Taking unnecessary medications, letting stress go unmanaged and not planning for your older age are all habits that chip away at a long and healthy life span.
Living a long, healthy life is a popular goal, but it’s not easy to achieve. It’s common for folks to develop conditions like dementia and chronic pain , in addition to mobility issues and cardiovascular problems , as they age.
While certain uncontrollable factors (like genetics) play a major role in many of these issues, everyday habits can also contribute to a less-than-ideal aging process. And some of the habits you probably follow every day or every week are actually getting in the way of healthy aging and a long life.
Here’s what they are, according to doctors:
1. Skipping preventive care.
According to Dr. Heather Whitson , director of the Duke Aging Center in North Carolina, neglecting to stay up to date on preventive care — including things like mammograms, colonoscopies and vaccines — is not good for your long-term health.
“It’s like not taking your car into the shop,” Whitson said. “It’s probably not going to last as long if you don’t keep up with the routine maintenance.”
You can chat with your primary care doctor about what preventive tests are right for you.
2. Not cultivating social relationships.
“We know that socialization helps with your brain and with your longevity,” said Dr. Lee Lindquist , chief of geriatrics at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago. The more time you spend interacting with other people, the more it can benefit your life span.
“I always joke... that you need to socialize with happy people, because we all have toxic people in our lives,” she said. Toxic people can bring anxiety and sadness, which won’t help you age well.
“The more socialization you can do with people that bring you joy or bring you happiness, those are things that will definitely help you age healthy and age well and improve your longevity,” Lindquist said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when we were all stuck indoors, many people’s cognition was damaged because of the isolation, she noted. “So, we do know that social isolation harms aging and harms the longevity process.”
“A couple of my favorite patients who are in their 90s and 100s, they actually wake up every day and they try to find somebody new to talk to,” she added. As you age, it’s normal for your social circle to dwindle, which means it’s critical to keep going out to meet new people if you want to age well, Lindquist noted.
3. Not adjusting your medications as you age.
“We see it so many times where people will be on medicines that they were started on in their 40s and 50s that they may not need in their 70s or 80s,” Lindquist said. “And some of these medicines are not ideal for older adults.”
Certain medications can make you more susceptible to falls and cause thinking problems, she added. Some anti-anxiety medications can contribute to memory loss, according to AARP , and some prescription sleep medications are known to increase your fall risk, according to Harvard Health Publishing .
“So, definitely talk to your doctor about whether or not you still need some of these medicines,” Lindquist said.
4. Not exercising.
This one probably isn’t surprising, but it can’t be said enough: Failing to exercise will harm your longevity.
“Exercise is amazing — being able to put exercise in a pill form would take a lot of health care providers out of business, because it really is good for mood, it’s good for weight control, it’s good for your bones, it’s good for your heart, it’s good for your brain,” Whitson said. “And it really is about the only thing that you can recommend that has all-around good benefit.”
“Exercising is super important, and not exercising or not getting enough daily activity is something that will definitely harm your longevity,” Lindquist said.
When asked how much she recommends people exercise, Lindquist simply said: “More.”
“When you get too comfortable, and doing the same activity three times a week, once a week, or even not at all, it just really hurts your body,” she said.
So, if you’re someone who goes on a daily walk, try adding in a Zumba class a few times a week. If you’re a die-hard Peloton fan, sign up for some personal training classes, too.
“Even if you ask your physician for a physical therapy order to get you started to get you moving around more, that’s very important,” Lindquist said.
If you’re looking for a benchmark to start, you should aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week, according to the American Heart Association . And, again, more minutes mean more health benefits.
5. Smoking.
Smoking cigarettes is linked to lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease, stroke and more. But it’s highly addictive, making it hard to just quit.
According to the American Lung Association , it can be helpful to zero in on the reason you’re quitting smoking, so you can use it as motivation through the tough parts of the process. You can also get resources from your doctor to help you quit.
Staying social has proven longevity benefits.
6. Eating an unhealthy diet.
According to Whitson, prioritizing a healthy diet is another way to better your chances of a healthy life span.
Whitson suggested that “a Mediterranean-style diet that is heavy on fish... and heavy on whole fruits and vegetables and grains, with only the very occasional treat of processed food, is probably the best thing for most people.”
It’s never too late to change your diet ― but you may have an easier time doing so when you’re younger.
“It’s very hard to change your diet when you’re in your 70s, 80s, 90s, so if you can start eating right earlier, it’s going to be easier for you and it’ll affect you better over the long run,” Lindquist explained.
7. Not getting enough sleep.
“There’s a lot of increasing evidence that depriving ourselves of sleep has long-term consequences,” Whitson said. These include a higher risk of dementia and heart disease , in addition to higher levels of daily stress and worse moods overall.
It’s normal to experience age-related changes that affect your sleep, so you shouldn’t be totally alarmed if your sleep patterns are different as you get older. But certain conditions, like obstructive sleep apnea, put you at risk for some of these negative outcomes when left untreated.
“If you’re... noticing really excessive daytime sleepiness, if their partner’s telling them that they’re snoring or having apneic episodes [where you stop breathing] that are waking them up at night,” it’s important to let a doctor know, Whitson noted.
Adults need seven to nine hours of sleep each night . If you have trouble getting this much sleep, it’s a good idea to cut back on things like caffeine and alcohol, and to have the same sleep and wake times each day.
8. Letting stress go unmanaged.
“It’s really hard to not feel stressed about work and family and whatever other things make us stressed out, but just be mindful that we as humans have a very physical stress response to things that are not a physical threat to us,” Whitson said.
Many animals have a stress response that kicks in under conditions of urgency, like when they’re being chased by a predator or looking for water. Generally, once the need is met, the stress goes away.
“We as humans are able to stress about things that... just don’t pose any physical threat to us ― but then by turning on that stress response and having it kind of chronically activated, it does all kinds of things,” Whitson said. “It reduces our immune system’s ability to fight off real pathogens and things that are our real stressors.”
Stress also takes a toll on our metabolism, our sleep, our blood pressure and more. It’s important to do what you can to decrease your stress, whether that’s talking to a mental health professional (if possible) or cutting out things in life that cause you problems.
9. Not planning for your future health.
“We talk a lot about planning for end of life — you know, what are you going to do? Do you want CPR? Do you want advanced-care planning? Who’s my power of attorney? Where’s my will?” Lindquist said. “But many times people don’t think about, ‘What am I going to do in the 10 to 20 years before I die?’”
Lindquist refers to this time frame as the “fourth quarter of life, because that’s the time when you’re going to have more health problems.” She added that people in their 70s, 80s and 90s are more likely to require hospitalization and deal with worsening memory loss.
Besides deciding who get the lake house, your golf clubs or your engagement ring, you should start thinking about your plan for the last 10 to 20 years of your life, Lindquist explained. Are you going to plan to move in with family? Will you have in-home care? Will you move to a senior community? Do you live near a hospital?
“These are conversations that people should be having, especially when they’re considering longevity and living longer,” she noted.
By having these conversations with loved ones, you can make sure your voice is heard as you age and that there are no unchecked expectations. To help adults plan for all of the aspects of their future, Lindquist and her team built Plan Your Lifespan , a free website funded by the National Institutes of Health.
10. Not planning for your financial future.
“It’s great when people’s goal is to increase their active longevity and health span... [but] they should know that they have to plan for it financially,” said Whitson. “One of the saddest things that I see as a geriatrician is when increasingly, it happens frequently now, that people outlive their savings.”
Many of Whitson’s patients in their 90s tell her they never expected to live so long, and that they didn’t expect to have to support themselves for another 30 years after retirement. “That happens, and it’s real,” she said.
“I worry about some of the people that I see at midlife that are sort of expecting to retire at 65 and haven’t really accounted for the fact that if they live 30 healthy years after that, they better be able to know where their money is going to come from,” Whitson said.
“I think a lot of people have these imaginations of travel and living large in retirement because they will have made all the right health choices and be very healthy, which is great,” she said. “But thinking about the funds flow for that chapter of their lives is important in midlife, too.”
So, as you focus on your physical and mental health as you age, it’s important to remember that future financial health also plays a major role.
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