Excerpt |
“If I'd known I was going to live so long, I'd have taken better care of myself.” —Leon Eldred
Although it may seem that everything in your body is decreasing, drooping, or dropping, your body has more resiliency than you might think. There are many aspects of the physical aging process that are preventable or even reversible. Age may be all in your mind, but only you can keep it from adversely affecting your body.
In this chapter you’ll learn how to keep what you have, get back what you can, and how to compensate when necessary when it comes to your physical health.
Facts About Your Aging Body
Not millions or billions, but trillions. That’s how many cells you have in your body—more than 4.6 trillion, in fact. That’s more than the number of stars in our galaxy. Each cell is a certain type, like skin cells, liver cells, blood cells, and so on. Most of your cells reproduce and replace themselves throughout your lifetime (but only to a certain degree), and then the replication process slows down. And certain types of cells, like your various brain and heart cells, are present from birth, grow to maturity, and replicate very slowly if at all.
This replication slow-down means that as early as your late 20s and early 30s, your muscle mass and bone density start decreasing. This decrease in mass is measurable: You actually begin shrinking at a rate of about one-sixteenth of an inch per year starting at age 40. No wonder some people gasp at being two inches shorter when measured at age 70. Your weight, however, tends to increase until your mid-50s, when it starts to decline. That’s because beginning at about age 30, your body burns approximately 12 calories fewer per day. Your overall body fat content, however, stays the same, although it distributes differently as you get older.
Your organs age and may malfunction. Your immune system changes, making it harder for your body to fend off or fight disease. And your hearing, eyesight, and other senses (including your sense of balance) all decline to some degree.
Not a pleasant aging scenario? Don’t worry, you can take control. There are things you can do to prevent or reverse many of these declines, and keep your body in its best health possible. A large part of physical health is about self-care and self-initiated preventive health. The other part involves finding a good medical team to support you.