LOS ANGELES: More people may be living to 100 and beyond than ever before, but the real challenge is how to become one of them yourself, and how to care for an aging population.
Dr. Noel H. Ballentine, director of geriatric health in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, said although good genes help determine how long you live, other factors are less dependent on luck.
Good nutrition and plenty of exercise are the top two ways to live a long and healthy life, and neither should come as a surprise.
“Eating high-quality foods with lots of fruits and vegetables and controlling your weight are the things I spend most of my time talking about,” he said. “And there is lots of data showing that strength training helps even very old people do better.”
Ballentine suggests getting both nutrition and exercise habits under control while young, since it’s more difficult to implement weight-loss plans or exercise routines once you’re already in your 70s and beyond.
The third factor is avoiding accidental injuries. “If you’re in your 60s or 70s and don’t have a lot of health issues, you have a better chance of losing your independence from an accidental injury than due to an illness,” Ballentine said.
That means not standing on a chair to change a light fixture, climbing a 10-foot ladder to clean gutters or going out of the house when the ground is icy…