During the aging process, total body
fat starts to increase, while muscle mass
and body water decrease. As a result,
you may weigh more as you age or lose
some of your youthful muscle tone. This
type of muscle loss is called sarcopenia
in medical circles. Sarcopenia will not
occur consistently across age and gender,
as it is linked to your dietary choices and
exercise habits. For instance, a healthy,
active 60-year-old may have the muscle
mass of a 30-year-old, while a sedentary
middle-aged person, who primarily eats
processed foods and struggles with insulin
resistance may have the muscle quality of
a 70-year-old.
Although muscle loss is a natural effect
associated with aging, it is not inevitable
when you take steps to prevent the
condition and strengthen your muscles.
Eating a diet rich in whole foods and
staying active are key to preventing insulin
resistance and maintaining muscle mass
as you age. It is important to incorporate
regular exercise in your daily routine to
prevent as much age-related muscle loss
as possible.
This is essential for improving your
mobility and reducing your risk of health
conditions that significantly impact your
quality of life.
Proteins and Muscle mass
Recent research has demonstrated that
an even distribution of protein over the
day may help to maintain or grow muscle
mass more effectively than including
most of your protein intake at one meal.
A Canadian study found that people who
ate protein throughout the day maintained
their muscles mass more efficiently. The
study tracked more than 1,700 men and
women who were relatively healthy, over
a period of three years.
Your body has an upper limit to the
amount of protein you can actually
integrate and use. This means that while
it may be beneficial to spread out the
protein you eat during the day, it is just
as important to monitor the amount and
quality of protein you eat. When you
eat more protein than you can use, your
body must process more nitrogen waste
products, creating an environment that
increases your risk of dehydration placing
an additional stress on your body.
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One of the greatest challenges of aging is
maintaining your support network. Staying
connected isn’t always easy as you grow old-
er even for those who’ve always had an ac-
tive social life. It’s important to find ways to
reach out and connect to others, regardless
of whether or not you live with a spouse or
partner. Along with regular exercise, hav-
ing an array of people you can turn to for
company and support as you age is a buffer
against loneliness and depression that would
make your aging process faster.
Your Body Shape Changes
with Age
Your body shape changes naturally as
you age. You cannot avoid some of these
changes, but your lifestyle choices may
slow or speed the process. The decline in
muscle mass that begins as we age, coupled
with a decrease in activity level, means
that you need fewer calories in your sixties
than you did as a teenager. Most of us eat
more calories than we need and when that
happens, we gain a significant amount of
fat, usually in the abdomen.
Speaking of the abdomen, where you
store extra fat also affects your health. If
you're shaped like an apple packing fat in
your mid-section you're at greater risk for
heart disease than if you're shaped like a
pear gaining weight around your hips and
buttocks. Excess weight in any location
also boosts your chances for developing
certain cancers and diabetes, and it also
aggravates arthritis in your hips and knees.
Why Limiting Sugar is Key
for Longevity
Limiting sugar in your diet is a well-
known key to longevity, because of all the
molecules capable of inflicting damage in
your body, sugar molecules are probably
the most damaging of all. Sugar is an
extremely potent pro-inflammatory agent
that creates harmful compounds (AGEs)
that speeds up the aging process.
Skin is composed of collagen and elastin,
which make our skin supple and soft. Sugar
causes cross-linking of collagen, resulting
in stiffening and loss of elasticity of our
skin. The more sugar we have, the more
our skin starts to suffer. Keep in mind that
while it's perfectly normal for your blood
sugar levels to rise slightly after every
meal, it is not natural or healthy when
your blood sugar levels become excessively
elevated and stay that way.
Staying healthy through
humour, laughter, and play
I recently came across an article that got
me thinking. It is said that on average
people laugh 17 times a day. So here’s the
question: Does that seem high or low to
you? And here’s the second question: How
many times do you laugh per day?
Laughter positively affects all aspects of
being. Studies show that it is a legitimate
and powerful form of preventive (lifestyle)
medicine, and a complementary option to
other established therapeutic strategies
for physiological, mental, and emotional
health. It helps us stay balanced, energetic,
joyful, and healthy at any age. A sense
of humor helps you get through tough
times, look outside yourself, laugh at
the absurdities of life, and transcend
difficulties. So, take advantage of what life
has to offer by bringing humour to your
life.
Learning to cope with
change
Coping with change is difficult, no matter
how old you are. The particular challenge
we face as we get old is the sheer number
of changes and transitions that start to