Group of seniors making jogging at the park
As people grow older, people will inevitably enter middle-aged and old age, and their bodies will gradually age. Why do some people get sick and even die young while others can live How about healthy and longevity, enjoying the happy time of healthy old age? With age, physical health will become more and more important, because only with a healthy body can the quality of life of the elderly be better guaranteed. How can the elderly improve their own healthy lifespan? Let’s talk about this topic today.
Aging is inevitable, how to maintain health and improve the quality of life? This article shares 6 tips
Some friends said: People can live long and are healthy when they are old because of their good genes, while some friends say: Healthy and long-lived elderly people are naturally optimistic and open-minded people. There is nothing wrong with this statement. It is true that maintaining a good attitude and possessing healthy longevity genes are important factors for maintaining good health after aging. However, compared with these uncontrollable factors, should we consider the issue of healthy aging more? What can we change and do well? In this article, we will talk about six points of attention from the life aspect. If middle-aged and elderly friends can make targeted changes in their lives, it will be very helpful for maintaining health and longevity.
1: Exercise
Aging is inevitable, how to maintain health and improve the quality of life? This article shares 6 tips
Many people think that after entering middle-aged and old people, they should pay more attention to rest to avoid physical health damage caused by exercise. In fact, it is very important for middle-aged and old people to exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle. At present, most domestic and international guidelines suggest that middle-aged and elderly people should exercise at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week if their physical conditions permit. It is recommended to exercise for 30 minutes every day, every week. The exercise time should be no less than 5 days. The exercise method should be aerobic exercise, supplemented by strength training and balance and flexibility training. The health benefits that exercise can bring are multi-faceted and comprehensive:
Reduce the risk of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases
Helps regulate and control high blood pressure
Helps blood sugar control
Helps maintain muscle strength and body balance, reducing the risk of fall injury
Helps improve depression and anxiety and other bad moods
Helps keep the brain sharp
Helps improve sleep disorders
For the way of exercise, middle-aged and elderly friends can actively practice according to the actual situation without being too rigid. Brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, swinging ball sports, etc. are all good, but for a certain For some friends, it is more beneficial to health than sitting for a long time and lying down for a long time by playing flowers, walking the dog, and taking more stairs to get oneself moving.
2: Avoid excessive dieting
As the age grows, the chances of overweight and obesity among middle-aged and elderly people will be higher. Some middle-aged and old friends know that being overweight and obesity is bad for their health, so they always want to lose weight through various methods, but a more common situation is, In order to lose weight, we will try a new way of eating. At first, we will lose a little weight, but soon the weight will rise again, so we use other weight loss methods to continue to lose weight, gain weight, and lose weight… Such a process is medically called “weight cycling”. Such a method will have adverse effects on physical and mental health. Related studies have found that “weight cycling” increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, and at the same time There is also a certain correlation with the risk of depression.
For middle-aged and elderly friends, in terms of healthy weight loss, instead of excessive dieting, it is better to try to adjust your diet with your heart. The following dietary rules to help you lose weight are for your reference:
A reasonable diet should be based on their own actual conditions. Generally, middle-aged and elderly people should pay attention to salt restriction in their diet, while increasing the intake of dietary fiber and reducing the total calories in the food.
Eat more healthy foods, such as fruits, vegetables, ingredients rich in high-quality protein, and whole grain foods, and eat less snacks.
Drinking plenty of water in moderation helps to strengthen the filtration cycle of the kidneys and excrete metabolic wastes in the body. Drink small amounts and drink repeatedly instead of waiting until you are thirsty.
For some foods that you particularly like, such as French fries, chocolates, etc., even if they are not so healthy, they do not have to be completely forbidden. You can eat them once in a while, just pay attention to the right amount.
It is important to limit alcohol consumption. Excessive alcohol intake can affect your health in many ways, as well as increase the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. At the same time, it is not conducive to the maintenance and control of healthy weight.
3: Maintain a healthy diet
In addition to choosing healthy eating habits, changing and avoiding some unhealthy dietary factors, it is also very important to choose a healthy diet structure. If we don’t know how to choose a healthy diet, the Mediterranean diet is a healthy way worthy of reference.
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes the restriction of foods rich in saturated fats such as red meat, and emphasizes the diversity of foods. Vegetables, fruits, fish, seafood, beans and nuts are the main foods, followed by whole grain foods. It is recommended to keep the original ingredients as much as possible. To reduce the cooking process as much as possible, use vegetable oil instead of animal oil, and especially advocate the use of olive oil. This diet helps reduce the body’s inflammatory response and is closely related to the protection of cardiovascular and brain health.
4: Think hard and stay sharp
Many people say that the brain is not easy to use when they are older. As they age, the memory capacity of the brain may indeed decrease, but this does not mean that the brain is aging or there will be more serious problems. For brain health, you may wish to do the following 3 aspects:
Diligent brainstorming is an effective way. Learning a new skill, developing a new hobby, and finding a job that keeps your mental muscles alive are all good ways.
Believe in your own abilities. Sometimes if you will be what you think, if we think that we will not suffer from memory loss, our brain will work more actively, so that we can avoid the problem of memory loss.
Using tools such as notebooks, mobile memos and other methods to handle daily affairs can help us save more energy to learn new things and remember more important things.
Smoking increases the chance of dementia. To protect brain health, it is very important to quit smoking.
5: Sun exposure (vitamin D supplement)
With age, the human body’s bone loss speeds up, and if the bone formation rate fails to keep up, it will affect the body’s bone density and bone strength, and even gradually cause osteoporosis. It is important to prevent bones from maintaining healthy bones. In terms of poor quality, in addition to calcium supplementation, reasonable supplementation of vitamin D is also a very important aspect.
There are two aspects to vitamin D supplementation. One is to supplement through diet or taking supplements. On the other hand, cortisol in the skin is converted into vitamin D for use by the body under sunlight. Therefore, for middle-aged and elderly friends In other words, you can pay attention to proper exposure to the sun. Ten minutes a day is enough, not too much, and you don’t need to choose when the sun is particularly strong, so as not to sunburn the skin or cause skin-related lesions. Sufficient vitamin D is not only It helps prevent osteoporosis, and also helps reduce the incidence of multiple sclerosis, metabolic syndrome and other problems. Another benefit of sun exposure is that it can increase the level of endorphins in the body, which can help make people happy and maintain a good emotional state.
6: Stay active social
No matter how old you are, healthy and good social relationships are very important to people, and related studies have found that loneliness is related to physical health risks and even death risks. Loneliness not only makes people feel bad, but also leads to a decline in intelligence and increases the risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and depression.
To overcome loneliness, you need to maintain active social interaction. You can participate in some social activities, or contact some old friends, and participate in some charity volunteer activities and organizations. These are all important ways to strengthen social interaction. In this way, we can establish a sense of purpose in life, establish meaningful social relationships, and free ourselves from the adverse effects of loneliness on health.
The six aspects mentioned above are some life suggestions for healthy aging, which may not be comprehensive, but for middle-aged and elderly friends, start from yourself and get rid of some bad habits in life as early as possible in a targeted manner. , Cultivating healthy and good living habits, and doing long-term persistence, are very important for us to enter the old age healthily and to improve our own quality of life. I hope that friends who read this article can be inspired and rewarded
