For the last 6 months I’ve been working on producing a book about Health and Wellbeing for people in their 50s, 60s and 70s. It’s been a very interesting process and I have spoken to a wide range of medical experts covering both physical and mental aspect of the ageing process. Many of these doctors and professors have written chapters on their area of expertise.
A few major themes have become obvious and I think that these should give us all a degree of optimism as we keep having birthdays.
* Everything is connected. We tend to view health in terms of physical health and mental health and treat them as quite separate. It’s surprising to see that just how closely they are connected. Physical activities and exercise can have a major effect on the mind and our thinking can have a major effect on our physical health. The mind / body / spirit connection is very real. Probably the most obvious example is that someone who worries consistently about their health is more likely to get sick more often than someone who expects to be healthy.
This is why stress can be so bad for us. If we allow ourselves to get stressed regularly it will have the physical effect of lowering our immune system and make us more vulnerable to a range of both minor and major illnesses.
* A healthy lifestyle benefits both our physical and mental health. We all know that regular exercise and a well- balanced diet will help to protect us from heart disease and diabetes. The good news is that having a healthier body will also help to keep dementia, depression and other mental deterioration at bay. The flip side of the coin is that doing no exercise increases our chances of contracting both physical and mental illnesses.
* It’s possible to delay the physical and mental ageing process
One of the contributing authors says “Once you pass 50, exercise is no longer optional”. By staying physically fit we’ll not only keep illnesses at bay, we’ll also improve our chances of being strong and active in our 70s and 80s.
Relatively new discoveries in the field of brain science show that we can slow mental deterioration by keeping our brains active. There are now brain exercises available on the internet which permits us to exercise particular parts of the brain (eg memory or attention). These stimulate the brain and can improve mental performance. I’ll give you more details at a later date.
Paul McKeon