TempoLife › Features › Health at age N › 66
Health at 66
What is due at 66: Your sixties — sleep 7-8 h, protein 1.0-1.2 g/kg, plus the screenings and checks of the decade.
Your sixties
The protein target rises — the body builds muscle less efficiently, so it needs more raw material for the same result. Balance, grip and leg power start predicting independence; falls stop being embarrassing and start being dangerous. Hearing and vision decline enough to notice.
| Your numbers at 66 | Value |
|---|---|
| Sleep need | 7-8 h |
| Protein target | 1.0-1.2 g/kg |
| Estimated max heart rate | 154 bpm (220 − age) |
Screenings due this decade
- Bowel screening — through the national programme to 74.
- Breast screening (women) — to the programme's upper age, then by individual decision.
- Blood pressure yearly; cholesterol every five years; glucose every three.
- Hearing check — from sixty, and any time conversations in noise become hard work.
- Bone density (women, and men with fractures or risk factors) — on schedule.
Checks worth doing
- Leg power and balance — can you stand from a chair without hands? Rise from the floor? These two are the independence tests.
- Grip — the cheapest frailty marker there is.
- Medication review — the list has usually grown; a yearly pharmacist review catches the overlaps.
In the sixties the health goals invert: not performance but function. The checks that matter most are physical — standing up unassisted, walking pace, grip — and the training that matters most is the unglamorous strength and balance work that keeps those checks passing.
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.