Have things improved in your 60s?

I enjoyed my 60s, no work commitments certainly could choose what I wanted to do. Not much change in my 70s, I realise that I am very fortunate to have excellent health and can be very active.
The only sadness is that a few friends have gone, some no longer here, others to dementia.

I am 73 and still work part-time in a high dementia care home
I consider I am quite healthy. I don’t smoke or drink alcohol (Recovering alcoholic) And I do try to exercise with kettle bells and tai chi walking and various other exercises for somebody of my Age like sit to stand,toe raises and things like that which are all available freely on YouTube..
My diet is not a particularly good one and I’m trying to work on that at the moment 😬

I was fine in my sixties felt very young, worked until I was nearly 70, felt fine in my seventies, now in my eighties I m starting to get a few aches and pains, but hey ho it ll pass still having fun if not going so far now, still working 20 hours a week voluntary, walk 15 mins to buy my groceries, dig my allotment and swim in the sea. Don’t eat anything special but grow my veggies and take a few supplements like fish oil, vit D, turmeric and a few others

Inspirational post.

Fabulous you BlueBelle, go girl. I hope I can say the same when I reach 80! ⭐️

Other than a cock up with my thyroid meds which will be sorted soon and having aB12 injection by monthly that’s it.
I consider myself very healthy.
Like BlueBell I work in a charity shop 2 days a week and that’s not sitting at the till but at the coal face, sorting and bagging rag. I’m 80.

I remember Bob Mortimer called one's 60s snipers alley: a time when people can be picked off. In my 60s I had two knee replacements, a hip replacement and cataracts repaired in both eyes. If I hadn't had these ops I'd have been absolutely crippled and half blind. Now I'm striding into my 70s with eyes wide open (metaphorically). I hope I can keep active and socially engaged for the future.

Thank you. Lovely replies so far.
Has anyone not been well in their 60s - chronic illnesses, aches and pains etc. but managed to reverse things with a better lifestyle etc, and have a healthier 70s?

I loved my 60’s. I was quite active. In my 70’s I had breast cancer so not such a good decade although I have now hopefully recovered.
Today I became 80 and not yet sure how I feel about that.

dragonfly46

I loved my 60’s. I was quite active. In my 70’s I had breast cancer so not such a good decade although I have now hopefully recovered.
Today I became 80 and not yet sure how I feel about that.

Oh Happy Birthday 🎂. You always seem to have a positive outlook so I hope your 80s are great. Enjoy your special day.

I returned to work at the age of 61 yrs (following tragic death of my youngest child aged 25yrs). Had done lots of voluntary work over the years but not in paid employment since I was in my 30's.
Great years the sixties. Old enough to feel pretty secure in who I was, mortgage all paid, I stayed at the job until just before my 70th birthday.
Obviously as we age we develop medical and physical conditions, our bodes are not really designed to get as old as many of us are.
Now, at 85 I have lots of physical conditions, some helped with medication, others I just cope with - thanks to some wonderful mobility machinery. I am a member of several different interest groups and try to ensure that most days I have something on to organise my day around. Still do voluntary work and am thoroughly enjoying life.

Happy Birthday dragonfly46 have a lovely day. Welcome to the the world of octogenarians.

I wasn't too good in my 50s probably menopause - no recognition or treatment back then. Retired a year early due to ill health and gradually improved during my early 60s - again probably hormonal. By 65 was fitter than I'd been for years. Packing up the 2 hour each way public transport commute certainly helped as well. Tore two tendons in my ankle a couple of years ago and told it was OA for 10 months, result further injuries from trying to walk on it, so my fitness has plummeted. Not very impressed with the way older people get treated by NHS to be honest, but I'm still better than I was at 58....😊

Because of covid I had to retire at 70, except for one lesson. I enjoyed working and was sad when it stopped. However, I am not rushing from one place to another, eating better, and go to slow gym nearly every morning, so yes, all in all, I believe my life is better.

Another recovering alcoholic here - I haven’t touched alcohol since August 2023 and that’s the best thing I could have done for my health.
I try to eat healthily (no processed food) and am pretty much vegetarian except for fish. I wish I could give up dairy but don’t think it’s a step I can take at the moment. So much protein in Greek yoghurt!
I do at least an hour’s walking every day with the dog and Pilates exercises at home in the morning with a class once a week.
I do get the odd ache and pain and find stairs more difficult and am very careful
where I put my feet after I fell recently and sprained my ankle.
I’m 68 and so far haven’t developed any health issues and I see each healthy day as a bonus. I do what I can do and the rest is out of my control.

All seriously downhill since I hit 60. I was made redundant at 60 because the firm lost a big contract. I had to sell my house as the redundancy meant I couldn't afford the mortgage, & my Dad had a brain haemorrhage, all happening in less than a year. Dad died of pneumonia after a couple years in a care home, my mother got neuroendocrine cancer and dementia, and needed loads of looking after. She also ended up in a home, where she died. My siblings and I had to sort out a houseful of stuff, organise building repairs to the old family home, sell the house, make a complaint about an incompetent solicitor. My very best friend in the whole world developed a very rare auto-immune (para-neo-plastic syndrome) condition just a year after my mother died. Her daughters and I tried our very best to look after her in her home, but it sadly became obvious we really were incapable as her disabilities became too severe. She spent 4 years in a care home near to her elder daughter, which was miles from where I live, before dying in 2023. My daughter developed skin cancer (melanoma) on the site of a burn scar on her arm. She burnt her arm at work in a restaurant kitchen (she's a partner in a restaurant business). I am now in my mid 70s, much too old to even think about trying to get another job, and feeling very lonely, ancient and depressed. I am part of a group that does some voluntary work, and that's just about the only thing that makes my life bearable, apart from the fact that I've very recently become a grandmother.

In my 60s I felt as fit as I had done in my 20s (probably even more so as I was smoking then) and I worked until 65. Since I retired, I think that although I am slowing down a bit I am still very fit and try to do an average of two hours of exercise a day - swimming, cycling, dancing and gym. I also have a very part-time zero-hours job which I love and I try to stay on my feet for at least ten hours a day. The trick is to keep active in any way possible and, if you are widowed or just living alone, seek out company as much as possible whilst still enjoying your alone time. I am 75 now and have no plans to slow down!

It was awful in my 60’s . I had a traumatic divorce (abusive ex husband) then through my 60’s my spinal stenosis got worse and worse affecting my mobility and causing increasingly debilitating pain. I’m recovering form an operation to cure it at the moment and am hoping for a new lease of life ( Im currently 72) I’m also diabetic but that is very well controlled.

Through it all I have continued to work, the last 8 years only part time. I’m temporarily on the sick whilst I recover but intend to go back to work for at least another year. I hope the awful 60’s will be the wonderful 70’s.

My 60s haven't exactly been a laugh a minute, healthwise.
I can't believe I've gone from healthy (in that I never needed to go to the doctor) to an achey, creaky old fart so quickly.

I had problems with my small bowel in my 60’s due to hysterectomy in my 30’s I had a major operation to repair my bowel now in my late 60’s I feel fit and able again after years of feeling sick

Been in my house 40 years. When we bought it it was an extended 3 bed semi, rooms have been repurposed a few time over the years. Down stairs is a lounge, dining room, kitchen, large utility room, garden room and shower room. If we needed a bungalow the garden room could be a bedroom, it has been before then it was a home office, when we retired we added French windows as it looks on to the garden, which is private. Of the 3 rooms upstairs a certain amount would contain a bit of storage but not be used much same goes for the bathroom. To move would end up costing money, bungalows are quite expensive round here if you can find them. A few very small 2 beds come up now and again but I would feel really claustrophobic in one. Larger 3 beds tend to be new builds and are very over priced and by the time moving costs are factored in not worth it

I was widowed at 58 so my 60’s haven’t exactly turned out the way I’d hoped or expected, but health-wise I have been fortunate (so far ) as I approach my 70th birthday next month.

Both my sisters died from breast cancer aged 54 and 71 so I’m hoping things don’t go downhill in my 70’s.

My general health improved as soon as I retired in my early 60s. My blood pressure, cholesterol and weight all improved. I put it down to less stress.

I feel very inspired by those of you who have turned things around in your 60s. That's what I'm planning to do. Having been overweight most of my life (5 stone to lose now) and diabetic, having had breast and colon cancer in my 30s, I'm turning 60 in a couple of weeks and am going to make this the decade of wellbeing! I will have to work full time at least another three years and then probably part time till 67 but so be it...I can still find time to exercise and eat healthily. Bring it on!!