Aging Gracefully

October 2008

Feet flatten. Waists widen. Then come the gray hairs. As we age, we change. But that doesn’t mean we can’t stay healthy and grow older with grace.

From the inside out, the transformation’s inevitable. Over time, your bones thin, your heart valves thicken, and your arteries narrow. Your muscles lose mass and strength, while your lungs, tendons, and joints lose elasticity. Your reflexes slow, your skin dries out, and even your mind begins to lose its edge as 30,000 neurons die off per day and the brain shrinks in weight and volume by 2 percent per decade.

These changes start around age 18, when the body stops growing and starts declining. But this process is natural, and there’s no reason to lose hope. With the right diet, exercise, health habits, and regular checkups, you can stay vigorous through the years, warding off women’s leading causes of death (heart disease, cancer, and stroke) and coasting past the current life expectancy of 80.4 years.

The worst mistake you can make as you age? Packing on the pounds. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that two-thirds of women are overweight and one-third are obese, boosting their risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and breast cancer.

The magic bullet against aging? Exercise. Working out helps you shed weight—and lowers your risk of all these health problems. A recent study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found people who get 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day slow the aging process: Their cells are biologically 10 years younger than those of their sedentary peers.

“Like exercise, your attitude also has a crucial impact,” says Dr. Lynne Shuster, director of the Women’s Health Clinic at Mayo Clinic. “Nurturing emotional and spiritual balance is as important as what you do for your physical body.”

Since genes affect only a quarter of the aging process, the rest is up to you, which is why women in their 80s have completed marathons, why some women have lived to age 122, and why you can (and should) make the most of the decade-by-decade changes that follow.

Your 20s
For most women, this is when biological functions are humming along at their most efficient. Your skin is luminous because it’s regenerating monthly, and collagen (the protein that firms skin) is at an all-time high. Your fertility peaks around age 25, while your bones reach maximum mass between ages 25 and 35. Make it a daily practice to get 30 minutes of exercise, eight hours of sleep, 1,000 mgs of bonepreserving calcium, and plenty of heart-healthy fruits, veggies, whole grains, and lean protein. Good habits will pay off later as your metabolism slows 2 percent per decade.

Your 30s
Though your lean muscle mass is slowly being replaced by fat and your first laugh lines are crinkling up your smile, this is decade when your cognitive abilities and sexual functioning usually peak. Your fertility begins to wane around age 37, but chances are you can still safely have kids. Your biggest health challenge now? Balancing your personal needs with family and career demands. A recent British study found that people with stressful jobs nearly double their risk of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Set aside 15 minutes to meditate or relax each day and take extra time for yourself.

Your 40s
Your hair is likely beginning to thin—and your eyesight beginning to change, too. Your biggest change this decade? Shifting body composition as more fat moves to your torso. As your metabolism slows, you’ll likely need 100 to 200 fewer calories per day. Avoid gaining 10 to 20 pounds per year by exercising more or eating less. Peg your healthy weight using a body mass index calculator. To determine how many calories you need per day, multiply your ideal weight in pounds by 13. Know that a single pound of fat contains 3,500 calories (what you’d get from eating a brownie a day for two weeks), and use those new reading glasses to study nutrition labels carefully.

Your 50s
Here it is, the big M of midlife— menopause, which arrives for the average woman at age 51. If you take hormone replacement therapy for hot flashes and mood swings, take the lowest effective dose for the shortest time your doctor recommends. Having low hormone levels can cause vaginal dryness; it can also erode bone density, so reach for 1,200 mg of calcium per day. Other changes of note? Loss of highfrequency hearing, compromised sweat-gland function, and bladder muscle control problems that you can address with Kegel exercises.

Your 60s and beyond
Here’s when your body changes most. At age 60, one in three women has significant hearing loss. Seventy is the average age at which women have their first heart attacks. By 80, a woman can lose up to two inches of height due to age-related compression of the spine and joints. “Even so, this can be a time of peak life satisfaction,” says Shuster. “Women of this age often feel fully gratified as parents, grandparents, career professionals, spouses, and partners.” If you’ve eaten well and exercised regularly, you’ve lowered your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, insomnia, osteoporosis, and other age-related problems. If you’ve taken care of yourself through the decades, these will indeed be your golden years.

Molly M. Ginty lives in New York. Her work has appeared in Ms., Marie Claire, Redbook, and Women’s eNews.

For more information:
Body Mass Index calculator
www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi

Check out these checkups
www.lutheranwomantoday.org/health/janfeb08.html

Kegel exercises for bladder control
http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/bcw_ez/insertC.htm

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