A few days ago, I had occasional leisure, and after dinner, I went for a walk in the park with my wife, and when I returned, my wife said: Have you noticed a phenomenon? Most of the old people in the park are either old ladies holding old men, or old ladies pushing old men in wheelchairs, so the conclusion is that you have to be nice to me, or when you are old, I don't care about you, and no one pushes you when you go to the park.
The jokes between husband and wife also reflect the reality that as they age, men are more likely to have health problems than women, and in terms of average life expectancy, survey data shows that The global average life expectancy for men is 69.8 years, while the average life expectancy for women is 74.2 years, and the mainland census data also shows that men are lower than women, and the gap in this number is still widening, from 2000 to 2015, the average life expectancy difference between men and women has increased from 3.70 years to 5.79 years.
Men live shorter lives on average than women for a number of reasons
Older men tend to have more health problems, and men are much lower than women in terms of average life expectancy, and there are many reasons for this phenomenon.
Among them, there are reasons for the physiological differences between men and women themselves, such as the estrogen protection effect of the female body, the ability of the female body to tolerate stress response is higher than that of men, etc., there are also living habits, environmental factors, compared to men, the overall number of women smoking, alcoholism is less, living habits are more healthy, and the degree of attention to health, many times women are also higher than men, and in terms of participation in social activities, and the release of bad emotions, women also have a significant advantage over men, these factors under the combined effect Men who enter the age of 60 are more likely to develop cardiovascular health problems and other health problems, as well as mortality rates, than women, so men are lower than women in terms of average life expectancy.
After the age of 60, if you want to protect your health and delay aging, please do 4 points
If male friends reach the age of 60, the physical health is not bad, although there may be some health problems of one kind or another, but also within the scope of control, which is our health and happiness in the later years, laying a solid foundation, at such an age, how to further protect physical health, delay aging? It is very important to do the following four aspects well.
1. Be diligent in using your brain to fight against brain aging
As we age, memory and other aspects of mental activity decline, which is one of the common problems for many elderly male friends. In fact, for the brain, if you can exercise regularly and be diligent in using your brain, the rate of brain decline is not fast, or even much lower than the aging rate of other organs.
Therefore, if you want to protect cognitive function and avoid the problem of memory decline, you must actively do a good job of conditioning intervention in life, diligent brain exercise is an important aspect of exercise and protection of brain function, reading, doing some brain games (such as crossword games, etc.), trying to learn new skills (such as new languages, new musical instruments), etc., and participating in more social activities, all help to maintain brain vitality. In addition, enhancing physical activity and strengthening exercise also helps to exercise the brain and delay the decline of brain power.
2, strengthen physical exercise, strength training is also very important
Some friends think that after the age of 60, exercise should be limited to aerobic exercise, but in fact, this cognition is not completely correct. Aerobic exercise is indeed very important, can help improve the body's metabolism, enhance cardiopulmonary function, enhance blood pressure saturation, promote blood circulation, these benefits are important reasons why the elderly should insist on exercise.
But in addition to aerobic exercise, strength training is also very important, as we age, our bodies lose more bone mass and muscle, and the flexibility and balance of the body will further decline. Combined with their own conditions, regular reasonable strength training, is also very important, strength training can delay bone loss, protect bone density, but also help stimulate muscle vitality, avoid muscle atrophy, but also help reduce the risk of falls in the elderly, a study shows that regular strength training 60 to 70 years old male muscle, its performance can reach 20 to 30 years old inactive men basically consistent.
3. Quit smoking and limit alcohol, and change bad habits
Even after the age of 60, it is never too late to break bad habits that affect your health.
Many elderly male friends have bad habits of smoking, smoking will affect cardiovascular and cerebrovascular health, will also increase the risk of a variety of cancers, is an unhealthy habit that should be quit, even after the age of 60 to quit smoking, it is also very necessary. Studies have shown that people who quit smoking at age 65 can still reduce their risk of heart disease and lung cancer, extending life by nearly two years on average.
For friends who have long-term drinking habits, after the age of 60, they should also pay attention to strict control of drinking or abstinence from alcohol, alcohol will also endanger physical health, and there is no absolutely safe intake, therefore, control drinking, or combine health conditions to quit drinking, are very necessary.
In addition, high-salt diet, high-fat and high-sugar diet, love to eat fried, barbecue food, often eat processed meat products and other bad eating habits, often stay up late sleep bad habits, often tantrums, often anxious psychological bad habits, will affect our physical health, actively make changes, change some bad habits, long-term adherence to good and healthy living habits, is to ensure the health of elderly men, delay aging of an important life foundation, worth our long-term practice.
4. Regular health check-ups and disease protection are very important
Many friends do not like to do health examinations, always feel that it is no problem not to insist, a check is all diseases, which is a very wrong approach. For the elderly, it is more important to pay attention to reasonable health examinations, which are not necessarily "package examinations" to be done in physical examination institutions every year, but should be combined with the specific conditions of the body and regular health examinations.
Male friends over the age of 60 should be checked regularly, in addition to blood lipids, blood sugar, blood pressure and other indicators, as well as the basic screening of cardiovascular health, but also pay attention to colorectal cancer, prostate cancer and liver and kidney function and other aspects of regular screening, and if it is a long-term smoking friend, lung cancer regular screening is also very necessary. Early detection and early intervention of problems are important aspects of preventing small diseases from becoming major diseases.
In addition to regular health examinations, vaccination is also an important aspect of preventing the risk of disease in male friends over 60 years old, influenza vaccine should be given every year, and in addition to influenza vaccine, herpes zoster vaccine, pneumonia vaccine should also be combined with vaccination, can prevent and reduce the risk of related disease infection.
The above 4 aspects, after the age of 60, the elderly friends, actively practice, will bring more benefits to physical health, help reduce the risk of disease, delay the aging of the body. We also welcome everyone to actively forward and share, so that more people can see the relevant health knowledge, let us work together to spread reliable elderly health science knowledge.