Keeping the Young-Elderly Healthy: Is It Too Late To Improve Our Health Through Nutrition?
November 11th, 2007 | by David Reiner, M.D. |
Despite past nutritional and lifestyle practices not being optimal, there is adequate opportunity even in later years of life to reduce the risk of chronic diseases and disability in future years. It should never be considered too late to benefit from these lifestyle changes, as they can favorably impact one’s health at any age.
The first concept to recognize is the chronic changes in body composition that take place with aging. As one ages, there is a progressive loss of muscle mass and bone density, along with a gradual increase in body fat. Therefore, even if one maintains a steady weight over decades, the body composition continues to change. With gains in body weight, these changes are even more pronounced. Secondly, since muscle tissue has a much higher metabolic rate than does fat tissue, your metabolism tends to decrease with age because of these changes in body composition. Therefore, to avoid chronic weight gain, older individuals must not only make major restrictions in caloric intake, they must also make increases in energy expenditure. Regular exercise that helps to maintain muscle mass is what makes this goal more attainable, by maintaining a higher metabolic rate. Exercise also helps to retard the chronic loss of bone density that is part of the aging process.
The use of calcium and vitamin D supplements for greater than 3 years in people over the age of 65 has been shown not only to slow bone loss, but to also reduce the risk of bone fractures. Other population studies have shown that healthy diets reduce the risk of getting cancer. Improving your lipid profile(cholesterol levels) in adults over age 65 reduces the risk of future cardiac events(such as heart attack and stroke) by as much as 45%. Lastly, the greatest benefit from adequate control of high blood pressure is seen in older individuals.
Reference: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2007 Nov;86(5):1572S-6S.
Tags: bone density, elderly, heart disease, metabolic rate, nutrition, Obesity