You cannot stand in a supermarket checkout without seeing at least a few stories on magazine covers about how to look younger and stay healthy. While it’s not unusual to be afraid of some sagging and wrinkles, there’s so much more to staying healthy in old age.
Ageing gracefully is about living your best life and enjoying your mental and physical health. Just like a good wine, with proper care, you can get better with age. Read on to know how to live a healthy life in old age by taking care of yourself.
Eat Healthy Foods
Most adults in the UK eat more than double the daily recommended amount of sodium, which can result in cardiovascular disease and hypertension; most of this high intake of sodium comes from restaurants and pre-packaged foods. To stay healthy, eat foods rich in nutrients such as wholegrain foods, vegetables and fruit. Eating salty, sweet, highly processed foods, on the other hand, is so very bad for your health. Please remember that each person also has specific dietary needs – always follow the advice of your doctor concerning dietary requirements.
Be Active
One of the biggest keys to mental and physical wellbeing is regular exercise. An active life will help you stay fit enough to retain your freedom so you can go wherever you want to do your own business independently. Regular exercise can, to name a few benefits, relieve several common chronic conditions, including asthma, depression and heart disease.
Staying active is the goal, so do something you’ll enjoy doing. If you’re not the type of person that is going to stick to a regular gym schedule, either ride your bike or go for a walk each day. Try to incorporate the exercises of relaxation, aerobics, and muscle strengthening into your exercise regimen. Understand what actually works for you, get in touch with your doctor and get to work!
Exercise Your Brain
A normal part of ageing is cognitive decline. Studies have shown that cognitive decline can be reduced by adopting a lifestyle that requires cognitive stimulation through active learning. Always challenge your mind and never stop learning. Read a book, learn to play a musical instrument, attend lectures at a local college, learn a new language or take lessons in dancing or art.
Get Healthcare
Private healthcare is very important as it can help you have shortened hospitalisations, get the care you need, and live a healthier life when compared to those who have no health insurance. Enrolling in high – quality health insurance will help you to avoid getting stuck with big medical bills and struggling for access to the care you need to maintain or control your health. With health insurance, you can:
- Prevent an existing condition from getting worse.
- Book your doctor’s appointments for preventive services and get the support you need to prevent serious diseases and stay healthy; and
- Get treated quickly if you are diagnosed with a serious health condition or get seriously ill.
Although adopting preventive measures can help fight and control diseases, it can be a financially demanding and unfortunate incident to deal with. Choosing to enrol in a health plan that covers routine medical tests will help catch these diseases early and make medical expenses easier to take care of.
Maintain Relationships
Living alone is the greatest single risk factor. Continuously communicate with your family and friends, especially following a significant loss or a major life change. Having good relationships help us age well and prevents us from feeling lonely in old age.
Find the time to meet with family and friends regularly and also reach out to friends who might themselves be feeling lonely or isolated. Take up hobbies that allow you to meet other people your age who enjoy the same things as you as this will give you people to spend time with to help combat loneliness and build social relationships that will benefit your health and wellbeing.
Maintaining your health as you age is extremely important. You need to have good health, both physically and mentally so that you can maintain your health and wellbeing in old age and live a long and fulfilling life. This article contains actionable advice that will help you to do that.
