Your Health is Your Wealth – Looking After Your Health As You Get Older
If you’re reading this, then there’s a good chance that the realities of ageing have already started to make an appearance in your life. It might be the case that you’re feeling more pains in your body than you were previously used to, or it might be that you don’t feel as ‘able’ to handle certain physical demands anymore.
Getting older happens to us all, if we’re lucky, and now that you’re feeling the changes it’s time to take a serious look at the challenges that might come as you age, and how you should be ready to deal with them.
10 Checks for Looking After Your Health As You Get Older
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #1
Identify Problems
Whether your ailment is in your mind or your body, if anything feels out of sorts or hurts, identify it as a problem. Try and put it into words, and make an appointment with your GP – even if you think it’s embarrassing, chances are they will have seen worse. At different stages of your life (though the exact ages differ from person to person) there will be other things to look out for and make changes for – a twenty year old will get over a cold faster than a fifty year old; and a very young woman’s health risks will differ greatly from those of a middle-aged woman.
If you notice anything new that concerns you, speak to your doctor and they will be able to advise you on treatments or lifestyle changes.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #2
Your Heart Health
As we get older, we become a lot more prone to heart health issues. This is in, in part, because our blood vessels and arteries become less flexible, so our heart works harder to keep our blood pumping and, as a result, our heart rate doesn’t rise as much when we’re performing physical activities, which can increase our risk of blood pressure issues and other heart problems.
Aside from ensuring that you get your exercise and manage a healthy diet, you should have your heart health checked out by a doctor more often and consider using technology like KardiaMobile to keep an eye on your heart health and let you know when you might need some medical attention.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #3
Your Joint Health
The joints are a part of the body that, as we’re younger, we often have no reason at all to think about them. However, as we get older, joint issues become significantly more common, and you find yourself aching a lot more, even from basic day-to-day activities. We become much more susceptible to inflammation, as painful and stiff as it can be. But there are ways to treat these issues, to offer your joints to alleviation.
Just make sure that you have your joint health checked out, and begin to look at things like joint health supplements, as well as exercises you can do to better support the muscles around the joints that are affected.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #4
Your Risk of Injury
The risk of an accidental injury, be it due to a collision, a slip, trip, or fall, or otherwise, is present our entire life. However, when we’re younger, we’re much more likely to shrug off such an injury without too much harm done in the long term.
As we get older, the chances of these injuries having long-term and even permanent effects increase drastically. As such, you should do what you can to mitigate the risks of these injuries. This might include, for instance, making modifications to your home as shown at AgeUK. Having rails in your bathroom for when you’re using the shower, for instance, can greatly decrease the risk of a slip.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #5
Your Mobility
Often related to the issues above, such as joint health and the increased risk posed by common injuries, but also disabilities and chronic illness, mobility issues begin to affect us a lot more as we age. It can begin with us feeling like we’re not moving as fast as we used to, or we might become more uncomfortable with things like stairs or inclines.
For some people, certain injuries or diagnoses can immediately make us feel less mobile. However, there are plenty of ways to help us better get around and stay independent regardless of these issues, such as mobility aids from mobility2you. Finding the right equipment can help you stay active and stay mobile for a lot longer. Sometimes, simply giving in and becoming less mobile can only accelerate the process of losing your ability to move well.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #6
Your Hearing
While sight issues are common amongst people of all ages, they do become even likelier to affect us as we get older, most people’s hearing health remains at a normal range for most of their life, but our chances of developing hearing loss significantly increases as we get older.
The signs of hearing loss can be notoriously difficult to spot by yourself, but you might have found that loved ones have told you that your TV or radio is very loud, even if it feels like it’s at a comfortable volume for you. The best way to stay on top of your hearing health is to make an appointment with an audiologist and have a hearing health test every few tears. Hearing aids can greatly improve your quality of life.
Photo by Anna Shvets
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #7
The Flu
It might sound like nothing major, after all, you’ve likely had the flu countless times in your life and bounced back time and time again. However, over the age of 65, our immune system is significantly less equipped to handle illnesses and the strong symptoms of the flu can affect our health in surprisingly long-term ways.
Complications such as pneumonia, infections in the blood, and exacerbating lung or heart disease all become a lot more common as we get older. Rather than trying to better fight off the flu, it’s a good idea to start signing up for the annual vaccinations that can help you avoid catching it in the first place. Otherwise, the risks can be severe.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #8
Your Social Life
In an increasingly digital and atomised society, where the realities of working life make it difficult to find social connections, isolation is a concern that is growing much more common for people of every age.
However, older adults have always been the most at risk. Friends moving away, passing on, and having full family lives can mean that our social circles begin to shrink and, alongside isolation, serious mental and cognitive health risks including: stress, depression, and even a potentially higher chance of developing dementia symptoms. Finding social groups in your area and making meaningful efforts to foster new connections with people can have a major impact on your health.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #9
Ask For Help
Nobody can effectively deal with more serious health problems on their own, so make the most of your family and friends and ask for help when you need it. It can hurt your pride to require help doing something that used to be second nature to you, but it’s better in the long run. Likewise, if you are working and you need help doing some tasks or need parts of the environment modified to suit your needs, find out what your employer is legally obliged to do to help you under the Equality Act of 2010.
Looking After Your Health As You Get Older – Check #10
Develop Healthy Habits
Eating your greens, quitting smoking, and cutting down on drinking are sage pieces of advice from the medical community, and are important at any age. That said, it’s easy to ignore them if you have a way of doing things or it’s hard to integrate these changes into your lifestyle – so take baby steps.
Exercising regularly can be as simple as walking to and from work or the shop; while ensuring you get your five portions of fruit and vegetables can mean small substitutions when cooking, like adding bulky veg like chickpeas to a stir fry or curry instead of meat one night a week. Having a companion to make these changes with can be a good source of motivation, and helps you to make healthy changes that will serve you well for the future.
It can be difficult to admit that you’re moving into a later phase of your life and that with it, certain changes are going to come. However, you will be much better equipped to face them and live well with them if you acknowledge them and work actively to improve them.
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