Get the facts

Maintaining a healthy outlook

• The UK's older people really do seem to boast a healthy glow with nearly three quarters of 70-79 year olds feeling in good or very good health. Those aged 60-79 years old predominantly describe themselves as being in fair, good or very good health.
• A report, Forever Young, by the Future Foundation, suggests that today's generation of over 50s are living the lifestyles that 25 year olds had in 1957 (in terms of travel, leisure, and social life.)
• In 1957, men could look forward to 7.6 years of retirement and women just under 14 years. Now, with health improvements and increased longevity, men aged 60 are now likely to have 15 years and women 22 years to enjoy after leaving full time work.
• Some studies suggest that genes are responsible for up to 50% of our changes in mental functions and 35% of our physiological changes as we age. Longevity itself is 25% - 35% inheritable, which leaves plenty of room to make a difference via diet, exercise and regular medical checks.
• People age at different rates and so do different organs in the body. Our lung capacity declines on average by about 40% between the ages of 20 and 70. Our heart's maximum oxygen capacity declines by roughly 10% in men and 7.5% in women for each decade of adult life.
• Exercise reduces the chance of getting a range of illnesses, keeps bones and muscles strong, maintains vitality and enables independence in later years, and improves mood and mental functioning. Studies show it can help us live longer, healthier lives.
• Four hours of brisk walking per week prolongs life by four to five years. Women who began walking a mile a day after the age of 65 are half as likely to have died of heart disease or cancer compared with those who don't.
• Gardeners who spend more than an hour a week on their hobby are less likely to die of a heart attack than people who don't.
• The brain needs to be exercised like the rest of the body. A study at Yale University showed that older adults who had positive thoughts about ageing lived 7.5 years longer than those who did not.
• A glass of wine a day could help to delay dementia in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). MCI is a transitional phase between normal ageing and dementia and is evident from mild memory or cognitive problems and no significant disability.
• Scientists found that people with MCI who had one drink of alcohol a day, mostly wine, developed dementia 85% slower than people with mild cognitive impairment who never drank alcohol. Higher levels of drinking were not found to have a beneficial effect on dementia progression.

In pursuit of happiness

• Laughter reduces stress and blood pressure, boosts our immune system and improves our social links.
• Grateful people - those who perceive gratitude as a permanent trait rather than a temporary state of mind - take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviours like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations.
• Grateful people tend to be more optimistic, a characteristic that researchers say boosts the immune system.
• Optimism also has a positive health impact on people with compromised health. In separate studies, patients preparing to undergo surgery had better health outcomes when they maintained an optimistic outlook.
• A survey by the charity Mind found that 83% of people with mental health problems have used physical activity to help lift their mood and reduce stress - and by far the most common activity is walking.

Older people who have regular sex have better physical and mental health than those who don't.

Patch Adams’ prescription for good health

Hunter 'Patch' Adams is a doctor, clown, performer and social activist. In 1971 he founded the Gesundheit Institute in Virginia - a holistic medical community that has provided free medical care to thousands of patients since it began in 1971. In 1998, Robin Williams starred in the film Patch Adams, based on Adams' life and his book, Gesundheit: Good Health is a Laughing Matter.

According to Patch, the first step in being healthy is to have a genuine, loving compassion for yourself. The rest of the prescription is equally high-impact and low-tech:

• Have a multifaceted lifestyle - do a lot of interesting activities.
• Choose wellness.
• Celebrate the miracle of every single day.
• Search within yourself for what you believe unconditionally, not what someone else has told you.
• Develop as many close friendships as possible.
• Cultivate your sense of play and creativity.
• Exercise regularly.
• Eat the healthiest, freshest foods you can find.
• Live life so fully that you have no regrets if you become seriously ill or disabled.

Sex and the older person

• A 2004 sex survey of 8,000 over 50s by Complan Active turned up some interesting results. A third of people surveyed had had sex outdoors in the countryside, a fifth had indulged in a car and a daring 2% had joined the Mile High Club.
• Just over 82% were involved in a sexual relationship and 80.6% said they were still attracted to their partner, 'regardless of ageing'.
• However, as longer and healthier lives are encouraging more casual and unprotected sex amongst older people, there have been dramatic increases in sexually-transmitted infections in the age group.
• Health Protection Scotland have reported that the number of over 50s contracting HIV and other sexually-transmitted disease has more than trebled in the last five years with this trend reflected across the rest of the UK.
• The rise in sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) has been put down, in part, to the increasing numbers of older people beginning new sexual relationships following a divorce or the death of a partner.