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?

I don't drink, smoke and am a healthy weight. I've always worn supportive shoes but my knees are shot. Not sure why. It isnr stopping ne being active but I'm active and in pain.

Clearly not “inevitable” to experience some health issues in your 40s/50s, but would hardly be surprising, surely. So I would say value your great health while you can (and obviously do your best to prolong it - but there’s also a LOT of randomness)

One thing is that in your 40s and 50s it is much harder to feel fit and healthy all the time, I have had to make some adjustments to my life to remain feeling this way, I can no longer have more than one glass of wine without feeling terrible the next day (not to say I don’t do it sometimes but I have to accept I may feel like crap for a day or even 2 days). I can eat more than a small amount of fried food/fast foos without a stomach ache, I can’t eat sugary food without feeling like in need a 3 hour nap. Not getting exercise or enough sleep also makes me feel irritable. It takes bit of the fun out of life but I’d rather feel good than eat McDonalds! I can see how it is easy to take the path of least resistance and just deal with not feeling good because it is hard sometimes to stay on top of all the things that help you feel your best as you age

I only started to get fit and healthy in my 40's.

At 48 I was fittest and healthiest I've ever been. Exercising most days, using weights, feeling strong. Decent diet, HRT working well. Fast forward 12 mths and I'm struggling to stay in work having become extremely ill after a virus. Struggle to walk more than 5-10 mins and can no longer exercise at all.
It's all bloody luck!

I was like this, I thought it was easier to give into it and just take the easy route but it’s not fun. I wasn’t having fun or enjoying my life the way I was. I always had a bad back, I always felt tired and sluggish. There is more enjoyment out of feeling good through health than there is through not putting in the hard work but it took me so long to realise this. I don’t know what the epiphany was, I just woke up one day and said enough was enough. I wanted to see what it was like to make the adjustments and thought well if I don’t like the hard work of being fit, I can just stop. Now I don’t want to stop because the benefits have paid off. You don’t know what is around the corner but my old lifestyle was like driving around with dodgy brakes. At least now I feel more prepared

I'm in my 60s and have arthritis in my knees and hip but it doesn't cause me much pain or stop me doing what I want or do (though I wouldn't risk ski-ing or ice skating again). I do plenty of exercise and am at the local leisure centre 4 or 5 times a week.

Other than the arthritis, and despite being overweight, I am extremely healthy. I don't take any regular medication and am never ill other than the occasional minor cold.

Not so definitely. From the Observer's article:

Nir Barzilai, a longevity researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has studied Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians in the US and their families. Unlike the more famous centenarians of Okinawa and Sardinian mountain villages, his subjects have documentation trails proving they really are over 100.

Barzilai’s centenarians didn’t have very healthy lifestyles. “Half of them were overweight or obese, half of them were smoking, half of them weren’t exercising, and very few were vegetarians,” he says. But they were healthy – having only half the incidence of cardiovascular disease.

... Have the right genes, live a comfortable life, and do what you like!

Good grief yes. I'm in my 70s, walk regularly, do everything including the garden in a large house. Care for DH too. My friend is older and received a marriage proposal from a younger guy on one of her many foreign holidays. Another in her 60s has just got back from a scuba diving trip. It's not over till it's over.

@britinnyc Good post. I posted earlier that I’m late 40s, fit and in good health, which I am, but I neglected to mention the little adjustments I have made, especially through perimenopause. I hardly drink any more, feel rubbish and get heartburn and constipation if I eat too much beige food, and can’t cope with late nights anymore! In my twenties, I could drink heavily, stay up late, eat crap and smoke and still feel pretty much fine. Young bodies are very resilient!

Effects of perimenopause have made me eat much healthier, avoid booze and get lots of sleep.

Another effect of it has been that my eyesight has also deteriorated; I didn’t mention that as don’t really see it as a health issue but I suppose it is 🤷🏼‍♀️

Genetics loads the gun, but environment and lifestyle pull the trigger.

I was thinking this. Couple of people have said “I’m fit as a flea apart from the stroke / arthritis/ other condition…”

Im 57. I go to the gym 4-5 times a week (running and strength training) and walk everywhere. I take no meds apart from HRT. BUT I do have arthritis in my knees. I think I’m pretty fit and well

It’s all down to chance but you can improve your chances slightly with some potential pitfalls. But that’s it I think, chance, luck, whatever you want to call it.

I think though that genetics play a big part, so does regular exercise and a reasonably healthy lifestyle. But luck is what it's all about really.

I agree with this. In the end so much is down to luck.

At 47 I was superfit (fitter than people half my age) and was going hard in the gym every day. Healthy lifestyle and I looked in my mid 30s (or so I'm told). But peri-menopause hit me hard causing all sorts of physical issues. And then I developed long Covid. Extensive (bloody expensive) testing discovered I had a tumour in my neck so I had to have surgery. I'm now 54 and a shadow of myself. I'm still in good shape compared to a lot of my peers but I have to live very differently compared to 47 year old me. But I'm grateful to be here. My mother was slim, fit and active her whole life but she was dead from cancer at 51. We can try our best to take care of ourselves but in the end, much of it is out of our control.

Sorry to say, in my (anecdotal ) experience - YABU. Obviously you can certainly increase the odds of being in good health in your forties and fifties (in fact at any age) with healthy lifestyle choices and genetic luck. But even the majority of the fitter, healthiest people I know now suffer from some age related problems in their forties and certainly by their fifties.

Chronic back or joint pain is a problem for many of the people I know in that age group (whether caused by lots of exercise/sport when younger, being overweight now/then or simply genetics) - as is generally feeling more tired physically and mentally than when in their thirties (possibly due to menopausal symptoms in the women’s case).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news OP! But as my Mum and Gran say, if I’m feeling the pain now in my forties - just imagine how much tougher they have it in their sixties/eighties! 🤯

I'm nearly 60 and I'm on a lot of medications, but that has been the case since my 20s. I don't know anyone my age with age-related health problems.

I certainly had this view at 35.

2 heart surgeries, POTS, and an EDS diagnosis later, I've missed that dream goodbye.

Disability can happen to anyone at any time.

Use it or lose it. To remain fit you need to remain active. If you stop, your muscle, flexibility and stamina goes. I’m in my 50s now and my 40s/50s have been my fittest years. Some of my friends are super fit (marathons) and others have dodgy hips or dodgy knees which impact their ability to engage in exercise. Sadly a few friends have had foot issues, then lost flexibility and stamina, slowly becoming less mobile. It’s very frustrating for them.

You can increase your chances of staying fit and well with exercise, good diet, no alcohol, no drugs, no smoking, good genetics, driving carefully, not high risk sports, following the green cross code. But it’s still down to luck if you’ll be successful.

I have loads of health issues that would probably sound terrifying but I've had most of them for years, some since a teenager and I don't see them as illness as such
The main bits like my heart, lungs, kidneys etc are all good!
Stuff like hashimotos, neutropenia etc

Exercise regularly although recovery from a torn calf has been slow

Eek I’m 45 and my husband is 49 and both absolutely grand. It’s scary for me that people consider this age old 😭
For info, I’ve 3 kids, 19, 12 and 9.

Quite a lot of smugness going on and verging on victim blaming.
I guess most of the slim 60 plus year olds who go to the gym and ride horses are fairly well off (wealth is a massive determinant of future morbidity/mortality). Even living in the south can add years on to your life expectancy. A person retiring in their late 50s, who did a well paid sedentary job with little stress will without doubt remain healthier than someone on NMW working all hours and eating poorly by necessity.
It takes a rogue gene or cell to cause cardio vascular issues or cancer. Hypertension is often familial for example. I know of three very fit runners who died of heart attacks in their mid 50s and early 60s. One did Ironman several times. It’s luck of the draw mainly.

A ‘sedentary’ job is the worst kind. The key is being active. But many people are simply lazy and prefer to use ‘health issues’ as an excuse not to be active and it is a vicious circle.

It depends on your lifestyle- your diet and how active you are. If you avoid toxins or reduce your toxin load through organic food etc, then I believe it is possible.

My grandparents all lived into their 90s without an ailments, but what I notice with the younger generation-so many people in their 30/40s have autoimmune conditions and you have to wonder what changed, pesticides on crops etc.

Fast approaching 60, up till now I'm taring pretty well, only minor niggles. Only take HRT. I did have a problem in 2020 ( not covid) that I had similar symptoms to a stroke. I took up a second sport, which helped get my balance back. I play 2 sports, walk my dog, and have a physically active job. I occasionally get sciatica, but that's all. My DGM was active with no health issues into her 90s, then developed dementia, DM has early parkinsons symptoms but no other issues. So I'm well aware that the future could change.
That said, my contemporaries from school days are a mixed bag. Some seem much nearer to 'old age' than me, including walking frames, mobility scooters, and stair lifts. They tease me for being the nut literally running around. My mother says I never grew up.
I don't take it for granted. I get tired more easily, and I do notice creaking more.

I don't know anyone in 40s or ,50s with health issues. In my family it's like 70+