A summer walk, gardening session or afternoon on the patio can come with an unwelcome souvenir: a mosquito bite or, worse, a tick. Most bites are nothing more than irritating. But mosquitoes and ticks can also carry infections, so a few simple precautions can make outdoor time safer — especially as we get older and may not bounce back from illness quite as easily. Here’s what to know before your next trip outdoors. First, make it harder for bugs to bite you The best treatment

For years, 10,000 steps a day has been treated like the gold standard for staying healthy. But if you're over 50—or especially over 60—you may be wondering: Do you really need to walk that much every day? The good news is that you don't have to chase a huge number on your fitness tracker to get meaningful benefits from walking. Research suggests that many of the health benefits associated with walking occur well before you reach 10,000 steps. For many older adults, 6,000 to 8

Getting older changes your body. Muscle mass tends to decline, metabolism can change, hormones shift, and the way your body stores fat may change, too. That can make managing your weight more challenging than it was in your 30s or 40s. Unfortunately, many of the weight-loss rules people have heard for decades are either oversimplified or simply wrong. If you're over 50 and frustrated that the scale doesn't respond the way it used to, it's worth separating fact from fiction. M

If a sip of ice water makes you wince—or a spoonful of hot soup sends a sharp jolt through your teeth—you may be dealing with tooth sensitivity. For many people over 50, it’s tempting to chalk this up to getting older. But sensitive teeth can have several causes, and some are worth discussing with your dentist. The good news: Tooth sensitivity is often treatable once the underlying cause is identified. What Causes Sensitive Teeth? Your teeth are protected by a hard outer laye

A restless night is easy to dismiss. Maybe you woke up several times, got up earlier than usual, or simply couldn’t fall asleep. Every once in a while, that’s normal. But when poor sleep becomes a regular pattern, the consequences can go far beyond feeling tired the next morning. Sleep plays an important role in the brain, immune system, metabolism, heart, and hormones. For adults, experts generally recommend about 7 to 9 hours of sleep a night. And after 50, getting enough q

If you love the satisfying crunch of a pickle, you don't necessarily have to give it up as you get older. Pickles can be a low-calorie, low-fat snack and provide small amounts of fiber, vitamin A, vitamin K and antioxidants. But there's an important catch: many pickles are loaded with sodium. And after 50, that's something worth paying attention to — particularly if you're watching your blood pressure or trying to protect your heart. So, Are Pickles Good for You? The answer i

A newly released email is raising questions about whether reports of possible COVID-19 vaccine side effects received enough attention from federal health officials. The email, dated May 27, 2021, was written by Janet Woodcock, who was then leading the Food and Drug Administration. According to the report, Woodcock urged Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, then leaders at the National Institutes of Health, to support research into health problems being reported after CO

Think you have to give up potatoes, pasta, peanut butter or even pizza to eat well after 50? Not so fast. By the time we reach 50, many of us have heard plenty of nutrition rules: Avoid carbs. Skip the yolks. Never eat anything with fat. Stay away from red meat. And definitely don't touch pizza. But healthy eating doesn't have to mean giving up the foods you love. What matters more is the quality of the food, portion size and what you pair it with. Many foods that have develo

Getting older can bring some changes you expect: You may tire more easily, slow down a little, or find that stairs aren't as easy as they once were. But some changes deserve more attention. Heart failure doesn't mean your heart has stopped. It means the heart isn't pumping blood as effectively as it should. The condition can develop gradually, and some of its earliest symptoms can look like ordinary signs of aging. For adults over 50, knowing what to watch for can make it eas

If you’ve spent years jumping from one diet to another, you’re not alone. Maybe you’ve counted calories, cut carbs, skipped meals, tried shakes or cleanses, or followed a strict plan that worked—until it didn’t. You lost weight, gained some of it back, and eventually found yourself thinking, “I’ll start over Monday.” That cycle is exhausting. And after 50, it can be especially frustrating when the strategies that once seemed to work no longer feel realistic—or sustainable. Th

If you enjoy eggs for breakfast, there may be another reason to keep them on the menu. A new study of nearly 40,000 adults age 65 and older found that people who ate eggs regularly were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease during the study period. Those who ate five or more eggs a week had a 27% lower risk compared with people who reported never eating eggs. But there’s an important catch: the study does not prove that eating eggs prevents Alzheimer’s. It found an assoc

An occasional itch is nothing unusual. But if you’re over 50, you may notice that dry, itchy skin becomes more common—and sometimes much harder to ignore. Age-related changes in the skin can leave it drier and more easily irritated. Add cold weather, hot showers, medications, allergies, insect bites, eczema or other skin conditions, and that occasional itch can become a daily nuisance. The good news? There are several simple ways to calm irritated skin at home. But there’s an

When people think about staying fit after 50, they usually focus on the big three: strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness. Those are important. But there’s another ability that deserves a place in your fitness routine — one that often gets overlooked until it becomes a problem: reaction time. Reaction time is the split second between noticing something and responding to it. It’s what helps you catch yourself when you stumble, step around an unexpected obstacle or re

Anthony Fauci was once one of the most trusted medical authorities in America. During the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans heard his advice on television, followed his recommendations, and were told that challenging his conclusions meant challenging science itself. Today, that image looks very different. Fauci’s recent Senate appearance, following the release of portions of his diary, has raised new questions about how much Americans should trust unelected experts whe

You probably know that eating too much salt isn't good for you. But you may not realize just how much sodium you're getting every day—or what happens inside your body when you regularly get too much. The surprising part? Much of the sodium in your diet may not come from the salt shaker at all. It can be hiding in packaged, prepared and processed foods. According to the American Heart Association, most adults should consume no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium per day. Yet