Aging is inevitable, but as Mark Twain put it, “Age is an issue of the mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”. Though aging is not in our hands, ‘how we age’ is surely in our hands! To age gracefully, it’s important that this issue is dealt with in one’s prime itself. Significant number of healthy and productive years can be added to one’s life, if certain simple things are checked and some healthy lifestyle related amendments are made. Research says that only 25 percent of your longevity is dictated by your genes, rest is all modifiable by habits. If healthy habits are sown, we shall reap the results of a prolonged, productive life. These life style choices are entirely governed by you!
The gender bias
Due to hormonal and environmental factors, aging has variable effects in men compared to women. Medical ailments and causes of morbidity and mortality are quite different in the two sexes. While men are more prone to get cardiovascular illnesses and cancers, their women counterparts enjoy greater longevity (on an average about 5 years more!) due to protective cover of estrogen (female hormone) and social differentials (e.g. incidence of smoking and drinking is lesser in women than men).
Male menopause
Men too like women experience a ‘male menopause’ due to changes in hormonal rhythms and their basal levels in circulation. Some do even experience ‘crisis-like’ feeling. Some of the hormones incriminated for the same are – Dopamine, DHEA, Testosterone, Melatonin, Growth Hormone. Although supplementation of these chemicals have no documented anti-aging benefits, some simple lifestyle modifications go a long way in improving your health as your hair become salt than pepper.
Strategies for anti-aging
1. Weight and BMI
Today’s sedentary life and junk foods just add to the extra fat under our skin. Keeping a good check on weight protects your body from many aging insults. Maintaining a healthy ‘body mass index’ (weight in kgs/square of height in meter) acts as a great yard stick to keep your weight to the optimum, as per the built. Normal BMI is between 18 and 23.
2. Abdominal girth
Fat gets deposited in the body in many places. While have a predilection for fat accumulation around the thighs, men have more lipid deposits around the abdomen. Cardiovascular diseases are found to be more common in cases of truncal obesity rather than of other regions. That means, monitoring your waist size is actually more important from the aging point of view. Keep a stringent check on the size of the trousers you wear to keep heart diseases and Diabetes at bay!
3. Diet
You are what you eat. Eating a healthy diet, rich in vitamins and minerals, will have exponential effects on your longevity. Supplementing with adequate antioxidants like Vitamin C, E and boosting immunity with trace elements like Zinc and Magnesium, give your body the capability to combat environmental insults. Many carcinogens in the environment are inactivated by these anti-oxidants.
Avoiding trans and saturated fats and taking foods rich in essential fats like fish and cord liver oil, helps to keep ailments like Dyslipidemia at bay while maintaining HDL (good cholesterol) levels to the optimum.
4. Exercise
Although there is nothing like daily exercise, a thirty minute walk, thrice a week helps to get rid of the extra weight. It not only burns around 100 calories in just 15-18 minutes, it give you greater bone density (reducing fractures), improves muscle strength and also betters one’s glycemic control by increasing insulin sensitivity at peripheral levels.
5. Smoking
Smoking is a strict NO for a healthy life. Smoking has been constructively linked to many cancers and lung diseases like COPD. Every pack-year decreases longevity. Even quitting after 65 adds to one’s life. Passive smoking is an added ill effect of smoking. Since nicotine is one of the most addictive chemicals known, great will power and sometimes professional help may be needed for de-addiction. But it’s worth the effort!
6. Alcohol and other addictions
Although moderate amount of alcohol helps in metabolism, more than 2 drinks a day predispose the individual to cancers like colon cancers, liver diseases (cirrhosis, Hepatocellular carcinoma), pancreatitis, neuropathy, amnesia etc. Other drug addictions too take a heavy toll of one’s health apart from being a financial and social strain. A strict control would save one from a lot of debilitating ailments in old age.
7. Stress
In this fast paced life, tension and stress is a part and parcel of our lives. But stress related burnout can be greatly reduced by proper time management and seeking help wherever needed. Yoga, muscle relaxation therapies, bio-feedback methods are some ways to keep stress related body insults like Hypertension, DM, stroke etc at bay. Spending quality time with family and sex are great stress busters.
8. Checkups
Screening for common geriatric problems and regular follow-up with your physician can help to nab a lot of diseases in their infancy and prolong healthy life.
Don’t regret getting older, as it’s a privileged denied to many, but remember with a little effort today, the best is yet to be.