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Last week, I wrote about Dr. Maxwell Berry who practiced drugs in Kansas City for 40 years.
I used to be capable of get my arms on a transcript he wrote referred to as “All About Aging.” He gave wise, sage and humorous recommendation to his sufferers and left his ideas and beliefs in print for future generations. My favourite quote is, “I don’t feel old at 80, I feel young with a few things the matter with me.”
In 1979, on the age of 70, Dr. Berry wrote, “Eighty-five percent of Americans at 65 are reasonably happy, independent, and intellectually competent. We already know that we are not going to die at an early age. We are survivors. Most of us, that are healthy, think this is the best time of our lives.
“Most of us are amazed and offended by the manner in which we are portrayed as disadvantaged, complaining, and demanding by the media and political opportunists. But the bottom line is, older Americans are thriving.”
I believe this is still true and we have managed to survive a whole new set of challenges. If you live long enough, you’re bound to be an overcomer.
Dr. Berry had a simple but direct approach to healthy living. He believed in moderate exercise and a diet to maintain a healthy weight. He was particularly blunt about being overweight, he said, “There are a lot of old men and a lot of fat men, but there are not lots of old fat men.” Enough said.
His health prescription was the 1-2-3 plan: one aspirin, two eggs and 3 ounces of liquor a day. He did say he cut back on the alcohol as he got older. It must have worked; he lived to 95.
He said he had issues with a dietitian telling him to change his diet. “A 25-year-old dietitian telling a healthy 75-year-old man what he should eat seems to me to be both late and ludicrous.”
He wrote, “My own experience parallels a good segment of the senior population. We eat eggs, red meat and we prefer real butter. We eat bran out of necessity. Maybe we’ve just been lucky, but we enjoy our food, and we have survived a lot longer than that dietician. She has it to prove, we don’t.”
He bluntly says that tobacco, not diet, is the chief cause of most modern illnesses. “Yet, smoking isn’t much of a problem in my elderly patients. You might ask why, and I can tell you. First and most important is attrition.”
Smokers were not making it to his roster of older patients!
Dr. Berry closes his manuscript by saying: “Freedom from worry is vitally necessary for old age happiness. Our happiness is more mental than physical, and the most important component is contentment. Happiness is now found within us; not out there where it must be pursued.”
There is something reassuring about the idea of simplicity in aging. We have survived so much, and now it is time to enjoy the pleasures of contentment.
Berry ends with, “Enjoy the pleasures. There are things that will kill you, but enjoying life may be the best health benefit of all.”
Find Connie’s books “Daily Cures: Wisdom for Healthy Aging” and “The Way Grandmothers Are” at www.justnowoldenough.com.
This web page was created programmatically, to learn the article in its authentic location you’ll be able to go to the hyperlink bellow:
https://www.cjonline.com/story/news/local/2025/10/27/for-this-doctor-long-life-was-a-little-fun-and-a-lot-of-common-sense/86821432007/
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