Chronic Diseases

7 Steps to Lower the Risks of Chronic Health Conditions for the Aging Population

I provide high-level practical tips to reduce the risks and prevent chronic conditions as early as possible.

Purpose of the Article

This article introduces chronic health conditions for the aging population and provides practical steps to lower them based on healthy lifestyle choices. This story is not health advice. It is for information, awareness, and inspiration purposes.

What does chronic condition mean?

A chronic condition refers to a disease or disorder that is continuous and stubborn. The symptoms and effects might last longer than other conditions.

Chronic conditions might worsen as they progress. Older people are more prone to chronic conditions. So these conditions might affect longevity.

According to National Cancer Institute:

“Chronic disease or condition usually lasts for three months or longer and may get worse over time. Chronic diseases tend to occur in older adults and can usually be controlled but not cured. The most common types of chronic diseases are cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and arthritis.”

Here’s the Big Picture in America as an Example.

Chronic diseases are widespread globally. In this section, I only provide the big picture using the United States as an example.

According to National Council on Aging, “80% of adults 65 and older have at least one chronic condition, while 68% have two or more.” So only 20% of our seniors in North America seem to have a healthy life.

This finding also correlates with metabolic diseases, as I mentioned in a previous story titled Lower Risks of Metabolic Disorders or Reverse Them in 5 Steps. As data indicates that only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, I asked how 88% of the population can improve metabolic health. Metabolic diseases are also chronic conditions.

National Council on Aging documented the top ten chronic conditions. They are hypertension, high cholesterol, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, heart failure, depression, dementia, and obstructive pulmonary disease.

In addition, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) informs that six in ten adults in the US have a chronic condition and four in ten people have two or more.

According to the CDC, the top seven chronic conditions for all ages are heart disease, cancer, lung disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and kidney disease.

Here is the big picture of chronic conditions in Australia, where I live.

“61% of the burden of all diseases, 87% of death, and 37% of hospitalizations. The eight conditions in Australia are arthritis, asthma, back pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, and mental health conditions.” [source]

Common Risk Factors and Causes of Chronic Diseases

I reviewed the risk factors and root causes of many chronic conditions, including these ten conditions mentioned by the National Council on Aging and the ones reported by the CDC and the Australian Government, as part of my longevity studies.

Lifestyle factors are common risk factors for all these diseases. As documented by the CDC, the most lifestyle risks are poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption.

Some of the common root causes of these chronic diseases from my reviews are:

High blood sugar, insulin resistance, obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cortisol, nutritional deficiencies, exposure to toxins, inadequate oxygen, impaired blood flow, pathogens, unmanaged cholesterol, emotional traumas, hormonal imbalances, imbalances of the microbiome, autoimmune triggers, allergies, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation.

I only provide these publicly known causes for awareness purposes. Each point is comprehensive, and there are many other causes under different medical names beyond the scope of my article.

These conditions require the attention of many specialists, such as cardiologists, oncologists, hematologists, neurologists, gastroenterologists, endocrinologists, pulmonologists, rheumatologists, nephrologists, psychiatrists, and many more.

Seven Lifestyle Changes to Lower Risks

Considering the root causes and lifestyle risk factors, I like to provide high-level practical tips to lower the risks and prevent chronic conditions as early as possible.

As we age, we become more prone to chronic conditions due to hormonal and epigenetic changes. Once chronic conditions start, it can be challenging to reverse them even though, in some cases, it might be possible.

Therefore, a proactive and holistic approach to our health and well-being can be helpful. Lifestyle factors play a critical role.

However, some conditions might be beyond these factors, such as genetics and unknown root causes. Thus, timely support from qualified healthcare professionals is necessary.

1 — Boost physical activity gradually.

Movement is crucial for health and well-being. Literature indicates that regular workouts can make us fitter and significantly lower the risks of chronic diseases.

For example, I documented my findings about cancers in an article titled Here’s How Exercise Might Lower the Chances of Getting Cancer. The consensus is a minimum of 150 minutes of weekly workouts to prevent diseases.

Regular exercise, especially after main meals, can also increase insulin sensitivity and lower metabolic disease risks.

Aerobic exercises such as walking, jogging, running, swimming, and hopping on a trampoline might lower the risks of cardiovascular disease. Therefore, these types of exercises are called cardio.

Resistance training like weight lifting and calisthenics using the body weight can increase skeletal muscles, make the body more insulin sensitive, and lower the risks of metabolic disorders.

Even though cardio is essential in an adequate amount, we might need to leverage the power of resistance training as we age. Balancing cardio and weightlifting on alternative days might be ideal.

Nevertheless, exercise is an individual matter based on many factors such as age, fitness level, genetic makeup, and lifestyle choices.

Some people don’t do formal workouts, but they keep active at work. Some people use daily chores and perform hobbies like gardening or dog walking. The more we move and rest afterward, the better it might be.

2 — Replace empty calories with nutrient-dense food.

Empty and excessive calories, especially from processed foods, increase blood sugar and cause insulin resistance leading to obesity. In addition, they also cause nutritional deficiencies leading to other health conditions.

For example, consuming excessive calories from refined carbs and missing essential nutrients for a long time might lead to diabetes and other metabolic disorders.

As too many calories cause visceral fat accumulation, too excessive visceral fat also can hold toxins, increasing the body’s toxic load and leading to chronic stress and inflammation.

As we age, we might need more protein to maintain muscle mass. We also need adequate minerals and vitamins from nutrient-dense foods.

3 — Maintain restorative sleep, rest, and recover timely.

Sleep deprivation and lack of rest delay recovery from the effects of work and exercise. If these situations continue, they might turn into chronic stress and inflammation after a while.

As we get older, we might need more sleep and rest. Our recovery windows can widen. A 20-year-old person can recover from exercise by the next day, but a 70-year-old person might not unless he or she is incredibly fit.

The key point is that without recovering from the effects of workouts, we shouldn’t attempt the next workout session.

Restorative sleep, rest, and timely recovery can keep our cortisol hormone and other hormones in balance.

4 — Stop smoking and refrain from toxins.

Smoking might look like a friend in difficult times and during loneliness. However, as scientists identified, it does not do more than fix the lack of nicotine effect in the brain.

The main problem with smoking, for health issues, is toxins, not nicotine, even though it causes addiction in the first place. As I smoked for a while in my younger years, I know the addictive effects.

The earlier we quit, the better it can be. There are many organizations offering help globally. I documented my findings in a story titled Here’s How to Quit Smoking Permanently in Three Steps

5 — Avoid excessive alcohol consumption.

Like smoking, alcohol is another addictive substance. However, alcohol is believed to have less risk for health compared to cigarette smoking.

Alcohol seems to be a problem only in large amounts and for a prolonged time. I also read about neuroprotective effects in low doses. Since I knew the neurotoxic effects of ethanol on the brain, I quit it permanently and reaped benefits. As documented in this review paper:

“Ethanol affects cognition in several ways. Indirect effects include intoxication, withdrawal, brain trauma, central nervous system infection, hypoglycemia, hepatic failure, and Marchiafava-Bignami disease. Additionally, ethanol is a direct neurotoxin and, in sufficient dosage, can cause lasting dementia.”

Excessive alcohol can also cause nutritional deficiencies, such as a lack of nicotinic acid or its precursor tryptophan in the diet, leading to pellagra.

I also documented another effect of excess alcohol in an article titled Dementia: Korsakoff’s Syndrome Due to Vitamin B1 Deficiency.

6 — Protect from infections.

Viral, bacterial, and fungal infections might lead to chronic conditions.

Since these pathogens cannot be seen via our eyes, we must get checked via blood, urine, saliva, or feces tests when we get infection symptoms.

In addition to taking medication timely, we also need to consider vaccination for common infectious diseases. I documented other measures in this story titled Here’s How to Prevent Infectious Diseases in Five Steps.

COVID-19 is the most common one that affects millions of people globally. It also affected my loved ones and me last year and this year. Here’s How I Recovered from the Covid Virus Quickly with Five Lifestyle Steps.

7 — Activate the self-healing capabilities of the body and mind.

In addition to the defense system, our bodies also have a self-healing system to remove pathogens, toxins, harmful proteins, and damaged cells. Activating this system can be invaluable.

The scientific names for these processes are Autophagy and Mitophagy. I documented my findings and experiences in the linked articles for interested readers.

These natural cleansing systems can reduce the toxic load in our cells, improving our cellular and mitochondrial health.

From my experience, time-restricted eating, intense workouts, and cold exposure in combination can significantly activate autophagy and mitophagy, improving our cells and mitochondria.

All chronic diseases are associated with our cells, mitochondria, and genes. Therefore, cellular health must be our primary focus.

Conclusions and Takeaways

These seven steps are comprehensive. Therefore, I only touched on the most critical items. One can write multiple books about each item.

I mentioned these steps because they can lower the risks of diseases and prevent them from occurring by reducing stress, lowering inflammation, balancing hormones, eliminating toxins, reducing blood sugar, improving blood glucose, and making the body more insulin and leptin sensitive.

Health and well-being are personal responsibilities. However, governments also play a critical role in empowering citizens and enabling resources in a balanced way.

For example, as Dr. ADAM TABRIZ documented in his recent article, Managing Chronic Medical Conditions Needs A Hybrid Healthcare Infrastructure. This type of infrastructure might exist or be on its way in developed countries but might not be in others.

Regardless of government contributions, in the meantime, the best practice is awareness of chronic diseases, their symptoms, and root causes and lowering the risks as much as possible with healthy lifestyle habits.

I documented the root causes and symptoms of significant diseases in an article titled Here’s How to Reduce the Risks of Major Diseases with Healthy Lifestyle Habits. I also introduced improving our cognitive reserves for neurological and mental health conditions.

However, when we experience these types of conditions, we must seek timely support from our loved ones and qualified healthcare professionals. The earlier we report our situation, the better our chance for recovery or reversal.

Even though conventional healthcare can contribute to addressing chronic diseases to some extent, we also might leverage alternative therapies to improve our conditions. Combining both can provide better results for holistic health goals.

Related to the aging population, here’s my recent story titled Gain a Defined and Fit Body After the 40s in Five Steps.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

As a new reader, you might check out my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis. Here are sample health improvement articles for new readers:

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