According to Dr. Samantha Shah of Samaritan Internal Medicine who specializes in Geriatrics, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and COPD are the most common health problems for people over the age of 70 which could have been prevented with a healthy lifestyle. But what exactly does a healthy lifestyle look like?
Most of us are aware that exercise and nutrition are important, but we sometimes don’t know where to start. Luckily, there are ways that we can keep ourselves feeling young, even as we journey into old age.
Shah says there are certain commonalities among her patients who have stayed healthy well into their golden years. “The patients that tend to do best,” she wrote in an email interview for the Advocate, “are those that have a youthful attitude towards life, stay active with exercise, [do] volunteer activities and engage in practices that stimulate the brain.” She says this can include staying active in hobbies like listening to or performing music, reading books, volunteering or traveling.
As far as advice goes for younger people, Shah writes “Start healthy habits now regarding diet and exercise and start charting your course for the future. Think about what is important to you and how you can continue to bring value to the world throughout your life. Develop good habits such as gratitude and making the most of each day. These are things that I hear from my geriatric patients as being vital.”
With this in mind, we at the Advocate have pulled together some habits that you can include in your daily routine to help you live a longer, more healthful and prosperous life.
Exercise
The first and honestly probably the easiest habit to start is to begin exercising for the recommended amount of time each week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends at least two types of physical activity each week – aerobic activity and muscle strengthening.
Examples of Aerobic activity include walking, running, or other form of cardio exercise, like a step-aerobics class. Muscle Strengthening involves working major muscle groups such as the legs, hips, back, core, chest, arms and shoulders.
The CDC also recommends that adults exercise for 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity each week. That doesn’t have to be all at once, but can be spread across as many days as desired. For example, working out for 30 minutes, 5 days a week would meet the recommended amount of activity time.
How do you know whether you are doing moderate-intensity work? Try the Talk Test. The CDC writes in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, “As a rule of thumb, a person doing moderate-intensity aerobic activity can talk, but not sing during the activity. A person doing vigorous-intensity activity cannot say more than a few words without pausing for a breath.”
Muscle-Strengthening activity can provide benefits that aerobic exercise cannot provide alone. These benefits include increased bone strength and muscle fitness, which can help a person gain mobility and be stronger throughout life. The CDC writes “Muscle-strengthening activities count if they involve a moderate or greater level of intensity or effort and work the major muscle groups of the body.”
Also important is to move more and sit less throughout your day. According to the CDC website “Some physical activity is better than none. Adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity gain some health benefits.”
Nutrition
Another key component to living a healthy life is to make sure you are consuming the proper amounts and types of nutritious foods. The main food groups to focus on are proteins, carbs, fruits, vegetables, and fats. According to the School of Public Health at Harvard University, diet quality is the biggest concern. For example, “The type of carbohydrate in the diet” says an article by Harvard “is more important than the amount of carbohydrate in the diet, because some sources of carbohydrate-like vegetables (other than potatoes), fruits, whole grains, and beans- are healthier than others.”
Harvard School of Public Health also advises people to avoid sugary beverages like sodas, juices, and energy drinks, as they are a major source of calories with little nutritional value. Not only that, but in an article titled “Plate Power – 10 tips for Healthy Eating,” Harvard states that water is the best thing to drink, and suggests that people consume less milk and juice.
As of February 2020, the data from the CDC showed “Among men, the prevalence of obesity was 40.3% among those aged 20-39, 46.4% among those aged 40-59 and 42.2% among those aged 60 and over. Among women, the prevalence of obesity was 39.7% among those aged 20–39, 43.3% among those aged 40–59, and 43.3% among those aged 60 and over.”
Obesity can lead to many life-threatening conditions, including coronary heart disease and renal disease. People can best avoid these potentially devastating results by eating a healthy diet and drinking plenty of water.
Mental Health
Often when we think about our health, we tend to think of just our physical health. But more and more, we are realizing that mental health plays a huge role in our overall well-being.
“It has become more apparent that we are integrated human beings,” writes Nancy A. Olsen in an email to The Advocate. Olsen is a Licensed Professional Counselor here in Corvallis. “If we are worried about something (a mental construct), emotions arise which have physical components and which affect the body as a whole.”
Olsen suggests several different ways to make sure that your mental health is not hindering your physical efforts. “It’s vitally important to take care of yourself, in fundamental ways. There is a saying that ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup.’ Even seemingly small changes or inclusions can add up and make a big difference in your day to day experience of life.”
First, Olsen recommends working to practice self-kindness and self-compassion. “Be kind to yourself. It does not make you a better person to be self-critical. In fact, research shows the opposite is true. It makes life harder.”
Next, Olsen says, finding things to be thankful for can dramatically change the way you feel about your life. “Actively practicing gratitude is the most highly correlated practice to experience happiness/satisfaction with life.” Some ideas for practicing this are to keep a gratitude journal or to share things you are thankful for with your family every night.
Routine is also incredibly important for cultivating a healthy mindset. “Try to have a simple, consistent morning routine and evening routine,” Olsen suggests. “If you can bookmark your day in this way, the middle part becomes more manageable.”
Part of the routine could include the gratitude practice from above, or 3/6 breathing, a practice Olsen recommends for stressful times. “Inhale through your nose to a slow count of 3, exhale through your mouth to a count of six. Repeat 3 times.” Olsen says this practice offers an amazing sense of calm within the mind and body.
Finally, Olsen recommends getting something positive or growth-oriented into your brain every day. “There is a tremendous amount of good things happening all around us,” she writes. “In Cognitive Behavior Therapy, we say that your thinking creates your emotional reality. Google ‘common thinking errors’ and learn about them. Check your thinking all the time.” For more information about Common Thinking Errors, check out this article.
Look at yesterday’s list of local gyms here.
By Kyra Young
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