Top 10 Secrets for Healthy Aging, Long Life

Want to age gracefully and live longer? The secret to health and wellness lies more with the lifestyle choices you make than with your inherited genes.

There are little things we can all do every day to ensure we stay healthy as we age. They’re not difficult or expensive. There’s no need to waste hundreds of dollars on miracle aging cures if you just keep these basic tips from Body+Soul magazine in mind.

10 Secrets of Healthy Aging

1. Get Enough Potassium: We all need potassium, but this tip is especially helpful for those over age 65. Potassium, at least 4.7 grams daily, is essential to maintaining lean muscle tissue. Five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables will ensure your muscles stay strong.

2. Keep a Positive Outlook: Thinking positively and maintaining an upbeat attitude can actually keep you healthy. The Journal of Happiness Studies found that being happy can protect you from becoming ill. Indeed, the effect of happiness on lifespan is about as strong as not smoking, say researchers. If you’re going to get wrinkles anyway, why not make them laugh lines?

3. Exercise: It shouldn’t surprise you that exercise is on the list. According to research, staying fit can reduce your biological age by 10 years. A study in Circulation that tracked participants for an average of 7.5 years showed that exercise is inversely related to death: The more you work out, the longer you’ll likely live. Get 30 – 50 minutes of daily exercise to stay healthy (and happy).

4. Eat Yogurt: Probiotics, as found in yogurt and fermented food products, help prevent digestive diseases and colon cancer while boosting your immune system.

5. Get your B-12: Eating foods rich in B-12, like seafood and poultry, helps reduce the brain shrinkage and loss of cognitive function that occurs with age. If you’re a vegan or over the age of 65, you should take a B-complex supplement because you may not be getting enough B-12 through diet alone.

6. Put Fish on the Menu: Two servings a week of fatty fish rich in Omega-3’s does wonders for your body and mind. If the lowered risk of heart attack, dementia, stroke and macular degeneration aren’t reason enough, fish oil also helps stabilize mood and brain function.

7. Be Social: Hanging out with friends isn’t just fun, it may actually help you live longer. Loneliness and isolation increase your risk for Alzheimer’s, depression, lowered immunity and high blood pressure, while socializing has the opposite effect. Even socializing online. Yes – Facebook may provide similar benefits.

8. Vitamin D: Don’t underestimate the power of Vitamin D, one of our body’s most powerful defenses against the aging process. Vitamin D helps prevent high blood pressure, certain cancers and autoimmune diseases, among other things. Fish, eggs, milk and sunshine all provide Vitamin D, but most of us need to take a supplement in addition. If you’re a woman, especially, a Calcium + Vitamin D supplement is recommended to fight bone loss.

9. Stretch or Do Tai Chi: Numerous studies suggest that tai chi may improve everyday physical functioning, lower blood pressure, ease chronic pain, relieve anxiety, and slow bone loss after menopause. Tai Chi and stretching also helps you sleep better at night.

10. Eat Less Red Meat: Limit your intake of red meat to no more than once a week (or cut it out all together) to lower your risk of heart disease. Red meat is loaded with saturated fat that will clog your arteries and raise your blood pressure. People who consume red meat daily have a 20-60% increased risk of developing certain cancers.