What is Successful Ageing?
In essence, positivity and maintaining a good quality of life until you pass.
In the literature, successful ageing is described as: avoiding disease, maintaining high cognitive and physical function, and engagement with life. My research goes further, suggesting a purpose for getting out of bed in the morning and being able to assist people as critical components.
Components of Successful Ageing
6 Identified Components
When the results of the interviews with Elders and Health Professionals were correlated, there were six identified components in the Successful Ageing (SA) model, which are identified in the previous diagram.
Esma – 25yrs to 93yrs young.
1. A Positive Attitude
A positive attitude to life was considered to be the most critical component as it became the catalyst for all of the components in the SA cluster. A positive attitude provides the impetus to get out of bed in the morning, the commitment to pursue physical activity, the discipline to consume a healthy diet, and the confidence to mix socially and network with others. Extensive studies undertaken by Levy (2000) found that people with a positive attitude lived an average additional 7 years longer.
Also, having a smile and a positive persona is infectious, and can lift the giver and receiver of the greeting. In contrast a negative greeting can leave both parties feeling dejected. Try and leave people happier than you found them.
If someone tells you they are, bordering on excellent, your immediate thought might be, I’ll have what they are having!
If someone says they are underwhelming the mood of the greeting is diminished.
Senior swim group, 2km/session.
2. Physical exercise and healthy sleep patterns
Physical activity, or exercise, is the closest thing to a panacea for many of the ailments of present-day society. The World Health Organisation (WHO) concluded that 80% of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes, and 40% of cancers can be prevented through inexpensive cost effective intervention and the main intervention was exercise. Subsequent studies confirm the importance of moderate to strenuous exercise on a regular basis, my opinion is at least six days a week. All the Elders were pursuing some form of physical activity on a regular basis, with most pursuing multiple forms of activity daily. Both Elders and Health Professionals identified exercise as the most important measure in pursuing a healthy life.
The type and intensity of exercise will be discussed subsequently. All the Elders slept well for between seven to nine hours a night.
The Elders sleep patterns are supported by several studies that show a solid regime of exercise helps to achieve a good night’s sleep.
A healthy balanced diet that is very low in processed foods is key to a healthy mind and body.
3. Fresh fruit and vegetables and limited energy dense food
Vegetables and a limited amount of fruit is essential to a healthy diet. Reducing the amount of takeaway, deep fry, refined and energy dense food is also important to achieving the desired level of vitamins and nutrients. Most Australians do not have a healthy diet. While many supermarket packaged food claims to be healthy it is invariably full of salt and sugar to entice you to consume more than you need.
The general consensus of nutritionists is that the Mediterranean diet contains the best balance of carbohydrates and protein for most people.
While there are strong arguments for a vegetarian or vegan diet, my opinion is that it is difficult to obtain the desirable level of protein from these diets.
“We assume it’s because we’re burning off stress or reducing muscle tension or boosting endorphins, and we leave it at that. But the real reason we feel so good when we get our blood pumping is that it makes the brain function at its best, and in my view, this benefit of physical activity is far more important – and fascinating – than what it does for the body.”
— Dr John Ratey
Exercising in groups is always more fun – and makes you more accountable.
4. Social and support networks
Humans are pack animals; we rely on other humans to survive. Accordingly, social and support networks, are important for our wellbeing and mental health as we age. Having a strong social network of friends and positive acquaintances helps us during good and not so good times. Similarly, having good health professionals that you can rely on when health problems develop, is essential.
The Elders had strong social and general support networks that they could draw on as needed.
Ikigai – Restoring and using a 1930’s Fire Engine for community activities.
5. Having a purpose in life
The Japanese call it ikigai, a reason to get out of bed in the morning or, indeed, a purpose for living. It is important to have a purpose which may be, self-fulfilment study, a level of fitness or helping others. It doesn’t matter what your purpose is as long as you have a passion for it.
All the elders had their own ikigai to pursue, which they did with passion. The owner, who is almost 80, has been restoring and maintaining this fire engine for over 30 years. It is one of his ikigai’s; others include, swimming every morning at 5.30am.
Stretching & Pilates in the AbLab.
6. Avoiding behavioural and biomedical risk factors
This SA component is implicit in each of the five that have gone before. In other words, if you are pursuing items one to five you will be avoiding risk factors. The key behavioural risk factors are a sedentary lifestyle, a diet high in energy dense food (including salt and sugar), and smoking.
The biomedical downstream effects of these and other behaviours can cause diabetes, heart disease and various cancers.
“There is simply no better elixir for metabolic health than exercise, nutrition and sleep.”
— Dr Peter Attia
Fitness advisor to Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth