How can you remain healthy as you age?
- Maintain a proper diet.
- Practice good hygiene and orderliness.
- Get enough sleep.
- Exercise your mind and body.
- Connect with others.
- Quit bad habits.
- Avoid stress.
Aging is a natural part of life, and everyone wants to age gracefully. If we could keep ourselves at peak condition forever, we would. But even though our health will naturally weaken as we grow older, there are things we can do to delay the process or remain in a manageable and acceptable state of health even through the years.
This article will provide you with some tips to maintain good health as you age—because regardless of how old you are, staying healthy means you can live your life to the fullest. Read on!
Maintain a proper diet
Good health starts with proper nutrition regardless of your age. Maintaining your diet has many positive effects that continue as you grow older, so make sure to start developing good eating habits as early as you can.
Eating too much of the wrong food or too little of the right food can lead to conditions like obesity or eating disorders, as well as illnesses like diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension. So make sure your diet is well-balanced and full of the nutrients your body needs.
Practice good hygiene and orderliness
Keeping yourself clean and fresh isn’t just a matter of etiquette or impressing others. Cleaning up after yourself is a must since dirt, grime, and dust can negatively affect your skin, lungs, and other body systems.
Even your surroundings should be kept sanitary as well. Many infections and illnesses can be contracted in dirty areas, disease-carrying pests can infest unclean places, and living in an unattractive space can negatively impact your mental health.
Get enough sleep
Sleep is great for your mind, body, and spirit. It allows your mind to recharge, your body to replenish nutrients and regrow cells, and your spirit to feel better after a long, hard day.
Don’t underestimate the power of a good night’s sleep—and more importantly, don’t neglect to sleep the recommended number of hours a night, or you might see adverse effects over time.
Exercise your mind and body
We hear a lot about the benefits of exercising your body, from helping you maintain a healthy weight, to helping you avoid mobility problems, to releasing endorphins that can boost your mental health. But did you know you can also exercise your brain, and it has just as many benefits for your health?
Exercising your brain can help prevent degenerative illnesses like dementia or Alzheimer’s while keeping your cognitive functions like memory sharp.
Connect with others
Making and keeping relationships with others becomes more and more important as you grow older. Unfortunately, it also becomes harder as sight and hearing faculties become weaker and
Quit bad habits
Bad habits like smoking, excessive alcohol intake, and taking drugs are called bad for a reason.
Smoking will increase your risk of cancer, heart attack, stroke, and lung disease, damage your blood circulation and your senses of taste and smell, and weaken your ability to exercise. Quitting at any age—even if you’ve been smoking for years and only quit when you’re sixty—has been shown to have good effects on your health.
On the other hand, alcohol dependence or heavy drinking also affects every organ in the body, especially the brain, while certain drugs like opioids for pain and benzodiazepines for anxiety or trouble sleeping can be misused or abused if an older person is prescribed them by a doctor.
Avoid stress
Stress is a silent killer. While some patients exhibit extreme anxiety and depression diagnosed as major psychiatric disorders, many people all over the world have what doctors call everyday psychological distress, which has a major impact on physical and social functioning. It can even produce disabilities with severities equivalent to diabetes, hypertension, or arthritis.
Too many people worldwide have unhealthy stress levels, with 1 in 5 people quantifying their stress as “extremely high.” No matter how normalized this might seem, it’s not healthy.
People who experience extreme stress are less likely to do any of the things on this list, including eating healthy, exercising, getting enough sleep, or avoiding bad habits. Worse, stress can even affect genetics and speed up the aging process. It’s a vicious cycle indeed, one that needs to be broken.
Key Takeaway
We hope this article on tips to maintain good health as you age has enlightened you on the things you’re doing right as well as the habits you can improve on if you want to age gracefully and healthily.
Our final tip for you is this: see your doctor regularly. Particularly if you are 60 years or older, it’s best to have a regular schedule of going to your chosen general health clinic, or seeing your physician. The number of times a year depends on whether you have a condition, or on what your doctor recommends. Just remember, regular checkups save lives, especially when you reach a certain age and beyond.
Growing older doesn’t have to be daunting with the right health specialists and physicians behind you. Trust the professional and expert doctors at Perpetual Help Medical Center – Las Pinas to help you each step of the way!
