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Health at 50
What is due at 50: Your fifties — sleep 7-9 h, protein 0.8 g/kg, plus the screenings and checks of the decade.
Your fifties
Menopause for women; for everyone, accelerating muscle loss, stiffer arteries, and the onset decade for most cancers the screening programmes exist to catch. Bone density starts its serious decline in women in the years after menopause.
| Your numbers at 50 | Value |
|---|---|
| Sleep need | 7-9 h |
| Protein target | 0.8 g/kg |
| Estimated max heart rate | 170 bpm (220 − age) |
Screenings due this decade
- Bowel screening — the national programme (FIT test every one to two years, 50-74 in the EU recommendation).
- Breast screening (women) — every two years through the national programme.
- Cholesterol every five years, glucose every three, blood pressure yearly.
- Lung screening for heavy smokers (50-75, per the EU recommendation where offered).
- Dental — yearly; gum disease accelerates with age and feeds cardiovascular risk.
Checks worth doing
- The bowel screening kit when it arrives — the single highest-yield check of the decade.
- Blood pressure yearly; know your lipid and glucose numbers.
- Bone density (women) — once around menopause, earlier with fractures or early menopause.
This is the decade the screening programmes were built for: bowel, breast and cardiovascular checks all reach their peak yield in the fifties. The lifestyle levers stay the same — movement, protein, sleep, alcohol down — but the scheduled tests are what convert "probably fine" into "checked".
Act on it
- Your calorie and protein needs — the calculator turns the grams into food.
- Fitness reference values — the tests behind the checks.
- Blood test reference ranges — what the results mean.
Reference, not medical advice. Follow your national screening programme's invitations and your clinician's schedule — this page summarises the published recommendations, it does not replace them.