Healthy Living
This type of exercise helps strengthen muscles and bones and can include lifting light weights or resistance bands.
Strength Training
Doing puzzles, reading, and learning new skills are activities that help keep this organ active.
Brain
Increasing your daily allotment of cognitive stimulation can reduce your risk for cerebral issues (calcification diseases, strokes, etc.) in the future.
These colorful foods are rich in vitamins and should fill about half your plate.
Fruits & Vegetables
Doctors recommend this annual appointment to help monitor your overall health and catch problems early.
Wellness Exam or Checkup
Maintaining friendships and social connections supports this wellness dimension.
Emotional Wellness
Seniors who maintain active friendships and social connections often experience less depression, anxiety, and mood disorders. Social connection offers cognitive protection by providing your brain with a positive workout that lowers the risk of cognitive decline.
The body is made up of about 60% of this substance, making it essential to drink enough daily.
Water
To limit your risk of UTIs, dehydration, or heat stroke, please drink plenty of water each day!
This popular puzzle challenges players to fill a grid with numbers 1 through 9.
Sudoku
Playing Sudoku helps keep your brain sharp by exercising core executive cognitive functions like working memory, logical reasoning, and problem-solving
This nutrient helps build and repair muscles and is found in foods such as eggs, fish, and beans.
Protein
Seniors ages 55+ need more protein to combat age-related muscle loss, overcome reduced metabolic efficiency, and support overall recovery and immune health
This screening measures how strongly your bones resist breaking and can help diagnose osteoporosis.
Bone Density Test (DEXA Scan)
This condition (or "Silent Disease") quietly weakens bones which makes older adults highly vulnerable to severe, life-altering fractures from minor movements or simple falls. Increasing calcium, Vitamin D, practicing fall prevention, and regular weight-bearing physical exercise can help prevent the development of Osteoporosis.
Doctors often recommend this annual vaccine to help prevent seasonal illness.
The Flu Vaccine
Receiving your yearly flu vaccine helps reduce your risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and even in worst cases, death.
Health experts generally recommend adults get this many hours of sleep each night.
7-9 hours of sleep per night
Learning a new language or musical instrument can help build what scientists call this reserve that supports brain function?
Cognitive Reserve
Cognitive reserve is your brain's ability to improvise, adapt, and use alternative neural pathways to maintain normal function despite aging, injury, or disease.
Oatmeal, whole grains, and vegetables are rich in this nutrient that aids digestion.
Fiber
As seniors age, dietary fiber becomes essential for preventing constipation (adding bulk to stool), stabilizing blood sugar (slows down absorption of sugar), and protecting heart health (lowers LDL cholesterol).
This common health condition is often called the "silent killer" because it may have no symptoms
High Blood Pressure or Hypertension
High blood pressure is serious for seniors ages 65+ because as you age, your arteries lose elasticity and stiffen which causes extra pressure that forces the heart and blood vessels to work dangerously hard.
This common screening test is used to check blood glucose levels and help identify diabetes.
A1C Test
An A1C blood test measures your average blood sugar (glucose) levels over the past two-three months. Sugar in your blood attaches to Hemoglobin which is a protein inside red blood cells that carry oxygen. Normal results are below 5.7%, prediabetic results are 5.8% to 6.4%, and diabetic results are 6.5% or higher.
This vitamin, which is produced when skin is exposed to sunlight, is important for bone health.
What is Vitamin D
This type of memory allows you to remember birthdays, appointments, and names.
Long-term memory
Long-term memory is the brain's nearly permanent system for storing vast amounts of information for days, years, or an entire lifetime. LTM is made of Explicit (Declarative) Memory and Implicit (Nondeclarative) Memory. These two core sections of LTM are divided into subsections which includes Episodic (personal life experiences, specific life events), Semantic (world knowledge, facts, vocabulary) and Procedural (learned habits & physical skills). All of these sub-sections function together in 3 stages to control your overall memory capacity (Encoding, Consolidation, & Retrieval).
Excessive amounts of this mineral can contribute to high blood pressure.
Sodium (Salt)
Consuming too much Sodium (Salt) can lead to water retention (unable to dilute the excess sodium), increase blood volume (increases total volume of fluid in your veins), and higher pressure (more fluid causes extra force again your artery walls causing your heart to work harder).
This vaccine is commonly recommended for older adults to help prevent a painful condition caused by reactivation of the chickenpox virus.
Shingles Vaccine
This painful flareup is caused by the Varicella-zoster virus, which also causes chickenpox. The virus stays dormant in nerve tissue after a person recovers from chickenpox. It reactivates when the immune system is weakened due to age, stress, or illness. Shingles causes extremely painful burning, tingling, and sharp pain. Many people experience a single stripe or band of red patches or fluid filled blisters that wrap around the torso or face.
The ability to perform tasks such as bathing, dressing, and eating independently is often referred to as these daily activities.
Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)
Activities of daily living are important because they measure a person's functional independence and determine their need for personal or medical care. Monitoring these behaviors allows for you and your care team to determine your level of care, insurance, benefits, providers, and services you may be entitled to.
This measure, often monitored during doctor visits, consists of two numbers such as 120 over 80.
Blood Pressure
**For healthy adults ages 55 and older, the general target for normal blood pressure is less than 120/80, though individualized goals may vary based on overall health and medical guidance **
Studies suggest that regular physical exercise may improve this mental ability involving planning, decision-making, and problem-solving.
Executive Function
The brain's management system comprised by a set of mental processes managed by the frontal lobe which helps you plan, focus, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Core components of the Executive Function include working memory (hold and update information), cognitive flexibility (think of new things, switch focus and adapt), and inhibitory control (self-control, impulse control, and filter). Together, they all control your ability to live a productive daily life.
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes olive oil, fish, fruits, vegetables, and these protein-rich foods that grow in pods.
legumes (beans, lentils, peas)
The Mediterranean diet is considered exceptionally healthy because it focuses on whole, minimally processed plant foods, healthy fats, and lean proteins that actively lower inflammation and protect the heart. This diet replaces butter with extra virgin olive oil, emphasizes daily fiber and vitamins, focuses on Omega-3 fatty acids like fish, and encourages low sugar alternatives with no refined carbohydrates.
Health professionals often use the acronym BMI when discussing healthy weight. What does BMI stand for?
Body Mass Index
A healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) for seniors ages 55 and older is generally higher than the standard adult range which typically falling between 23 and 30 while seniors fall between 25 and 27.
Research shows that having a strong sense of purpose is associated with healthier aging and improved what?
Overall Quality of Life
An overall quality of life is important for seniors ages 55 and over because it measures true well-being and happiness beyond just the absence of illness. Living a well-balanced life with lower stress, good physical habits, and proper nutrition can support long-term health and reduce chronic diseases. Through enhancing mental, social and economic stability, seniors who encourage a high quality of life often see a longer life span.