Thursday, May 7, 2015

Over 65 and going strong: Baby boomers are reinventing old age

Over 65 and going strong: Baby boomers are reinventing old age
Fran Hinton, a 70-year-old pilates instructor at YWCA, holds a yoga pose.

Fran Hinton, a 70-year-old pilates instructor at YWCA, holds a yoga pose.

Photograph by: RICHARD LAM , PROVINCE

Young women seeking breast implants often tell Dr. Nick Carr that there’s no way they will need to have them replaced when they become senior citizens.
“When I’m 55, I won’t care,” they tell the Vancouver plastic surgeon and medical director of Skinworks cosmetic medical clinic.
“I always tell them, ‘You’ll still care,’” Carr says.
Dr. Carr should know. Older Canadians seeking cosmetic surgery have come to form up to half of his practice. Demand from people in their mid 50s to early 70s is steadily growing for everything from facial rejuvenation to tummy tucks.
He does cosmetic surgery on someone in his or her 70s every month.
Dr. Carr, who is also president of the Canadian Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, says many people who reach their 60s have worked hard to stay fit.
“This is a generation of people that is healthier and more vital,” he says. “It’s natural for them to want to have their external appearance match their internal health.”
In the U.S., people 55 and older accounted for 24 per cent of cosmetic surgery in 2013, making them the second largest surgical group after 40-to-54-year-olds, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Baby boomers are reinventing old age. The mass of Canadians poised to reach 65 over the next couple of decades is armed to the teeth with energy and a drive to stay active.
By 2030, when the youngest boomers have reached 65, 23 per cent of Canadians will be over 65, up from 15.3 per cent in 2013, according to Statistics Canada.
In B.C., seniors are expected to account for up to 27 per cent of the population in 2038.
Boomers entering retirement want to play hard and a growing number of them want to work hard. And they’re determined to look and feel good while they’re doing it.
Boomers will storm retirement with the financial and intellectual firepower they’ll need to meet their late-in-life goals, says Andrew Sixsmith, director of the Gerontology Research Centre at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.
RICHEST AND HEALTHIEST GENERATION
“Baby boomers are probably one of the richest and healthiest generations in human history,” Sixsmith says. “They’re also better educated than previous generations.”
People born between 1946 and 1965 have been distinguished by a tendency to go flat out at everything they do. That hallmark zeal is not expected to fade in retirement.
http://www.theprovince.com/business/Over+going+strong+Baby+boomers+reinventing/10240044/story.html


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