For those of you not near 60, what should you do to ensure you remain healthy into your older years? "Plan for your transition into your later years with a sense that you will continue to be active but in other ways than you are now, says Rick Dobyns, M.D., UI Hospitals and Clinics physician who specializes in geriatrics. "I don't use the word retirement since it suggests something passive and unexciting. Get excited about doing something different. Talk with others about what it is to "age well" and copy those aspects that you admire and fit your own personality."

For those of you who may not have followed good health rules in your younger days, is there something you can still do to preserve your health now? "If you feel you are not making the transition well, seek counseling," suggests Dobyns. "A lifetime of maladaptive habits and remorse about where you are emotionally is not a good way to start the last few decades of your life.

"Now that you have the time, seek out the multiple wellness opportunities in your workplace or community that can prod you into those healthy behaviors that, previously, you didn't have time for," he says. "Physically, take care of the basics--eat well, control your blood pressure to extend the life of your heart and mind and see your doctor for check-ups."

Dobyns recommends getting and staying involved in activities that interest you and get you interacting with as many people as your personality is comfortable with. "Dance, become an activist, discover a new hobby or rediscover an old one, join a book or movie club, or volunteer (the newspaper is full of lists)," he says.

"If you're in your 40s or 50s now and you're healthy, you better start planning for life after 90. Your parents may have become frail in their 70s but you don't have to. You may want to open a business when you're 65 and run it for a long time. I'm almost 50 and I'm thinking that I'm not even halfway done with my adult career. What I may be doing will change, but I will be doing something very near full-time until my 80's," says Dobyns.