What Really Happens As You Get Older?

Most of us have been programmed to believe that growing older is synonymous with getting fat, slow, forgetful, and sick. Like most people in our society, you might see the years from age forty onward as a slow, painful decline, marked by the following inevitable outcomes:

You gain weight.
You slow down.
You have to live with mysterious aches and pains.
You get sick more often.
It takes you longer to “bounce back” from any physical or emotional challenge.
You develop memory issues, “senior moments,” and brain fog.
You lose interest in sex or maybe lose some of your ability to perform.
You feel sadder, more depressed, and maybe also more anxious.

As a physician, I can agree that for many people over 40—and now, for an increasing number of folks in their 30s —these and other ailments do become more common. But I can also tell you with absolute certainty that they are not inevitable. If you know the right ways to eat, sleep, move, and de-stress, and if you commit to creating community, meaning, and passion in your life, the years of your 40s, 50s, and beyond can be some of the most rewarding and vital you have ever known.

How can I say this with such confidence? Because, the real obstacle for most of us isn’t age. It’s loss of function. Our bodies are perfectly capable of remaining slim and vigorous, and our brains can absolutely stay clear and sharp—if we give them what they need.

The problem is that most of us don’t do that. We buy into the myth that age means decline, and we buy into a lot of other myths as well. We misunderstand what our bodies need to function at their best, so we eat the wrong foods, skimp on sleep, and deprive our bodies of the movement they crave. We become overwhelmed by the pressures of our lives, burdened by an unremitting stress that saps our bodies of vitality and drains our life of joy. We take one medication after another, never realizing that they might be disrupting our bodies’ own innate ability to heal, depleting our bodies of essential nutrients and draining our natural resilience. Most insidious of all, many of us lack the personal support and community we need to feel fully human.

So yes, in that case, our body’s natural functions—our intricate systems of hormones, nerves, brain function, digestion, detoxification, and immune function—begin to break down. The wrong diet disrupts our gut, destroys our friendly bacteria, imbalances our hormones, and renders us vulnerable to brain fog, anxiety, and depression. A sedentary life leaves our bodies starved for movement. Lack of sleep literally shrinks our brains. Unnecessary medications cue our body to slow down and put on the pounds. And stress, isolation, and the loss of purpose create their own set of problems while making everything else worse.

That is what middle and old age look like for many of us. And for more and more of my patients, this process begins even before middle age. I have seen many people in their 30s and even in their 20s struggling with weight gain, stress, sleep issues, and feeling “old and fat before my time!”

But I can tell you as a physician that it’s not that way for me, nor for my patients who have worked with me for a while. And it doesn’t have to be that way for you.

What’s the secret? It’s actually quite simple:

Give Your Body What It Needs to Function At Its Best. @DrFrankLipman (Click to Tweet!)

Support your body with the food, movement, and sleep it requires. Nourish your mind and spirit with the meaning, purpose, and community they crave. Whatever your age, your reward will be a healthy weight, a vast reserve of energy, and a renewed sense of resilience, vitality, and joy.

You Don’t Have to Feel Old and Fat if You . . .

Eat the foods your body needs
Avoid the foods that stress your body
Support your microbiome—the community of friendly bacteria that lives throughout your body, governing your digestion, your immune system, and your mental health
Balance your hormones
Give your body the movement it craves
Find effective ways to cope with stress
Get all the good, restorative sleep your body needs
Minimize as far as possible the medications that can interfere with your body’s natural state of health
Supplement your diet with crucial nutrients
Reconnect to your sense of meaning, purpose, and community

This is an excerpt from my upcoming book, 10 Reasons You Feel Old and Get Fat……And How YOU Can Stay Young, Slim and Happy.

Dr. Frank Lipman. M.D. is an acclaimed Integrative Physician and the founder and director of the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in New York City. For over twenty years, his personal brand of healing has helped thousands of people reclaim their vitality and recover their zest for life. Focused on sustainable wellness—instead of quick fixes—he offers patients a customized blend of Western medicine with acupuncture, nutritional counseling, vitamins and herbs, relaxation techniques, physical therapy, and bodywork. In 2010, he developed Be Well by Dr. Frank Lipman, a line of leading-edge supplements and health programs. He is the author of Revive: Stop Feeling Spent and Start Living Again, Total Renewal: 7 Key Steps to Resilience, Vitality and Long-Term Health, the NY Times Bestseller, The New Health Rules and the upcoming 10 Reasons You Feel Old & Get Fat...

For more on Dr. Lipman, please visit his resourceful WEBSITE and follow him on FACEBOOK and TWITTER.

Image courtesy of Dylan Luder.