By Rick Banas of BMA Management, Ltd.
New York Times Best Selling Author Dan Buettner does not mince words when talking about the importance of socialization. “We know that isolation kills,” he says in a video on his website.
Dan is the author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest” and “Thrive: Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way.”
His focus is on how we can not only live longer but healthier and better lives, adding years to life and life to years.
I had the opportunity to meet Dan and hear him speak at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. He was discussing the lessons he learned from studying people who live in parts of the world where the proportion of healthy 90 and 100 year-olds is unusually high.
He stressed that your genes are not nearly as important as how you live. He talked about howd belonging and being socially connected to others are two of the keys to living long well.
In light of the work we do in senior housing at BMA, I find Dan’s comments about socialization especially relevant. One of the biggest benefits of living in a senior living or assisted living community is having a wealth of opportunities for socialization available right outside the door to your apartment. Rather than being isolated alone in a house, residents eat together. They get together to tell stories, chat, play cards and exercise. More recently, Wii bowling has been very popular, with residents in some of our communities getting together on a daily basis for practice and competition.
The two most dangerous years of a person’s life is the year the person was born and the year the person retires, notes Buettner.
I encourage you to watch Dan’s video. You’ll learn much more about the keys to living a longer and healthier life. You’ll also learn about a place where 102-year-olds live life with vigor, still riding their bikes to work and chopping wood, and about a place where people tend to live a long time and then die in their sleep.
All affordable assisted living communities managed by BMA Management, Ltd. are certified and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. All assisted living communities are licensed and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“BMA Management, Ltd. is the leading provider of assisted living in Illinois
and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
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