Health Matters

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I am a reasonably fit and healthy person. However, as I move through my fifties, I am not immune to a touch of stiffness in the joints and my body is certainly not as flexible or as fast as it once was. Clearly health in retirement is going to be important and we are conscious that there is probably only a limited window of opportunity (hopefully a great big gaping French window) in which to pursue some of the more physically demanding adventures and activities that we would like to include within our retirement.

Physical fitness aside, the spotlight on dementia today with the G8 summit also highlighted the risk of losing one’s mental capacity. Dementia is potentially the next big pan epidemic but if the Health Secretary can deliver on his ambition to find a cure by 2025, then I might just be safe.

In the meantime there are apparently 100 things I and everyone else can do to try and diminish the risk of succumbing; all helpfully recorded by Radio 2 . Essentially they boil down to:

Eating a healthy diet
Maintaining a healthy weight
Exercising regularly
Not drinking too much alcohol but enjoying a little red wine regularly
Not smoking
Keeping your blood pressure low
Keeping sociable and not isolating yourself
Keeping the brain active

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