What To Do When Young, Ready For When You’re Old

It’s Q&A Day at 10almonds!

Have a question or a request? We love to hear from you!

In cases where we’ve already covered something, we might link to what we wrote before, but will always be happy to revisit any of our topics again in the future too—there’s always more to say!

No question/request too big or small 😎

❝I’m a young woman so maybe I would prefer more articol interesting for my age. I really appreciate reading about medicine, curiosity but others topic are a little boring for my age. This is not a critic I love your website, the work you do is amazing, I just wanted to share with you my idea.❞

Great to hear from you! And thank you for the kind words 🙂

Of course, we do not know what “young” is to you. 20? 30? 40? Probably not 50; most people at 50 do not describe themselves as young, unless in a specific context where the average age is higher.

You might find this interesting: How Likely Are You To Live To 100? ← in which we can also see a graph of 10almonds subscribers’ ages, at attitudes towards aging

The great thing, when young, about reading material aimed at older audiences, is that (all being well) we too will get to be that age someday, so the better-prepared we are, the better we’ll fare when that time of our life comes.

But you’re also correct: there are things we can (and arguably should) do at younger ages, beyond what might be appropriate for most people at older ages. And we do say “most people at older ages” since really, our bodies neither know nor care how many times we’ve flown around the sun, so it’s not really the chronological age that counts so much when it comes to health, but rather our biological age.

Biological age often gets talked about as a simplified number, but it’s more complex than that, as we can age in different ways at different rates, for example:

• Visual markers of aging (e.g. wrinkles, graying hair)
• Performative markers of aging (e.g. mobility tests)
• Internal functional markers of aging (e.g. tests for cognitive decline, eyesight, hearing, etc)
• Cellular markers or aging (e.g. telomere length)
• …and more, but we only have so much room here

Learn more: Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?

Which prompts the question…

What should we prioritize doing now, for later?

Consider the following age-related threats:

• Cardiometabolic disease (there is little practical point trying to separate this into heart disease, diabetes, etc, these things are best tackled holistically)
• Cancer (it will usually come for us if something doesn’t first)
• Alzheimer’s and other dementias (generally speaking, the ways we can reduce our risk are the same and/or related to other things such as cardiometabolic disease due to vascular dementia)
• Frailty (which comes with sarcopenia and osteopenia/osteoporosis)
• Arthritis and other joint conditions (which can come at any age, but are heavily correlated with age)

All of those are things whereby when you hit whatever age you currently think of as “old”, you’ll wish you’d started guarding against when you were young.

So:

• Make sure to build and maintain heart-healthy habits and reduce your risk of developing insulin resistance if possible
• Avoid known carcinogens (e.g. smoking, alcohol, red and processed meat)
• Invest in your mind now already; this is one where people often slip into complacency in their 30s, distracted by “the daily grind”
• Do load-bearing exercise regularly, ideally in a dynamic fashion that’s not just “this way, that way” but rather involves forces in all directions (otherwise your muscles and bones will be only strong in one direction, and that’s not much help if you fall the other way, is it?)
• Tailor your lifestyle such that you limit chronic inflammation, keeping your body’s immune response strong without overworking it

For where to start with these, consider: These Top Few Things Make The Biggest Difference To Health

Ask yourself one question

“Do I feel luc—”

No wait, not that. Rather, the question is: “What do I want to still be able to do, later in life?”

It’s easy to say “everything”, but what’s most important?

This writer’s example: I want to remain mobile, free from pain, and sharp of mind.

That doesn’t mean I’ll neglect the rest of my health, but it does mean that I will regularly weigh my choices against whether they are consistent with those three things.

As for how to plan for that?

Check out: Train For The Event Of Your Life! ← this one is mostly about the mobility aspect; staying free from pain is in large part a matter of avoiding inflammation which we already discussed, and staying sharp of mind relies on the gut-heart-brain pipeline we also advise looking after.

You can also, of course, personalize your diet per which areas of health are the most important for you:

Four Ways To Upgrade The Mediterranean (most anti-inflammatory, gut-healthiest, heart-healthiest, brain-healthiest)

And if you’d like to approach things in a more structured fashion, then see: Your Health Audit, From Head To Toe

Want to learn more?

You should definitely check out this excellent book we reviewed a while back:

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism – by Ashton Applewhite

…and the equally highly recommendable:

Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents & Flourishing As We Age – by Dr. Mary Pipher

Take care!