Health Tips for Senior Men

As we age, it’s important to know about all the changes we can make to preserve our health and longevity. After all, your body isn’t necessarily capable of all the same things it was when you were younger, so it doesn’t exactly make sense to keep living your life the same way you did at that time. By keeping preventable health problems in mind, knowing what you can do for early detection and treatment, men can preserve their health long into their advanced years.

Generally, men do not live as long as women, but there’s no biological fact or reality that makes this a hard and fast rule. Many men, due to a variety of factors, are unwilling to go to the doctor, or alter their unhealthful habits, or more, and all of these small things add up to a statistically shorter lifespan. About 70% of men’s health problems are preventable by making small changes to health habits. Chronic diseases like heart disease, strokes, cancers, and type 2 diabetes, and the risks thereof can be substantially reduced by following four healthy habits: maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking.

Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in older men. Eating a diet high in vegetables, and low in fat, red meats, charred or processed meats, can lower the risk of developing prostate cancer. And when detected and treated early, prostate cancer has a much more successful chance of treatment. Recognizing the symptoms of prostate cancer, and getting regular checkups are the best way to detect it early. Tests include digital rectal examination, and prostate-specific antigen tests.

Men are more susceptible to type 2 diabetes, a disease that when uncontrolled, can cause blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and other serious conditions. Before diabetes develops there’s a period known as prediabetes, where blood sugar levels are elevated for a prolonged period of time, but not high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. Up to 70% of people experiencing prediabetes will go on to develop full blown diabetes.

For older men, reducing your risk of diabetes is easy, but not necessarily simple, and it goes back to the four health habits, maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, eating a healthy diet, and not smoking. While not everyone who develops type 2 diabetes is overweight or obese, the majority are. Carrying a type of fat that is surrounding the organs, known as visceral fat, raises risk of type 2 diabetes significantly, as this type of fat increases insulin resistance, or the amount of insulin needed to process sugar and keep blood sugar levels in the appropriate range. By maintaining a healthy weight, which goes hand in hand with exercise and diet, risk of type 2 diabetes can be controlled. Cutting excess sugar and refined carbs, like white flour, is the best dietary choice you can make. By not increasing the amount of sugar coming into your system more than is necessary, you can avoid overtaxing your kidneys and the amount of insulin your body already produces.