It is common for people to judge how well or poorly celebrities age, well the same applies to you too. Your age is not an indicator of your health, you may be much older than your age in terms of your health (meaning poorer health-wise compared to people of similar age) or you could be younger than your age. 

This is because your biological age is impacted by your lifestyle, heredity, and a lot of other factors, which can make your older than you are. So, what can you do to “age better”? Change and adapt to lifestyle changes for healthy aging. Lifestyle changes have a profound impact in maintaining your health. To what extent? Let’s find out the impact of lifestyle on health in advanced age. But first, let’s take a look at what biological age is, and why it’s important to determine yours.

What Is Biological Age?

Every person has a chronological age or calendar age, and biological age which is the age of your body. Now, you may think that they are both the same, but they are not. Your calendar age is calculated chronologically as 1 year is added to every birthday. Your biological age is not calculated chronologically always. It refers to the age you feel and are in terms of your health. How is it calculated?

Based on how you feel and if you are able to keep up with people your own age, it can be determined if your biological age is lower or higher than your calendar age. The exact age can then be figured out by repeating the experiment or just by visiting your doctor who will find out your health using diagnostic tests.

Based on your biological age, you will either be incentivized to keep doing what you are doing, or change your lifestyle to improve your health. Be sure that it is only through lifestyle changes, exercise, and dietary changes, you will be able to reverse your biological age. So, better adopt healthy habits for aging well, before it's too late. And to give you an idea of what too late means, here’s what happens if you don’t make lifestyle changes as you age.

What Happens If You Don’t Make Lifestyle Changes As You Age?

Your body changes as you age, and you need to change too accordingly to maintain your health. If you don’t make lifestyle changes as you age, the one thing that is almost guaranteed is that you will have chronic illnesses that will lead to your premature death. That’s the outcome, but there is a very clear path as to how you reach there. So, let’s take a look at the different ways not adapting healthy habits will impact your health.

First, as you start to age, if you are not living an active lifestyle and eating/drinking in moderation, you will weigh poorly as per your body mass index. This will increase your risk for three types of conditions cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. A combination of all three of these conditions is enough to take your life prematurely if you don’t get them in control promptly.

Additionally, diabetes can affect almost all other parts of your body and lead to health complications unless you manage the condition actively. So, as you can see, going down this path is going to be very difficult for your health, and can lead to chronic illnesses that are very hard to manage once they affect your health. So, what’s the solution? Preventive measures such as lifestyle changes and dietary changes.

What Are Healthy Habits for Aging Well?

There are a few ways to age well, and all of them require simple everyday changes that have a positive cumulative effect on keeping you healthy. Here are the best tips that you need.

• Start eating healthy, and try eating more vegetables, especially dark green and leafy vegetables.
• Cut down on your consumption of red meat as you age.
• Cut down on your caffeine and alcohol intake (if you don’t want to quit it altogether)
• Quit smoking
• Exercise regularly and try to live an active lifestyle, this means going for walks and working out your cardiovascular muscles regularly
• Try to lower your sodium intake as you age
• Keep your stress levels in check
• Take your mental health seriously and seek help if you need it

Conclusion

Lifestyle changes have a lot of benefits for your health, that you might not realize on the surface. The effort you put into keeping your body healthy, doesn’t go in vain. However, it is also important to point out that, these preventive measures can’t guarantee you won’t get any of the conditions discussed above. 

It just means, even if you get them, you will be able to manage them better and they won’t be able to cause serious health complications. So, if you are over the age of or nearing 40, make sure you visit your doctor regularly and set up screening tests to help diagnose any health problems that you might be having.

To make sure you are in optimum health and your living your best life make sure you visit MASSH. We specialize in preventive care to help you stay healthy and fit without needing to depend on medicines. We also specialize in high-tech minimally invasive surgeries, that can help you treat your symptoms with the least risks and quickest recovery times. For any and all elderly health conditions, feel free to visit our specialized elderly health clinic at MASSH.