To think it’s possible to stay fit and healthy into your 40s and 50s without ailments?

[ForGreatMintDreamer]

I’m 31, fit and healthy, and have always been active. I hope to stay this way after having children and well into old age. However, many people tell me it’s unrealistic and that it’s inevitable I’ll experience health issues as I get older. Some even say if I do remain fit, it’ll be down to genetics (for context, both my parents are in their mid-50s and are fit, active and healthy).

Is this really true? Or are there others here in their 40s, 50s, or older who have stayed very active, fit, and healthy despite what everyone says?

Interesting. Many of Dh's friends have died in the last few years. I've had a medical condition since a baby, so I see things differently.

Same here. Where I live being active is normal in our 60s. I am in a holiday now with people who are active. I am waterskiing and cycling here every day -not in a grim quest to stave off illness but because it is fun.
To go back to the OP -yes it is entirely possibly to be healthy in your 40s50s and indeed 69s and 70s. Lots of us are. Seek us out rather than those who wallow in their ‘health ‘issues’

It really is setting the bar low to ask if you can possibly be healthy in your 20s and 50s. Sir Muir Gray says it is entirely possible to be healthy well up and into your 90s, if you prioritise keeping moving, and obviously a healthy diet and sleep. He says most of what we think of as 'ageing' is actually a lack of exercise or movement.

*40s and 50s

Yes keeping active massively helps you stay strong into in old age, but to get to 90 and be healthy is often luck of the draw. My Nan is almost 90 and well apart from high hood pressure which is managed. She's outlived most people she knows. She's the oldest of 5 siblings and only the youngest one is still alive. The others died of cancer. She's been no healthier than them. Slightly overweight but doesn't do anything to excess. Most people don't live that long and you can't always attribute that to a healthy lifestyle.

I hear ya @Breadcat24

Ive just got a PT who is helping me strengthen all the muscles around my knees to keep them as pain free and strong as possible. In a few weeks I’d say my knee pain has significantly reduced (70%?) and it hurts less days than it used to. If you can’t get a pt I bet there’s programmes online. Worth a try maybe?

my squats are still a bit pathetic though 😬

That “wallowing” comment is really unkind and unecessary @Bewareofthisonetoo We should avoid people who are ill or have health conditions? Is that really what you think? That they could all be up and out Water skiing if only they weren’t “wallowing”? The attempt at speech marks around ‘health issues’ is perhaps the most passive aggressively horrible punctuation I have ever seen. Vile. I truly do hope that you keep your good health and don’t live to remember that comment with regret.

I thought it was a horrible post too.

There is nothing wrong with trying to live healthily but I do find that in MN there is an awful smugness and superciliousness that often accompanies it.

The truth is health freaks can get terminal illness while overweight smokers romp on happily into old age. There’s no fairness in it and it isn’t about “ deserving” illness or a case of shunning certain people. Do your best, but at the end of the day it’s luck and genetics. Nothing to feel either shame or pride about - and as they say, pride often precedes a fall.

Yes vile post earlier. It’s possible for most people to be fit and healthy as they get older but not everyone. That doesn’t mean they’re wallowing in their health conditions.

i biked over 100 miles last week and did two hours of weightlifting. I’m not wallowing but I’m not fit or healthy. I had to take the lift at work today and am limping badly due to ankle pain. I push myself as much as I can and probably push myself more than people without health issues. But I still might never be able to do as much as them.

Of course luck and genetics play a huge part, @Calliopespa but what I keep banging on about is quality of life. Yes, "health freaks can get terminal illness", but while overweight smokers may live to a ripe old age it is highly unlikely that theyll be 'romping happily' in their final years. And most seriously overweight people will develop associated health issues that will stop them from living life to the full.

@BitOutOfPractice and* *@Breadcat24 - check out Dr Jo - she is a doctor of physiotherapy who has some excellent advice and exercises for knee pain:

I don't disagree with the point about quality of life. But the healthiest body in the world is of no use to you if you get dementia. A lovely neighbour of mine has it and she was always active, ate healthily etc. The other day she was out in the street in her nightie, screaming her head off as her son tried to get her to come indoors. So sad.

So I do some moderate exercise. Try and get some healthy foods in my diet, but then will also enjoy a pizza and a couple of glasses of wine. But I focus more on keeping my brain active. Not that it's any guarantee, the same way exercise isn't a guarantee for health. But it's certainly not going to hurt. I try and keep my stress levels as low as possible as stress harms both mind and body. It's about the whole picture for me. Ultimately though, I'd rather my body packs up before my mind does! Some lucky people manage to hold onto both until the end but a lot of people suffer one way or the other.

The sneery categorising of people who take exercises just as part of their daily lives as ‘health freaks’ says it all. There is nothing freaky about exercise -and those who move more are significant less like to get dementia than those who don’t.

@BitOutOfPractice Thank you
I agree and I have had a PT advise me on exercise variations
I do spin classes 3 times a week as although I thought it would hurt I can adjust the position of the bike so much it is Ok - would recommend it to the decrepit of knee
Also I do a lot of weights classes- I just have to adapt to what I can do- so forward lunges bad, rear lunges not so bad- I suppose it depends on where the wear on your cartilage is.
Definitely no wallowing here- just would like to be able to walk down stairs a bit easier please!
Roll on when they do stem cell cartilage repair routinely!

i completely agree that people who exercise regularly aren’t health freaks but I notice you have no response to the people who called you out on your “wallowing” comment. Which was a nice comment about people who can’t help getting ill. Not all illnesses are obesity related at all. Mine certainly aren’t, I had a normal bmi when I got ill, as did dh. Instead you have a bit more blaming with your dementia comment. Exercising reduces your chance of dementia by 20%, it doesn’t take the risk away. Plenty of regular exercisers will still get dementia.

No health freak wasn’t ANYONE who takes exercise. It was referring to one end of the spectrum to make the point that anyone can be struck down with chronic illness - even people with most extreme exercise regimes. It was not intended to apply just to exercise. I’ve known people who followed extremely careful dietary programmes yet died young.

I exercise very regularly @DanielaDressen and @Bewareofthisonetoo but that absolutely doesn’t mean I should sneer at and dismiss people who, for whatever reason can’t, or assume that I’ll always be well enough to.

Here are some direct quotes by Sir Muir Gray:

"Ageing itself is not a major cause of disability itself until the 90s.

Many of the problems that we have assumed are due to ageing are due to loss of fitness.

Many of the problems that we have assumed are due to ageing are due to preventable disease."

"Until the age of 90, the biological process of ageing has little effect on your ability to look after yourself, engage with other people, or act independently."

"Some decline in ability is inevitable but the rate at which our abilities decline is influenced not only by ageing but also by three other processes which do cause problems - disease, loss of fitness, and a negative attitude to life - and all three are interrelated."

This is obviously not to say that if you do some exercise/physical activity you won't get cancer (although people who do exercise/keep moving recover better if they do get cancer) but that your attitude towards ageing (oh, it's all downhill after X age! it's all just genetic!) will affect how you age and what you bother to do. Use it or lose it, ie.

And many of the modern diseases we associate with ageing are down to poor diet and lack of regular movement. Even amongst those researching dementia, there is a lot of good research to show that diet and exercise, reducing stress, etc etc - simple lifestyle changes - reduces the incidence of it.

I think stress is a huge factor in wellness and longevity.

Im not sure it’s always a simple lifestyle change to remove it though.

Stress, anxiety are the biggest killers.
They silently destroy you from the inside.
It plays havoc with your body.

Sadly we all have stress and anxiety in our lifes.
It about managing it.

You can't always remove it, but you can learn ways to counter it and its effects.

This.
Am staying in a hotel at the moment and most if the guests are families yet people are still taking the lift instead of the stairs. If kids are automatically taking the lift -no wonder they don’t get into the really simple habit of climbing stairs -costs nothing and cumulative positive benefits.

I think a lot of older people can still feel good and have a normal active life but a LOT of over 60s are on medication for high cholesterol, high BP, thyroid etc.

Early menopause tends to cause health issues in women - for Indian and Asian women early menopause is often a symptom of another disease rather than something in it’s own right. BMIs higher than 20-22, diabetes/prediabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer, can all push the body into early menopause. The longer we can delay it (some scientific evidence recommends preventing it altogether with hrt) the better female health will be.

Mid 70s here. Still working part time in a quite physical job. The state pension isn't enough for much of a life.
I have ibs, flares up regularly but I find I am doing better with aid of a hypnotherapy app.I had a bad anxiety attack last year after bereavement and several bad falls. I take a low dose of anti depressant, also statins. I have mild arthritis, in various places.
I consider myself in good health though. I was widowed quite young and have always had to be strong...I think that has made me seem a bit unemotional.