MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — If you want old age to be more about staying active instead of being frail, it’s time to listen up. Many doctors say that the way you live now determines how you’ll feel down the road.

Healthy aging means reducing the risk and delaying the onset of age-related disease, and lifestyle choices can make all of the difference.

Health expert Dr. Andrew Weil of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine offered some advice on how to live long and live well.

“The most important lifestyle pattern associated with healthy aging is maintenance of regular physical activity throughout life,” said Weil. “I think that trumps everything else.”

If you’re not physically active now, remember it’s never too late to start.

Another bit of advice is to spend time with people.

“In our culture especially, as people get older, they tend to be isolated, the world shrinks. You don’t want that to happen, you want to find ways to stay connected,” said Weil.

Naturally, you should also watch what you put on your plate.

“If I could summarize everything I know about nutrition in one sentence, it’s to stop eating refined, processed and manufactured food. It’s that simple.”

And don’t forget about your ounce of prevention. Preventive health screenings are a must.

“Screening tests for colon cancer, checking your cardiovascular status, getting blood work done if you need to check your cholesterol levels and so forth,” said Weil.

We can’t stop the aging process, but healthy lifestyle choices can help you spend your later years more in health than in sickness.