This year’s cold weather hit Taiwan abruptly and fiercely. National Fire Agency statistics showed that within just six days last month, 181 people, most of them older, across the country had “out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.” Behind the cold numbers are loved ones collapsing in bathrooms, living rooms or at doorsteps.
What truly affects older people’s survival is often not their blood sugar or blood pressure, but muscle strength, walking steadiness, cardiopulmonary endurance and ability to regulate body temperature. When a person’s physical function declines, even a 5°C drop could be life-threatening. When older people remain more active, they have the capacity to endure the winter cold. Simply walking to a family gathering might extend their lives to another spring.
It has become the norm to use medication to keep older people calm, giving them wheelchairs for safety instead of making them walk. However, the biggest nightmare of caregivers might not be illnesses, but older people losing the ability to do things on their own. Such functional decline could gradually shrink a person’s world to a single bed.
Therefore, “exercise is medicine” is not just a slogan; its essence is to restore dignity and freedom for older people. The goal is not to get strong, but to enable the body to try again on its own. When a 70-year-old is finally able to stand up again, walk downstairs to buy soy milk or carry a lunchbox by themselves, the joy of regaining control over their life cannot be quantified by any medical data.
In Japan, local governments reduce the dependency on long-term care through community exercise programs, while in northern Europe, exercise is a first-line treatment for chronic disease management. In Taiwan, despite excellent medical treatment and the National Health Insurance system, the disease prevention framework remains only verbal advice, lacking the social structure that could transform exercise into daily companionship.
This requires systematic specialist intervention, such as professionals who can teach, accompany, understand motivational psychology, provide protection and personalized training. This is not only a family responsibility, but also a direction long-term care policies should advance — shifting from “caring for the disabled” to “maintaining mobility,” from patching holes to preventing disability, and from waiting for hospital sickbeds to preserving freedom.
The government and the general public should envision a gentler vision of healthcare: Health should not begin only when one is hospitalized, nor should love be confined to older people’s bedsides. If exercise could be integrated with medication, aging would not be reduced to waiting, pain and silence.
Health should not be just about extending life, it should be about extending the time that one can live freely.
Gerald Kuo is vice director of the Taiwan Home Health Care Charity Association.
Translated by Eddy Chang
The cancelation this week of President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visit to Eswatini, after the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius revoked overflight permits under Chinese pressure, is one more measure of Taiwan’s shrinking executive diplomatic space. Another channel that deserves attention keeps growing while the first contracts. For several years now, Taipei has been one of Europe’s busiest legislative destinations. Where presidents and foreign ministers cannot land, parliamentarians do — and they do it in rising numbers. The Italian parliament opened the year with its largest bipartisan delegation to Taiwan to date: six Italian deputies and one senator, drawn from six
Recently, Taipei’s streets have been plagued by the bizarre sight of rats running rampant and the city government’s countermeasures have devolved into an anti-intellectual farce. The Taipei Parks and Street Lights Office has attempted to eradicate rats by filling their burrows with polyurethane foam, seeming to believe that rats could not simply dig another path out. Meanwhile, as the nation’s capital slowly deteriorates into a rat hive, the Taipei Department of Environmental Protection has proudly pointed to the increase in the number of poisoned rats reported in February and March as a sign of success. When confronted with public concerns over young
Taiwan and India are important partners, yet this reality is increasingly being overshadowed in current debates. At a time when Taiwan-India relations are at a crossroads, with clear potential for deeper engagement and cooperation, the labor agreement signed in February 2024 has become a source of friction. The proposal to bring in 1,000 migrant workers from India is already facing significant resistance, with a petition calling for its “indefinite suspension” garnering more than 40,000 signatures. What should have been a straightforward and practical step forward has instead become controversial. The agreement had the potential to serve as a milestone in
China has long given assurances that it would not interfere in free access to the global commons. As one Ministry of Defense spokesperson put it in 2024, “the Chinese side always respects the freedom of navigation and overflight entitled to countries under international law.” Although these reassurances have always been disingenuous, China’s recent actions display a blatant disregard for these principles. Countries that care about civilian air safety should take note. In April, President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) canceled a planned trip to Eswatini for the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s coronation and the 58th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic
RSS