Are you having a hard time accepting your age? Since you turned 50, have you been feeling a bit tired and run down?
You might be getting older, but that doesn’t mean you should stop making your health a priority.
After all, you’ve got decades of your life left. Why not do whatever you can to ensure you get the most out of them?
Not sure where to begin when it comes to improving your health?
Listed below are some great health tips for men over 50. Keep these in mind so you can start looking and feeling your best.
Clean Up Your Diet
It’s never too late to start eating a healthy, more balanced diet.
Eating healthfully can minimize your risk of experiencing illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. When you eat well, you’ll also find that you have more energy and experience fewer aches and pains.
What does a healthful diet look like for a man over 50?
It ought to high in fruits and vegetables, for starters. You also should prioritize eating high-quality protein sources (meat, poultry, fish, eggs, etc.) and eat plenty of healthy fats (olive oil, avocados, etc.). Minimize your consumption of sugar, processed foods, and alcohol, too.
Stay Active
Exercise is very important for men over 50, too. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never set foot in a gym before. Now is the perfect time to start.
Weight lifting is a good option for men who want to stay healthy and fit as they age. It helps to strengthen the muscles and improves bone density, which reduces your risk of developing osteoporosis.
Cardiovascular exercise like walking, swimming, and cycling is good as well. It helps to promote good heart health and can help you lose excess body fat.
Keep Your Immune System Firing
As you age, you may find that you’re more susceptible to illnesses like colds and the flu.
To keep sickness at bay, make sure you’re taking steps to protect your immune system and keep it firing. This includes consuming plenty of vitamins and minerals (especially vitamin C and zinc).
You also ought to make sure you’re keeping your stress levels low, spending plenty of time outdoors, and washing your hands frequently.
Quit Smoking
One of the best things you can do for your health — at any age — is to give up smoking. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been smoking for thirty years. As soon as you stop, your body will begin to heal itself.
By quitting smoking, you’ll be able to breathe more easily. You’ll also have more energy and will have a better sense of smell and taste.
Long-term, giving up smoking also decreases your risk of heart attacks, strokes, and high blood pressure.
You’ll also be able to be more active and spend more time engaging with your children and grandchildren. What could be better?
Get Regular Health Screenings
After you turn fifty, it’s important to make sure you’re getting regular health screenings. Some essential screenings include:
- Blood pressure test
- Cholesterol test
- Prostate exam
- Colon cancer screening
- Hepatitis C test
- Skin cancer screening
Your primary care physician should be able to perform all of these tests for you and help you make sure everything is working as it should.
Drink Plenty of Water
Never underestimate the benefits of staying hydrated.
As you get older, it becomes even more important to make sure you’re drinking enough water and decreasing your consumption of soda and alcohol.
Soda consumption can actually increase your risk of developing prostate cancer. It’s also not great for your waistline and can increase your risk of diabetes.
If you’re having a hard time drinking water and miss the carbonation in soda, try drinking sparkling water. You can add some fruit to it for some extra flavor, too.
Practice Mindfulness
Remember, it’s important to keep your stress levels low if you want to keep your immune system functioning properly. Lower stress levels help to minimize your risk of high blood pressure and heart problems, too.
One way you can reduce stress is to take up a mindfulness or meditation practice. Even if you spend just 5-10 minutes per day focusing on the present and practicing deep breathing, you can make huge strides in the way you handle stress.
It might be challenging at first, but you’ll soon find that it makes a great addition to your daily routine.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Sleep is important for people of all ages, including men over 50. Men often have a tendency to pride themselves on how little they sleep. This definitely isn’t something to wear as a badge of honor, though.
If you don’t sleep well or get a sufficient number of hours of sleep, you could be setting yourself up for all kinds of health problems. Make an effort to get between seven and eight hours of quality sleep each night.
If you have a hard time falling asleep, you might want to consider looking into and trying to discover more about a natural supplement like CBD.
Take Your Vitamins
Even if you eat a healthy, nutrient-dense diet, you might find that you’re still deficient in one or two essential vitamins or minerals.
Taking a daily multivitamin can help to fill in the gaps and ensure you’re getting sufficient amounts of everything you need to stay healthy and feel your best.
You can also get some blood testing done by your doctor to see which specific nutrients you’re missing. Then, you can just take supplements or adjust your diet to meet your daily requirements.
Looking for More Health Tips for Men?
If you’re 50 or older, you might technically be “over the hill.” But, that doesn’t mean you have to let your health decline.
As you can see, there are lots of things you can do now to maintain or improve your health and feel your very best.
Are you interested in learning more health tips for men?
If so, be sure to check out the Men’s Health and Fitness section of our site today. You’ll find all kinds of helpful information here on everything from preventing back pain to prioritizing your mental health.
