Keys to ageing well unveiled

With wisdom gleaned from some of the longest-living, healthiest cultures in the world, as well as new insights made possible by high-tech studies, researchers say that old views of aging are simply outmoded. Yes, our bodies change.

But there is an inevitable slide in health as we age? Absolutely not! Each of us can live strong, healthy, vibrant, energetic lives for a long time to come. The key? Actually, there are seven of them. Read on- you may never see your bathroom scale, dinner plate, or friends in the same way again.

Be prepared for surprises. Only three of the seven keys involve nutrition and fitness. The other four are related to your attitude, optimism, and social interactions. As this magazine notes over and over, how you choose to live your life has far more impact on your health than any vitamin or pill. Philosopher Rene Descartes wrote the famous line, “I think; therefore, I am,” but the new science of aging suggests that the important truth is really “How I think is how I am.”

But it’s time for some honesty. Decades of abuse to your health are not always easily fixed. For you to take charge of your health, it means coming to terms with your past. This is part of the reasons we are unique. We do something that few health journals do: look backward. First, you’ll discover fascinating science of how your body repairs and rejuvenates itself. Then you’ll explore the habits and lifestyle choices that might have damaged your health along the course of your life.

Finally, you’ll find out which can most influence your future health and what exactly you need to do to minimize that risk. Be prepared for a few surprises. Some are good: For example, many vices from your younger, wilder days have less of a lingering effect than you might think. But there are challenging learning as well – that some lifestyle choices, such as smoking pot in your youth, can have lingering health effects decades after the damage occurred.

To start on this journey into your health’s past, we have set some tough questions for you to answer. It is a checklist that probes the unhealthy habits and choices you made during three periods of your life: youth, young adulthood, and the past few decades.

The second part of health is what you could call “capital letter” diseases: formally titled health issues like Diabetes, Arthritis, Asthma, Cancer, and hundreds of other diagnosable chronic conditions. These are the age robbers, the killers, the conditions that researchers focus on, all of us fear, and each of us wants to avoid. These conditions are the focus of a section of the Newsletter. Here we’ll show you all the best ways to prevent these health traps of the future from snagging you.

*Uche Kekeocha is the publisher of Health Club Magazine