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?

Yes this is true, my DD helps rehab stroke and other brain injured patients, one minute fit and active, the next...

Sure there are things - diet/exercise, you can do to slow the downward curve as you age but you need, in no particular order - money, education, luck and genetics too.

However, in my early 60s, i've entered a French cycling event in June, 178km and 8 mountain passes.... gulp!

I'm 51 and fit and healthy, feel even better than I did in my thirties due to more daily exercise like cycling to work, about 50 minutes per day, and walking a lot, about 13,000 steps per day, so that also keeps the weight down. Probably could eat healthier and I do enjoy wine, stopped smoking 20 years ago. The only issue I've had was a gallbladder infection then removal, it was genetic so not avoidable but I am fortunate that my perimenopause hasn't caused me any problems, yet...

Apart from when I had babies, the one time I’ve needed to be admitted to hospital (pneumonia) was when I was over 70. I had never once been seriously ill, or on any regular medication before then.

Not that having a cast-iron constitution is IMO necessarily a good thing. My DM went on to 97, but for about her last 15 years she’d had dementia, and for at least her last 4 or 5 she was in a most pitiful state. Respiratory infections that would have carried many others off long before, were just shrugged off. She had a broken hip at 90 or 91, which is often the beginning of the end, but she bounced (not literally!) back.