I am a firm (as it were) believer that if you had enough Astroglide you could get a 747 into a garage. 
Genes have something to do with it. Fortunately, I got my father’s teeth genes, not my mother’s.
I turned 60 last summer. I’m very healthy with no aches or pains. The only medication I take is estrogen (HRT). I’m way past menopause, but my “old lady pills” make me feel so much better. I’ve been taking them for 10+ years and my doctor would like me to stop taking them. I had a partial hysterectomy 20 years ago (I still have my ovaries). If I don’t take my pills, I still get night sweats, have a very anxious feeling in my chest, and am a bit on the crabby side. 
At my last physical, my doctor suggested that I could try Effexor instead. Supposedly it reduces the effects of menopause without the EVIL hormones. So I gave it a try (begrudgingly). OMG after taking one pill, I felt awful. I was nauseous and dizzy. It felt like I was just getting over the flu - for an entire weekend! That was the one and only Effexor pill I took. Luckily, I had been at least cutting down on my estrogen pills. I was taking a half pill daily. So I had quite a few pills in inventory. One day about 6 months after my physical, I received a text from the pharmacy. It said my prescription was ready for pickup. I had no idea what it was. So I went to pick it up and lo and behold it was a new prescription for my beloved Estradiol! I don’t know how it happened and I didn’t ask. I’m still getting refills. And still taking a 1/2 pill - just in case.
Consider asking for a topical estrogen prescription, if you’ve not tried it before. Less risky, while giving the same symptom reduction benefits as oral estrogen to a lot of women.
But be careful about pets licking you!! I knew a family with a dog that almost had surgery until someone realized the dog was licking the woman and thus consuming estrogen.
The topical cream is also effective applied vaginally, which should eliminate that particular problem for the typical user.
Touché!!
I did not know that.
I’ve met far far too many people who are ‘atypical users’ in my lifetime . . .
Ugh. At 60, I feel myself getting weaker. I can still tote horse feed and hay, but I’m out of breath afterward. My balance isn’t great. It actually all started several years ago when I broke a bone in my foot. I walked on it broken for 6 months, telling myself it would heal eventually. Then came a boot (didn’t work) and finally surgery to remove it. Almost a year of not moving as much as I used to. At this age it’s hard to get that back.
But generally I’m in good health. A1C, BP and cholesterol normal without taking meds. Aches and pains, sure. My gut seems to have decided to hurt. Next year I’m due for my 5-year colonoscopy, and I was going to put it off, but the pain is bad enough and frequent enough that I’ll probably go in. My last colonoscopy they found a largish polyp, but dropped it and couldn’t retrieve it for testing.
I’m burned out on work. It’s hard to convince myself that I really want to keep working until Medicare kicks in. There are days when I just want to quit and leave my boss to figure out what it is I actually do.
I guess it’s all better than the alternative.
StG
I was just recently diagnosed with Afib. Damn. You mean, I can’t relax and be fat and lazy and old?
Well, at least it’s kicked my butt into eating healthier. Exercise is tricky because my knees are just about gone – sometimes it feels like the knee bones are about to completely separate. And my balance is bad, too. I’ve always been an anxious person, and it seems to have intensified in my old age (just turned 70). But the cardiologist didn’t seem interested in that. Can’t anxiety trigger palpatations etc?
Anyway. I have good teeth, good skin, and good hair (my hairdresser keeps commenting on how thick it is for an “old lady”), so I’ll make a decent looking corpse.
Your 60s are a piece of cake, unless you’ve got a chronic illness to deal with. My 60s were a breeze; I still had energy, could hike rough trails, tote and carry, had sexual energy, etc. Then I hit 70 and all that came to a gradual stop, or nearly so. Muscle tone starts becoming difficult to maintain, arthritis makes you its bitch, it takes longer for injuries to heal, your coordination starts going to shit, etc. I’ll take 60s any day.
My new knuckle ache prompted me to try out this Voltaren cream, a new topical analgesic.
Let’s see, reading the instructions: may take up to seven days to work. Ooookaaaay. Also: do not use for longer than twenty-one days.
So don’t use it for longer than three weeks, and for one week of that, it doesn’t work. Good to know.
I put some on and it smells vaguely like Christmas cinnamon pine cones, which I hate. My husband hates the smell, too, so I have to listen to him complain about it.
I notice that many of you have mentioned balance problems. Me, too. Any idea how to improve in this area? I’ve been watching and practicing along with Qi Gong videos on YouTube. Not sure if that will help.
Tangentially related: after my bench was stolen from my front porch last week, I’ve installed a Wyze porch camera. I’m very satisfied with it! It was only $40-ish from amazon, and has a variety of settings and features.
But the first video I saw of myself walking up to the front door-- 
I look like an OLD LADY! Rounded slumped shoulders, shuffling walk-- who the fuck is that ancient, stumbling relic of a person?? NOT ME, FFS!
I’ve gotten used to seeing my blotchy face on Zoom with its broken blood vessels and brown spots, but seeing my whole self in motion was too much… 
Sigh.
Since then, I have made a point of holding my head up, shoulders back and relaxed, and striding instead of shuffling. Even though that posture feels completely unnatural, I can see the improvement in the videos.
Lots of shoulder problems here, and I empathize with you all!
I seem to have a rotator cuff issue (just turned 54) for which I’m finally seeing a specialist tomorrow. Did the PT, which improved range of motion slightly but that’s about it. I wish I had a solid answer as to the precipitating injury – as that seems to be a common question – but there wasn’t one I can pinpoint. Hope they can do something for me, as I’m a side-sleeper, and it’s definitely interrupting me.
In March 2016 I went to the ER with chest pains. I was 63 and had been having them for years but every time I went to the ER before that there was no sign of heart problems. This time, however, they ended up putting in two stents, put me on a bunch of new meds, and set me up with cardio rehab. Since then I have been diagnosed with fatty liver disease, recurring anemia (which led to me spending several days in the hospital getting red blood cells and iron infusions, along with upper & lower GI to check for bleeding, which they found in my stomach), and earlier this year I had a kidney stone.
I’ve decided that some time in early 2016 my warranty must have expired. (But no calls from people trying to get me to renew it.)
At least this has finally got me take seriously my doctor’s advise to lose weight. Of course, with my bad knees I can’t do as much walking as I should, but even just watching what I eat has been working.
It’s not the years so much as the mileage for many folks. Certainly for me. But I did manage to live longer than either of my parents did, something I thought I would not manage to do.
Well, I know exactly why my shoulder is jacked up: I tripped while running in October and broke the ball at the end of the humerus. You and I are the same age, and we now share in the joys of being side sleepers with bad shoulders.
I’m doing my PT as dutifully as I can, but it still sucks. A teenager falling like I did would heal in a week and be right back on the skateboard.
snert.
Tai Chi will definitely help, as would yoga. There are simple balance exercises that you can do, as well.
I had started to do chair yoga, which was starting to help with balance and other things. Then I had my second fall, and had to stop. Now, the only exercise I get is occasionally getting out of the chair and into another one.
I’ve developed an absolute terror of going down the basement stairs. At least there’s a railing, but I feel that a fall there is inevitable.
Stop leafing through those medical textbooks!