How can we help?

Everyone wants to live longer, but many of us have resigned ourselves to the belief that genetics dictate how long we live. While genetics definitely play an important role in how long we live, how we live is a much more important factor in our longevity.

 

When we think about how long we live, we are thinking about our lifespan or longevity. Another important factor is healthspan, or our quality of life as we age. You can definitely increase your health span and your lifespan at the same time by how you live. Taking an active role every day in how you live is key to expanding both your quality of life and how long you live.

 

While no one will live forever and genetics significantly influences how long each of us will live, everyone can choose to age well. Aging well usually requires taking action about your health. Exercising vigorously in our 20s and 30s, such as running marathons, going for century (100-mile) bike rides, or swimming a couple of miles at a time, can seem easy at that age. How about doing the same activity in our 60s and 70s? As we age, we may not have the same energy level we had in our 20s and 30s. Still, we can choose to live actively and exercise intensely at any age (perhaps not running marathons or riding 100 miles at a time, but doing half of that is certainly achievable in our 60s). We can still choose a daily training regimen that supports our fitness and wellness and fits our physical condition at any stage of life. Recent studies show that exercising intensely on a regular basis throughout our adult lives helps maximize our lifespan potential.

 

What is important is not letting the stigma of our age slow us down. Our bodies function better with good circulation. And circulation improves when we elevate our heart rate with an exercise of choice. The exercise of choice should be something we enjoy doing. Perhaps yoga, a bike ride with a friend, a class, or lifting weights at the local gym can be an enjoyable way to meet people and extend our health spans.

 

Putting life into our years helps us to add years to our lives. Not letting fear or the stigma of age stop us from exercising intensely lets us take proactive action for our health. Switching from an active lifestyle to a sedentary one because you retire or hit a landmark age, even over several years, is tantamount to giving up on our future mobility and potential for healthy activity. Grandparents can choose to spend as much time exercising (and probably more) as they did when they became first-time parents.

 

As mentioned earlier, exercise promotes circulation. Good circulation helps prevent inflammation, which is a good thing because inflammation underlies disease. So, taking action instead of passively letting time pass is the first step toward enjoying your later years and lengthening your health span. Lengthening our health spans means spending less time sitting around watching TV and/or dealing with disease because we have less time to be sick. Being active often means being outside. Fresh air and nature make us appreciate the life we have. If you haven't gone for a walk in the woods recently, treat yourself to one to remind yourself how fortunate we all are to live in the natural world. Being in nature reminds us how healthy our natural world is for our mental and physical well-being.

 

What happens if you have a prior injury or chronic condition such as arthritis that prevents you from exercising, getting outside, or even moving well? This is where physical therapy comes into play. A physical therapist can treat you with manual therapy techniques to reduce chronic pain or soreness. That therapist can also teach you the most appropriate exercises for your condition, helping you start or continue an exercise regimen, or at least get out of the house at a level that is right for you.

 

The important word here is condition, not age. When we discuss age, we generally refer to a number that represents chronological passage of time. This number usually differs from our physiological age, which is determined mostly by how active we are, what we eat, how much sleep we get, and how connected we are to nature and other people. (Of course, genetics plays a role in our physiological age too, but not as much as commonly thought.) Maximizing your physical capability for exercise may mean simply going for a walk outside. So, the right level of exercise for each individual depends on their condition, not age.

 

Do we need to accept what society tells us? That at a certain age we should stop doing certain things like participating in sports or athletic competitions, skydiving, learning to fly a plane, or simply attending a sporting event. And what about travel? It's hard to travel if you are not mobile. So, to stay mobile, you need to stay young, or at least act as you did in your 20s and 30s, to maintain the muscle strength and joint flexibility you need to go anywhere. Yes, you can climb mountains in your 70s as long as you don't let societal stereotypes get in your way.

 

So rather than accepting that our age determines our health at a given stage of life, how active we can be, or what activities we do, we can decide how active we will be in our later years. Pursuing an activity we have always wanted to do but never had time for will please us if we make time for it and prepare for it mentally and physically. Pursuing such an activity may require disciplined preparation, such as going to bed earlier regularly, stretching our legs daily rather than weekly, or parking farther away from our destination so we take a few thousand extra steps each day. But no non-disabled individual should shy away from what they really want to do in their later years simply because they have reached a certain age. People who are proactive about physical conditioning may have physiological ages 20 to 30 years younger than their chronological age.

 

Acting younger than your chronological age can extend your health span while lowering your physiological age. And if you need help getting started to pursue your dream activity or activities, a physical therapist can help get you started on the road to a more active lifestyle by giving you exercise instruction, manual treatment, or proper education about how to use the body you have to maximize its potential to give you the future you want.