Why retire at any age?

Why retire at any age?

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO and HCFI

It has been a practice in India to retire people after the age of 58. In some cases, the age has been 60, 62, 65 or 70. Let us understand the science behind this retirement.

Retirement is based on the fact that after the age of 50 one starts developing age related minimal cognitive impairment. One start losing memory for immediate recall, recent memory, starts losing the names of common people and common places.

 Quite often when one is speaking on a phone and his attention is diverted by someone, the person forgets what he was speaking.

In this age most people start entering the name of a person in the phone book by linking it to his profession, relation, JOB ETC.

Most politicians will start relying on the PPT presentations or start reading their speech.

Very few will continue oral extempore presentations. The situation is worse with vegetarians due to Vitamin B 1w2 deficiency which further impairs memory.

Premature atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, recurrent mini strokes also add to this insult.

Therefore, the age of retirement should not be decided by chronological age but by the degree of age related cognitive impairment present.

All patients with age related cognitive dysfunction should be evaluated and treated for reversible causes of cognitive impairment, including medication side effects, sleep disturbances, depression, vitamin B12 deficiency, and hypothyroidism.