Dr Anna Rolleston The Cardiac Clinic

Ensure you are able to spend your future wealth doing things you want to do and living the life you deserve.

So often the case is, as the saying goes 'so many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health”. And in some cases, people don't get to spend their wealth on anything in later life because their poor health has compromised their ability to do the things they want to.

I see all sorts of different people during my working week, and I learned a long time ago that age is simply a number that tells me how many years a person has existed on this planet. Knowing a person's age tells me nothing about them, their health, their abilities and in fact it is dangerous to assume such things based on your knowledge of a person's age.

I am no longer surprised when a person in their 30s turns up on my doorstep with pre-diabetes and numerous heart disease risk factors. I am saddened, but not particularly surprised. Being young does not make a person invincible. In turn, I am not surprised to meet a person in their 70s who is fit, active and with an appearance younger than their age suggests. It is always a pleasure to meet these people, whose care of themselves in their younger days have made them able and active in their latter years. I use these healthy older role models to council the younger clients that come through my door – and by younger I mean 30s, 40s and 50s.

As an example, to a 40 something male who is leading a high stress lifestyle, is a regular social drinker and cannot find the time for exercise in his week, I say: 'Do you still want to be able to take your boat out fishing when you are 75? Do you still want to be able to balance yourself comfortably on that boat when you take it out when you are 75? When you get home from fishing, do you still want to be able to have the energy to sit around with your friends and family enjoying the fruits of your fishing trip? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you have to start working on that now because it's what you do in your younger years that makes all the difference in your older years.”

Being able to go fishing is one example of a simple desire for an older person. Yet fishing requires that a person be well, relatively fit and capable of mind and body. It might be that you still want to be travelling the world when you are 75, or that you want to still be walking up Mauao when you are 75, or you might even just want to be able to chase your grandkids around the park without effort. Whatever your desires are for your older age, you put yourself in a better position to be able to achieve them if you make an effort while you are still young. Don't spend your life working to make money, while your health declines. Money cannot buy happiness and it certainly cannot buy you a healthy body. Choosing to lead a healthier lifestyle – eating nutritious food, exercising regularly, drinking less and managing the stress in your life – is beneficial on a number of levels and I urge you to consider one final, well known quote 'what goes around, comes around”.