Ageing is inevitable. We can’t avoid it, but we can try to do it gracefully and healthily. As you age, you may need to adjust your lifestyle. This particularly applies if you develop health conditions that impact on your everyday life. How much you need to change your lifestyle will depend in part on several factors. These include how you lived before, but there are also some things that everyone should do. Many illnesses and diseases become more common as you get older. It’s important to take precautions to prevent them, manage them or detect them earlier, depending on the condition. Follow the advice below to help yourself age more healthily.
Exercise
Many people who have had rigorous exercise regimes as part of their everyday life for a long time can continue to do so when they’re older. If you run, for example, it is likely you will be able to keep it up, barring any health problems that prevent you from doing so. If you weren’t keen on exercise earlier in life, it is important that you introduce some exercise into your routine. Exercise doesn’t have to be anything hugely strenuous, but you should make sure that you are up and moving about. Living a sedentary life isn’t good for your bones, muscles, tendons or any other part of your body.
Diet
Along with exercise you may want to change your diet. Your tastes may change as you age anyway, but it’s best to cut down on the sugary and fatty foods of your youth if you want to live longer. Though there are many foods that people claim can halt the ageing process, it is best simply to have a healthy and sensible diet. Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, control your portions and limit your intake of fats and sugars.
Preventative Health Measures
As you get older, you will need to begin taking some preventative health measures that you might not have taken in earlier life. For example, it is recommended that all pensioners have the flu vaccination. You may already do this, as someone with asthma or an immunity problem, or simply as a precaution. Your risk of flu having a more serious effect on you and developing into something more complicated is greater in old age. Other precautionary health measures included having a regular health screening to check for signs of common illnesses. Doctors can screen you for breast cancer, prostate cancer, increased blood pressure and a number of other things that become more common when you are older.
Keep an Active Mind
Your body isn’t the only thing that needs to maintain its health. By keeping an active mind, you can help yourself to stay sharp and alert. You could be reading the newspaper every morning, doing the crossword or just having a conversation with someone. Like exercise, this is best when you begin as a younger person and continue into old age.
