Let’s face it: nobody wants to get old. Unfortunately, it’s tough to avoid.

While aging is inevitable, it’s easy to develop a series of healthy habits that can help fight the signs of aging and make your golden years healthier, happier, and more exciting than they’ve ever been.

Read on to learn more.

18 Healthy Habits to Help You Age Gracefully

Want to enjoy your retirement and senior years more? Focus on developing these 18 healthy habits.

1. Eat right and watch your weight

We’ve all heard the saying “you are what you eat,” and it gets truer with age. When you feed your body high-quality, nutrient-dense foods, it stands up to the stresses and rigors of aging better and is less likely to break down or stop working over time.

What’s more, a well-rounded diet can also help fight off disease and keep the skin and body looking and feeling their best.

2. Protect your skin with SPF

When it comes to the way you look, the sun is responsible for more premature aging than virtually anything else. With this in mind, wear SPF every time you go outside. In addition to keeping your skin healthy, and wrinkle – and age spot-free, wearing SPF also decrease the risk of skin cancer and helps you stay healthy in your older years.

3. Drink enough water

Drinking enough water is essential to looking and feeling your best. With this in mind, shoot for at least eight glasses each day and don’t skimp on the other liquids, either. If you have a difficult time remembering to drink water, consider carrying a water bottle with you or setting alarms on your phone to remind yourself to have a glass several times each day.

4. Avoid alcohol as you age

While a glass of wine with dinner is a habit many people enjoy, excess drinking ages the skin and can damage your appearance. With this in mind, keep your drinking to a minimum, and think twice before you pour that extra glass of red wine.

5. Stop (or avoid) smoking

If you smoke tobacco, your skin ages quicker, and you put yourself at risk for a whole slew of health complications that affect non-smokers at much lower rates. In addition to the fact that smoking increases the risk of cancer, it also damages your skin and enhances the look of wrinkles, age spots, and creepy skin.

With this in mind, work to stop smoking today. If you don’t smoke, be sure to avoid second-hand smoke which can have equally detrimental effects.

6. Laugh as often as possible

Laughter is your best medicine, and maintaining a good sense of humor and lightheartedness can help you age gracefully.

In addition to relieving stress, laughter also helps to improve your mood and make you more approachable, so it can benefit your social relationships while also brightening your outlook – all of which are good for your mental and emotional health during the aging process.

7. Get active on a regular basis

Exercise is critical for staying fit and active as you age, and it’s important to get your heart rate up every day. Regardless of whether you choose to walk, run, or do yoga, getting moving on a daily basis is one of the best defenses against the signs of aging.

8. Get enough sleep

Getting a minimum of seven hours of sleep each night has far-reaching implications for your health. From helping your skin look more youthful to improving your cognitive function and outlook, there’s no question that adequate sleep is truly the fountain of youth. With this in mind, practice healthy sleep habits and prioritize your sleep for better health.

9. Keep a positive attitude

Positivity is paramount for aging well, and people who maintain a positive outlook on life simply age better. In fact, one study reports that individuals who remain positive are 40% more likely to recover from an injury or disability than those who get negative about the situation.

10. Mind your dinner portions

Just like watching what you eat is important, so, too, is watching how much you eat. A healthy diet full of balanced proportions will keep you looking and feeling great for longer.

11. Maintain your social relationships

Healthy social relationships help people live longer, and keeping up on your friendships, social groups, and volunteering opportunities will give you a leg-up on aging. What’s more, it will also make it that much easier to enjoy your retirement and all of the free time that comes with it.

12. Do away with toxic relationships

Toxic relationships suck the life-force out of people, and they can make it difficult to stay healthy. With this in mind, allow yourself to walk away from the relationships and situations that no longer serve you or make you happy.

13. Stop multitasking and allow yourself to focus

Multitasking creates stress and stress damages health. With this in mind, concentrate on cutting down on multitasking and sticking to one responsibility at a time. In addition to allowing you to execute your duties more efficiently, this will also make it easier to ensure a job well done, with as little stress as possible.

14. Avoid sweets and consider skipping dessert

While sweets are a heady temptation, excess sugar can damage your health and your appearance. With this in mind, consider cutting sweets out of your diet or, at the very least, avoiding them as often as possible. In addition to helping you stay trim and healthy, avoiding sugar can also keep you feeling and looking your best.

15. Try not to sit for long periods of time

Sitting for hours on end is associated with a plethora of health problems, and people who get up and move fare better than their sedentary counterparts. With this in mind, take several short walks a day and set timers to get up and move around regularly if you must sit for extended periods of time. This will keep you healthy and lithe and feeling good throughout your golden years.

16. Keep your skin moisturized

Things like indoor heaters and dry climates suck the moisture out of the skin, which can accelerate the aging process. With this in mind, keep your skin moisturized and avoid the temptation to skip on the skin lotion before bed.

17. Eat a selection of healthy fats

The brain and other vital body organs rely on fat for proper function, so keeping your diet rich in healthy and beneficial fats is key. The omega-3 fatty acids found in things like Salmon and walnuts can benefit your health for years to come, while also keeping you full.

18. Mind your posture

Slouching can contribute to a hunchback appearance that makes you look older than you are. Instead, remember your posture and be proactive about improving it. In addition to keeping your spine healthy, this will also help you appear younger.

The Signs of Aging Stop Here

While it’s impossible to stop the aging process altogether, these 18 tips can help you fight the signs of aging and move through your golden years happily, gracefully, and beautifully.

When you have an elderly loved one coping with depression, knowing how to help can be difficult. Thanks to a complex mix of factors, older people are at an increased risk of depression, and seniors whose family members understand how to adequately address the problem will fare better than their unsupported counterparts. Because of this, it’s essential for the family members of seniors to understand the risk factors, signs, and treatment options of senior depression. Read on to learn more.

What is Senior Depression?

Depression is a condition that causes an individual to feel sad, hopeless, and lethargic. While it affects people of all ages, classes, and genetic backgrounds, it is especially rampant in seniors. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7 million American seniors (Aged 65 or older) suffer from depressive symptoms each year. These numbers are startling, and it’s clear that senior depression is a real issue facing our older population today.

What Causes Senior Depression?

Depression is a complex disease, and various factors cause it. While it’s impossible to trace any case of depression back to a single causative issue, professionals believe that the following things all influence the presence of depression in seniors:

Genetics: There is some evidence to suggest that depression is genetic, and the elderly are more likely to suffer from depression if someone in their family has suffered from it in the past.
Stress or loss: Seniors who have recently lost a spouse or are experiencing stress because of a move (to an assisted living facility, for example) or a new life event (a newly diagnosed illness) are at increased risk for depression.
Shifting brain chemistry: Brain chemistry is a major factor in senior depression. When certain chemicals are imbalanced in the brain, depression occurs, and since seniors’ brains change markedly as they age, they’re at increased risk for chemical imbalances and depressive symptoms.

What are the Signs of Senior Depression?

Senior depression manifests in many ways. Some of the most common are as follows:

The senior may feel sad, hopeless, or empty
The senior may experience severe mood swings, and become angry, hysterical, or inconsolable for seemingly no reason
The senior may be unable to find enjoyment in pastimes he or she used to love
The senior may be unable to concentrate on things like work, friendships, and responsibilities
The senior may experience difficult with healthy sleep patterns, either sleeping barely enough or sleeping so much that their daily patterns and responsibilities are disrupted
The senior’s eating habits may change, and they may begin to eat more than usual, or stop eating altogether
Some seniors who are experiencing senior depression will have suicidal thoughts, and may attempt suicide in extreme cases
Physical symptoms are common with senior depression, and affected individuals may experience headaches, vomiting, digestive upset, and pain

If you notice any of the above symptoms in your senior family member, it’s time to get the individual to a medical professional for further evaluation.

Helping Seniors Cope with Depression: 5 Tips

If your family member has been diagnosed with senior depression, it’s natural to feel helpless. You want to provide support, but you’re not sure where to start. You’re not alone in feeling this way – most people who have a family member diagnosed with senior depression experience the same emotions. Luckily, there are things you can do to help. Here are five tips to get you started:

Be available for your loved one

One of the most powerful things you can do for someone who has recently been diagnosed with senior depression is simply to lend a helping hand. For a few weeks after the diagnosis, it’s normal for your loved one not quite to feel like themselves. If they’ve been put on antidepressant medication, their sleep, eating, and daily patterns may be disrupted.

During this time, be as available as you can to the person. Offer to run routine errands or cook some meals to alleviate the burdens of daily life. Alternately, you can simply lend a listening ear. Most seniors feel confused by and afraid of their diagnosis, and the ones who want to talk will appreciate a willing ear.

Get educated

The more you can learn about senior depression, the better. When you have the facts and statistics on your side, you’re better prepared to deal with the ups and downs of the condition. SAVE is a great resource for facts and information on senior depression for those who want online information. It’s also likely that the hospitals, assisted living facilities, and hospice centers in your area offer support groups aimed at helping friends and family members learn about and cope with senior depression. Call these organizations for more information.

Accompany your loved one to therapy

Many doctors recommend therapy as a course of treatment for senior depression. If this is the case, you can help by offering to give your loved one a ride to their therapy sessions and, if they want, accompanying them to the session itself. Be advised that many seniors feel ashamed of the fact that they are attending therapy, and one of the most beneficial things you can do is to normalize the process as much as possible. Provide plenty of reinforcement about the fact that therapy is normal and healthy, and that there’s nothing to feel ashamed of. If it helps, consider supplying the senior with helpful resources on the country-wide rate of depression and the benefits of talk therapy. Knowledge is power, and these resources may help remove some of the stigmas from the process.

Handle household tasks

If a depressed senior has stopped cooking, cleaning, or shopping, rally a team of people to take over these duties. Normalcy is a powerful treatment for depression, and family members who want to lend a helping hand can do so by cooking freezer meals for the senior, pitching in to complete household chores, and seeing after any pets the senior may have. In addition to keeping the senior’s life running, these simple things also help prevent dangerous things like malnutrition from setting in for the senior.

Laugh (when appropriate)

We’ve all heard that laughter is the best medicine, and it can be a powerful treatment for a senior suffering from senior depression. If you feel like your loved one is up to it, consider taking in a funny play or going out to see the grandchildren. Laughter helps restore a senior’s outlook, and can make a huge difference in a person’s perception. Of course, it’s not wise to make fun of a serious situation, but a little bit of well-placed laughter can work wonders for a senior’s well-being.

Senior Depression Affects Thousands, but you can Help

While senior depression is a common condition, there are things you can do to help your loved one. By offering support, taking over household tasks, facilitating appointments, and doing what you can to restore normalcy and joy to a senior’s life, you can help your family member make his or her way through senior depression as gracefully as possible.

Month: November 2016

18 Healthy Habits That Fight the Signs of Aging