Just as our bodies change during puberty, they also change when our childbearing years end. Menopause and aging cause changes in bone strength, muscle and joint strength and flexibility, and overall well-being. Taking small steps for your body, emotions, and mind can improve your physical and mental health during later years.
Eat well. As an older person, you still need nutritious food to keep your body strong and to fight disease. More of some kinds of foods are needed. Because older bodies make less estrogen, it helps to eat foods high in plant estrogens, such as soy beans, tofu (bean curd), lentils, and other beans. Because bones lose strength with age, it helps to eat foods high in calcium, a mineral that strengthens bones.
Sometimes older people donât enjoy eating as much as they used to. This may be caused by changes in taste and smell, which make eating less pleasurable. Or slower digestion, common with aging, can make a person feel full after eating just a little. But this does not mean that older people need less nutritious food. Older people may need support to continue to eat well and eat a variety of healthy foods.
Drink a lot of liquids. Along with nutritious food, your body also needs more water. Older people often drink less to avoid having to use the bathroom during the night. An older person may also lose their sense of thirst. Make sure to drink 8 glasses or cups (2 liters) of water every day to avoid dehydration.
Stay physically active. Everyday activities, such as walking, playing with grandchildren, going to the market, cooking, and farming can all help keep a womanâs muscles and bones strong, and prevent stiff joints. Daily physical activity also helps prevent heart disease, diabetes, depression, and memory difficulties. Regularly doing yoga, tâai chi, or dancing can keep you physically active and improve emotional health as well.
Try to see a health worker if you feel ill and cannot treat the problem yourself.
Treat illness early. Being older does not have to include having many health problems. If an older person does not feel well, they may have a treatable illness, one that has nothing to do with age. See a health worker.
Connect with others. Most people are healthier and happier when they are involved in meaningful activities. Your older years can provide time to work on community projects that increase security and trust among neighbors.
Here is one example:
Louise Waithira Nganga is a coffee farmer in Kandara Town, in Kenya. In 1991, as a member of an organization planting trees in Kenya, she met a group of women farmers who complained about a coffee factory upstream. The fertilizers and chemicals the factory used to make coffee were getting into the river, and the womenâs cows were getting sick and dying from drinking the dirty water.
Soon many of the women began meeting to talk with Louise. They became aware of how the river also affected their familiesâ health. They decided to put pressure on the district officers to force the factory to keep waste out of the river.
Louise, however, always insisted that rights and responsibilities go together. So she also helped the women realize how their own habits affected other people down the river. For example, when they cleaned their fertilizing machines or washed their clothes in the river, it was harmful for the health of the people downstream. As Louise said, âWe must first be responsible ourselves so that we may, in clear conscience, demand our rights.â
In 1993, Louise and her women farmers created an organization called Rural Womenâs Sanitation. Whenever the river is in danger from polluting factories, Louise is able to organize as many as 100 women, who âpay a visitâ to the local authorities and inform them of the problem. Besides taking care of the river, the group is building latrines and demanding that local governments reclaim public wells that have been taken over by private owners.
Louise has stopped planting trees, but has no regrets. âThere were more pressing problems that were part of Kandara soil itself.â She tells her fellow women, âGod will not come to Earth to solve your problems. The government cannot know what your problems are. Only you can make sure they get solved.â
