Staying Healthy After 60….

Once you hit 60, the big questions become more real.   Is my physical and mental health improving or degrading?  How is being in my 60’s going to be different from the decades before? How long will I be able to maintain my mental clarity? How can I live with the best possible health for as many more years as possible?

I am not a life coach, health care professional or an expert of any kind.  This is simply my personal perspective on living as healthily as possible as we enjoy our seventh decade on planet earth.

Here are some of my thoughts on maximizing your Healthspan:

1 - Sleep is paramount - Everyone needs sleep and some people need more than others.  But more and more research is showing that getting a good nights’s sleep is one of the keys to good health.  If your sleep is suboptimal then find a solution.  Whether your issue is sleep apnea, constantly getting up to pee, too hot, too cold or anxiety, there are many treatments out there. Find one that works for you so your sleep becomes something that rejuvenates you every night. One simple hack is keeping your phone away from your bedroom.  Leave it to charge in the bathroom or kitchen and put it into airplane mode between the hours you intend to sleep. The same advice goes for any other portable electronic devices.  Keep them completely out of your bedroom.  Both you and your devices deserve a good nights sleep…

2 - Deal with your interpersonal issues - Almost everyone has some story with another person that eats away at them. Whether you were wronged by a friend or have some deep seated parental or sibling issues, we all have something or many things that eat away at our soul.  If you have not done so already then now is the time to deal with it.  Find a traditional therapist, find a healer or consider trying psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.  Whatever modality you choose don’t give up until whatever is eating away at you slowly dissipates into memory. I had a business relationship that went from close friend to distant enemy and it was making me sick in my heart.  My favorite yoga teach had a side gig in releasing emotional trauma.  She made a personalized 30 minute meditation tape that finally helped me to let it go. Take the plunge and don’t give up. It may take years to get to the final result but its worth it.  You are worth it.

3 - Make more relationships - I was gifted a copy of this book at my 40 year Dartmouth reunion - The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Study on Happiness  The bottom line is that positive relationships are essential to human well-being.  If you already have amazing relationships in your life then well done. If not, then get going.  While it’s never too late to have a happy childhood, don’t forget that it’s also never too late to have a happy adulthood.  If your relationship circles have fallen away over time, then make the effort to form new circles. Find something you love doing and find other people who love doing the same things.  Whether it’s cooking, dancing, cards, sports, festivals or gaming, everyone has certain things they love doing.  There are clubs and organizations for everything.  And don’t forget your family.  It’s never too late to rekindle familiar bonds. And if you are interested in finding new family, just do a DNA test and you are sure to find heaps of cousins that you never knew existed.  One way or another, reach out if you plan to stick around.

4 - Get Fit -  Most of us already know if we are fit or overweight.  The simple test is your BMI.  If your body mass index is out of range then you need to do more movement.  The older we get the harder it becomes to keep up an exercise routine.  Find something you enjoy doing and do it daily so your physical activity becomes fun rather than a chore.  I love doing hot yoga, going on long walks with my dog Obi and playing ultimate frisbee on Bondi Beach.   My wife goes to a senior gym, practices a gentler type of yoga and takes classes in the Feldenkris Method.  Some people enjoy running, others love swimming, yet others love going to the gym. Whatever rocks your boat, get rocking.  Your chances of living a long life increase if your body looks 10 years younger than your actual age and decrease if you look 10 years older.  While there are a myriad of websites and health gurus, I do want to recommend a podcast by Dartmouth alum, Abel James.  His health podcast, Fat Burning Man has hundreds of episodes and is a treasure trove of health information.  Listen, learn and enjoy.

5 - Eat Healthy - Everyone knows that we should eat better but few seem to know exactly what that means.  Everyone has a different body with different chemistry so foods that are great for one person are horrible for someone else.  No diet is perfect and no one who watches what they eat is always spot on. However one truism for me is that anything in a package is suspect.  Read the ingredients.  If its full of sugar, sugar substitutes or chemicals then beware. The best food is real, unmodified food. Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.  That is one of the catch phrases of author Michael Pollan and if you want to learn about food his books are a great place to start.  Whether you choose to be vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, gluten free or an omnivore, find what works for you.  It may take some time and experimentation but food is the key to a healthy body.  Find your key.

6 - Drink Pure Water - Tom Robbins posited in one of his novels that, “Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another.”  He was not far off the mark. The human body on average is about 60% water.  That means that water is the single most plentiful thing inside us. While there are many theories about what type of water is the best, I am going out on a limb.  I encourage you to get a reverse osmosis water filter for your home if you do not already have one.  You are what you drink and you should drink only the highest quality water possible.  I am also going out on another limb and saying you should drink alkaline water as well.  I recently listened to a 2 hour podcast by Huberman Lab that convinced me what I thought I already knew.  Alkaline water is good for you.  Personally I use Zeta Aid which makes my water alkaline and provides many other health benefits. A friend in Bondi uses a magnesium filter. Whatever method you choose, drink pure, drink alkaline and drink often (water that is…)

7 - Meditate  - We all know about meditation and most of us know that we could benefit from it but few of us make it a daily habit.  Personally I have dabbled in becoming a better meditator for decades.  If you have the time and inclination, do a 10 day Vipassanah meditation course.  I  have done many 10 day courses over the years and I think they are an amazing experience and a great way to jump start your mediation practice.  The organization I personally like was started by a Burmese Indian named Goenka and there are many mediation centers around the world.  The courses are completely by donation so you just give whatever you think the experience was worth at the end of the course.  If you don’t have the time to do a ten day course there are now some great meditation apps.  The app I use is called Waking Up by Sam Harris.  The app has a great introductory course, 10 and 20 minute daily guided meditations and discourses by a myriad of spiritual teachers.  It is a font of spiritual information and its a great way to engage in a meditation practice in smaller bites of time.

8 - Longevity - How much time do I have left and how much of that time can I stay sharp.  While some of us may have perfect mental clarity after 60, many of us simply don’t.  We start to forget more than just our keys and our phones.  We slowly begin to be less in focus and our mental connectivity seems to be slowly unraveling.  Some of us have parents with dementia and wonder what will be our fate.  Whether your parents or grandparents lived into their 90’s or not, we all start to worry how many years we have left and how many of those years we might live with all of our marbles intact.  About two years ago I found myself forgetting things more often and having a harder time recalling facts that I knew I knew but simply could not vocalize.  Then I read a book that changed my perspective.  The book is called Lifespan by David Sinclair.  His premise is that aging is a disease that can eventually be cured.  It sounds absurd but once you read the book you start to question assumptions about aging.  He recommends a few supplements and I have been taking two of them (NMN & Resveratrol) for the last year and a half.  My mental clarity and acuity have improved dramatically during this time frame. The mental connectivity I took for granted in the past has been greatly restored.  Whether these supplements add years or decades to my life remain to be seen.  However, I  invite you to have a read and make your own judgement. 

9 - Time -  No one knows how much time we have left.  There are many things in this world that money, experience or wisdom can provide.  However more time is simply not one of them.  As we get older we start to realize that time is not on our side.  The amount of time we have left to live is finite.  So make the most of it.  There is no better time than NOW… 

All the best

Dov Frazer

dovman@gmail.com