ALS-- honestly and truly. Sending you hugs. I have seen what it does to the person diagnosed with it, the family, and the financial implications for years afterwards. Thinking of you…
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Smoking is a hard addiction to kick, but it is a self-inflicted addiction in 100% of the cases. Unlike excessive weight that can have underlying natural causes. Can’t compare the two.
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I’m not comparing anything. I’m pointing out that assuming that anyone who has a chronic illness, severe injury, etc. has somehow brought it on themselves can be quite humbling long term.
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Heart disease, strokes, diabetes, etc. are more likely to be preventable, but people don’t have the wherewithal.
Type 1 diabetes is not preventable. It is an autoimmune disorder presumably triggered by a virus in those with genetic predisposition. If you want to mention “preventable” diabetes please specify type 2.
If this seems trivial, you haven’t lived the life of a parent with a type 1 kid who constantly hears from others that they shouldn’t be “eating that.”
ps kid was diagnosed at age 4
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I am the property manager of an apartment complex for low income people 62+ in age. So, most of them can not afford gym memberships or the healthiest of food.
We are a non smoking building and most of the them do not want to go outside to smoke on the bad weather days. We do not have many heavy smokers.
There is one man that is in his late 60’s. He is 6’5" or taller. He was over 400 lbs when I met him 2½ years ago. He’s now maybe 260. He started walking the hallways in our building. He is now up to walking 1½ hours 3 times a day, a total of 4½ hours. He walks the hallways mostly and takes the stairs between floors. He walks outside sometimes. He has a bicycle he rides sometimes. He has lost 140+ lbs. from reducing his food and walking. There is probably some strength work in there, there is no loose skin hanging off of him, but I am not sure what. He does not have weights in his apartment. He has motivated others to walk the hallways, too.
All of that to say that if people want to they can find something that will help them to be in the best shape possible. That doesn’t mean that cancer or other illness won’t come. It just means that we don’t have to invite it in.
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Someone who weighs 260 pounds and walks a significant amount is getting strength training, because carrying that much weight around is strength training. If it difficult to see that, imagine walking around for an hour and a half with a backpack that weighs 260 pounds minus your body weight.
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I made the correction to my post. 
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Oh, please reconsider blanket statements like this. Sometimes people want to, but it’s just not that easy (says the sister of a man who was 480 pounds and tried to exercise, but his depression got in the way).
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Sort of a sidebar:
A few years ago, my 80-year-old sister changed PCPs. She had to complete some health forms. One of the questions was, “Do you consider yourself in (a) Excellent health, (b) Very good health, (c) Good health, (d) Fair health, or (e) Poor health?” She put down “Fair.” I was amazed, and said to her, “You don’t have cancer, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure. You’re a normal weight. Why do you consider yourself in “fair” health?” She said, “Because I have aches and pains.”
Well, of course she does; she’s 80. But “fair” health?? Give me a break.
A lot of it is based on your “glass-half-empty” or “glass-half-full” perspective.
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I think both sides are kind of right here. It’s absolutely the case that you can help prevent disease, disability and death through exercise, healthy eating, stress control, and other interventions wholly or partially within our control (also having money helps). Just look at the decline in heart disease over the past 50 years or so - almost all “lifestyle” associated. It is also true that you never know - any of us could have an accident or be stricken with illness or disability, even if we do everything right. But to say it’s all luck, or genetics (genetics only explain a small percentage of most people’s health) or that you can’t make a difference through “lifestyle” choices is foolish. And to believe those choices will 100% protect you is also foolish. (Note I put “lifestyle” in quotes because not everyone has the ability to make the same healthy choices due to money or where they live or family responsibilities or mental health or what have you do just using it as lazy shorthand here).
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Improving your odds of staying healthy is not the same as guaranteeing it. (Car analogy. - We drive cautiously and keep the cars in good maintenance, with decent brakes and tires. And we wear our seatbelts. That does not mean we’ll never be injured in a car accident. You don’t control the other drivers or the weather.)
Still it makes sense to do what you can. If you have stairs, have handrails and use them.
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I’d also add that there are other things to help avoid falls other than living on one floor - get rid of trip hazards - throw rugs, cords, etc., watch out for pets. Wear spikes on the ice (I hike with my dogs year round but you’d better believe I wear spikes if there’s ice now - 10 years ago not so much). Have handrails on both sides of your staircase and use them. Carpet the stairs. And so on. I expect most likely to live in a 2-story house when I’m old - not a lot of single story housing where I live - but there’s plenty I can do to increase the odds that I’ll be able to climb those stairs for years to come. 100%? Never. But you can definitely increase the odds.
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Do not get a pet. 
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Yes, I get a lot of unsolicited advice for my son with schizophrenia. Really? You don’t think I’ve explored every avenue the last 14 years? There is a lot of nonsense out there.
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And don’t put a PVC pipe on the ground next to yourself when you’re doing side lunges…. 
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Don’t take that one step down into the room and then step on a bone the dog left. (Sib did this in her 20s.) I know more than one person who tripped over their dog’s leash and broke a leg/ankle/wrist. They were all under 45.
Anyway. My mom was active, reasonably healthy (type 2 diabetes, but not really overweight), living independently, volunteering, driving. After a fall she wasn’t quite the same. A bout with the flu was really the beginning of the end. She lived to 88.
The neuro/geriatrician told us that each hospitalization or illness is harder to recover from - you never get back to the starting point.
My grandma’s brothers all died in their 60’s due to heart disease. She and her sisters lived well into to their 80’s-90’s and died from strokes. Her son, my dad, died in his mid-40s from a widow-maker. It’s all a crap shoot. Genes, environment, poor decisions, or just (un)luck of the draw.
My high arches (thanks, mom!) have caused me more than a few issues. Recent PT did a lot, but one calf problem will be with me forever.
You do what you can - stay active, have a good diet, and hope that it all works. No matter what, though, we don’t live forever.
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My 85-year-old relative slipped on ice and broke his ankle.
He was not in poor health, but also not nimble enough to scoot up and down staircases on his rear end like a teen.
And then there were complications: infections, poor wound healing, subsequent operations. His age made him more susceptible to these outcomes and stretched out recovery time.
Anyone can break an ankle, but it is often harder for an older person to recover and/or compensate. Even if they are healthy, they have an older person’s circulatory system and immune system.
Lots of active older people need hip or knee replacements— not because they didn’t have healthy habits, but maybe because they exercised too much.
Healthy people get cancer, too. Or MS. Or ALS. Or any one of a number of ailments more likely to afflict older people and leave thdm reliant on wheelchairs or other devices.
So we definitely want one-level living to increase our chances of being able to age in place, even while pursuing healthy habits.
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About twelve years ago, I was working late at night at a computer in the guest room in our two story previous house. I got up, started walking down the hall, and fell off my slippers. Next thing I knew I was on the floor with a foot pointed sideways. All I could figure was that my foot/feet had fallen asleep and mis-stepped. Husband was out of town so I scooted myself down the stairs, made it to the front door and called 911. Ended up in the hospital for three days with broken tibia and fibula on the left (surgery put pins in one side, plate in the other; taken out a year later) and a sprained ankle on the right.
I had just finished over a year of lifestyle changes thanks to the old Weight Loss for Dummies thread, had lost close to 50 pounds, and was doing light aerobic exercise to start every day. So I was probably the fittest I had been since giving birth 25 years earlier.
Incidentally, I got tired of telling people how I got injured (Fell off your slippers? Really?) so started saying I got hurt crewing in the Mac. The Mac is the Chicago to Mackinac Island annual sailboat race - very big deal and very intense. I’m not sure anyone believed me 
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Husband and brother moved a twin bed into the downstairs dining room and there I lived for three months. But that’s a story for the other thread!
Husband has always been athletic and a regular health club habitué. The comment above about problems because of exercising too much fits him. He had a hip replacement back in Illinois, and two rotator cuff repairs and a hamstring reattachment during the nine years we’ve lived here. All of these injuries were likely because of him pushing himself more than he should have in tennis and basketball.
On the last hamstring surgery recovery, he decided to stay in the primary bedroom and bath “downstairs” - there are three steps - rather than the “upstairs” level where there’s a bedroom and full bath. But he wanted to eat at the kitchen counter “upstairs” so three times a day I had to spot him (on crutches) up and down those three steps. I didn’t think I would be able to catch him so it was unnerving. Again a story for the other thread but he now thinks it was no big deal and I think it was a big scary deal.
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My husband believes that one’s death is predetermined and no amount of “good living” will change that. His Italian grandfather (on his dad’s side) lived to 99 after spending his younger days working in a foundry. He smoked like a chimney well into his 90’s. He also grew his own grapes and made his own wine, which he drank a glass of, every day, without fail. Being from Italy, his childhood was spent walking places, so he continued doing that, even after coming to the U.S.
His grandmother, also from Italy, lived to 98. I think it’s safe to say that they were not living the Mediterranean Diet, but they did prepare fresh meals using things from their extensive garden. My husband’s father, their son, died of pancreatic cancer at 57. One of their other sons, is still going at 90.
I think we all know people who were the picture of health & fitness who died young anyway (my friend who ran every day and came back from a run one morning and dropped dead in his kitchen). Nonetheless, I believe it important to keep moving in some manner - by walking, swimming, biking, etc. Not necessarily killing yourself with intense workouts but moving the blood through your body and air through your lungs. Also, keeping your mind sharp. Now that I’m in my mid-50’s, I am looking for ways to do the latter.
Accidents happen - my 60-year-old friend, who is very fit and healthy (she is a personal trainer), just broke her leg skiing yesterday (she’s not a novice skier), so things can happen to the fittest & healthiest of people. I ski as well but not very often in my adult life, and this has rethinking whether or not I should, perhaps, hang up my skis even though I’ve had a ski trip on my radar. The last thing I’d want at my age is a major bone break, which I know could happen falling down the stairs at home, but her experience has me spooked.
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