Contents:
- Medical Video: Nutrition for Seniors - Important Health Information to Seniors and Caregivers
- Older, more at risk of getting the disease
- Can you be a healthy elderly person and not get chronic disease in old age?
- 1. Applying a healthy diet
- 2. Physically active
- 3. Take care of your weight
Medical Video: Nutrition for Seniors - Important Health Information to Seniors and Caregivers
The level of health of each person must be different. There are people who still look healthy until old age, but there are also people who have suffered from chronic diseases at a young age. Health is influenced by various factors, such as lifestyle, environment, and genetics. So, if you want to be healthy to old age, you need to control each of these factors (except genetic factors that really can't be controlled). How can you be healthy elderly?
Older, more at risk of getting the disease
Many diseases start to appear when you get older, such as diabetes, dementia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, osteoarthritis, and others. Yes, age is one of the risk factors for various diseases.
According to WHO, aging is the impact of accumulation of various molecular and cellular damage from time to time. Thus, this causes a decrease in physical and mental capacity, increases the risk of disease, and then leads to death.
However, the changes that occur are not fixed and can vary between individuals. This is because aging is influenced by various factors. One of them is healthy living behavior that you apply from a young age.
Can you be a healthy elderly person and not get chronic disease in old age?
Health is an investment, which we must protect from the start. Chronic disease can occur in old age because of bad habits that you have done for years, because of poor diet for example. For that, start changing your lifestyle to be healthier from a young age. Some of the things you can do to be healthy elderly are:
1. Applying a healthy diet
Chronic diseases are usually caused by unhealthy eating patterns. For example, often eating sweet foods over time can cause a person to experience diabetes. Or, often eating foods that contain salt and high fat can cause a person to experience high blood pressure.
For that, choose foods that are rich in nutrients to be able to meet nutritional needs and avoid disease. Increase your intake of vegetables and fruits, food sources of protein, vitamin B12, folic acid, zinc, and calcium. Change your saturated fat intake with other types of healthy fats, such as unsaturated fats from avocados, olive oil, canola oil, and nuts.
Also reduce bad eating habits, such as reducing consumption of snacks (especially sweet foods), energy-intensive foods, and soft drinks. These foods and drinks will only increase your calorie intake without giving a lot of important nutrients your body needs. Other bad habits, such as smoking and alcoholic beverages, should also be avoided.
2. Physically active
Always physically active can provide health benefits for your heart and metabolism. In addition, being physically active can also help control weight and prevent chronic diseases. Physical activity that trains strength, balance, flexibility, and aerobics needs to be done by the elderly to support health.
Physical activity that trains strength can increase the strength and endurance of muscles and inhibits the decrease in muscle strength. Physical activities that train flexibility can give flexibility to the joints, making you more free to move. Physical activity that trains balance can increase stability so that it can reduce your risk of falling. Meanwhile, aerobic activity (such as walking) can improve overall health.
Also reduce the time you watch television or sit back for a long time. This can make you lazy to move, making you less active. In the end, this can cause you to be obese, where obesity is a risk factor for chronic diseases.
3. Take care of your weight
Maintaining weight is one of the important things you can do to avoid chronic diseases. Body weight is strongly influenced by diet and physical activity, for that you need to pay attention to both of these things.
The elderly do not have to lose weight, but should be more focused on preventing weight gain. This is done to improve the quality of life of the elderly so that they can become healthy elderly.
