7 Lifestyle Habits to Pick Up in Your 30s if You Want to Live Longer

 You got all this from your competent? doctor already, right?

7 Lifestyle Habits to Pick Up in Your 30s if You Want to Live Longer

If you’re in your 30s, longevity may be low on your priority list. Chances are, your brain space is filled with more immediate concerns, like growing your career or family, or both. You’re also young enough not to get wrapped up in your own mortality. Eve Henry, MD, internist and chief medical officer at integrated health platform Hundred Health, tells SELF. But even if your daily habits don’t seem to have much sway over how you feel now, they can seriously influence how you age in the future, she says, for better or worse.That’s because aging happens gradually, as does the development of chronic diseases. Consider the buildup of plaque inside arteries that can amass for decades before it manifests as heart disease (the top killer of women in the US) or stroke. Alzheimer’s disease, which affects twice as many women as men in this country, is also a slow burn. It’s the reason doctors have stressed focusing on health at a young age since well before longevity got buzzy. And your 30s is an especially apt time to develop healthy habits. After age 30, people lose, on average, 3% to 5% of their muscle mass each decade, which is an especially risky trajectory for women, Rachele Pojednic, PhD, EdM, FACSM, a nutrition and exercise researcher, and director of education at Stanford Lifestyle Medicine, tells SELF. Weak muscles put less load on bones, which hinders bone maintenance and decreases bone density, she explains. That’s a fast track to osteoporosis—and women are at baseline higher risk than men, just by having less bone mass to start with, and because of the drop in estrogen that occurs with menopause. It’s better to “build a big stockpile of biological resilience” while you’re at peak bone density and your hormones are still largely intact in your 30s “versus trying to play catch-up forever,” Vonda Wright, MD, an orthopedic surgeon, longevity researcher, and author of Unbreakable: A Woman’s Guide to Aging with Power, tells SELF. Below, experts share the behaviors to invest in during your 30s for the biggest return down the line. Pick up a form of strength training you don’t dread. For women, in particular, consistent muscle-pumping is key to avoiding the downward spiral of weak muscles, brittle bones, and falls that happens all too often with age. Dr. Wright points out that 70% of people who have a hip fracture are women, and half of people who break their hip never return to their home after seeking treatment; 22% of hip-breakers die within the year, generally from complications of being immobilized in the hospital, like pneumonia. Weightlifting is great here, but any form of exercise that puts enough strain on your muscles can count, Dr. Pojednic says. Just choose something you enjoy (or don’t hate), she says, so you stick with it.That means Pilates, barre, and the like are fair game, so long as they’re fatiguing your muscles up to the verge of failure, Dr. Pojednic says (that’s the feeling that you can barely keep up with the exercise for one second longer). 

2. Do a brief walk outside most days.

Popping outside for a stroll is one of the simplest, most-studied ways to take stress down a notch—which is essential in a decade often filled with unavoidable stressors, Elissa Epel, PhD, director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center at University of California, San Francisco, and author of The Stress Prescription, tells SELF.

Stewing in stress soup may wear down telomeres, or the caps that shield DNA from damage, which, as Dr. Epel points out, can speed up cell aging and shuttle us more quickly toward age-related illnesses such as heart disease and dementia. Stress also raises blood pressure, hinders digestion, interferes with sleep, and frazzles the immune system, Dr. Henry says, all of which could indirectly shorten your lifespan too.

Even if you live in a city, you can still reap the benefits of some nature exposure. Looking at trees lining a street, or the sky at dusk, or even squirrels or birds can offer a stress-softening perspective, according to Dr. Epel, by making your worries seem smaller in the scheme of things.

3. Eat more whole foods instead of processed ones.

Science is just beginning to uncover how ingredients unique to processed foods, like preservatives, may be tied to poor health. But we already know these foods are typically higher than their whole counterparts in sugar, salt, and saturated fat—a combo long proven to up your risk for several chronic diseases. And they often contain little, if any, fiber and vitamins. These are reasons enough to reach for whole foods instead.

In particular, research shows that plant-forward diets such as the Mediterranean diet provide the most benefit to the brain and heart. “I tell my patients to just focus on adding more fruits, vegetables, legumes, beans, and whole grains, wherever possible,” Danielle Belardo, MD, a Los Angeles-based preventive cardiologist, tells SELF.

4. Ramp up your protein intake.

The hubbub around protein these days has arguably blown its importance out of proportion—but when it comes to women in their 30s (and beyond), it’s not all hype. To age well, women generally require more protein than the recommended daily allowance (RDA), which, for reference, translates to roughly 0.36 grams per pound of body weight, meaning 72 grams daily for a 200-pound person. Dr. Pojednic suggests women actually aim for 80 to 100 grams daily as they age, to combat the muscle shrinkage that starts after 30.

It’s the reason she recommends incorporating some animal proteins into your diet, particularly lean ones like poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy—they’re considered complete proteins because they contain all nine essential amino acids. But you can also get a significant amount of protein from plant-based sources, Dr. Pojednic says, like beans, lentils, and oats. It’s just important to eat a wide variety of them in substantial quantities to ensure your bases are covered.

And if you’re coming up short and have a busy schedule, it’s wise to supplement with a ready-made or DIY protein shake, or bar—so long as whole foods still comprise the bulk of your diet. Dr. Pojednic suggests looking for options containing whey, which is a complete protein, or plant proteins like soy or pea if you’re vegan or have a dairy allergy.

5. Add a few hops, skips, or jumps into your daily routine.

It turns out, that morning jumping trend isn’t just a way to boost your mood and feel more awake and alive. Bopping around can tune up your fast-twitch muscle fibers, the kind that diminish first with age, and the ones that grant us the ability to quickly catch ourselves when we slip or trip, Dr. Wright says. That kind of agility can be the difference between a little stumble and a bone-breaking, life-shortening fall, she points out.

Plus, jumping may help maintain bone density, which we begin to shed as early as our late 20s. The repeated impact can stave off some of that loss, particularly in the hip bones, which makes it so that if you do sustain a big fall, your bones are less likely to snap.

Dr. Wright suggests women do 20 jumps a day or make jumping around a lighthearted ritual: You can put small obstacles on the floor and bound over them, play hopscotch with your kids, or do skater hops from side-to-side. Fittingly, she adds, it’s this kind of simple child’s play—fun, free-wheeling movement—that keeps us musculoskeletally young.

6. Tend to your pelvic floor.

Age, stress, and childbirth can do a number on your pelvic floor in your 30s and beyond, Dr. Wright notes, commonly leading to urinary incontinence (UI), or a leaky bladder. Even if you can hold your pee just fine now, if you don’t actively work to keep this sheet of muscle strong and supple, you could run into problems at perimenopause, when dipping estrogen levels contribute to muscle laxity. While roughly half of adult women have UI, as many as 75% of women over 65 report dealing with the condition.

And it’s not just a nuisance. Losing bladder control can raise your risk for urinary tract infections (UTIs) and is a major reason for admission to a nursing home among women, Dr. Wright points out. It’s linked to immobility and social isolation later in life, both of which can speed up aging processes, including cognitive decline.

Learning to do Kegels correctly and fitting a handful into your daily routine can go a long way toward strengthening your pelvic floor muscles, Dr. Wright says.

7. Establish a relationship with a primary care doctor.

If you haven’t seen a doctor consistently since your pediatrician, or you’ve just gone to your ob-gyn and called it a day, it’s time to get a yearly cadence going with a PCP, Dr. Belardo says. This is a doctor who can get a bird’s-eye view of your health based on your personal and family history and do screenings to assess your risk for various conditions. They’ll likely take a look at your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and run a comprehensive metabolic panel to check your blood sugar, and kidney and liver function.

Getting a sense of your numbers when you’re still young—before perimenopause—can help you figure out when things may be off-kilter later on, Dr. Henry points out. It also allows your doctor to identify anything abnormal that might warrant additional screening or even “starting down the path to treating something before you begin to develop the disease process later on,” Dr. Belardo says.

Related:

• Musclespan Is the New Longevity Metric Women Need to Track
• Are There Any Foods That Can Actually Help Prevent Dementia?
• This Surprising Drink Combination May Help You Live Longer

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Cognitive Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle Confirmed: LatAm-Fingers

 Good luck getting this done correctly outside a research program! So, pretty much useless; EXCEPT YOU CAN NOW BLAME THE PATIENT for not following it correctly!

Cognitive Benefits of a Healthy Lifestyle Confirmed: LatAm-Fingers

LONDON — A structured, culturally adapted lifestyle intervention significantly improved global cognition over 2 years in older adults at increased risk for dementia across 11 Latin American countries, extending evidence that multidomain dementia prevention programs can be successfully adapted beyond high-income settings.

In the LatAm-FINGERS trial, older adults who received a structured multidomain lifestyle intervention experienced a 55% greater improvement in global cognition over 2 years than peers who received general lifestyle advice alone.

The intervention combined supervised exercise, dietary counseling, cognitive training, vascular risk management, and regular social support and coaching, while the comparison group received periodic health education and general lifestyle recommendations.

Lucia Crivelli, PhD

“The study is important because it shows that dementia risk reduction strategies can be implemented beyond high-income countries, when they are culturally adapted and delivered in a structured way,” lead investigator Lucia Crivelli, PhD, head of Neuropsychology at Fleni-CONICET in Buenos Aires, Argentina, told Medscape Medical News.

Key Points

• Structured multidomain lifestyle intervention ↑ global cognition over 2 years.
• Benefit in 1065 older adults at ↑ dementia risk across 11 Latin American countries.
• Structured program: exercise + adapted MIND diet + cognitive training + vascular risk control + social support.
• Global cognition improved 0.31 vs 0.20 SD/year; between-group difference 0.11 SD/year.
• Greater gains in episodic memory, executive function, and processing speed; no CDR-SB difference.

Which intervention components drive cognitive benefit in multidomain prevention?

Does lifestyle intervention reduce amyloid or tau biomarkers?

What predicts progression from cognitive gain to dementia delay?

“It also reinforces the idea that lifestyle-related risk factors are not marginal: They are central to brain health and may represent a major opportunity for prevention, particularly in regions such as Latin America, where the burden of modifiable risk factors is high,” Crivelli added

After an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack, lifestyle interventions reduce systolic blood pressure but do not improve other outcomes

Be careful out there.  You are on your own to figure how to prevent that next stroke or heart attack.
After an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack, lifestyle interventions reduce systolic blood pressure but do not improve other outcomes

Deijle IA, Van Schaik SM, Van Wegen EE, et al. Lifestyle Interventions to Prevent Cardiovascular Events After Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Stroke. 2017;48:174-9.

Review question

In people who have had a previous ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), do lifestyle interventions prevent another cardiovascular (CV) event or death, or reduce CV risk factors?

Background

A stroke happens when blood flow to the brain is interrupted or blocked and brain cells are damaged or die. Most strokes are caused by blood clots in arteries of the brain (ischemic strokes). TIAs, also called mini strokes, cause a temporary blockage of the blood flow to the brain, but they don’t cause permanent damage.

People who have had a previous stroke or TIA are at increased risk for another CV event, such as recurrent stroke or heart attack. Risk factors for future CV events include being inactive or overweight, having high blood pressure or abnormal fat (cholesterol) levels in the blood, drinking a lot of alcohol, smoking, and not taking medications properly. Programs that promote lifestyle changes to reduce these risk factors may help prevent future CV events.

How the review was done

The researchers did a systematic review, searching for studies that were published to May, 2015. They found 22 randomized controlled trials with 2,574 people who were 18 years of age or older (average age 60 to 75 years old). Most trials included similar numbers of men and women.

The key features of the trials were:

• people had a previous ischemic stroke or TIA;
• lifestyle interventions focused on changing behaviour, improving fitness levels through exercise, or both;
• lifestyle interventions were mostly compared with usual care;
• most interventions were done over 2 to 12 months; and
• most people were followed for 2 to 6 months.

What the researchers found

Compared with usual care, lifestyle interventions:

• reduced systolic blood pressure by an average 3.6 mm Hg;
• improved physical activity levels in some trials but not in others; and
• were no better for reducing CV events, deaths, diastolic blood pressure, or total cholesterol levels.

Conclusion

In people who have had a previous ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack, lifestyle interventions that encourage such behaviours as following a healthy diet, not smoking, and being more physically active, reduce systolic blood pressure but not cardiovascular events, deaths, diastolic blood pressure, or total cholesterol levels.