Healthy aging is a concept that emphasizes life satisfaction and personal mental and physical well-being. An inclusive concept that captures the essence of cognitive and physical preservation. The later stage brings you some of the most rewarding decades of your life. Not only do you gain wisdom, patience, and experience but even your perspective alters.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines healthy aging as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age. You can grow older with your body and mind in a healthy manner and here are a few science-backed ways to do that!
Creation of age-friendly environments
Staying on top of your health is much more than just being well physically. The right environment is an important health determinant of health and has gained significant attention in recent years. Happy, equitable, accessible, safe, and secure environments are characterized as ideal environments. For example, at a micro-level, personal living spaces can become age-friendly with deliberate considerations of things that suit you the best as per your choices and preferences. Overall, the creation of age-friendly environments poses an essential foundation for healthy aging.
Engage in physical activity
Walk for 30 minutes a day. Break it into shorter strolls if 30 minutes walking seems a little too much. Engaging in yoga, regular exercise, brisk walking; basically; enough to feel a little breathless has great health benefits as it helps keep the brain cells healthy by delivering more blood and oxygen. Not only does physical activity control weight, boost mood, keep muscles and bones strong, and promote better sleep but also reduces the risk of suffering from heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Eat your way to better health!
Load up on the intake of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, low-fat dairy, and whole grains. Reduce the consumption of butter, excess sweet, salty, and oily foods, fatty meats, and packaged foods. Pack your diet with vibrant foods that are dense in nutrients, packed with antioxidants, healthy fats, essential vitamins, and nutrients. Red bell peppers, papaya, watercress, blueberries, spinach, broccoli, sweet potatoes, and avocado are some of the anti-aging foods to nourish your body and make it glow from within! Dharana at Shillim has an age reversal rejuvenation program that assesses the physiological and physical impact of current lifestyle & genetic predisposition in an individual through specific non-invasive tests. The goal of this program is to ascertain a new path towards healthy aging by adopting the Dharana Way of Life & reaping the benefits of wellbeing & longevity learned during the program.
Intake of right supplements
It is always better to get your nutrients from food but after a certain age, your body needs more vitamins and minerals from foods or supplements than before. Calcium (for stronger bones), Vitamin B12 (older people have trouble absorbing this from food, hence you may need fortified cereals or supplements), Vitamin B6 (keeps red blood cells strong to carry oxygen throughout the body).
Keep your numbers in check
Keeping your health in check is important regularly and not only when you don’t feel good. Consult your doctor for regular checkups as these visits shall help in finding problems at an early stage and preventing them as well even before they start. Your doctor may suggest running a few tests to check things like blood pressure, cholesterol levels, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, etc.
Engage in activities that make you happy
Doing things that make you happy has a very positive effect on your brain and body as it releases happy hormones and relaxes you as well. Engage in hobbies and leisure activities of your interest like reading, playing or learning an instrument, playing with kids and pets, playing board games, dancing, etc. Besides, a short getaway with your family and children is always perfect to spend some quality time with.
This article highlights a few important pillars of a strategic approach to healthy aging. Healthy aging is important to lead better, peaceful, and happy years of our older life. Aging is going to touch all of us but nourishing those years with a positive perspective, anti-aging nutrient-dense foods, and a happy mindset is a fuel to look and feel best.