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Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

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51–60 of 91 posts

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#51
65 year old, very healthy for my age, apart from the damage to my body as a young man.

Your heart is a muscle just like your bicep.

Exercise your heart with cardio exercises and it will grow bigger and stronger just like doing weights to increase your muscle size and strength. I used to cycle 15 miles every morning and at 55 years of age I had a resting heart rate of 50 bpm.

I have a huge heart both physically and metaphorically.

I have been eating a Keto diet since before it became fashionable.

Excess carbohydrates, the modern phenomena of fast foods and obesity, leading to a slow death.

I changed to a keto diet when one of my therapy clients had terminal cancer and I wanted to learn more about cancer. I read a research paper back in the late 90's that mentioned how cancer feeds on sugars and carbohydrates which are in fact sugars. Simple really, No food for cancer no cancer. Our brains prefer to live on fat (ketosis) not sugars.

Avoid hard labour jobs.

Before I trained as a psychotherapist I worked in the building trade for 20 years. I spent half my life on my knees and humping heavy stuff around all day. Now I have painful knee problems and lower back problems.

Keep reading, learning new stuff and doing human things.

Avoid the likes of zoom and any digital screen forms of communication. We, as humans, cannot read and engage with another human being through a screen. We miss all the wonders of micro-expressions and bodily expressions in our fellow humans.

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#53
I exercise daily. Transcendental meditation is a good choice for improving my mental health. I practice twice a day. Regarding health books, good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health by Gary Taubes is a great book for being healthy when you are older.

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#54

1) learn break falls from Judo. I've avoided breaking limbs twice in my life because of break falls - face planting on to concrete with a 60lb backpack, and walking off the top of two stairs into space over a marble floor. Either one of those could have been a life-changing injury and I walked away with minor bruising. Seldom has anything in my life paid off that well. 2) Figure out the dental care thing early: corre…

Yes, the advice about the break falls from Judo or Aikido is one of the best advices possible, because getting injured due to falls is one of the major health risks for old people, as I have seen in many older relatives.

However, the break falls cannot be just learned, they must be practiced from time to time, which requires an appropriate surface, e.g. some kind of hard mattress, resembling a tatami, or even the real thing (i.e. a special mattress or tatami made for wrestling, judo or aikido, put on an elastic floor, e.g. a wooden floor).

Going to an actual dojo would be the best, if that is possible. While the practice of Aikido, as done in most places (i.e. based on cooperative training in pairs), is not something that would transform you into a killing machine or an UFC competition champion, it is a very appropriate relatively low-effort training method for old people, useful to preserve their flexibility and balance, making them much less prone to injuries.

Also the daily practice of some solo kata taken from some martial art, or of some Tàijíquán form, is something that can be done at any age with very good results for preserving the body fitness, by exercising all muscles and articulations in coordinated movements, with the advantage that no special space is required. Most such kata can be adapted to be practiced even in a small room, or outside on the ground in some yard, when no better space is available.

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#56
Prioritize peace. Avoid stress and anything which stresses you out.

Prioritize sleep. Allow as much sleep as your body demands today, today.

Intermittent fasting, cold showers, reasonable exercise.

Take good care of all your constituents, including your microbiome.

Practice intentional gratitude and positive thinking.

Remember mental and emotional health as well. Invest time and effort into personal relationships and experiences which bring you joy.

Think for yourself and err on the side of caution. Imagine, for a moment, living in the 1950s and 1960s. You may have heard that cigarettes are unsafe, but then there are other opinions who say that's nonsense. Do you smoke cigarettes because it's the thing to do? There are all sorts of newfangled food technologies that your ancestors have never experienced. Are they as safe as their creators say they are? Do you drive a car, even though it makes you go faster than your ancestors have ever gone, and one split-second lapse in attention can ruin you for the rest of your life? Now, transpose this mental exercise onto today's world. Is there something you may be testing in production, so to speak, that you may later regret?

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#57
post #49

To get metaphysical, realize that time is a construct of the mind. "You" in your 50s in an entirely different person. The only connection you have with that person is the story in your head. Then the question become "what should you be doing to be healthy now". Make the most of today, everyday.

I don't understand this at all. Do you also think like this about the "future you" that might have to shit themself on the bus ride if you don't go to the bathroom before you leave?

I don’t think you understood what the GP said, but then you claimed as much…

That said, even with your interpretation, imagine that if you didn’t do something, somebody else would have to shit on the bus —- you’d have to be pretty selfish not to spend a bit of time to spare the other person of the embarrassment.

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No alcohol consumption means you're at zero risk of you driving drunk and injuring yourself while on the road.

> of you driving drunk As always people are projecting their own behaviour on others. You have more chance to die in a traffic accident as a pedestrian, just because modern cars are ridiculously safe. I've in an accident, I was in the car on passenger seat. If I was not in the car - I would post here, because at that collision speed pedestrians doesn't survive. It absolutely doesn't matter if I drunk that day or not.…

There are no real pedestrians where I live and I have seen many lives lost to drunk drivers from car accidents. Please don’t drink and drive.

Re: Ask HN: What to do to be healthy when old?

#60
Do cardio and never lift weights. Lift weights but never do cardio.

Go vegan. Go keto.

Privatize your personal relationships. Find meaningful work.

Honestly, just do whatever you want. If it works you’ll feel satisfied that you were right. If you’re wrong, you probably won’t care that much either.

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