Your potential future self sips thirstily from an energy drink after finishing your daily jog. Your sensors show a suitably heightened heart rate, and as you start your cooldown stretches you feel tired but refreshed. Of all the things you expected old age to bring, a strict fitness regimen was probably never high on the list, but you know it helps you to live not only longer but better.
The world is getting older. By 2050 there will be more than two billion people aged over 60 and more than 430 million aged over 80—twice as many as there are today. For the first time in history most of us can expect to live to 60 or beyond; babies born today are likely to live beyond 100. That’s an amazing opportunity, but it comes at a price. As we age, we become more susceptible to illness and our health care needs grow more numerous, more acute, and more complex, bringing the prospect of increased costs of living and decreased quality of life. Many chronic diseases associated with old age, such as osteoarthritis and dementia, are not only debilitating but also incurable and require long-term care. While successful treatments for cancer and cardiovascular disease are prolonging life, if we don’t prepare to live longer physically, mentally, and financially, what should be a blessing could turn into a curse.
While average life expectancy has increased to 72, there is little evidence that older people today are any healthier in old age than their parents were. Aging is caused by the accumulation of molecular and cellular damage over time that gradually decreases physical and mental capacity and increases the risk of disease. But biological aging is only loosely associated with a person’s age in years—no two 70-year-olds are the same. Genetics plays a central role in how our bodies age, but so do physical and social environments as well as sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. These influence the development of healthy behaviors across exercise, diet, mental health, and lifestyle that can be crucial for retaining cognitive function, preserving physical capacity, and delaying dependency on others. The fact is, we have much more control over our future health than we might think, and looking after ourselves in our earlier years will pay dividends in a lengthened later life.
Probably the most important way to keep healthy for longer is to exercise. Staying physically active reduces the risk of developing many chronic conditions including obesity and cancer, as well as lessening the symptoms of diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s. To maintain a healthy body mass, low intensity cardio such as a brisk stroll raises our heart rates above 105 beats per minute, the point at which the body begins burning fat for energy. Some studies suggest that after we turn 50, we start losing around one percent of muscle mass every year, but low intensity resistance training stimulates our bodies to retain it. Over time our muscles naturally stiffen and reduce mobility, a problem exacerbated by sedentary lifestyles and even overenthusiastic exercise. We can improve this by daily mobility workouts or yoga, where the stretching not only protects muscles, cartilage, tendons, and the spine but also increases our resilience to injury. Any exercise is better than none, and as we get older, everyday activities such as cleaning and gardening will contribute to extending our health, mobility, and independence.
We are what we eat, and what we eat makes a difference. A balanced diet of carbs, fats, and proteins provides the energy and materials we need to maintain a healthy body. Exactly what that diet should include is passionately debated, but eating a variety of colorful foods with every meal should ensure a good mix of the vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants we need. What we drink is just as significant, with studies suggesting that coffee can lower the risk of dementia. While the key to alcohol and caffeine intake is moderation, one thing we can’t get enough of is normal water. Almost every illness is helped by drinking plenty of water, because a well-hydrated body flushes toxins, reduces inflammation, lubricates joints, supports the metabolism, and improves energy, digestion, and mental performance.
Increasingly, mental health is seen to be as important as physical fitness. Stress is known to make cells age faster, compromising the immune system, and chronic stress can contribute to heart problems, diabetes, obesity, cancer, asthma, depression, and Alzheimer’s. Learning to manage stress, whether through meditating or simply slowing down, makes a huge difference. Similarly, regular social interaction with family, friends, and communities; working toward goals; and seeking out new experiences can all help to delay cognitive decline. Dementia is considered to be a ticking time bomb for public health as its prevalence is expected to increase vastly by 2030, afflicting 82 million worldwide. The health care requirements are so demanding that if dementia care were a country, it would be the world’s 18th largest economy.
Population aging will be one of the century’s most significant social transformations. We have to prepare to live well beyond our expectations, and that means taking more responsibility for our future health—taking control of the factors that we can control. Nobody likes to think about growing old, but perhaps we should start thinking about how we can stay younger for longer. As the former American President Theodore Roosevelt said at a time when life expectancy in the United States was less than 50, “Old age is like anything else. To make a success of it, you’ve got to start young.”
We asked some big questions about living a better life. Discover more about how we can overcome the world’s biggest challenges at natgeo.com/questionsforabetterlife
