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Age-By-Age: Longevity Throughout Your LifeBy Mark Stibich, Ph.D., About.com Guide to Longevity In your 20s, your health needs are different (but no less important) than in your 50s. Learn what you can do in each decade of life to stay healthy and age well. From avoiding risks to protecting your vision, changes you make now can have a lasting impact on how you feel today, tomorrow and years from now. Longevity Strategies for Every Age Decade by decade, your game plan for healthy aging needs an overhaul. There are tailored strategies you should use to be sure that you are on the right path for staying healthy and happy long into your old age.
Longevity To-Do Lists by Age Each stage of life moves a new set of stay-well priorities to the forefront. Knowing what you need to focus on, age by age, can help you focus on what you should do to create a long and health life for yourself.
Things to Avoid A little sacrifice can go a long way when it comes to longevity. By avoiding just a few things, your life expectancy increases greatly. Passing on smoking, for example, could add almost 14 years to your life. Laying off of fried foods and minimizing stress can also help you to stay healthy, feel good and age well. Health Concerns As your body changes, so do your health concerns. Young people may be more concerned with performance. As you age, your interest in preventing, and then managing, chronic illnesses increases.
Screenings by Age Screening tests save lives. By getting tested, you can find out about some illnesses before they become major problems. What tests you need vary by age, gender and risk factors. Your doctor is only one half of the equation -- you, too, have a responsibility to make sure you get all the screenings you need.
Vision and Aging We rely on vision. As we age, damage to our eyes builds up and creates vision problems. Knowing about the problems, catching serious conditions early and taking preventative steps can help preserve vision.
Hearing and Aging Your hearing gets damaged by loud sounds, daily noise exposure and (sorry) listening to your MP3 player too much. As you age, this damage just compounds. There are things you can do to protect your hearing, however.
Sex and Aging Sex is a basic and fundamental part of life. And as you age, your sex life changes. But sex itself can make you healthy and even increase your life expectancy. Contrary to popular belief, though sexual problems are associated with aging, you can maintain a healthy, happy sex life for years to come. |
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