If you aspire to live 100 years or more, and you are not worried about being bored by the costs of life and the vicissitudes of time, then you should listen to the advice of experts and take them into account so that you can enjoy your years in good health.
1- Replace sugar smartly
You don’t need to completely stop eating sweets to take care of your teeth, as some simple tricks can save you from tooth decay.
Dr. Ben Atkins, former president of the Oral Health Foundation and a dentist based in Manchester, United Kingdom, said in an interview with the British newspaper The Telegraph conducted by journalist Lauren Sherif. Atkins says: “Try chewing sugar-free gum to freshen your breath, and for those who are particularly concerned about the effect of their diet on their teeth.” “Rinsing your mouth with mouthwash after lunch is a good way to keep things under control.”
Dr Duane Mellor, Head of Nutrition at Aston Medical School, says: “The main concern about sugar intake in later life is the development of type 2 diabetes. If you have a family history of type 2 diabetes, it is crucial to monitor your intake. “For drunkenness from middle age onwards.”
You don’t need to impose a complete ban on sugar. Simply reducing your intake is enough, and the best way to do this is to continue eating the things you love in smaller quantities.
2- Take care of what makes you move
Joints are the unsung heroes of the body, allowing your bones to move and bearing your weight to get you around the world throughout your life. However, ‘joint health starts to decline in your 30s,’ says Ashley James, associate director of practice and development at the UK Association of Chartered Physiotherapists.
James advises making some small changes to your lifestyle, so that your joints do not become a reason for disrupting your life. She says: “Many people know that they should try to do around 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week, but this largely refers to our aerobic fitness. What many people don’t know is that it is also recommended by the NHS that “Everyone exercises regularly. We should do strength-building exercises at least twice a week.”
3- Do not be afraid to gain weight in middle age
Sarah Leyland, clinical advisor at the Royal Osteoporosis Society, says: “Our bones have a honeycomb-like structure. As we age, the holes in the honeycomb get larger and the outer covering becomes weaker, which can lead to problems such as osteoporosis over time. By 70, about half of us will be at increased risk of fractures.”
It may seem counterintuitive, but being a little overweight in our 60s or 70s is much better for our bones than very little, Leland says. “One reason for this is the simple fact that fat gives you more padding in case you fall,” she adds, pointing to the huge number of people who suffer hip fractures, with more than 70,000 in the UK each year.
4- Run
Jogging and strength training are excellent for coordination of body movement as they make the eyes, hands and feet work at the same time. Our coordination skills tend to deteriorate as we age, leading to falls. Swimming and cycling are similarly effective at reducing your chance of falling, and keeping your bones in better condition longer, Leland says.
5- Stay ahead of events and check your eyes
Health care in general is an effective way to maintain eye health, says Nigel Best, a British ophthalmologist, explaining that the key to getting the most out of your vision is to be proactive about examinations and tests.
“Distance-dependent blurry vision is just a fact of aging,” he says. “But if you realize that everything is a little blurry, that colors appear less vibrant or that you struggle to see at night, you may develop cataracts.”
Even that’s no reason to panic, Best says: If we’re lucky enough to live to age 80 or 90, we’ll almost certainly develop cataracts in one or both eyes. But having it checked early is important because this slight interference could increase the possibility of you getting stuck or having an accident while driving.
Quitting smoking is a good way to delay the appearance of cataracts, as smoking increases the amount of free radicals in your eyes, causing deposits to form on the lens.
Developing cataracts at some point is almost inevitable, and fortunately they’re easy to correct, Best says. Cataracts can be removed with a simple procedure in which the opaque natural lens is replaced with a plastic disc.
Of more concern, Best says, are conditions like glaucoma, a common disease in which the eye’s optic nerve is damaged and can’t transmit vision-related information to the brain, which can cause blindness. There is no way to reverse any vision loss that has already occurred. If it is discovered before it causes vision loss – which may take several years – you can maintain your vision with eye drops, medications or surgery. The only way to detect it in its early stages is through a routine eye exam.
6- Continue to feed your friendly gut bacteria
A recent study in people over the age of 80 found a correlation between the uniqueness of participants’ gut bacteria (probiotics) and their chance of living at least 4 more years. Another study showed that less diverse beneficial gut bacteria can make us more vulnerable.
So, taking care of your gut as you age means making an effort to keep your good gut bacteria as diverse as possible. One way to do this is to take probiotics and prebiotics (food for gut bacteria).
Also some tips:
- Do not overuse antibiotics, as this may affect the beneficial bacteria in the intestines. Do not take antibiotics except on the doctor’s prescription and in accordance with his instructions.
- Eat a healthy diet rich in fiber and complex carbohydrates, such as brown rice and brown bread. Eat naturally fermented foods that contain probiotics.
Prebiotics are fuel for the good bacteria already in your gut. The good news is that many of the things you love to eat can be classified as prebiotics such as root vegetables, grains, nuts and olive oil.
7- Follow the diet of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin
The Mediterranean diet is a way to prolong life. This diet includes eating grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish and heart-healthy oils.
If this is not your thing; Try to give yourself a plate of salad that contains lettuce, tomatoes, nuts, olive oil, and onions, which will give you some of the fiber you need. Enjoy your meals with family and avoid processed meat. This is the simple recipe.
8- Look for polyphenols
Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds found in many plant foods that are beneficial to your body. Look for phenols in colorful vegetables and fruits.
There are no standard guidelines for how many polyphenols people should eat, but one study found that eating about 500 milligrams of polyphenols daily was enough to significantly reduce gut inflammation (about two handfuls of blueberries, for example).
9- Choose a new hobby
It’s easy to forget that your brain is an organ like any other and that it needs careful care to function well, says Barbara Sahakian, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Cambridge. When it comes to keeping your mind active, the most important thing of all is building knowledge.
One study of more than 450 people over the age of 75 who were followed by researchers suggests that people who played board games and musical instruments were less likely to develop dementia after 5 years. Another study revealed that speaking a second language can delay the progression of dementia symptoms by up to 5 years, compared to people diagnosed with dementia who speak only one language.
10- Practice using your memory
“It’s also important to keep your hippocampus active to reduce your risk of dementia,” Sahakian says. The hippocampus is the area of the brain associated with episodic memory, or memory of events, which allows you to keep track of things like where your car keys are or remember what you had for dinner last night. The hippocampus is also the first part of the brain attacked by Alzheimer’s disease.
The size of the hippocampus can shrink by 25% in people with Alzheimer’s disease, and a shrinking hippocampus has also been linked to normal signs of cognitive decline in healthy older people, such as forgetfulness or needing longer to think about things.
On the other hand, it was found that taxi drivers in London who memorized the names of 25,000 streets and 100,000 landmarks; They have a much larger hippocampus than the rest of the population (although researchers have speculated that this may come at the expense of new spatial memories).
Sahakian says you don’t need to attempt to complete such a task yourself, but to keep your hippocampus at its strongest it must be trained. “Chess is great for exercising your hippocampus, as are many memory games you can download to your phone,” she explains.