Healthy Aging: Pills vs Lifestyle

In Pills We Trust

My neighbor said her 80-year-old father, who watched his diet and never ate cheese, once asked, “Do you think it’s OK, now that I’m 80, if I eat some cheese?"

“Of course, Dad – what difference can it make now?”

From then on, he enjoyed his daily cheese and crackers. He found a new companion after his wife died and lived several more years without incident.

Created by AI 6/28/25

And you begin to wonder—if you’ve made it to 80 with no heart problems, is your body just naturally protected? Was it the healthy diet that got you there? Can you loosen up a bit now?

I’d love to peek inside the medicine cabinets of some of the 95+ year olds. Also, to know what they eat. I know one of my friends eats a burger loaded with blue cheese every Friday. Dr. Google says that a blue cheese burger could contain 18–21 grams of saturated fat—“well over the recommended daily limit for most adults.” She also has ice cream for dessert. "But I only eat half of it," she says. She’s 96. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t eat the top bun (carbs, you know). Or maybe it’s the lettuce she substitutes for the top bun—greens and fiber. Or maybe it’s her outlook; she’s always smiling, always upbeat. Or maybe it's just of genetics.

Created by AI 6/28/25

Genetics? Some of you may remember Jim Fixx, author of The Book of Running. He was overweight and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day until age 35, when he quit smoking, lost weight, and started running marathons. I became a runner because of his book. He died of a heart attack at 52. All that work didn’t save him. He had a family history of heart disease, and never went to the doctor. He was a Mensa member. Maybe they aren’t as smart as we think.

Pills vs Lifestyle

Anyway, nowadays we have statins to tame that nasty LDL if you eat too much cheese.

But sometimes I wonder—are we using drugs as a crutch? For decades, I eschewed some of my favorite foods: butter, cream, cheese. At age 75, the doctor put me on statins. I took that as my green light to eat saturated fats, as long as my ‘numbers’ are good. I butter my sweet potato. I sometimes wickedly pour heavy cream on my cereal instead of soy milk. I’m protected now, right? So I ditched the soy milk for 2%, and when my numbers didn’t go up, I switched to whole milk. Still, a voice in the back of my head whispers, “You know this can’t be good for you, even if your numbers are fine.”

Created by AI 6/28/25

Psychologists warn parents and pet owners, “Don’t reward bad behavior.” Is taking a statin like rewarding bad behavior? Take this pill, and you can eat all the cheese you want.

Is the statin pill the miracle I think it is? Should I be asking more questions? Are there side effects? Of course. Memory fuzz, for one. (1) So now I can blame my statin if I forget your name. But there are worse side effects; liver damage, for example.

Lifestyle Changes

Speaking of pills vs lifestyle changes, I admire my neighbor and her doctor. At age 40, her blood test showed pre-diabetes. Rather than immediately start her on Metformin, her doctor suggested she lose weight first. She didn’t eat sugar for over a year (what willpower!), lost weight, and dodged the diabetes bullet. And now she’s reintroduced a little sugar back into her life.

Sometimes it’s all about heredity. When I first had blood pressure issues, I lost weight, even though I was already at an ideal weight, and gave up salt. All that and I still had high blood pressure. For others, lifestyle changes help. For me, not so much. Both of my parents had it before age 50. I ended up on an ACE inhibitor.

On a lighter note, thinking about pills reminds me of Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 song White Rabbit. “

"One pill makes you larger,

And one pill makes you small,

 And the one that mother gives you,

Don’t do anything at all.

Go ask Alice

When she’s ten feet tall"

Grace Slick, who wrote the song, swears it wasn’t an anthem for drugs, but a dig at parents who drank and told their kids not to do drugs (Songfacts). Really? Then why are the last words, “Remember what the dormouse said: Feed your head, Feed your head”? Grace claims she meant books, not drugs. Grace was supposedly an LSD user. I’m not buying it.

Anyway, modern medicine has extended our life expectancy from 47 in 1900 to 67 in 2022. (2,3) The biggest gain came between 1880 and 1920, thanks to public health improvements: control of infectious diseases and infant mortality. But how much have pills contributed?

I’m sure pills have extended many lives by years, even decades. Is part of my rant about pills because I see them as a sign that my body isn’t what it used to be? I always prided myself on staying healthy, but now I feel like my efforts are failing.

Created by AI 6/28/25

As I age, I wonder if I need to change my ideas about what being healthy means. Are pills vs lifestyle mutually exclusive? Does it mean avoiding pills altogether? Is it about freedom from disease? Walking instead of running? Or maybe it’s the freedom to enjoy cheese, cream, and laughter with friends, even if some of the numbers don’t look perfect.

Maybe good health isn’t just about lab results, but about living fully—with a little help from medicine, and a lot of joy.

References

1. Mayo Clinic Staff, Statin side effects: Weigh the benefits and risks, Mayo Clinic, March 11, 2025

2. Hollis Walker, 200 years of public health has doubled our life expectancy, The DUrango Herald, April 10, 2017

3. Quora, 4 Reasons Life Expectancy Has Increased In The Past 200 Years, Forbes.com,  September 15, 2022