Age-Proof Your Body

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• Age-Proof Your Body

  From memory lapses to that stubborn tummy pooch, events that were once considered fated after a certain age can, in fact, be avoided. "How you age is largely the result of lifestyle choices you make," says Henry Lodge, MD, coauthor ofYounger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You're 80 and Beyond. Research proves that simple moves like taking a walk and eating rainbow-hued produce rev up your natural ability to stay younger. So break out the bubbly (or red wine!) and take these steps towards a healthy you for years to come.

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  • Head to Toe: Skin

    Wear sunscreen every day (don't forget your neck and the backs of your hands) and consider using an OTC or prescription cream that contains retinol, a powerful ingredient that can help erase fine lines.

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  • Head to Toe: Muscles

    Strength-train, then drink fat-free milk. In studies, exercisers who drank two glasses a day lost more fat and built more muscle than those who didn't.

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  • Head to Toe: Joints

    Skip the sweets. High blood sugar makes the collagen in your connective tissue less pliable and can lead to stiff joints and even arthritis. It can also worsen existing joint aches and pains.

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  • Head to Toe: Eyes

    Ward off age-related macular degeneration with C and E. Eat a spinach salad with mandarin oranges and almonds, or consider taking a multivitamin containing 500 mg vitamin C and 400 IU vitamin E.

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  • Head to Toe: Heart

    Floss every day. It helps prevent gum disease, which has been linked to heart attack and stroke.

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  • Head to Toe: Bones

    Get vitamin K2 (you need about 90 micrograms a day) from leafy greens like romaine lettuce and spinach. It moves calcium from your blood to your bones.

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  • Smoke Alert

    Avoid smoking and secondhand smoke. Tobacco smoke can lead to a slew of cancers, it doubles or even quadruples your risk of a heart attack or stroke, and it raises your odds of dying from lung disease 13-fold. Regularly breathing in secondhand smoke ups heart disease risk 30 percent and lung cancer risk 25 percent.

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  • Right to Recess

    Remember to make time to play. People who work long hours are more likely to develop high blood pressure. In one study, the risk of a fatal heart attack was nearly three times higher for those who didn't get a real breather from work-related fatigue and stress over the weekend.

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  • Fast Food No-tion

    Avoid fried foods and soda. Having lots of fast food and soda (even diet) raises your odds for gaining weight, and may lead to a condition called chronic inflammation that causes your entire body to age.

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  • Sun Savvy

    Always wear sunglasses and a hat outdoors. Protecting your eyes from the sun's ultraviolet rays cuts your risk of vision-robbing cataracts and age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness, by at least 45 percent.

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  • Doctor's Orders

    Remember to get important health screenings on time. Getting checked for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and cancers of the breast, cervix and colon can help catch these conditions in their earliest, most treatable stages.

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