“Everybody is different. If you are very active and fit and health conscious in your 60s, you don’t really need to do anything differently than you did in your previous years. But in our 60s we do start to see many of these chronic diseases significantly impact people’s lives. Such that their diabetes has caused organ damage. When we’re in our 60s it depends on how well we’ve treated ourselves up to that point. This is the time when people start to retire and can spend more time focusing on their total health, but we also want to be mindful that we’re keeping alcohol at a minimum, clearly avoiding smoking, and getting good hydration. Coupled with a healthy diet, you want those to be the principles you live by. You want a pattern of treating yourself well. When you treat yourself well, a lot of it is treating your gut well, and when you treat your gut well, it’ll pay itself forward in good health.”
Dr. Elizabeth Raskin, surgical director at the Digestive Health Institute at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach.