12 Healthy Habits to Slow Ageing
Be proactive with your health, take care of yourself, literally.
Good health and well-being are something we take for granted when we are in the first decades of life. Youth bestows them on us even when we are abusing our bodies with late nights, alcohol, smoking, and other health boundary-pushing activities. However, when we no longer have youth on our side, we need to stop being blase about how we treat our bodies. Health is precious. If you want a life that is active and fulfilled way into older age, you have to start working on it, preferably in your forties or fifties. The earlier you begin, the better for your health in older years. Think of it as an investment. It’s easy to confuse ageing with the effects of a poor diet and lack of exercise. It is never too late to start to make a positive difference.
It means making the right choices. Choosing nutritious food, vitamin supplements where your diet may be lacking, daily exercise, and for me, keeping up to date with my jabs. I know there’s a lot of controversy around vaccinations but I’ve always had mine, so being well and active now, in my mid-seventies, may have something to do with that fact.
Someone on another social platform asked me for some habits that would help slow aging. I thought that might make an interesting post for my Substack subscribers. All my suggestions are science-based and ones that I’ve put into practice, having been interested in scientific research into a healthy lifestyle since my forties. Some of these suggestions are for those already retired, but most apply to all ages:
12 Healthy Habits to Slow Ageing
Eat nourishing food that is not ultra-processed. Don’t overeat - eat smaller portions, and don’t snack between meals (if you must, choose healthy snacks rather than cakes and sugar-laden sweets). Watch your waistline. Obesity means fat around your internal organs that don’t function well in that condition, leading to health problems. More tips on diet in an earlier post: The-New-Way-to-Grow-Old
Exercise regularly. That means walking for stamina, weight training to build muscle strength, aerobic exercise for heart health, yoga, pilates, or some other form of movement regime for keeping flexible. Practice balance too. A fall in later life can be fatal.
Sleep well every night. Ensure your bedroom is set up for good quality sleep (no screens and a dark bedroom) and you get between six and eight hours a night.
Manage stress levels. Breathing exercises are excellent for helping calm a stressed body. Here’s a link to an earlier newsletter on mindful breathing containing some breathing exercises that may be useful to you: Mindful-Breathing-a-Powerful-Tool. Also, meditation to learn to quieten your busy mind, keep a gratitude journal, and do things that engross you, like reading and watching films.
Socialise often with friends and family. Being with people you love and appreciate and who reciprocate is good for your mental health.
Have a purpose to get up every morning if you don’t work, perhaps a hobby you can’t wait to do every day, like art, a craft, volunteering, writing a book, whatever floats your boat.
Take care of your health, get your vaccinations, and have regular checkups.
Learn new skills, challenge yourself, and don’t get in a rut. It’s good to have a routine, but it’s also good to do something different sometimes, like learning a new language or a musical instrument. Visit new places.
Maintain a skincare routine. Wear sun protection lotion when out and about.
Take care of your eyes and teeth. Have regular checkups and any necessary treatment.
Work on your self-improvement. This means looking inward and focusing on ways to make yourself the best version of yourself.
Most importantly, cultivate a positive mindset. Negativity can lead to depression. Look on the bright side of everything and enjoy taking care of yourself. Here’s a link to an earlier post on how to cultivate a positive mindset: The Power of a Positive Mindset.
There seems to be an assumption that in your older years, you will eventually automatically go into a care home, but that’s not the case. Only a small proportion of older people need to be cared for in institutional settings. Most live at home or with family. This is a good reason to adopt a healthy lifestyle early so that you can spend your later years independently, living life to the fullest in good health.
There is evidence that dementia rates are declining and researchers are putting this down to better cardiovascular health and more education. We’ve long been told that keeping the brain active helps to stave off decline leading to dementia, and word games and so-called brain games are recommended as tools for this. Brain games are defined as any activity that stimulates your thinking, such as crosswords, Scrabble, Chess, Sudoku, Bridge,nn and so on.
I’ve always enjoyed stretching my mental faculties with crosswords and later on, Sudoku. Lately, it’s been Wordle, which is a newer craze, now in The New York Times. It’s a word game that I love and look forward to its daily challenge, along with Quordle, the same puzzle but with four words instead of one.
Whether these games have any long-term benefits for the brain is still being debated in the science community. However, according to a study in the November 2016 International Psychogeriatrics, certain thinking skills that decline with age may be helped by playing these games, such as processing speed, planning skills, reaction time, decision-making, and short-term memory. I just love doing them so I think the enjoyment quotient should count towards a long-term benefit.
(I am not a medical practitioner and strongly recommend that anyone who makes a major change in their lifestyle regarding health, especially if they have an underlying health condition, should seek advice to do so from a suitably qualified person).
Do you enjoy doing word games? Do you play Wordle every day, like me? I’d love it if you to let me know in the Comments.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I have a friend, also in her forties, recently diagnosed with a thyroid disorder and I know how it messes with your health and wellbeing. I was in my forties when I started to take an interest in scientific findings on health, after a midlife crisis. It's a good time to start but it's never too late. Welcome to our community here!
These are great tips Patricia. As a 56 year old, I can completely relate to the mindset of the things I'm doing now, eating better + exercising consistently, are deposits into my future self.