Maintaining Optimal Health Over 50

About this Podcast:

Do you think you’re leading a healthy lifestyle? Aside from occasionally veering off the path, most of us think we do a fair job at maintaining our health with good or at least OK eating habits and physical activity whenever we manage to fit it into our daily routines and/or schedules. However, is that enough when you are 50+ years of age?

A recent study shows that very few adults meet the criteria for a healthy lifestyle. The study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that only 3% of American adults over the age of 50 got a perfect score on what the authors say are the four basic criteria for healthy living while only 13.8% met the criteria and another 34.2% met only two. Women over 50 scored slightly better than men.

Aging increases the risk of chronic diseases such as dementia, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, arthritis, and cancer. These are the nation’s leading drivers of illness, disability, death, and health care costs. The risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias increases with age, and these conditions are most common in adults 50 years and older.

In 2021, health care and long-term care costs associated with Alzheimer’s and other dementias were $355 billion, making them some of the costliest conditions to care for or medicate for in our society.