How can you improve your health as you age?
Improve Your Healthy Aging in 4 Simple Steps
A person’s health is monumentally important. Not only does your health contribute to the longevity of your life, but it also determines your quality of life to a major extent.
To age well and maintain overall well-being, it’s essential to adopt healthy habits that support both your physical and mental health.
Therefore, you need to take care of yourself, and while that sounds simple, it’s often anything but. The modern human lifestyle often distracts from healthy living, so it falls upon the individual to make better choices in order to live the healthiest and happiest life possible, including breaking bad habits such as smoking or excessive drinking that can negatively impact your well-being. Here are a few tips that can help you take control of your health.
Remember, it’s never too late—even after a certain age—to make positive changes and improve your quality of life.
Vitamin Supplements
A key component of living a healthy life is making sure that your body has all of the ingredients it needs to repair itself and function effectively. While much of this is accomplished using the foods you eat, it can be difficult to create a diet that presents you with all of the necessary vitamins and nutrients that your body needs; you may not even know what all of them are. Likewise, you may be dealing with a medical condition that makes it more difficult to absorb certain nutrients, and that makes it much harder to keep all of your needs met.
However, vitamin supplements exist to suit just about any need. Vitamin C is a common supplement, because of its overall importance to health. As well, D and B12 are also common deficiencies that supplements can help treat. Supplements like vitamin D and calcium are especially important for maintaining bone health as you age, supporting bone strength and helping to prevent osteoporosis. There are numerous multivitamins, as well, that can provide an assortment of vitamins. A multivitamin like greens powder can help boost your immune system with a plethora of ingredients. Unlike many other substances, having too much of one vitamin has no negative effect other than waste, meaning that if you overdo it, you won’t suffer any ill effects.
Healthy Diet
A nutritious diet is essential for overall health as you age, supporting immunity, energy, and disease prevention.
One’s diet is more intuitive to manage than the levels of certain vitamins within your body. But, it’s not a walk in the park necessarily. For example, a previously mentioned vitamin deficit was that of b12, which is commonly found in meats. Despite meat being a central part of the average meal, some people still don’t naturally obtain B12 all that well from meat, meaning that they need to seek additional intake of this vitamin. However, learning that information can take quite a long time.
When considering carb intake and weight gain, it’s important to focus on maintaining a healthy weight through balanced eating habits. Including low fat dairy products as part of a balanced diet can help support heart health, weight management, and disease prevention. Eating plenty of vegetables and whole grains is also beneficial for long-term health and helps ensure you get essential nutrients. After discussing fats, remember that dietary choices—such as reducing saturated fats and including heart-healthy foods—can support heart health and overall well-being.
Unexplained Fatigue
Unexplained fatigue is a common symptom, but that’s a common symptom across numerous medical conditions. On the other hand, dieting can be complicated by changes in your lifestyle. What kinds of food you eat and in what amounts should change with your level of activity so that the amounts of each nutrient that remain in your body approximate the recommended daily values. This ensures that the nutrients your body needs for energy and maintenance are always present, and preferably not in excess.
Too much of anything is theoretically bad for you, but the worst offenders are sugars, carbs, and fats. Consuming too much alcohol can also have serious health consequences as you age, including harm to your liver and increased risk of certain cancers. While the occasional sweet treat is what makes life worth living, sugar-rich foods should be eaten sparingly. Likewise, carbs are the body’s preferred energy source, but excess carbs contribute to weight gain more than the average nutrient, meaning that your carb intake should match your energy requirement. The calories in, calories out philosophy should be your guide on this matter.
Fitness Trackers and Regular Exercise
Exercising regularly is essential for maintaining overall health, especially as we age. It may seem silly to many, but fitness trackers are a phenomenal way of conquering the counterintuitive nature of fitness in the modern era. Fitness trackers like Fitbits keep track of several factors that can greatly inform your lifestyle to produce the best possible results. The mechanisms it uses to provide this data are a heartbeat sensor and pedometer and uses these mechanisms to make a fairly accurate guess as to how many calories you burn a day, in addition to your heart rate at any given time and the number of steps that you take in a day.
Regular physical activity not only helps manage weight but also improves blood flow to critical areas such as the brain and heart, supporting cognitive function and cardiovascular health. These devices can also intuit how restful your sleep was the night before. As mentioned above, burning more calories than you ingest in a day is a great way to regulate nutrients in the body, especially troublesome ones like carbs. In addition, there is a scientifically recommended number of steps a person should take in a day to maintain a baseline level of fitness, that number being 10,000. Even the sleep tracking function is pertinent to your health, but it’s more illustrative than corrective.
Tracking your activity and exercising regularly can help prevent falls and reduce the risk of falls, which is especially important for older adults. By staying active and monitoring your progress, you can experience significant health benefits, including improved strength, flexibility, and overall well-being.
Sleep Schedule
Sleep has a massive impact on one’s health, and most people aren’t sleeping properly. Poor sleep and sleep problems are common as people age, often resulting from chronic stress or mental health conditions, and can negatively impact overall health. Sleeping the doctor recommended 6-8 hours a night is important in terms of getting enough sleep, but that’s only part of the equation. Sleeping at consistent times is also important, as it helps your body sleep more soundly and therefore restfully. This is because of the body’s circadian rhythm, an internal clock by which your body prepares to sleep and to wake up from sleep. An erratic schedule means that your body can’t figure out how to sleep effectively. Addressing sleep problems such as insomnia or frequent waking can help promote better sleep quality as you age.
Improving one’s health is an important goal, but it can be complicated at times. However, these tips will help you master the basics of a healthy lifestyle while leaving you room to grow. Prioritizing good sleep habits is essential for supporting your overall well-being as you get older.
Mental and Emotional Well-being
As we journey through the aging process, nurturing our mental and emotional wellbeing becomes just as important as caring for our physical health. For older adults, maintaining a positive outlook and managing stress are essential steps toward healthy aging and a vibrant quality of life. Mental health problems such as chronic stress, anxiety, and depression can become more common with age, and they are closely linked to chronic illness, heart disease, and high blood pressure. That’s why adopting healthy habits to support your mind is just as vital as those that benefit your body.
One of the most effective ways to manage stress and promote mental wellbeing is through regular exercise. The National Institute on Aging recommends that older adults engage in physical activity, including aerobic exercises, to boost brain health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline. Even simple activities like walking, tai chi, or dancing can help keep your mind sharp and your spirits high. A healthy diet also plays a crucial role—focusing on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats can support cognitive health, while limiting foods high in saturated fats, salt, and sugar helps lower the risk of chronic conditions.
Social connection is another key ingredient for mental and emotional health. Spending time with loved ones, staying connected with friends and family, and participating in group activities can help prevent social isolation—a major risk factor for poor health and mental health problems. Whether it’s joining a support group, volunteering, or simply enjoying a meal with friends, these moments of connection can make a world of difference.
Getting seven to nine hours of quality sleep each night, as recommended by the National Sleep Foundation, is also essential for both physical and mental restoration. Healthy older adults who prioritize sleep, eat healthy, and manage stress are better equipped to handle life’s challenges and reduce their risk of age-related diseases.
Lifestyle choices matter, too. Quitting smoking, limiting alcohol, and scheduling regular checkups with your primary care provider can help you stay ahead of health problems and maintain both your physical and mental wellbeing. According to a systematic review by Johns Hopkins Medicine, regular exercise and a Mediterranean diet are linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases and improved cognitive health.
By making mental and emotional wellbeing a priority, you can gain wisdom, stay active, and enjoy a fulfilling life as you age. Talk to your doctor about creating a personalized plan to support your mental health, and remember that adopting healthy habits today can help you thrive for years to come.
What steps do you take to stay healthy? Leave your comments at the bottom of this page.
Paisley Hansen is a freelance writer and expert in health, fitness, beauty, and fashion. As well, when she isn’t writing she can usually be found reading a good book or hitting the gym.
What is a good supplement for collagen for aging?
Sleeping is my biggest challenge. Even with sleeping pills I wake up several times a night. I don’t feel rested anymore.
The goal of 10,000 daily steps is an arbitrary number, never validated by scientific studies. Originally it was part of a marketing campaign for a pedometer. It is helpful to set a personal goal that is greater than your usual routine, whether 5000 or 7500 daily steps, that you can reach most days. When you are consistently reaching your goal (5 out of 7 days), try to increase that number by small increments, perhaps 10% at a time over several weeks. Be sure to drink plenty of water and stretch your legs, hips and back after your walk!
Retired Medical Writer