Top 10 Tips to Stay Healthy after 70
Staying fit is not only healthy for older folk but the younger crowd as well because staying healthy will help improve your odds of beating all kinds of diseases that seem to haunt the inactive community. Being healthy and active doesn’t guarantee you’ll never get heart disease, but it sure does lower the risk and when you’re 70, your risk of getting these types of disease are far higher than when you’re 20.
1) Cardio Exercise – You don’t have to run a marathon or train for the Olympics but you would genuinely be surprised to see just what a little cardio could do for your body. Even if you want to take a dancing class, or take a walk every day, any little thing can help when you’re 70 years old and especially if you have been inactive in a long time. It’s always safe to check with your doctor first before going on any kind of cardio plan though.
2) Dieting – This applies to all age groups but dieting is one of the major steps to keeping the ladies attracted to you and staying in-shape. A lot of experts will tell you that the majority of weight loss is in the diet and while there’s a lot of debate in whether that’s true or not, you should always consider a diet if you’re overweight for your age group. These foods are easy to cook and cheap to afford as well.
3) Practice Listening – We know that as you get older, your hearing starts to deteriorate, so perhaps you can try to learn an instrument or devote some time every day to listening to the radio and giving your ears a little warm up. The point is, you should be exercising your ears a little once in a while as well.
4) Stretching – This not only helps you before you start exercising but when you stretch out, you’re increasing the blood flow to the extremities of your body and you’re getting your heart pumping as well, so stretching should be considered by all age groups, whether it’s when you wake up, before you’re getting ready to take a run, or no matter what you’re doing. Even if it’s only a couple of minutes a day, if you’re 70 or older, you should try to stretch to whatever extent you can.
5) Ice Cubes For Medicine – Sometimes, people over 70 won’t take their medicine because the raw taste of their medicine is quite awful. Instead of refusing to take it and putting your health at risk, why not just suck on an ice cube? This will numb the tongue and will make it so that you won’t be able to taste the medicine at all, allowing you to effectively take your medicine and remain healthy.
6) Keep Relationships – You don’t have to join any dating sites but try to keep all the relationships you have with your friends and try to keep friends with everyone that you’re friends with because this will keep your mind at ease and healthy as time goes on. Socializing and befriending people has actually been proven in studies to increase not only your overall mental health but your physical health as well.
7) Eating Bananas – If you didn’t know this, eating bananas is not only healthy for you and should be considered an essential part of your diet but it also will help lower your blood pressure which is something that almost all American adults over 70 deal with because they’re not being active. Bananas are relatively cheap and if you’re in a nursing home, you might want to request them.
8) Smoking – If you’re currently smoking, then you definitely need to consider quitting, it’s never too late to quit. Do it for your own health and for the health of the people around you if you’re surrounded by other people who are over 70 as well. Smoking has devastating effects on the body as you get older, even though it’s not healthy for anyone at any age.
9) Drinking – Among smoking, drinking is definitely not something you should be doing if you’re over the age of 70 as well. Drinking is very devastating to the liver at age 70, far more than it would be if you were a frat boy and you were 21 years old.
10) Natural Light – For some reason, allowing natural light into your home seems to not only lighten the mood but has positive physical effects on the health as well, so it’s something you want to consider.
Staying healthy is a matter of willpower and sticking to a plan that works for you, so many people give up trying to become healthy and it’s a lot harder for people over the age of 70. Perhaps you should seek the help of a loved one to help keep you motivated if you find it too difficult at times.