The view that aging is all downhill may be one that you implicitly believe in. How many times have you made jokes about your age, made jokes about someone else's age, or just looked in the mirror with despair at the toll time takes on your face? Yet, the media is full of images of people whose aging brings them joy rather than pain.
These tips point to what has been seen in many scientific studies - healthy behaviors such as maintaining an ideal body weight, keeping moving, eating a high-quality diet, getting enough sleep, and keeping your brain active are the best ways to optimize your aging. Moreover, evidence shows that doing all of these together can add 10 years to your life!
Most people believe aging well requires dramatic changes: strict diets, expensive routines, or hours of daily self-care. But healthy aging has far less to do with perfection and far more to do with consistency. In a new survey of more than 500 adults across the U.S., respondents shared their top priorities for aging well. Keeping physically active ranked first at 40%. Staying mentally sharp followed at 26%. Maintaining strong immunity came in at 12%.
For this study, researchers Mable Ho and Esme Fuller-Thomson of the University of Toronto focused on those who were over 60 after participating in the three-year study. Their analysis of the data shows that we can put aside our 'gerascophobia' ( fear of aging) and look forward to many years of optimal health even if we experience a setback related to disease or injury. The secret is how healthy we were before the illness, and our lifestyle choices afterwards.
Dr. Eric Topol notes that the research into SuperAgers revealed that only a small component of longevity can be attributed to genetics, indicating that lifestyle plays a much larger role.
