Home > Blogs > Suzi Boyle,Manager 37810/1251 > Castle & Cooke Mortgage, LLC, Equal Housing Lender

Thriving After 40

By Suzi Boyle,Manager 37810/1251

Mortgage and Lending with Castle & Cooke Mortgage, LLC, NMLS #1816289 NMLS #37810 /1251

August 18, 2014 03:31 AM

6 Ways to Thrive after 40

Meet the new middle age, as personified by those who are extending the prime of life -- with all its rich emotional, intellectual and spiritual potential -- way beyond the short horizons that defined their parents’ middle years. Are you among them?

Here are the building blocks of the new middle age, and how to imbue your second act with more personal contentment, joy, and vibrancy than you ever thought possible.

1. A strong heart

It’s the engine that drives an active lifestyle, essential to your ability to maintain healthy muscles and bones, a sharp mind, and even an upbeat attitude.
During your parents' middle age, it was all about cholesterol. If it was normal, they’d ignore it. If it was high, they’d control it with a low-fat diet. But even those with normal cholesterol levels can have heart disease, so talk to your doctor about getting a CT coronary artery scan, says Mehdi Razavi, MD, a heart specialist at the Texas Heart Institute. The test measures calcium accumulation in arteries (a predictor of heart attack risk) and can spot trouble even when other tests are normal.
Embrace the Mediterranean diet, which prevents and even reverses heart disease. Patients whose diets feature monounsaturated fats from olive or canola oil, nuts and fish, along with abundant fruits and vegetables, reduced their recurrence of heart problems by 50 to 70 percent, according to the Lyon Diet Heart Study in France.

2. Comic relief

A good laugh is one of the easiest and most reliable tools for managing health-debilitating stress.
People used to laugh just when they felt like it. Experts then thought a sense of humor was determined only by your genes -- you’re either cheerful or you’re not.
The new middle age: schedule regular “laughercise.” Loma Linda University researcher Lee Berk, DrPH, has tested the effects of what he calls “mirthful laughter” by asking volunteers to spend time doing nothing more complicated than watching TV comedies. He found that even anticipating a laugh improves function of immune-enhancing hormones. Berk’s study found that over the course of a year, the levels of good HDL cholesterol in volunteers participating in a mirthful-laughter group jumped 26 percent, while their levels of C-reactive proteins, a measure of inflammation linked to both heart disease and diabetes risk, dropped 66 percent.

3. Stable blood sugar

For most people, type 2 diabetes is preventable, meaning the associated higher risks of heart attack, circulation problems, and dementia are too.
During your parents’ middle age, they tried to eat complex carbs -- whole grains, nuts, and vegetables -- which studies then suggested was the key to preventing diabetes.
The new middle age, people focus more on total calories. “Losing weight, if you’re overweight, is the single most important thing you can do,” says William C. Knowler, MD, DrPH, a diabetes researcher with the National Institutes of Health. Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, says overweight people should shoot for losing about 7 percent of their total body weight: “For most people, that’s enough to cut their risk of developing diabetes in half.”

4. Close friends

They’re not just fun to hang around with. Real pals also evoke a host of positive emotions that bolster immunity.
For the new middle age, friends save lives. A Harvard School of Public Health study of more than 2,800 women with breast cancer found that those without close friends were four times more likely to die than women with 10 or more friends. A Swedish study reports that for heart attack prevention, having friendships is second only to not smoking.
In a surprising report, James H. Fowler, PhD, an associate professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, showed that happiness spreads through social networks, affecting not only friends but also friends of friends. “Our research showed that a person is 15 percent more likely to be happy if a close contact is happy as well,” he explains.

5. Deft balance

Skiing, tennis, biking, even ballroom dancing all require excellent balance, particularly the ability to recover quickly from an unexpected bump or trip-up. One-third of older adults suffer tumbles, and serious falls can hamper your ability to remain active.
Your parents walked and did light aerobics, believing just staying in reasonably good shape would suffice.
The new middle age lifts and flexes. “Exercises that promote balance, flexibility and strength are equally important,” says Bonita Lynn Beattie, a physical therapist and vice president for injury prevention at the Center for Healthy Aging in Washington, DC. “Dance classes, tai chi and yoga are all great activities for preserving a strong sense of balance.”

6. Up-to-date vaccinations

Illnesses that can be prevented with vaccines cause almost 50,000 deaths a year in the United States and make many more people needlessly ill. Staying current is a proven lifesaver. According to a survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, 40 percent of American adults wrongly believe that because they got shots as a child, they don’t need to worry about vaccinations.
The new middle age gets their shots. Only 42 percent of people ages 50 to 64 typically get yearly flu shots. Shingles, an excruciatingly painful disease caused by the varicella-zoster virus, strikes one in three Americans, yet only 2 percent of those age 60 and older have received the vaccine that can prevent the infection or reduce its painful symptoms. Tetanus-diphtheria boosters are recommended every 10 years, protection many people in middle age neglect. The next time you see your doctor, ask if you’re due for any shots.

Buying a Home?

Text CHECKLIST to 79564 for your digital Home Buying Checklist

Suzi Boyle 1880 S Cobalt Point Way, Meridian, ID 83642