How We Are Trying to Increase the Odds of Having a Healthy Retirement

Jan 15, 2025Retirement Planning

The first couple of years in retirement are often the most difficult. But they also can set the stage for how you’ll fill the years ahead—both financially and psychologically. Stephen Kreider Yoder, 66, a longtime Wall Street Journal editor, joined his wife, Karen Kreider Yoder, 67, in retirement in late 2022. In this monthly Retirement Rookies column, they chronicle some of the issues they are dealing with early in retirement.

Steve

The smudge in my eye didn’t concern me much when I noticed it in January—a faint blur, like a bit of cellophane, moving left when I looked right. We were traveling, so seeking care would be troublesome. It would probably go away.

It didn’t.

The blur would eventually send me to a Minnesota emergency room and rekindle questions that have nagged Karen and me since we retired: What new health hurdles are coming down the pike? What can we do now to stave them off or prepare for them?

Two days later, I noticed new “floaters” in the eye, little threads some people see, especially when looking at light. I googled for aging-eye ailments, with troubling results: cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma, retinal detachment.

We talked about what a blessing good eyesight—and good health, in general—had been and how our retirement plans would be upended without it. Karen gently reminded me that we had vowed to consult experts more quickly, not worrying about appearing hypochondriacal or counting on symptoms to go away.

Symptoms have mostly gone away all my life. I’ve had few major physical issues—never hospitalized, one broken bone (fifth metatarsal), low blood pressure—and checkups never uncover alarming stuff.

But as I approach 67, it is becoming clear that I’m probably not immortal. I can’t lift as much without throwing out my back. It takes longer to stop being tired after cycling. I forget names more often. Acquaintances my age have suffered sudden unexpected afflictions.

“We’ll end up like our Odyssey,” I told Karen recently. Our beloved 2000 Honda minivan ran nearly trouble-free. Then the odometer hit 300,000 miles and, bam! In the next few miles it began deteriorating, and we bade it a wistful goodbye as it faded away on a tow truck.

Hoping to avoid an equivalent fate, Karen and I have begun working out how to be vigilant. We discuss our family elders’ ailments for clues as to what we might anticipate and mitigate: hip and knee problems, prostate cancer, heart issues, debilitating falls, dementia.

We signed up for the Medicare Wellness Visit—an annual free regimen that aims to develop a personal plan to help seniors prevent disease and disability. I asked my doctor for a cognitive test, which included remembering three words, “sunrise, banana, chair.” I passed.

“What should I be doing, now that I’m getting old?” I asked my dentist, who encouraged me to redouble gum care. “In terms of wear and tear, the gums are a bigger issue than teeth,” he said. Teeth, he could mostly fix, he explained; gums, less so.

What should I be doing, now that I’m getting old?”

We’re paying closer attention to lab trends after physicals. My blood-work results this year were within acceptable ranges but showed an increase in blood sugar—time to refine diet and exercise.

And we’re setting risk-abatement rules. To avoid falls, I don’t climb the ladder to our roof anymore, we grab banisters on stairs and we vow not to multitask while walking (no texting!).

“It’s probably nothing,” I said to Karen about my eye, over breakfast, but she insisted that I at least consult a doctor informally. Which was easy, as one was sitting across the table—my sister-in-law, whose Minnesota home we were visiting. She phoned her E.R.-doctor daughter for a second opinion.

Their prescription: Visit the E.R. immediately. Our niece said an abrupt vision change was an emergency that, in some cases, could lead to permanent loss of sight without immediate care.

Several hours at the hospital returned a diagnosis, a posterior vitreous detachment, in which a membrane in the eye separates. It wasn’t uncommon in aging eyes and not a crisis, the ophthalmologist said. The detachment would run its course in a few weeks, he said, and my brain would learn to ignore the smudge.

I apologized for taking up resources for a nonemergency, but the doctor stopped me. “No,” he said, “you did the right thing.”

The bill confirmed that assessment—$3,270.89, of which my portion was a $120 copay. Money and time well spent.

Karen

I hope to live for 30 more years, into my upper 90s. I am strong, healthy and active now. But as I age, how can I stay as fit as possible?

For this column, we like to tap the kinds of resources typical retirees might have available. When it comes to medical issues, for many people that’s a doctor in the family who is willing to spend a lot more thought and time than a busy primary-care doctor can.

So I turned to another niece, a family physician. “What should I be doing, at age 67, to increase my likelihood to stay healthy into my 90s?” I asked. “What should I stop doing, start doing, increase?”

Preventive care, she responded immediately. Read Peter Attia’s book on longevity medicine, “Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity,” she said. Attia encourages us to focus on diet, exercise and positive mental health now so our bodies will wear well into old age.

I think I’m doing a lot of things right already. Without a car, I walk a fair amount around the city. We bike 12 miles through the park and along the beach every few days and at least 20 miles on weekends. We do monthslong bike tours every year. 

But I wonder if that’s adequate exercise, I told her. Probably not, she said. “Daily exercise is important, and you need to diversify your exercise,” she said. “Lift weights two to three times a week.” It changes your mood, increases muscle mass, improves your outlook on life.

“Decrease your risk of falls,” she continued. She knows my mother’s—her grandmother’s—history of falling.

To minimize our fall risk, it will be hard to put away the rugs—my mother was a weaver, and our wood floor showcases many of her pieces—but we can add grab bars in the bathrooms. I can increase my flexibility and balance through exercise.

What should I be doing, at age 67, to increase my likelihood to stay healthy into my 90s? What should I stop doing, start doing, increase?”

I eat healthfully, I told her, mainly salads, whole grains, lean meats. I do like a few sweets, but I’m trying to normalize fruit for dessert. She recommended heeding author Michael Pollan’s advice from “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto,” his 2008 book. “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” Real food, he writes, is unprocessed and doesn’t come from a factory.

Perhaps I should return to my college-age vegetarian diet.

Which made me wonder about my body-mass index. I’d feel better if I lost 20 pounds, I said, but how important is weight and body fat? Perhaps a bit of extra body fat is good. My mother was skin and bones when she died, and she had to work to keep her weight up.

Our niece’s advice: Don’t worry so much about BMI, but increase your muscle mass. Strong muscles burn calories more efficiently and they build strong bones.

What about mental health? “Loneliness leads to negative health,” she said. “There’s increased depression in older adults,” so staying social has positive health benefits. Also, get regular cancer screenings, she said. And “Use sunscreen daily.”

A few days later, my primary-care physician in San Francisco seconded my niece’s advice. “You’re in great health,” my doctor said. “Far healthier than most of my patients your age. Keep it that way.”

I aced the cognitive test with my three words, “dog, watch, tree.”

The Yoders live in San Francisco. They can be reached at reports@wsj.com.

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