Healthy Ageing What is it? and How can I do it?

Healthy Ageing What is it? and How can I do it?

What is it?

You may have heard of the term healthy ageing before and thought what does it mean? Well, Healthy Ageing is when you develop and maintain your physical and psychological ability for wellbeing in later life. This involves ensuring that you are as healthy as you can be as you age creating less impact on your quality of life, having less of a burden on others to look after you and less impact on the health care system.

How do I do it?

There is no magic method or pill that is going to help your healthy ageing it is all about doing the things that have been shown to be beneficial to your general health and then maintaining this as you age. Exercising regularly, eating a balanced diet, reducing stress, and maintaining mental clarity have all been shown to help with healthy ageing.

Effect of exercise on the ageing process

Exercise has been shown numerous times to have a profoundly positive effect on the body and reduce the risk of many injuries and diseases. This is no different as we age. Aerobic exercise as we age helps to keep our heart strong, reduce blood pressure, maintain metabolism, lower blood sugar levels, reduce memory loss, and many other benefits. Resistance and flexibility exercises help to maintain your strength and mobility so you can continue to move around freely, while balance exercises help to reduce your risk of falling.

Quick tips to incorporate healthy habits into your day.

The first thought for most people when looking at this would be, I am too busy to fit that into my day or I just can’t be bothered. There are some simple ways that you can incorporate some healthy habits into your day without needing much time or effort. Some simple things you can do include incorporating exercise into your daily routine, such as doing some calf raises or balancing while cooking dinner, walking down to the local shops to get the paper each day or even something as simple as using a stand-up desk at work can have large benefits for your health. Adding more veggies to your meals or reading a book each week can also help with your physical and psychological health and are again simple things you can do.

The moral of the story is that every bit counts and if you can incorporate some of these suggestions into your day you will be much better off now and in later life.