Healthy Aging: Don’t Wait for the Diagnosis
September is National Healthy Aging Month, and I want to use it to say something our African American community needs to hear:
We have got to stop waiting until we are sick to get serious about our health.
Too often, the wake-up call is a frightening diagnosis. The doctor says diabetes. High blood pressure. Heart disease. Kidney disease. A stroke. Suddenly, we are ready to change what we eat, start walking, take our medicine faithfully and pay attention to the body that has been talking to us for years.
What if we didn’t wait for the crisis?
What if we started preparing for old age while we were still strong enough to influence what it might look like?
That is healthy aging.
Healthy aging is not about trying to stay young. I am not interested in turning back the clock. I am interested in being as strong, clear-minded, independent, joyful and purposeful as possible for as long as possible.
Healthy aging cannot guarantee that we will never become ill. Genetics matter. Environment matters. Access to quality health care matters. Racism and chronic stress matter. We have carried health burdens that cannot simply be blamed on individual behavior.
But that is not the whole story.
We still have some power.
We can move our bodies. We can learn what our blood pressure numbers mean. We can get our screenings. We can eat differently. We can protect our mental health. We can strengthen our muscles and balance. We can stay connected. We can rest, keep learning and nurture our spirits.
And we can start before somebody has to scare us into it.
When should healthy aging begin?
Now.
If you are 40, start now. If you are 50, start now. If you are 65, start now. If you are 75 and thinking, “It’s too late for me,” start now.
There is no age at which taking better care of yourself becomes a bad idea.
After retiring from 40 years of pastoral ministry, I began thinking differently about the years ahead of me. I had spent decades preaching, pastoring and encouraging people through some of the hardest moments of their lives.
Then I had to ask myself:
Sheron, what are you going to do with the years you have left?
I knew one thing. I did not want retirement to mean retreat.
So I kept moving. I lifted weights. I exercised. I got in the swimming pool. I practiced yoga. And I began posting some of it on social media.
Then something happened that I wasn’t expecting.
Women and men began saying, “I want to do that.”
They asked how to get started. They wanted to feel stronger, lose their fear of exercise and enjoy their later years instead of simply surviving them.
I realized this wasn’t just about me exercising.
This was ministry.
That realization helped launch my mission as a healthy aging advocate.
I especially want to challenge the Black church. We know how to help people prepare their souls for heaven. But we must become just as passionate about helping people take care of their bodies while they are still here.
Our older members deserve more than an occasional senior luncheon. They need conversations about nutrition, movement, dementia, caregiving, mental health, loneliness, purpose and remaining vibrant in the later chapters of life.
We have spent generations teaching Black people how to survive.
Now let’s teach one another how to thrive.
So during Healthy Aging Month, I am issuing a challenge: Do one thing your future self will thank you for.
Walk ten minutes. Schedule the mammogram. Get your blood pressure checked. Pick up a weight. Put more vegetables on your plate. Call the friend you’ve been missing. Get some sleep. Stretch. Pray. Laugh. Dance.
Just start.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10)
I believe abundant life has no expiration date.
Gray hair does not mean your best days are behind you. Retirement does not mean irrelevance. Getting older does not give us permission to give up on ourselves.
We are still here.
We still have gifts to share, people to love, work to do, dreams to chase and a God-given life to live.
So don’t wait for the diagnosis.
Start aging healthy while you still have choices.
Start today.
Dr. Sheron C. Patterson is a healthy aging advocate and speaker. She is available for speaking engagements and can be reached through her website.www.drsheronpatterson.
