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| Widespread Anti-Aging Myths | 9. Losing weight without even trying is a good thing.
Unplanned weight loss shouldn't be praised, as it should be a reason to make an appointment with your doctor. In older adults, weight loss without effort, for example, if you aren't eating healthier or making an effort to exercise more, can be a sign of worsening health. Generally you don't have to lose a lot of weight to raise the alarm. Losing more than 5 percent of your body weight over the course of a year could be a sign of a problem, including:
• Problems with your medications
• Depression and other emotional problems
• Loss of appetite
• Problems with your teeth
• Dementia
• Difficulty eating
• Digestive issues
10. If you're over age 65 — and especially if you're over age 75 — you should refrain from exercising to preserve your strength.
Exercising on a daily basis or almost every day can significantly reduce your risk of dying ahead of time. Furthermore it can cut your risk of depression, osteoarthritis, some kinds of cancer and broken bones. Special leg muscles strengthening exercises reduce your risk of falling or needing a wheelchair later in life. Start exercising at any age, even if you've never exercised before. Various exercise centers have programs for those over age 65, which they can tailor to your capabilities. Trainers there can also tell you what exercises you can do at home. In case you haven't exercised a lot in the past, see your doctor before doing anything more vigorous than walking.
11. No matter how much you exercise and how healthy your diet, whether you end up sickly or healthy in your later years is largely determined by your genes.
In general your genes are responsible for only about one-quarter to one-third of the aging process. For the rest effects of aging, they can be traced to your lifestyle, environment and chance. For example, if your father and grandfather both died young of heart attacks, you may tend to believe the same fate awaits you. Despite the fact that you may have a genetic tendency toward heart disease, your diet, exercise, blood pressure control, medications and tobacco use play a significant role in whether you actually develop a heart condition. Consequently you do have some control over your health as you age.
12. Now that you're a senior citizen, you don't need as much sleep as when you were a young adult.
For the most part adults need seven to nine hours of sleep, in average our need for sleep remains practically constant throughout most of your adult life. Nevertheless, aging can cause you to sleep less soundly. Somewhere between ages 50 and 60, sleep starts to become less restful and insomnia becomes more common. As a rule you may get tired earlier in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning. Snoozing during the day is one way you can make up for sleeping less during the night, but don't sleep so much during the day that you can't sleep at night.
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