How To Handle Some Common Health Concerns For Boomers
Arthritis, back pain, obesity and digestive disorders: How to handle some of the common health ailments that plague our middle years
The Challenge: At 334 pounds, Marnita had unhealthy habits that put her among the 40 percent of boomers who are classified as obese, raising her risk of heart disease and hypertension.
Her action plan: She avoided fad diets, relying on a string of small, self-tested dietary and lifestyle changes.
Shortly before her 49th birthday, Marnita Wiggins-Nichols, who runs a day care center in Lima, Ohio, needed a checkup for work. Even though her weight had long been a problem, she didn’t expect anything unusual. But at the checkup, she learned her blood pressure “was dangerously high, which was news to me,” Wiggins-Nichols recalls. “My doctor wanted to put me in the hospital.”
She resisted and instead left the office with blood pressure medication and orders to lose weight, forcing her to finally own up to her unhealthy situation. “It was so hard to accept that I had let my body get that out of control,” Wiggins-Nichols says. “I didn’t want to sign up for a diet or join a gym. I decided to do it my way, making small, incremental changes.”
First, she put down the soda pop, swearing off the three or four sodas she drank daily and instead downing four or five 16-ounce bottles of water. That led to her losing several pounds a week. Next, she made minor changes in the kitchen. “I stopped using batter when I fried things, and began sautéing in olive oil.” She then added more fruit and vegetables and started bringing healthy breakfasts to work.
Category: Wellness
