Men's Health Tune-up

Want to look better, feel younger, and run circles around those kids at the gym? Try our guy’s guide to optimizing health and vitality at any age

- Jacob Teitelbaum

Age is subjective, and largely in the mind—really! There are two competing ideas about aging that men encounter as they get beyond their 40s:

1. Aging is a brutal process that isn’t for sissies. This is a myth largely promulgated by the health and nursing home insurance industries. It truly is a myth.
2. 60 is the new 40.

The good news is: You get to choose which idea you will embrace. Yes, it may seem that nature built planned obsolescence into our DNA. But a few simple tricks can bypass this programming. After all, many of us have owned cars that we kept going beyond the 100,000-mile mark. And our bodies really aren’t that different. All it takes it regular maintenance and the occasional tune-up.

So what are the key areas you need to address for your tune-up?

1. Sleep
2. Hormones
3. Nutrition and energy
4. Digestion
5. Mood
6. Prostate

Let’s take a look at each of these areas individually and discuss and how to optimize them.

SLEEP

Until 130 years ago, the average American got about 9 hours of sleep per night. Then Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. Today, we’re down to an average 6¾ hours per night, which is like a 25 percent sleep “pay cut” for our bodies.

Making time to sleep is just part of the solution. You also need to manage stress and irritations, so you can relax.

For example, many of us watch the news, but these days, “news” content is often geared not to inform, but to keep you glued to the screen—so the network can rake in more advertising dollars. If you find watching the news enjoyable, by all means, keep watching. But if you find that it just makes you irritated or anxious, turn it off and use that time for sleep. You’ll feel much better, I guarantee it.