Human beings have sought the secret of immortality for thousands of years. For some people today, that quest includes things like sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, trying cryotherapy, and undergoing rays of infrared light.
Most aging experts are skeptical that these actions will significantly extend the limits of human life expectancy. What they do believe is that, with a few habits, many people can lead a healthier life for longer and reach 80, 90 and even 100 years in very good physical and mental shape and these habits are not something so exotic like getting a blood transfusion from someone younger than you.
“People are looking for the magic pill,” said Luigi Ferrucci, scientific director of the US National Institute on Aging, “and it already exists.”
Here are seven tips from geriatricians on how to add years to your life.
1. Move more.
The first thing experts recommend is to keep your body active, because study following study has shown that exercise reduces the risk of premature death.
Physical activity keeps the heart and circulatory system healthy and protects the body from many chronic diseases that affect the body and mind. In addition, it strengthens muscles, which reduces the risk of falls in older people.
“If we spend part of our adulthood strengthening our muscle mass, our strength, balance or cardiovascular endurance, when the body begins to age, you will have a starting point with greater strength to face whatever comes,” said Anna Chang, professor of medicine. specialized in geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
The best exercise for you will be any activity that you enjoy and can stick to. You don’t have to do much either: The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a week, which means walking just over 20 minutes a day is already beneficial.
2. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
Experts do not recommend following a specific diet, but rather generally advise eating in moderation and aiming to eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer processed foods. The Mediterranean diet (which gives greater priority to fresh agricultural products, as well as whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and olive oil) is a good example of healthy eating and has been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer , diabetes and dementia.
Some experts say maintaining a healthy weight is important for longevity, but for John Rowe, a professor of health and aging policy at Columbia University, that’s not a major concern, especially as people age. “I was always more concerned regarding my patients who were losing weight than those who were gaining,” Rowe said.
3. Get enough sleep.
Sleep is sometimes overlooked, but it plays a critical role in healthy aging. Research has revealed that the amount of sleep a person gets on average each night is related to the risk of death from any cause and that consistently getting quality sleep can add several years to a person’s life. Sleep apparently matters most for brain health: A 2021 study found that people who slept less than five hours a night had twice the risk of developing dementia.
“As people age, they need more sleep rather than less,” said Alison Moore, professor of medicine and chief of geriatrics, gerontology and palliative care at the University of California, San Diego. Typically, seven to nine hours of sleep is recommended, she added.
4. Don’t smoke or drink too much either.
It goes without saying, but smoking increases the risk of contracting all kinds of deadly diseases. “There is no dose of cigarette smoke that is good for your health,” Rowe said.
We are also beginning to understand how harmful excessive alcohol consumption is. Drinking more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men (and perhaps even less) increases the risk of heart disease and atrial fibrillation, liver disease, and seven types of cancer.
5. Take care of your chronic conditions.
Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure, 40 percent have high cholesterol, and more than a third have prediabetes. All of the healthy habits mentioned above will help control these conditions and prevent them from developing into even more serious illnesses, but sometimes lifestyle modifications are not enough. Therefore, experts say that it is essential to follow the doctor’s advice to keep the situation under control.
“It’s not fun to take medication; neither is controlling blood pressure and blood glucose,” Chang said. “But when we optimize all of those things into a complete package, they also help us live longer, healthier and better.”
6. Prioritize your relationships.
Psychological health often takes a backseat to physical health, but Chang said it is just as important. “Isolation and loneliness are as harmful to our health as tobacco,” she said, adding that they put us “at greater risk of dementia, heart disease and stroke.”
Relationships are key not only to living healthier, but also happier. According to the Harvard Study of Adult Development, strong relationships are the greatest predictor of well-being.
Rowe tells the medical students he teaches that one of the best indicators of how well an elderly patient will do six months from now is to ask him “how many friends or family members you’ve seen in the last week. ”
7. Keep a positive mind.
Even positive thinking can help you live longer. Several studies have found that optimism is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, and people who score high on optimism tests live 5 to 15 percent longer than the most pessimistic people. This may be because optimists tend to have healthier habits and lower rates of some chronic diseases, but even taking these factors into account, research shows that people who think positively live longer.
If you had to choose a healthy practice to achieve longevity, “choose some version of physical activity,” Moore concluded. “If you can’t do that, focus on being positive.”
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