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We all get born when we are very young and most of us die when we are (very) old. That's what life is like and nothing and nobody can change that. So why should aging be a medical condition? Of course aging can come with medical conditions, but that's not the title of this article.

The problems it that since several decades (it's hard to say when such a trend really starts) being young gets glorified and getting older is seen as something bad. And looking old is something that's considered even worse, as "you can do something about that". The whole cosmetic industry is basically based on anti-aging creams and other things that are supposed to make us look younger. Hairdressers make a lot of money with dying hair to hide the gray ones, again to make the person look younger. But it's totally normal to get your first gray hairs in your 30's and have a lot of them by the time you are 50.

So what is actually the problem? Why do so many people (especially women, for getting older is much more excepted for men) try to look younger? They spend fortunes for cosmetics, hairdressers, gyms, even cosmetic surgery to look younger. But why should we? What's wrong with getting older? Why is that everywhere suggested to be something bad? Everyone gets older every day and that's normal. Society exists in people of all ages and that's great. Imagine a society with only people under 40. There are countries where that's the case, as hardly anyone makes it over 40, due to malnutrition and diseases. Shouldn't we be glad that we can get old? And shouldn't we be proud of the maturity we reach when we get older?

No, I'm not old yet (only 41), but I have already a lot of gray hair and the first wrinkles are developing. So what? What's wrong with that? Some people have suggested I should dye my hair to look younger and I ask them why I should look younger than I am. Why would I want people to think that I'm more immature than I am?

Most women are flattered when people think they are ten years younger, but actually I feel it more like an insult. It has happened to me quite a lot of times when I emigrated to Australia from the Netherlands. Because my skin hasn't been exposed to the Australian sun my whole life I look younger. Since I get more gray hairs people are getting closer with their guesses to my real age, but still many think that I'm a lot younger. And I don't really care.

No, aging itself is not a medical condition, though many try to convince us it is and we should do something to stop it. Like we can. Of course we can't stop the aging process. We can only spend a lot of money trying. Luckily most doctors are clever enough not to join in with this stupidity and only treat real medical conditions. And those conditions might be part of the aging process, but that's not the same as aging itself.

Learn more about this author, Rixta Francis.
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