Life style choices impact your health, the quality of the life you live and not so coincidently, the rates you pay for life insurance.

Choosing a healthy diet and regular exercise over obesity can avoid a host of complications that we’ve talked about so much in this forum. Avoiding the excesses when it comes to food or alcohol just make common sense when you look at the potential downside.

Sometimes it is a healthy lifestyle choice that can overcome family history. Being genetically predisposed to high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or heart disease can often be overcome by simply being proactive about those things that might lean you in those directions. Often it can be as simple as knowing what to monitor and then actually doing it.

As all of us over 50 well know, lifestyle decisions are easier to implement and ingrain when we are younger. I know I started running regularly in my late 20’s and really enjoy that portion of the day. If I hadn’t started so early and someone had suggested at say, 53, that I start running, it would have been physically and psychologically much tougher.

In an interactive New York Times article called a “Guided Tour of your Body” you can learn more about how to stay healthy as you mature. I found some great information in this one and hope some might be useful to you.

Bottom line. We may age gracefully, but eventually our parts wear out. Doing the right things earlier can help you avoid needless suffering and of course, won’t hurt your life insurance rates either.