Not getting enough sleep is linked to various health issues – from heart disease to diabetes to obesity. It can exacerbate stress and anxiety and can even lead to mental health issues. It’s also associated with raising the risk of atrial fibrillation in women, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

About two out of three Americans have some level of cognitive impairment at an age 70, according to the National Institutes of Health. Cognitive decline takes a tremendous toll on the quality of life of an individual and breaks the heats of family members. It also can be quite costly with expensive medications and hospitalizations.

Currently, cognitive decline is not preventable or curable, but there are some tactics you can take to protect your brain health. Harvard Health recommends:

When you think of osteoporosis, you probably imagine a frail, older woman. After all, osteoporosis is most often associated with thin, older women with small bone structures. White and Asian women tend to have a higher risk than Black and Latina women, but their risk also is significant.

Social isolation and loneliness are known to increase as we age and are often spoken about interchangeably. But they are not the same and far from nuanced in their differences. Loneliness is psychologically defined as the feeling of being alone, regardless of how much social contact you have — more specifically as “a distressing feeling that accompanies the perception that one’s social needs are not being met by the quantity or especially the quality of one’s social relationships.”

As Benjamin Franklin famously noted: nothing in this world is certain except death and taxes.

But when death comes sooner than expected to a loved one, or even when we’re prepared for the possibility, the ensuing grief can be debilitating, impacting many aspects of our life and our ability to focus and function when it comes to basic living skills.

The elements of grieving are both personal and unpredictable. The extent of bereavement, how we handle loss, and the direct impact on our health varies greatly person to person. Research shows that it’s normal to experience an undercurrent of emotional, mental and physiological health issues punctuated by emotional spikes triggered by known or unknown causes.

The best way through traumatic grief is to lean on family, friends and your healthcare providers. They can help you develop coping strategies and practice self-care to minimize grief’s potential to hurt your health.

For most people, the thought of having cancer provokes feelings of fear and dread. It can be a cruel, grueling disease that affects millions of Americans. Just last year there were 1.9 million new cancer diagnoses in the U.S. And statistics suggest that one in two American men and one in three American women will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime.  

High blood pressure is major cause of premature death. It’s a primary risk factor for heart disease, the leading cause of death globally and the reason for about one-third of heart-related emergency department visits. High blood pressure can be very problematic because it usually doesn’t trigger symptoms. There aren’t any warning signs to alert you that something is wrong. This is why it’s commonly referred to as “the silent killer.”

You’re probably already familiar with the concept of lifespan, which refers to how many years a person is alive. Your health span is a newer concept for many people referring to the number of healthy, disease-free years of life you experience.

Intermittent fasting (IF), which is also called time-restricted eating, occurs when you limit eating to a short window of time and then eat nothing and fast for another set duration before eating again. Research shows that this approach, like other methods of calorie-restricted dieting, can work if you’re overweight and trying to lose weight.