I recently celebrated my 67th birthday, which gave me the usual pause for reflection. I like to think I’m aging well, but there’s plenty of room for improvement.
But change is hard and at my age it can also be pretty daunting.
Which is one of the main reasons I enjoy creating – and testing – the ideas featured in my Just One Thing podcast, where I look at one simple change you can easily make in your life that has some surprising benefits.
Here are five of my favorite gadgets from the new series. . .
Take up Nordic walking
Nordic walking involves the use of many more muscle groups than normal walking, so it is good for you
Finland not only has some of the happiest people in the world (taking first place for the 7th year in a row in the recent World Happiness report), but also some of the healthiest.
This may be partly because the Finns are the pioneers of Nordic walking. This involves walking using chopsticks to propel yourself forward and comes with a lot of health benefits.
For example, in a 2019 study in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging, a group of 60-year-olds were assigned three hours a week of Nordic walking or simple walking.
At the end of six months, the Nordic walkers were not only significantly stronger, but their stomachs had shrunk by an average of 6 cm, twice as much as the normal walking group. This is probably because Nordic walking involves the use of many more muscle groups.
I’ve just come back from a walk around the Lake District, poles in hand, so I can confirm it’s a good workout. You can find Nordic walking groups to join online.
Add flax seeds to your diet
Research found that those who had a diet enriched with flaxseed had a significant drop in blood pressure
I used to not be a big fan of flax seeds, but it turns out they’re a nutritional powerhouse, packed with fiber, protein and alpha-linolenic acid, a fatty acid that’s good for heart health.
As a result, eating them can be an effective way to lower high blood pressure, which I learned from Grant Pierce, a professor of physiology at the University of Manitoba in Canada.
For a 2013 study, he took 110 people with high blood pressure and assigned them to eat either foods that were fortified with three tablespoons of ground flaxseed (muffins, cookies, cereal) or similar foods without flaxseed.
At the end of six months, the flaxseed group had a significant drop in blood pressure, large enough, he said, to halve their risk of heart attack or stroke.
Professor Pierce told me that you don’t need to eat three tablespoons of flaxseeds a day to see the benefits, but he recommends using them in baking or adding them to yogurt or smoothies—something I do now.
Helping other people
A study found that those who volunteer regularly tend to be significantly healthier and happier
We know that helping others can benefit those on income – but volunteering, such as being part of a community group, benefits the volunteer too.
This is because it gives you meaning in life, which boosts your self-esteem. It also helps keep you physically and mentally active while releasing hormones associated with caring, such as oxytocin.
These, in turn, can help reduce stress and chronic inflammation.
And it helps you feel happy, as seen in a 2017 study in PLOS One — based on data from 40,000 people, it found that those who volunteer regularly tend to be significantly healthier and happier; the equivalent, the researchers said, of being five years younger.
I know first hand how good volunteering can make you feel: two years ago we volunteered to have a family of Ukrainians live with us (a mother and her three children) and we made them happy.
Play an instrument
Piano and percussion players experienced significant improvements in working memory
I’ve never been remotely musical (although I love to sing out loud) – but it’s never too late to learn and there’s plenty of evidence that learning to play an instrument is good for the brain.
In a 2019 study published in the journal Frontiers, researchers at the University of Florida asked a group of older adults to play the piano, drums, or just listen to music.
The instrumental groups were given lessons and asked to practice for about 30 minutes a day for four months. Towards the end, the piano and percussion players saw significant improvements in working memory – that is, the ability to remember something and then use it.
This is something we commonly lose as we age.
I decided to start learning to play the keyboard so I could practice wearing headphones so I wouldn’t disturb others.
Read poetry aloud
Reading poetry automatically slows your breathing and helps relieve stress
Learning poems—and then reciting them aloud—was a seduction skill I tried with limited success as a teenager.
But according to Dietrich von Bonin, a leading art therapist in Switzerland, I should have persevered because while it’s not a great seduction technique, it’s a great way to reduce stress.
It’s not just because of the power of the words, but when you read a poem that has a rhythm (like Shakespeare’s sonnet I Shall Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day), your breathing automatically slows down.
This in turn activates the parasympathetic nervous system which slows your heart down, reduces stress and makes you feel calm. Try it – I have – you might like it.
Just One Thing, Thursdays at 9.45am on BBC Radio 4 or BBC Sounds.
Studies show that we eat more while watching TV. I once did an experiment where a guy ate well over 1000 calories of crisps without apparently noticing.
But research from Ghent University in Belgium suggests it’s not just because we’re distracted – when you eat in front of the TV, you don’t get the same pleasure from your food as when you eat at the table and enjoy it, so you eat more. compensate.
Big families are good for the brain
We have four children, which sounds like a lot these days and is certainly more than the UK average of 1.7. But new research suggests that having all those kids is actually good for our brains.
Researchers at Yale University analyzed brain scans from more than 37,000 people in the UK Biobank database (which collects health data on half a million people).
They found that people who had more children had a younger pattern of brain activity than those with fewer children or those who had none. Or, as they say, having more children leads to “long-term neuroprotection.”
Scientists think this may be because our brains are hardwired by the constant demands of raising children. Or maybe it’s because parents with lots of kids tend to be more socially and physically active, which helps preserve the brain.
Whatever the reason, it’s good to know that all those sleepless nights were worth it.
Exercise will turn you into a fat burning machine
I used to enjoy watching a TV series called Wife Swap – where the wife (or husband) swapped places with a very different family for two weeks. The concept still has a lot of curiosity value, and I was intrigued by a study from Aberdeen University where male athletes swapped their exercise regimes for couch potatoes.
The athletes, who exercised nine and a half hours a week, were restricted to doing nothing for four weeks, while the slackers were expected to do at least five hours of endurance training (such as cycling) a week. The results – published in Nature Communications last week – were dramatic. After two months, the athletes gained 1.1 kg (2.5 lb) and lost strength and conditioning, while the couch potatoes lost 2.6 kg (6 lb) and became fitter, stronger and had lower blood pressure, improved cholesterol and sugar levels in blood.
What surprised the researchers the most was the impact on the way the participants’ bodies handled saturated fat, the type of meat and dairy products.
In the past, athletes used saturated fat for fuel, while couch potatoes stored it as body fat. But after the experiment, they too turned into fat burning machines. Another good reason to get on that bike.