Healthy Aging in Your 60s: 5 Preventive Health Steps To Take Now

Your goal is to live longer, but you need to pay closer attention to your body to live well as you age. That means staying on top of preventative healthcare, which includes bone density scans, shingles vaccinations and cardiovascular screenings to catch any issues before they become problems.

1. Prioritize Mental Health and Social Connections

Mental health is one of the biggest factors affecting longevity. Specifically, the strength of your connections to friends and family helps you maintain a positive outlook. Having a positive outlook and self-perception about aging can extend lifespan by 7-1/2 years, whereas depression and anxiety are risk factors for mortality.  Staying active in a community and regularly connecting with friends – even just one or two – by phone, video call or in person can also have a huge impact.

2. Build Strength and Balance to Prevent Falls

Starting balance and strength training in your 60s, or even earlier, helps preserve mobility into your 70s and beyond. This is important because the risk of falling increases as you age. If you have comorbidities such as cardiovascular conditions, that risk is even higher. After the age of 75, a bad fracture can lead to immobility and a significant chance of fatality due to complications such as:

• Pneumonia
• Blood clots
• The stress of the fall and the increased risks surrounding a surgery increase the chance of a heart attack

3. Protect Long-Term Health with the Shingles Vaccine

Getting the two-dose shingles vaccine helps protect against postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), can last months or years. This shows up as persistent nerve pain and a burning sensation. More recently, doctors are finding that the vaccine also helps protect against dementia by decreasing inflammation, which contributes to several neurological disorders, including Alzheimer’s. The vaccine can cause a day of chills, fever or fatigue, but in many cases, the benefits outweigh the downsides. You should talk to your doctor to see if the vaccine is right for you.

4. Get a Coronary Artery Calcium Scan

Screening for cardiovascular health before you may experience symptoms is one of the best ways to protect your heart health. By the time most people experience symptoms, their arteries are already 70% to 90% blocked. At that stage, you’d require a heart stent or other major surgery. An online calculator can estimate your 10-year risk, but the best option is to get a coronary artery calcium scan to measure your current plaque formation levels. Insurance typically won’t cover preventive measures such as this, but the cost is affordable out of pocket. This heart scan can easily be done at any hospital’s heart and vascular center. The test results often motivate people to start taking extra precautions earlier, such as diet modifications and increased exercise.

5. Schedule a Bone Density (DEXA) Scan

A DEXA scan measures bone density, which is an important early detection tool that will allow you to take steps to prevent bone loss. Bone loss can exacerbate your fracture risk if you fall.  It’s easy to think this issue only affects women, but it impacts men, too. It’s under-diagnosed in men because it is less common in men and sometimes seen as a lower priority next to screening for prostate and colon cancers. Men who are 50 years and older and who have certain risk factors are especially encouraged to ask their doctor about a bone-density scan.

• Risk factors for bone loss include:
• Smoking
• Consuming three or more alcoholic drinks a day
• If your mother had osteoporosis
• Having been on steroids for more than three months
• Impaired mobility
• Low body weight
• Height loss of more than an inch
• Diseases that affect nutrient absorption, such as Celiac or Crohn’s
• Having taken androgen-deprivation medications

All of these are steps you can take now to ensure that your later decades are healthier and more enjoyable. For most people, it’s not enough to simply be here. It’s the quality of the later years that matters most.

This content is not AI generated.