Aging Gracefully: 8 Tips for Healthy Golden Years

Early dinner times, pickleball, and keeping the heat too high are all things associated with older people, often in a humorous way. However, your “golden years” can truly be golden if you take good care of yourself. 

At Primary Care Walk-In Clinic, we’re concerned with helping you live your best, healthiest life no matter what your age, but if you’re over 60 especially, there are things you can do to boost your health and preserve your well-being. Choosing healthy habits is critical at this stage of life, and in this month’s post, we’ll share some of the most valuable information about healthy aging.

Healthy aging: What you can do to promote it

Practicing smart habits and prioritizing your health helps you age well and truly thrive. Here are some tips for ensuring that with each passing year, you win.

1. Don’t ignore chronic conditions

If you live with a chronic condition like diabetes, hypertension, or arthritis, keep on top of it. With your doctor, managing your condition and monitoring it often help slow down disease progression.

2. Pay even more attention to your diet

When you were a teen, perhaps you could get away with eating fast food, skipping meals, and putting good nutrition toward the bottom of your priority list. You can’t do that any longer.

Diet is a pillar of good health, so eat fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy fats like olive oil and avocados, whole grains, dairy foods, and lean protein like chicken and omega-3-rich fatty fish like salmon. Nuts, seeds, and legumes are also packed with nutrients.

3. Keep moving

Have you ever heard the adage “Motion is lotion?” This means that staying active keeps your joints well-lubricated and your body in good shape, which preserves your mobility. 

Staying active as you age is associated with a lower risk for falls, osteoporosis, heart disease, and dementia, as is maintaining good balance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises adults 65 and older to get 2.5-5 hours of moderate physical exercise per week, and remember, many things you already enjoy count as exercise, including walking your dog, gardening, and even cleaning the house.

4. Get your Zzzzs

It’s not just babies who need sufficient sleep. Older adults need 7-8 hours of sleep each night for good health. 

To promote good sleep, develop a relaxing night time wind-down ritual each night, like reading before bed or taking a warm bath. It’s also a good idea to keep the bedroom tech-free and go easy on alcohol because older individuals don’t metabolize it as easily as younger people. Treating any sleep disorders, like sleep apnea, is also important.

5. Stay connected

Loneliness is a problem for people of all ages in our country, and it’s been shown to be a risk factor for heart disease, dementia, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, depression, and anxiety.

Avoiding social isolation when you’re older is achievable if you’re deliberate about it. What does this look like? Reaching out to a friend and going to see a film or have coffee, joining a book club, organizing a game night, or scheduling a phone date with a far-away friend. 

Taking a class or going to a live performance allows you to meet new people to connect with, and even random interactions, like chatting with your cashier, are good for you.

6. Tame stress

Stress isn’t just for younger people. We all experience it for various reasons, and managing stress effectively is a key to good health, especially as we age. 

Getting outside and in nature, taking a yoga class or meditating, engaging in activities you enjoy, writing in a journal, or engaging in creative pursuits like drawing or music are all great options for getting stress under control.

The things we’ve covered in our tips list, like good nutrition, exercise, and getting enough rest, all relieve stress.

7. Challenge your brain

Taking a dance class, doing puzzles, and reading all develop neurological plasticity, or the improved ability of your brain to adapt, thanks to learning new things.

8. Partner with your doctor

Regularly seeing your Primary Care Walk-In Clinic provider helps you keep up with what you should be doing as you age. They’ll talk to you about which health screenings and vaccinations you need and when, your mental health, bone health, and more to ensure that you’re at your best as the years go by. 

We’re your partners in health and want to see you as healthy as possible and enjoying life — in your 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond.

Call the Primary Care Walk-In Clinic office closest to you for an appointment, or book one online.