Most of us think we know what aging means. Sore backs, sluggish brains, wobbly gaits, lonely hearts. The mind and body are not immortal and will eventually die. We can improve the quality of our lives by making some changes.
Picture a graph. Instead of a long line sloping slowly downward, envision one that stays high, up at the top of the graph. Only at the very end does this line dropdown. In other words, illness and disability are shortened and occur closer to death.
This is what scientists call “flattening the curve”. In other words, it means that our “healthy years” – the years in which we are healthy and active – can last almost our entire lives. There is something that we can control to a great degree.
After age 80, genetics plays a larger role in how long someone lives, says Daniel Lieberman, chair of the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University.
” Lieberman points out that in the days before modern medicine, people’s lifespans were largely determined by how long they stayed healthy. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors had to hunt and gather food until they died. Staying active has a positive effect on overall health.
Steven Austad, a bio-gerontologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, says that humans have been doing a lot of physical activity for 300,000 years, until very recently.
If you want to improve your health span, all you need to do is walk or do some other form of exercise nearly every day. You don’t even have to think of it as exercise. It means eating right — more veggies, fewer doughnuts. Connecting with other people to keep loneliness at bay. Avoiding hazards such as scatter rugs and cluttered hallways can help prevent broken hips, and often shortened lives.
There is a growing number of elderly people in the world, including those over the age of 100. So, what is accounting for longer lives?
Tom Perls, a professor of medicine at Boston University and director of the New England Centenarian Study, says that the environment has been safer since the 1900s due to basic public health standards for things like water, working conditions, refrigeration, and vaccinations. The factors mentioned have resulted in more people living past illnesses and injuries that occur during childhood into adulthood.
But making it to 100? Or 105? Perls states that once a person reaches a certain age, their behaviour is more a result of their genes than anything else. The centenarians he has studied all share 27 genetic patterns. These genes prevent the rapid aging process and decrease the chance of developing age-related health problems such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and dementia.
having older folks around may actually have an evolutionary advantage The resources grandparents provide can help family genes get passed down. This is because the resources can help younger generations to reach reproductive age.
The wisdom and experience that older people have to offer is invaluable to our communities. In 1993, the Globe sent me to a Navajo reservation to report on a deadly outbreak of hantavirus — a group of viruses associated with rodents — rocking the Four Corners region of the Southwest. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted research with the help of the tribal elders. The elders provided key information that was crucial to the research.
The elders So said that when it rained a lot in the beginning of the 20th century, there were more pine nuts, which then led to more deer mice, and finally more mouse droppings. The toxic dust inhaled by tribal members infected their lungs.
In other words, living a healthier life not only benefits you, but also the people you care about. Here are some ways that you can live a healthier, longer life.
- Exercise your body . . . for your brain
It is well-known by scientists that exercise is vital in order to help protect against heart disease, which is the number one killer of Americans.
physical activity reduces the risk of dying from heart disease by 35 percent, and the risk of dying of any other cause by 33 percent.
According to Austad, physical activity is the most important thing for healthy aging. “It doesn’t have to be sweat-dripping-in-the-eyes exercise. Any kind of physical activity helps.”
Exercise is not only good for your physical health, but it is also good for your mental health. It helps improve brain function and makes you feel happier.
This is thanks to something known as a brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which is a chemical that has been nicknamed “Miracle-Gro for the brain” by Dr. John Ratey, an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. BDNF plays an important role in the growth, development, and maintenance of neurons, and it has been shown to promote neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to adapt and change in response to new experiences. “It’s impact is widespread throughout the brain.” BDNF has a large impact on mood and cognition and is present throughout the brain. “Nothing protects the brain more than exercise. We make the most BDNF with exercise.”
Ratey claims that games that activate a larger portion of the brain, like Wordle, also increase the activity in the hippocampus, which is the center of the brain responsible for memory. A smaller hippocampus is connected to both Alzheimer’s disease and major depressive disorder.
When regular participants in cycling classes increase their workouts from one or two sessions a week to four, they see significant increases in both cognition and mood, as reported by researchers in July.
A leading modifiable risk factor for preventing Alzheimer’s disease is a sedentary lifestyle. If everyone became active, Alzheimer’s could be prevented in 1 in 7 cases, according to a 2013 study by the Ontario Brain Institute.
The study suggests that moderate-intensity exercise for 150 minutes a week, or 30 minutes a day for 5 days, is all that is needed. If you’re looking for something to improve your brain function, chocolate may be the answer. Chocolate has been found to contain biomolecules that improve cognition.
- Unlock the mysteries of the microbiome
In recent years, researchers have been studying the beneficial bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other tiny organisms that live inside us and contribute to our health. These microbes have been evolving alongside us for eons. The microbes that live in a person’s body are collectively known as that person’s microbiome.
The bacteria in your gut have a big impact on your overall health. They help you digest food, produce nutrients, and defend against infection. An unhealthy microbiome is one that has a less diverse microbial population and has been linked to numerous digestive and other problems.
What you eat has a big impact on the health of your microbiome.
Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian states that the best diet is one that consists of prebiotics. Prebiotics are a food source for good bacteria in your body, while probiotics are live bacteria that are often sold as supplements. Prebiotics are found in foods rich in fiber, such as blueberries, cocoa, tea, coffee, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables, beans, and minimally-processed whole grains, adds.
Probiotics, which can be found in fermented foods like yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut, and kimchi, as well as cheeses that have been aged but not heated afterward, are important. The study found that babies who were given probiotics were less likely to contract infantile sepsis.
As for commercially available probiotics, Mozaffarian is cautious. ” Although we are aware of how important probiotics are, we do not yet know which specific strains of bacteria are required or in what quantity. There’s more noise than science in the marketing.”
Although prebiotics and probiotics can promote a healthy microbiome, eating red meat may be bad for both the heart and the microbiome, according to researchers at Tufts University.
The study Meng Wang co-led earlier this year looked at nearly 4,000 men and women over 65. This study found that there was a link between meat consumption and cardiovascular disease. They also found that part of this risk is due to chemicals that are produced by gut bacteria.
Wang suggests limiting red and processed meat intake to reduce blood levels of these chemicals.
Diet plays an important role in keeping the microbiome healthy. In 2015, a group of African Americans were asked to switch to a low-fat, high-fiber diet typical of rural South Africans. The reason for this is because African Americans are disproportionately impacted by colon cancer, while South Africans are far less impacted by the disease. The South African participants changed their diet to one that is higher in fat and lower in fiber, similar to a “western-style” diet.
The microbiomes of people who changed to a high-fiber diet changed a lot and became healthier, while the microbiomes of those who decreased their fiber intake became less healthy.
- Water
The most important thing we have is water, and it’s not just for survival, it has to be clean. Why is it important to have clean water? You might be wondering this as most of us get clean water from our taps. Many of the waters we drink contain hidden contaminants, like pharmaceuticals, which can poison us over time. There is debate over whether or not it is safe to treat water with chlorine and fluoride. If you’re not in control of your water supply, you might end up like Flint, Michigan, or Walkerton, Canada. You should avoid using water from plastic water bottles, as most plastics release estrogenic chemicals.
- Sleep
Most people are aware that getting a good night’s sleep is important, but many do not realize that sleeping too much can be just as detrimental as not getting enough sleep. The study found that people who slept less than seven hours a night or more than eight hours a night had an increased risk of death by 17% to 24%. According to the study, sleep medications can increase the risk of death by 33%. The ideal sleep is between 7 and 8 hours.
If you’re able to wake up naturally within 7-8 hours, we suggest trying to sleep without using an alarm. If you have trouble waking up, consider investing in an alarm clock that wakes you up by using natural light. If you have difficulty falling asleep, or tend to wake up easily during the night, you may want to consider buying a white noise machine. They soothe you and allow you to sleep through even loud noises.
- Don’t smoke
They ask if you smoke on medical questionnaires for a reason. In other words, it’s a really bad idea. Smoking can have a number of negative consequences including an increased risk for cancer, diabetes, infection, wrinkles, infertility, erectile dysfunction, and osteoporosis. In addition, it dulls the mind and vision. This fact should help illustrate how smoking reduced life expectancy. A smoker’s life expectancy is at least 10 years shorter than that of a non-smoker.
It is difficult, but it is better to try and quit smoking completely. There are some things you can do instead of smoking that are healthier for you, like chew sugar-free gum, use flavored toothpicks, or get some exercise. We recommend that you do not use electronic cigarettes or vaporizers.
- Win the inflammation war
Inflammation is a sneaky thing.
When we see redness and swelling around a cut, or swollen tonsils from a cold, it is inflammation. This is proof of the body’s healthy response to injury and infection.
After the cut heals or the sore throat goes away, the inflammation will go down and we can continue with our lives. Indeed, we couldn’t survive without this powerful immune defense.
There is another kind of inflammatory response which is more dangerous and it threatens our survival. An overactive inflammatory response that doesn’t shut down properly can lead to chronic inflammation.
Chronic inflammation is the cause of many age-related conditions, such as insulin resistance, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and neurodegeneration.
Visceral fat is the type of fat that surrounds your organs. The fat that is hidden deep in our abdomens is actually an active endocrine organ and is not the fat that is visible under our skin.
Visceral fat secretes inflammatory chemicals called adipokines, which are part of the cytokine family. Some cytokines shut inflammation down, others trigger it. The constant output of the latter is what is harmful.
The immune system is out of control, says Dr. I-Min Lee, an epidemiologist and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Chronic inflammation has been linked to a number of serious health conditions, including heart disease, cancer, and dementia.
Atherosclerosis is a condition where the arteries becomes hard and narrow due to the buildup of fat and cholesterol. The presence of these deposits prompts the body to send in white blood cells to attack the problem, causing plaques. The plaques caused by this disease can gradually narrow your arteries and eventually lead to blood clots. “That inflammation is the result of an immune system response to an injury or something foreign in the body—and we think vacations may be triggering that response in some people.” Dr. Lee believes that vacations may be causing inflammation in some people which leads to the hardening of arteries.