Take control and have fun, says the research! Here’s how to recapture that youthful feeling and extend your healthy life
WORDS: JOAN MCFADDEN PICTURES: SHUTTERSTOCK
Apparently, from as young as age 30 onwards our bodies are starting to feel the impact of ageing. However, we can gain back years of good living by socialising, getting outdoors, healthy food and activity, and reducing stress.
Taking charge of your life and coping well with the challenges that may happen at different stages can have a huge impact on how you age, and how you can roll back the years.
Professor Rose Anne Kenny, award-winning geriatrician, researcher and head of medical gerontology at Trinity College Dublin has 35 years’ experience of ground-breaking research to back up her claims that we can actually control up to 80% of our ageing, as revealed in her book Age Proof: The New Science Of Living A Longer And Healthier Life.
Professor Kenny also works on the ongoing Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (Tilda), which follows 9,000 adults aged 50+ with regard to sex, food, physical and brain health, genetics, childhood experience, expectations, friendships and finance and illustrates why and how we age.
“People who don’t feel old normally act their biological age – how their body looks and feels – rather than their chronological age,” says Rose Anne. “Positivity, a healthy diet, exercise, socialising and interest in others is important for everyone from your 30s onwards to slow down ageing and put the right habits in place. You could gain up to 15 more years of healthy, active life.”
We look at how different situations can inspire people to retain their youth and gain the strength and confidence needed.
Older Mum Energy
For Shirley-Ann O’Neill (48) who lives in West Derby in Liverpool with her partner and daughter Mollie, becoming a mum at 43 changed her perspective on ageing.
“Having a child later in life has made me determined to stay fit and healthy,” says Shirley-Ann. “I intend to live to 101 to be there for my daughter, which I call the 101 plan.
“Before I had Mollie, I had an expensive gym membership which I used in phases and stopped going when life got busy. Since becoming a mum, I’ve upped my game in a different way and have a 30-minute daily walk in the park, and do lots of activities with Mollie – yoga, bike rides, roller-skating, and swimming – which is better than paying for the gym. I’m fitter than I’ve ever been, and it feels effortless as it’s fun – though I may need to stop the piggyback rides soon, as she’s getting heavy!
