Palmerston North geriatrician Dr Kirsten Holst shares tips on ageing well

Palmerston North geriatrician Dr Kirsten Holst likens our health to the game Kerplunk, as our actions can remove important sticks. Photo / Judith Lacy

As a geriatrician, Dr Kirsten Holst is used to hearing people say they don't want to become one of her patients.

But we should be pleased we are ageing day by day because the other option is death and growing older is a privilege, she says.

Holst was the guest speaker at Royal Society of New Zealand Manawatū Branch's October meeting.

The late teens and early 20s are the peak of our lives for most of our body systems, but older people can have excellent quality of life if they approach it in the right way and have people around them to help them, she said.

Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease and talking about it won't make it happen.

Cognitive impairment is not just remembering facts but about function, problem solving, language and social ability.

Holst gave eight ways people can reduce their risk of cognitive impairment:
1. get bright - keep your brain active
2. stay light
3. don't get uptight
4. don't fight - avoid sports such as rugby and boxing which can cause concussion, wear a helmet and seatbelt
5. hear and see right
6. sleep tight
7. drink lite
8. socialise

Holst said there is no magic diet bullet but advised eating a rainbow. Walnuts are good for bowel flora while processed meat is not. The social aspects of eating are important.

Additional things you can do to help your health are:
• ask and accept help
• participate in screening programmes
• get vaccinated
• look after your oral health to prevent inflammation
• plan for the future
• get your vision and hearing sorted.

Holst, who has worked at Palmerston North Hospital for about 30 years, likened our health to the game Kerplunk, "glorified" pick-up sticks.

Some actions might slow sticks being pulled out, such as reducing stress, and some might even put a stick back in the pile, such as an operation.

She spoke about planning for the future by making a bucket list and acting on it, advance care planning, making a will and having an enduring power of attorney.

Driving is a privilege, not a right, and save energy for the good things in life, not cleaning the toilet.

Holst, who is a member of the Royal Society Manawatū Branch committee, said one of the things that drew her to geriatric medicine was the chance to talk to people and to listen to their stories and what matters to them.

She has personally experienced grieving the losses along the way when a loved one has dementia.

Her mother, food writer Dame Alison Holst, has dementia. She made a sign for the door to her mother's room that talks about the things she had been able to do: seed saver, cook, keen gardener.

Holst said making this sign has helped with her own grief, knowing visitors and staff going to her mother's room will see the sign and not just the "shrunken version" of her former self.