Live Longer Better
  • Your journey
    • More About the Optimal Ageing Programme >
      • About Muir Gray
      • Muir Gray's publications
    • Coping with Lockdown
    • Using the right words right; ageing, fitness, disease and beliefs >
      • Bad language about older people
    • The Lockdown Wellbeing Programme >
      • The Daily Mail series
    • the Daily Dozen + 30 for 4S fitness
    • What is happening as we live longer >
      • Your monthly briefing
    • LLL for LLB
    • The environment is tough >
      • Retirement has benefits and risks >
        • Join the Challenge Hub
      • Some people got a better start than others
      • the impact of isolation is now recognised
      • The physical environment is the cause of many problems blamed on ageing
      • Poverty affects too many older people
    • the Living Longer Better Programme >
      • what would a good life in your late 80s be likel
      • What do you fear most and want to avoid
      • Start to write your Living Longer Better Plan
      • Think positive
    • How to reduce your risk of a bad death
    • My diary & daily routine
    • My health record
    • My housing
    • Othercare - Supporting someone else
    • About the OxAP >
      • Muir Gray's Bookshop >
        • The Antidote To Ageing
        • Midlife
        • Sod60!
        • Sod70!
        • Get Moving
        • Eatwell!
        • Dr Gray's Walking Cure
      • Here is the news
  • Get physically better
    • Increase strength, stamina, suppleness and skill >
      • Strength
      • Stamina
      • Skill
      • Suppleness
      • Work hard
      • Brisk walking >
        • Virtual Walking
        • Restart Sport >
          • Restart swimming
          • Restart tennis
          • Restart football
          • Restart cycling
          • Virtual Cycling
      • If you have difficulty walking briskly
      • Join a Gym or Wellness Hub >
        • Meet others for fitness >
          • Silver sneakers
          • Age UK Generation games
          • Join a Gym, Fitness Centre or Wellness Hub
          • Find a personal trainer
      • Find a Trainer
    • Reduce your risk of disease >
      • Eat Well
      • Stop smoking
      • Increase activity - physical, cognitive and emotional
      • Watch the alcohol
      • Accept the offers from the NHS screening programmes
      • We need a revolution
    • Look after your body >
      • Happy and Positive Birthday >
        • Sod 60!
        • Sod70!
        • Sod It! Eat Well
        • Sod Sittin, Get Moving!
      • Skin maintenance
      • Teeth and gum maintenance
      • Feet maintenance
      • Bone, joint and muscle maintenance
      • Bowel maintenance
      • Brain maintenance
      • Mind maintenance
      • Heart maintenance
      • Lung maintenance
      • Waterworks maintenance for men
      • Waterworks maintenance for women
      • See as clearly as possible
      • Keep your Hearing as acute as possible
    • If disease occurs - Optimise Your Healthcare >
      • Living with a common condition >
        • Arthritis
        • Cancer
        • COPD _ Bronchitis
        • Diabetes
        • Dementia
        • Heart disease
        • Parkinson's Disease
        • Stroke
      • Making a big decision >
        • Should i have a hip replacement ?
      • Consequences of common conditions >
        • Loss of status
        • Disability and handicap
        • Isolation
        • Depression
        • Frailty
      • Look out for social as well as drug prescribing >
        • Enjoy Activity Therapy
      • What you can do to help the NHS even more
  • Think better
    • Train your brain ; we now know the brain can get fitter at any age
    • Understanding Dementia & Alzheimer's Disease
    • Reduce your risk of dementia >
      • Stimulate your brain more every year >
        • Learning new skills and build on your assets
        • Get even more engaged
      • Protect your brain >
        • Sleep better
        • Get more active
        • Avoid over medication
        • Control stress levels
        • Air pollution and dementia
      • Keep the oxygen flowing
    • Combat depression
  • Feel better
    • Stay engaged and don't lose your sense of purpose
    • Feel even better by helping other people even more
    • Meet others like you
    • Optimise the Internet >
      • My Virtual Reality
    • Join others for a Daily Service
    • Feel better by visiting Great Places >
      • Visit the great Museums
      • Visit the great libraries
      • Visit a National Trust treasure
    • Feel better through music >
      • Join a concert party
      • Your virtual choir
      • Music for Moving
    • Feel better by reading, listening and watching with other people >
      • Kindling Book Club >
        • Crime
        • Classics
        • Health
      • Audible Book Club
      • Your BBC
      • Your Film Club
    • Feel better by learning new skills and ideas
    • Feel better by joining a club to play games and meet others >
      • Chess Club
      • Bingo club
      • Bridge Club
    • Feel better by supporting nature >
      • Visit the great gardens
    • Feeling Better by Going Down Memory Lane >
      • Sporting memories are powerful
  • Understand better
    • Ageing is a normal biological process
    • From 40 to 90 loss of fitness is serious
    • The effects of disease are often compounded by loss of fitness
    • Negative beliefs and attitudes have a huge impact
    • The importance of planning with purpose
    • The Ageing Brain and the Maturing Mind
    • Strength and Power can always be increased
    • Skill and co-ordination can be improved at any age
    • Stamina can be improved by brisk walking
    • Suppleness can always be improved and stiffness always reduced
    • Activity Therapy is of vital importance

 Our programme is based on knowledge and if anything can be called the Elixir of Life it is knowledge, and the Optimal Ageing Library is our power base. You can try our books for 
  • people in Midlife, the sandwich generation aged 40- 60
  • people in their 60s - Sod60!, and 
  • people 70 and beyond -  Sod70!

The ageing process affects everyone and really picks up steam at about the age of forty on but by itself does not cause major problems until after ninety, just look at David Attenborough. There is increasingly strong evidence that simple steps can prevent the problems that most people fear, notably dementia and frailty and dependence on other people. NICE the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a highly influential body, has  published a report on the Prevention of Disability, Dementia and Frailty. They call the ability to adapt 'successful ageing' but there are three inter related causes of the problems that  occur more frequently as people live longer, summarised in our Kindle the Antidote to Ageing
     *Loss of fitness
     *Disease, the majority of which is preventable and 
     *Pessimistic and negative beliefs and attitudes 


You can influence all of these by  
     *Getting fitter, both physically and mentally, or as we think of it increasing your activity levels , physical, emotional and cognitive.
     *Reducing your risk not only of disease, but also of dementia, disability, frailty and the need for long term care 
     *Understanding what is happening to you and around you so that you can be more positive and believe that action can reduce the impact of what most people think is the effect of ageing.


These issues are summarised in our Kindle the Antidote to Ageing, and there are a number of other excellent books so go to your local bookshop which is a health service and order them 
  • Extra Time by Camilla Cavendish
  • The Hundred Year Life by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott
  • How To Age Joyfully by Maggy Piggott 
  • When We're 64 by Louise Ansari
  • The Age of Ageing Better by Anna Dixon
  • Getting Old; deal with it by Lee Janogly

It is also important to bear in mind that there has never been a better time to be older. As the historian Sir Keith Thomas, deservedly a Companion of Honour, described in his book on the history of witchcraft titled Religion and the Decline of Magic. In this book, widely regarded as one of the most important works on history in the 20th century he described how  rich old people had authority and managed quite well, but had to be careful when to hand over power to their children, with King Lear's fate as a warning. Poor old people, and in the era before pensions they were the great majority, had it very tough and were often dependent on parish charity as their children had to choose between feeding their parents or their own numerous offspring 

​OUR FOCUS IS COACHING NOT TRAINING


We are not just an information service, although the advice is based on best current scientific evidence. Think of us more as a coach, with  coaching being, in the definition from the Oxford English Dictionary, "to prepare someone for an examination" or " to train someone for an athletic contest"    Teachers focus on knowledge, trainers focus on performance, coaches focus on winning, giving not just knowledge but also skills and motivation and know-how related to a particular challenge. In our case the challenge of living longer in a society in which people are ignorant or confused about what is going on and how to cope with it. 


ACTIVITY IS THE KEY 

Activity, physical, mental and social, is of vital importance in achieving optimal ageing, that is, to keep the gap  between your actual level of ability and your best possible level of ability - the Fitness Gap - as narrow as possible. The benefits of physical activity are obvious. Mental activity increases your ability to think clearly and logically, increasing cognitive fitness and the social activity will help emotional fitness, not just feeling better because people have done something nice for you but because you have done something good for other people.

THE OPTIMAL AGEING REVOLUTION 

It is important to emphasise that what happens to you is not always your fault . The world in which we live is a dangerous place, with many factors, social and physical, from low income to air pollution  causing the problems that surface as the decades pass. As well as offering coaching to individuals we want to change the way society and the health service thinks about ageing and growing older.  Obviously we need to change the environment , both physical and social, and our social 
objectives are 
  • To inform people about the relationship between ageing, loss of fitness, disease and the beliefs and attitudes of society 
  • To support people who would benefit to overcome the obstacles to increased social, mental and physical activity
  • To promote the positive contribution that older people make to society 
  • To help the NHS play a leading role in promoting a culture in which activity is seen as of increasing relevance with increasing age and the diagnosis of disease, for example by prescribing activity therapy as well as drug therapy, operative therapy and psychological therapy for everyone with long term  conditions
  • To help the fitness industry reach those who would benefit most from its resources
  • ​To help people of all ages use online services as easily as they use electricity  ​


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