You know that your health is more important than money but here's a way to improve your health and SAVE money at the same time from USA Today. Their key thoughts:
With the cost of health care in retirement rising rapidly, one thing boomers can do to lower their expenses is lower the risk they'll need expensive drugs or medical treatments.
Turns out that what you eat, how much you exercise and whether you smoke can add or subtract big dollars from what you may need to cover medical costs in retirement.
A growing body of evidence shows that moderate exercise — 30 minutes a day most days of the week — can substantially reduce the risk of developing some of the most costly and debilitating conditions, including heart disease, some cancers, diabetes, depression, obesity and stroke. Some researchers have also found a link between exercise and a reduced risk of dementia.
"It's good for health as well as for your pocketbook," says Jerry Avorn, professor of medicine at Harvard and author of Powerful Medicines.
Ok, that's all fine and good, but how much money can you save? I'm glad you asked:
- For the cost of a walk a day, you might be able to put off or avoid altogether taking blood pressure drugs or cholesterol medications, for which you could spend $50 to $100 or more a month.
- Avoid developing diabetes, with its myriad expensive health problems, such as kidney failure, blindness or limb amputation, and you could see much bigger savings. Government statistics show the per-capita health care costs for people with diabetes is 2.4 times higher than those without the disease. The cost per person averages more than $13,000 a year.
- And if you can stave off dementia and live on your own longer, you can avoid the $70,000 or more a year that nursing homes cost.
The article ends with some tips on what you can do to keep yourself in shape:
- A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in January showed that people who did even modest amounts of exercise — 15 to 30 minutes a day a few times a week — reduced their chances of developing dementia by 30% to 40%.
- Elevated blood pressure and the risk of heart disease were cut substantially among a group of people who did three hours a week of moderate physical activity, reduced their sodium intake and ate more fruits and vegetables, a study released in that same journal on April 4 showed.
- People at risk of diabetes cut their chances of developing the disease 58% by walking 30 minutes a day on average and losing 5% to 7% of their body weight, compared with a similar group of people who did not participate in an intensive lifestyle change program. The study of more than 3,000 people by the National Institutes of Health in 2002 also found that exercisers did better than a third group, which took the diabetes drug Glucophage. That group cut its risk by 31% compared with a similar group taking a placebo.
So, you can save money and improve your quality of life by exercising, eating right, and avoiding all of those vices in life. Or at least many of them -- I'll let you hang on to a couple as long as they're not too bad. :-)
Here are some additional thoughts on this subject from Free Money Finance:
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