which actually kills more women than all forms of cancer combined.

What is not as well-known however is that there is growing evidence that antioxidants and plant chemicals in fruits and vegetables may also stave off age-related diseases, including diabetes, muscular degeneration, and breast cancer.

Found in our bodies as well as in fruits and vegetables, antioxidants neutralize free radicals, which are cripples oxygen molecules that steal electrons from our healthy cells and cause aging and illness.

Soy foods such as tofu and soy milk are rich in phytoestrogens, natural substances in soybeans that show great promise in preventing breast cancer, osteoporosis, and menopausal hot flashes. Did you know that women who consume the amount of beta-carotene found in half a carrot have a 68 percent lower risk of getting breast cancer?

Also, exercise is the best anti-aging medicine in the world. Exercising may add as much as seven years to our life span. Studies have shown that regular exercise may boost our body’s levels of antioxidants, thus preventing the free-radical damage that plays havoc with our systems.

Menopause Could Become A Thing Of The Past

The baby boomer generation has a radically different take on menopause. “The women’s health movement has brought menopause out of the closet,” says Dr. Pinn. Women in general don’t fear it anymore and they understand that it’s a natural part of our maturing and that it marks the beginning of the rest of their lives.

In fact, 80 percent of women are relieved because their periods stop. In the past women whispered behind closed doors about ‘the change,’ but now they have active support groups and far more information at their disposal than ever before.

Women today play a far more active role in their midlife health care than their mothers ever did.

What About Sex?

Not all of us went in for the free-love attitude toward sex that began in the late 1960s, but many aging people maintain a healthy interest in sex. In fat in a large national study, women in their forties and fifties reported more orgasms than women in their early twenties.

Could this increased sexual satisfaction have anything to do with the increased leisure time on our hands? As we get older there is less hurry and rushing in our lives and that translates well into the sexual arena. It also doesn’t hurt that the kids are out of the house and there are no worries about unplanned pregnancies.

Women also know a lot more about their bodies now than their mothers did and have a better understanding of how to remedy things. For instance, there are lubricants now for vaginal dryness, and both partners can take their time to become aroused, as it takes a bit longer now than it did when you were twenty.

Now It’s Your Time

Due to the wave of feminism that swept over us during the 1970s, there are more freedoms and opportunities that are helping to keep us all young.

Instead of retiring to the recliner, we are looking for other ways of advancing our careers, learning more, or even discovering and rediscovering our talents. People now are generally more fulfilled as they age and many feel that it is the best time of their lives.

People, especially women are released from the obligations of home and family and have incredible opportunities to reinvent themselves.

In fact, many people choose to go back to school.

Education is great for anti-aging as the California Public Health Foundation in Berkeley found that people with twelve years or more of education were healthier than those who had less schooling.

When I was young I used to think 40 was old and 50 was ancient, but now that I am there I feel that I can make even more plans for the future with the increased resources and time that I have on my hands. I am watching and learning from the generation born just a few years before me for inspiration.

After all, I am still going to be on this earth for a long time…..