Ageing

Our rate of ageing is a choice.

We are all ageing, from the moment we are born. Some of us will age faster than others, some inherit genes that mean they are ageing slower.

Factors that affect how fast we will age include: ‘Where we live’ – clean air and country living is healthier than living in towns,

1. ‘Where we live’ – clean air and country living is healthier than living in towns,
2. ‘What we do’ – most jobs are now too sedentary and our lack of exercise weakens our muscles and bones, we may feel and know we are a little unfit, and this will increase the ageing process
3. ‘What we eat’ – a healthy diet will help prevent early ageing, an unhealthy diet will promote diseases such as diabetes, weight gain etc (we are what we eat), and
4. ‘Lifestyle choices’ – the everyday repetitive habits we get into, which we may enjoy or prefer, but which may hasten our ageing process.
5. ‘Genetic inheritance’ – some of us are born with a genetic predisposition to certain diseases and conditions, just as some of us are born tall or short, and some of us put on weight easily while others do not, all these affect our ageing process.

If we wish to slow our ageing process, we need to take a conscious step to improve each of the five factors above

1. Where we live – while we cannot all ‘escape to the countryside’, we can choose to spend more time in a healthier environment more – walks in parkland areas, country breaks, trip to the seaside etc, what’s not to like?
2. What we do – we all now know that in the Victorian era, during the Industrial Revolution, working conditions were life limiting, cities were polluted with smog and factories belched out toxins. But what will future generations say of our working conditions 100 years from now?  They may say we were too sedentary, realise this caused disease and hastened our ageing. Employers may even be required to encourage staff to exercise more and provide gyms.
3. What we eat – today’s food industry sells us what we want (sugar laden temptation!). 100 years from now it may be seen as negligent to sell unhealthy foods that limit our lifespan.
4. Lifestyle choices – this means breaking out of our routine of unhealthy easy life choices, walking more, joining a gym, doing some morning or evening exercises at home.
5. Genetic Inheritance – in the future we will all be tested for our likelihood of suffering certain diseases and will modify our lifestyle and treatment to improve our longevity.

We already know what we should be doing to reduce our ageing process.  We are just not yet in the habit of adopting anti-ageing behaviour.  Now is the time to act, to add many healthy years to our lives.