Getting old – It’s about the journey and not the arriving!

As my best friend often said to me “Don’t worry about getting old – it’s better than the alternative!”.

If you are fortunate enough to have no underlying illness as you reach your fifties it is time to start planning how to live better and healthier. This in turn would give an extended lifespan. Of course, you will never actually know if your planning and effort actually made a difference but what you would have had is a lot more years of wellness that you may miss if you continued your old lifestyle.

I am now in my eightieth year and honestly, I never expected to reach this wonderful age and better still I’m still working, still fit and still healthy, in fact I’m very healthy!

There’s no secret to getting old healthily

I saw the light when I was fifty and went for my regular annual check-up. My doctor reminded himself of my age and told me it was my lucky day – it was time for my first prostate examination. Once this was over and a few more tests and questions he said: “Do you want the good news of the bad news first?”

Bad news please! “Well, you are likely to be dead by the time you reach sixty! The good news is you can make ninety if you stop smoking!”.

That was the start of my journey and I have been at it ever since – each and every day without fail.
Don’t think I’ve found getting old easy and without hurdles to jump. You can’t reverse damage that is irreversible – so I have had both hips replaced, cataracts removed from both eyes and three vertebrae fused in my neck! Other than these there is little wrong with me.

OK – not quite true, I monitor my blood sugar and pressure and I walk my dog everyday for at least a mile. Keep my calories to under two thousand and check my weight regularly. I meet friends and still work every day although only for four hours and I laugh a lot!

I do take some regular medication to thin my blood (had a DVT and Pulmonary Embolism after the first COVID vaccine!) and control my blood pressure but that’s about all. Supplements are my friends, and I will tell you all about these another time.

For now, I just wanted to share my experience and show how easy it is to make a difference and keep those ‘wellness years’ rolling. I don’t delude myself that I have found the Holy Grail of eternal life – I haven’t. What I have learnt in getting old is that you can take control of managing the good years and minimizing the bad ones.

Don’t think it’s easy – nothing ever is! Can you have more good years than bad of what you have remaining – yes you sure hell can! One of the reasons I helped to start Autum Lifescore was to share this experience and add quality years to everyone’s life. It’s not hard – just do it. We will help you each and every step of the way.

If you enjoyed Getting old – It’s about the journey and not the arriving! I will be writing a regular column on the Autum blog and will journey with you as we continue to strive for wellness and an extended lifespan.

To help us make Britain one million biological years younger take our autum Lifescore calculator to determine your biological age and use our autum App on Android or IOS to help improve your biological age today!