Staying Healthy as you Age
Home > Letters & Reports > Staying Healthy as you Age10 Top tips for Staying Healthy as you Age
Professor Desmond O’Neil is a Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine and Professor in Medical Gerontology at Tallaght Hospital and Trinity College Dublin.
1. Embrace and welcome your own ageing: a negative disposition towards ageing is associated with worse outcomes in health.
2. Strive for social equity: social inequity harms health for all and, in particular, older people.
3. Start early, but it’s never too late: virtually all measures that improve health work at all stages of ageing, such as stopping smoking.
4. Invest in nurturing your marital/partnership relationship: stable, supportive marriage/partnership is associated with better health.
5. Volunteering and social engagement are easiest developed if started earlier in life.
6. Develop patterns of exercise, ideally a brisk 30-minute walk five times a week.
7. Consider activities such as dancing, which combine social engagemen
8. Develop a balanced diet.
9. Get your blood pressure checked in midlife.
10. Start attending your dentist regularly – oral health is associated with better health in later life.