It's Never Too Late: Five Healthy Steps at Any Age

Have you ever decided to make a healthy lifestyle change but quickly given up, telling yourself that it's too late to learn new habits? It's time to take charge and not let your age stop you, because there’s surprisingly not that much difference between an 18-year-old brain and a 100-year-old brain.

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Take that as inspiration that you're never too old to adopt new healthful habits. The rewards: In the Johns Hopkins-led Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, which tracked more than 6,000 people ages 44 to 84 for over seven years, those who made good-for-you changes like quitting smoking, following a Mediterranean-style diet, getting regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight decreased their risk of death in the time period by 80 percent. The following changes not only keep you healthy, they can help slow down the aging process, inside and out.

Be active more often.

Exercise lowers your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and some cancers, and that powerful effect leads to something experts call “compression of morbidity.” It essentially means you stay healthy longer in your late years, as compared with someone who spends the final five or 10 years of life battling chronic illness.

“Exercise is also one of the best things you can do to help prevent dementia and other cognitive changes,” says Hillis. Once you're cleared by your doctor, aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days of the week.

Improve your diet.