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Beginning To Feel The Effects Of Aging? What Are Your Options?

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If you're like many, you may find that your youthful sense of invincibility begins to fade as soon as you encounter a lingering injury or illness -- whether a bout of pneumonia that lands you in the hospital, a broken bone that takes longer than expected to heal, or a pre-cancerous mole or tumor that must be removed. While the younger you may have been able to pull all-nighters with impunity or stem a bad head cold just by doubling up on Vitamin C, the older you can find that each illness or injury results in physical setbacks from which it's hard to recover. What can you do to minimize the negative effects aging can have on your health? Read on to learn more about the age management medicine practice and some of the steps you can take to avoid the more common health concerns that come with age. 

What is age management medicine? 

Age management medicine is a proactive field focused on improving healthy lifestyles. Patients in an age management program will attempt to get ahead of some of the complications that can come from advanced age -- from increasing their calcium intake and exercise regimen to stave off osteoporosis to cutting out sodium to lower their blood pressure. 

Often, these types of lifestyle changes can allow patients to avoid depending upon prescription medication to control blood pressure, prevent blood clots, and even reduce their fasting blood sugar levels.

An age management practice physician will take a holistic approach to your treatment, first taking into account your family history of certain diseases and your own medical history, then crafting a plan just for you. 

What can you do to minimize the health impact of the aging process? 

Your first step may be to investigate physicians who specialize in this field; you may even be able to get a recommendation from your family practice doctor. Working with someone who has specific experience in the issues you may soon be facing is invaluable when it comes to preventing these problems down the road.

You'll also want to evaluate any bad habits you've carried over the years. Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day as a twenty-something and quitting in your thirties is unlikely to have nearly as many negative health effects as smoking a pack a day in your fifties (even if you got a much later start), and the sooner you can kick habits like these, the better your future health will be.


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