Nobody looks forward to aging, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative process. In fact, there are many healthy aging tips for seniors that make it a more natural process as opposed to a strenuous one. And the best part is, many of these health-increasing behaviors don’t require anything other than discipline for the most part.
1st Healthy Aging Tip for Seniors: Diet
One of the “easiest” ways to ensure graceful aging is being conscientious of one’s diet. Dieting can be mentally challenging, but it can be considered an “easy” healthy aging tip for seniors since all it requires is discipline. While some health-improving activities can require time, money, equipment, or even travel, eating is part of everybody’s daily routine. Creating a plan and swapping out unhealthy or junk foods for nutritious ones is relatively simple, but extremely effective. Aside from the obvious weight gain, eating well can also help prevent other potential health issues such as diabetes and heart disease.
2nd Healthy Aging Tip for Seniors: Physical Activity
Just like dieting, physical activity is another healthy aging tip for seniors that does not require much external help, if physically able of course. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) says that exercising helps slow the “biological clock.” The NCOA revealed a BYU study that showed adults who ran 30-40 minutes, 5 days a week had an almost nine-year biological aging advantage. They cite “telomeres” as the reason for the advantage. Here is an excerpt from the article explaining them:
“Telomeres are the nucleotide endcaps of our chromosomes,” explains a BYU news report on Professor Larry Tucker’s research. “They’re like our biological clock and they’re extremely correlated with age; each time a cell replicates, we lose a tiny bit of the endcaps. Therefore, the older we get, the shorter our telomeres. The high-octane exercisers had “significantly longer” telomeres than sedentary adults, conferring that almost nine-year biologic advantage. They had a seven-year advantage over adults who were moderately active.”
While some seniors are unable to be physically active, it doesn’t take much for those who are capable. Physical activity does not have to be anything overly strenuous. If you can incorporate seemingly mundane tasks such as walking, stretching, or even casual swimming, it can have an enormous positive impact on your health that just like dieting, does not require much more than discipline or perseverance.
3rd Healthy Aging Tip for Seniors: Sleep
Believe it or not, sleeping is one of the most effective healthy aging tips for seniors. Sleep may seem even more automatic to a day’s routine than dieting and more thoughtless than walking, but it too can be extremely beneficial. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) covered a study done by UCLA researchers. This study revealed some truly eye-opening results.
“A study done by UCLA researchers discovered that just a single night of insufficient sleep can make an older adult’s cells age quicker. This might not seem like a big deal, but it has the potential to bring on a lot of other diseases. Multiple sclerosis, heart disease, and cancer are just a few of them.”
Aging is an inevitable part of life, and society has associated a submissive mentality with it. But as discussed, there are many seemingly minimal and easy healthy aging tips for seniors that if implemented can have an overwhelmingly positive impact on long-term health.
