It’s never too late to address senior citizens health. By incorporating four simple lifestyle rules the risk of heart disease could be decreased by 35 percent and the risk of death by 40 percent four years after the changes were initiated. According to Dr. Dana Kind of the Medical University of South Carolina, the later adopters of a healthy lifestyle are basically able to catch up, in spite of years of unhealthy habits.
The first lifestyle rule is to address the senior diet. Senior food should include eating five or more fruits and vegetables every day will improve your natural aging. Seniors fitness requires exercising at least 30 minutes every day for a total of 2 ½ hours a week. Not smoking was the third requirement to slow body aging. The last, and the most difficult to adhere to, according to researchers is losing weight if need be in attempt to fall into the healthy to overweight category.
The research team in charge of this study tracked 16,000 Americans between the ages of 45 and 64. Initially, less than ten percent addressed aging issues by engaging in the four health habits. During the study, an additional ten percent started practicing the four habits. Ironically, adopting only three of the four habits yielded minimum benefits to their health. Seniors needed to incorporate all four habits together to decreased risk of heart disease and death.
If people adopted these four lifestyle changes, within four years they caught up to people who had been doing these behaviors all along. The natural aging, mortality rate and rate of heart attacks were equal in the two groups.
While Dr King doesn’t recommend waiting until people are in their 40s or 50s to get on track, adopting a vigorous lifestyle of retirement health later in life will result in immediate benefits.
Even though these are modest changes, the researchers were disappointed more people didn’t take up the healthy lifestyle. The people least likely to adopt the new behaviors were aging men, blacks, those with a lower education, and people with lower incomes. In addition, people with high blood pressure or diabetes were less likely to follow the new guidelines. The baby boomer years will greatly improve with these changes
For those willing to make simple changes, citizen seniors health will be the reward. To know you can make those changes at any time and still reap the rewards is an additional incentive to take the leap and stick to it.
Cathy Severson, MS helps you make the most of your retirement. Find out how to make the rest of your life the best of your life with the complimentary e-book 7 Ingredients for a Satisfying Retirement at http://tinyurl.com/8moymb
