Dr James Le Fanu: 6 December
It is comforting to know that most of those ‘the wrong side’ of 60, when interviewed, report that their autumn years have turned out a lot better than they had expected. It helps of course to be healthy and have a degree of financial security, but neither is essential, as revealed in a study of 300 elderly Zimbabweans reported in the Central African Journal Of Medicine. They were by any standards very poor, with an annual income of just £150, but most nonetheless claimed to be ‘happy most of the time’.
Perhaps Zimbabweans are particularly cheerful, but the fact that what psychologists call ‘life satisfaction in old age’ cannot be explained in strictly material or physical terms suggests that some more nebulous factor is just as important.
The key factor, according to Robert Sternberg of Yale University, is wisdom: ‘The wise individual is one who reads between the lines as well as making use of available information… is able to make sensible judgements… is prepared to change his or her mind as experience dictates and their solutions to complex problems tend to be the right ones.’
It would be absurd to suggest that wisdom is uniquely a characteristic of the older age group, some of whom can be as tetchy and dogmatic as any teenager, but it would appear that the combination of the passing of years and accumulation of experience means wisdom tends to come more naturally.
Being wise necessarily involves acknowledging the limits of human knowledge, making it easier to cope with things that cannot be known; such as why we are here and what (if anything) will happen after the curtain drops.
Taking this premise as her starting point, Dr Monika Ardelt of the University of Florida has further analysed the extent to which wisdom contributes to ‘life satisfaction in old age’. She identified three essential components: the cognitive, or ‘the ability to see to the heart of important problems’; the reflective, or ‘the ability to overcome self-centredness and see reality more clearly’; and the effective, or ‘the capacity for empathy, to behave in a sympathetic and considerate manner’.
This identification of wisdom as an integral element of human happiness may seem like an exercise in proving the obvious but, as Dr Sternberg points out: ‘To understand wisdom fully requires more wisdom than any of us have and it is itself a sign of wisdom to recognise that total understanding will always elude us.’
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of a lady from Bristol who describes how whenever she drinks a glass of wine she becomes ‘inferno hot’. Over the past few years this has become steadily worse: ‘With Christmas coming,’ she writes, ‘not to even have a glass of wine over the festive season is a dull prospect.’
There are several causes of alcohol-induced flushing but this is most likely due to sensitivity to the sulphites added to wine to prevent its oxidation and bacterial spoilage. This lady could perhaps have a more cheerful festive season if she decanted the wine prior to drinking, thus allowing the sulphites to disperse, or by sticking to wines designated as ‘no sulphites added’ (NSA), such as those produced by The Organic Wine Company.
Email drjames@lady.co.uk
Perhaps Zimbabweans are particularly cheerful, but the fact that what psychologists call ‘life satisfaction in old age’ cannot be explained in strictly material or physical terms suggests that some more nebulous factor is just as important.
The key factor, according to Robert Sternberg of Yale University, is wisdom: ‘The wise individual is one who reads between the lines as well as making use of available information… is able to make sensible judgements… is prepared to change his or her mind as experience dictates and their solutions to complex problems tend to be the right ones.’
It would be absurd to suggest that wisdom is uniquely a characteristic of the older age group, some of whom can be as tetchy and dogmatic as any teenager, but it would appear that the combination of the passing of years and accumulation of experience means wisdom tends to come more naturally.
Being wise necessarily involves acknowledging the limits of human knowledge, making it easier to cope with things that cannot be known; such as why we are here and what (if anything) will happen after the curtain drops.
Taking this premise as her starting point, Dr Monika Ardelt of the University of Florida has further analysed the extent to which wisdom contributes to ‘life satisfaction in old age’. She identified three essential components: the cognitive, or ‘the ability to see to the heart of important problems’; the reflective, or ‘the ability to overcome self-centredness and see reality more clearly’; and the effective, or ‘the capacity for empathy, to behave in a sympathetic and considerate manner’.
This identification of wisdom as an integral element of human happiness may seem like an exercise in proving the obvious but, as Dr Sternberg points out: ‘To understand wisdom fully requires more wisdom than any of us have and it is itself a sign of wisdom to recognise that total understanding will always elude us.’
This week’s medical query comes courtesy of a lady from Bristol who describes how whenever she drinks a glass of wine she becomes ‘inferno hot’. Over the past few years this has become steadily worse: ‘With Christmas coming,’ she writes, ‘not to even have a glass of wine over the festive season is a dull prospect.’
There are several causes of alcohol-induced flushing but this is most likely due to sensitivity to the sulphites added to wine to prevent its oxidation and bacterial spoilage. This lady could perhaps have a more cheerful festive season if she decanted the wine prior to drinking, thus allowing the sulphites to disperse, or by sticking to wines designated as ‘no sulphites added’ (NSA), such as those produced by The Organic Wine Company.
Email drjames@lady.co.uk