Aging well depends on several factors, such as physical activity or diet. But the state of mind and the perception of his age also play a major role. Explanations.
- To be in good health, it is necessary to limit the daily sedentary lifestyle.
- The ideal is to walk at least 10,000 steps a day.
According to the definition of Larousse, seniors include all people over the age of fifty. But what does that actually mean? At what age is the onset of old age fixed? According to a study published in the journal International Journal of Epidemiologyit depends above all on our state of mind and our perception of age!
When does old age begin?
During their work, the researchers asked a simple question to the participants of their study (more than 5,000 men and 2,000 women aged 40 to 60): “When does old age begin”? The answers were varied but, overall, they observed that people who set the onset of old age later were less likely to be in poor health with age.
The mental affects the physical
In detail, those for whom old age began earlier were more likely to be in poor physical health, to have a disease or a heart attack within six to nine years after the study. Thus, according to their conclusions, the age at which the onset of old age is fixed has an influence on the way of aging.
Avoid Fatalism
One of the hypotheses to explain this link is that the more one mentally pushes back the age of old age, the more one would unconsciously seek to take care of one’s health, to maintain oneself physically and to have a younger attitude. On the other hand, perceiving oneself to be old too early would lead us to a more fatalistic behavior, taking less care of oneself, telling ourselves – again unconsciously – that old age is inevitable and that individual actions will not have much impact… A false reasoning: physical activity can at all ages, even if it is very moderate, have a beneficial impact on the body.
Sport at all ages
For adults aged 18 to 64, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) recommends doing at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate intensity sport or 75 to 150 minutes of sustained intensity per week. From the age of 65, the advice is the same but the health body emphasizes that “older adults should engage in varied, multi-component activities that emphasize functional balance and moderate-to-high intensity strength exercises, 3 or more times a week, to improve functional ability and prevent falls”.
According to one other study carried out on more than a thousand participants aged at least 50, people who had a positive idea of their old age lived eight years longer than those who had a negative image. A positive state of mind which, in parallel with a healthy lifestyle and regular medical monitoring, could therefore save you a few years of youth!
