A Healthy Lifestyle

Why is a healthy lifestyle important?

A healthy lifestyle helps keep the body fit and the mind alert. It helps protect us from disease, helps us fight off disease, and helps prevent chronic disease (disease that doesn't go away) from getting worse. This is important as we get older and begin to notice twinges in muscles and joints and a decline in the strength and stamina we once took for granted. A healthy lifestyle includes preventive health care, good nutrition and weight control, recreation, regular exercise, staying active, and avoiding harmful substances.

Preventive health care

Have an annual physical checkup, including vision and hearing. If you develop symptoms, see your health care provider right away. Don't wait until the next checkup. Take medicines exactly as prescribed and keep your medicines in a safe place. Tell your health care provider if your medicine causes problems. Have a flu shot each year and a pneumococcal pneumonia shot after age 65. Take advantage of cancer screening or other health screening programs in your community. Women should examine their breasts and men their testicles each month for lumps or changes in size, shape, or appearance.

Nutrition and weight control

Eat three or four small, balanced, low-fat, high-fiber meals a day. Check the food pyramid and try to get the right proportions of each food group over the day. Make sure you get enough calcium in your diet. Calcium and exercise help prevent osteoporosis (bone thinning). If you live alone, try eating at your senior center when you can. That way you get a good meal and company while you eat it. Try to stay within 20% of the recommended weight for your height. If you take in 3,500 more food calories than your body uses for energy, it will be stored as one pound of body fat. Fat is a lot harder to take off than to put on. Talk to your health care provider about weight control if you need to.

Recreation

Recreation is not limited to sports and team events. It includes any activity that provides relaxation, interest, enjoyment, exercise, and opportunities for participation. Recreation provides an outlet for our physical energy, our mental energy, and our social energy. It gives us a sense of worth and achievement. It helps us stay healthy and young at heart as we get older. We spend much of our adult lives working, getting to work, getting away from work, and worrying about work. Retirement, even if we've been looking forward to it, leaves a pretty big hole to fill. The way we fill that time makes a great deal of difference in our health. There may also be a loss of status that went with the job. Recreation offers fulfilling ways to rechannel our time and energy and an opportunity to recover status in new ways.

Physical exercise

You need regular but not strenuous exercise. It doesn't make sense to get overly ambitious and put your back out or tear a knee cartilage. Try to walk at least a mile a day or do some other form of exercise if you prefer. Many senior centers have organized walk groups, sometimes in shopping malls before the stores open. Senior centers sometimes have aerobic exercise classes, swimming, and dancing, too.

Mental exercise

Mental and emotional health is as important as physical health. Keep in touch with friends and family. Stay as active as possible. Continue to learn and be challenged. Some things that help keep older adults mentally active include:

• learn something new, like a foreign language or musical instrument
• play scrabble or do crossword puzzles
• start a new career or hobby
• go back to school
• volunteer
• read
• keep up with world events.

Personal Safety

Take care of your personal safety, as well. Keep your home well lighted, inside and out. Get rid of throw rugs, which can cause falls. Keep carpets in good shape. Do not wax floors. Make sure you have a working smoke alarm with good batteries. Install handrails by staircases, toilets, and in bathtubs or showers. Use nonskid strips in bathtubs or showers and on staircases. Make sure you have a telephone by your bed for emergencies. Keep emergency telephone numbers written in clear, large letters by all telephones. Join a Neighborhood Watch in your area.

Avoidance of harmful substances

Smoking and heavy use of alcohol are major factors in diseases of the lungs, heart and circulation; cancer; motor vehicle accidents; and home accidents. Talk to your health care provider if you need help quitting.