Healthy at Age 80 -- Part I

A few years ago, I conceived of goal that I call "healthy at 80". I intend this to be the first in a series of blog posts about my progress and approaches to this goal.

By "healthy at 80" I mean that it is my goal to be in sufficiently good health at age 80 to enjoy most of the same spectrum of activities that I enjoy now, without significant physical impairment or pain. This would mean that I would continue sailing, hiking, yoga and regularly attending social, cultural and networking events. However, I do expect things to need to evolve over time. My sailing might not include aggressively roll-tacking in a Laser as it does now, and at some point I may need to give up running -- but hopefully these concessions are themselves a few decades away. And my already modest social drinking will probably become gradually more modest. I expect that you get the point.

I have chosen this goal because it is challenging (many people do not make it to 80 in good health), achievable, and something that I can affect by starting action now. A particular reason for pursuing this is that my daughter is 40 years younger than I am, and I would like to be enjoying a wide variety of activities with her until she is 40.

So far I would identify two major phases in my "healthy at 80" program.

The first phase began about 2-3 years ago, when I was 45 years old and first conceived the healthy at 80 idea. I already was trying to live a fairly healthy lifestyle -- including exercising regularly and eating reasonably well. But I started to think harder about how to make this a long-term program. At the time I tended to drink more often and greater quantities at social events, and I cut back on this, generally limiting myself to 2 drinks per day (and over time I have reduced alcohol consumption to well below this level -- generally only 3-4 drinks per week).

The second phase began about 9 months ago. I have long monitored my cholesterol, which runs high in my family, although most of my excess cholesterol is "good" HDL, which seems to mean my overall risk may not actually be elevated. However, last summer I had a cholesterol test which had high enough numbers that my doctor recommended that I start taking statins. I tried this for about 4-6 weeks and did not like the effects, which included hair loss (not generally mentioned as a side effect, because not seen as a health problem) and overall reduced good feeling. So I stopped statins, and decided instead to start a diet that involves mostly cutting out red meat and dairy products and otherwise reducing saturated fat, but not trying to limit caloric intake. At around the same time, I also started to regularly practice yoga. The combined effects of these steps has been truly great:

• My cholesterol dropped by around 25% in 3 months, including reducing my "bad" LDL to normal levels.
• I lost about 10 pounds of weight, going from average weight to quite slender (but very healthy).
• The increased flexibility from yoga has eliminated some minor but annoying aches and pains, and made flexibility-demanding activities like dinghy sailing much more comfortable. 
• The yoga has also contributed to a general reduction in stress levels, improved breathing, and improved presence and mindfulness. 

And the dietary and yoga program has become quite easy and automatic to follow. I plan to continue it for the foreseeable future.

Stay tuned for further developments!