Aging well- its never too late to make a healthy change
Shelly Webb
October 9, 2011
286
Summary-The face of the United States is becoming more wrinkled but also more, healthy as aging seniors adopt healthier lifestyles and stay active. What can you do age well and is it every too late to begin?
Story- My college professor is eighty-five and is teaching, of all subjects, Technology. He buzzes around the classroom explaining how to SKYPE, create power points, download apps and so on. My seventy-nine-year-old friend walks two miles every single day and recently eliminated red meat from her diet. I scratch my head and think but youre almost eighty, does it matter now what you do? Well to my surprise, it does!
According to a comprehensive U.S. Census Bureau report there has been a dramatic shift in what it means to be old. The report shows that people are living longer than ever and the population age 65 and over is likely to double in the next twenty-five years. Another new finding in the study showed this segment of the population also has lower rates of disability and poverty and higher levels of education.
Today people that are over sixty-five-years-old are opting to run marathons, eat healthy, go to college, return to work or retire later and not just for financial gain but to feel fulfilled. Many senior centers have replaced the dominos and playing card tables with aerobic mats and weights.
Local physician, Dr. Eric Miller says it is never too late to implement a healthier lifestyle and there are always rewards to these changes.
The best time to start living healthy is now he said, whether you are thirty-years-old or 90. My elderly patients laugh when I tell them to start lifting weights, but something small like that can help burn fat, prevent falls and fractures, and perhaps most importantly, keep them playing with their grandchildren for years to come.
Miller says that as we begin to get older, we suddenly start to think about living healthier, longer lives, but of course the time to start thinking about your long term health is now, regardless of your age.
To know how to stay healthy, you must first focus on what you are most trying to avoid, Miller added. The most important diseases that we can really do a lot to prevent are killer events like heart attacks, strokes and hip fractures, and other conditions that we just really want to avoid like arthritis and dementia.
Miller said the way to postpone all these ailments is pretty simple exercise and a good diet.
You guessed it, he said. The vast majority of chronic conditions I see in the clinic are a result of being overweight, whether they are life threatening conditions like diabetes, or just uncomfortable conditions like chronic back pain or knee arthritis. Holmes County is known for good food, but most of it isnt good from a health standpoint. Avoid the red meats and fried or processed foods and head for the fruits and vegetables! And exercise, it is better to be fat and fit, then thin and out of shape. Strap on a pair of good shoes and get some daily walks in. Exercise you get at work or around the yard is all good, but is generally not intense enough to get your heart rate elevated for a long period of time. Strength training and stretching is also valuable to stay healthy.
It sounds easy, doesnt it? Exercise and eat right, weve been hearing that advice for years, but as easy as it sounds, it is probably one of the difficult situations with which we struggle.
All of this does sound simple, Miller said. But it is hard to do and we are forever trying to find a way around it. The most common pitfalls in my opinion are to try and get weight off by an unsustainable diet or by thinking medicines or supplements will take the place of healthy living, they just dont.
As far as supplements are concerned, Miller said that most experts agree (except for the experts that are selling supplements) that supplements dont help if you eat a reasonable diet.
In theory, supplements like anti-oxidant supplements sound great, Miller added. However studies do not show that we live any healthier with supplements than without them. That being said, I do recommend cheap forms of Calcium for women if they dont get enough in their diet and Vitamin D and B12 for the elderly.
Quality of life is in many cases more important to an individual than quantity of life. Regardless of which means more to you, remember the decisions you make today can have an impact on how well you age and how long you live. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 40 percent of deaths in America are related to smoking, physical inactivity, poor diet or alcohol misuse. Making changes in these areas is the best thing you can do to ensure better health.
