As you grow older your health needs begin to change. The one thing that remains the same is that if you live a healthy lifestyle, you’ll be able to improve your life, avoid developing diseases, prolong your life, and be much happier overall. It’s not as difficult as you might imagine either.
Increase the Amount of Natural Foods you Eat
Unfortunately, many people eat a lot of processed foods that are full of things like sugar, salt, unhealthy fats, and lots of calories. These aren’t good for your senior health. You’ll want to replace them with things like:
- Fresh fruits and vegetables
- Lean cuts of meat, poultry, and fresh fish
- Whole grains
- Foods that are rich in fiber
An easy way of doing this is by simply shopping only the perimeter of your grocery store since this is where you’ll find these foods. Avoid any inside aisles containing boxed, processed foods.
Take Your Vitamins
Taking a daily multivitamin will ensure that you get all your needs fulfilled. Of course, you’ll reap even bigger benefits when you eat foods that are full of these vitamins. There are lots of these foods available for you to choose from. Just because you opt for them doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still take your multivitamins. Think of them as a “backup.”
Stop Smoking
If you’re a smoker, you should stop. It’s also important to avoid second hand smoke. It can be even more dangerous to you than if you’re a smoker. Once you stop your risk of heart disease and certain cancers will immediately decrease. These risks continually decrease over time.
Take Steps to Prevent Falls
Your risk of falling and the morbidity rate connected to them increases as you grow older. This is why it’s important for you to anticipate them. Watch for things like stairs, slippery floors, high bathtub walls, and rugs. You should also include strengthening and balancing exercises in your senior health regimen so that if you do fall recovery will be easier.
Get Some Exercise
Speaking of exercise, you should make sure it’s part of your senior health regimen for several reasons, including avoiding obesity and preventing numerous diseases. If you haven’t started one yet, make sure you talk to your doctor before doing so. They may want you to have a structured or supervised plan if they have any health concerns about you. Typically, about 30 minutes of activity each day is recommended. This can be broken into three 10-minute sessions.
Visit Your Doctor on a Regular Basis
Make sure you see your doctor for your annual checkups. While there make sure you discuss any senior health problems so you can stay on top of everything. Sometimes you’ll be prescribed a variety of medications. Talk to your doctor about them so he can help you with their side effects, if you develop any.
Be Realistic About Whether you can Drive
Just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re a bad driver. However, it does mean that your vision is changing, and your reaction times are slowing down – both things that will increase the likelihood that you’ll get into an accident. When you notice any of these issues, bring them to your doctor to hopefully find some solutions to your senior health problems.
Get Your Hearing Checked
One more thing that’s important for senior health is to get your hearing checked. You want to make sure that you can hear everything and everyone around you. This is something that Countryside Hearing Aid Service can help you with. Many people have received their help over the years and are glad they did. You should be next.
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