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“Younger people think they have plenty of time. They don’t.

Older people think they’ve missed their chance. They haven’t.

The science says both are wrong.”

— Dr. Bobby

A few months ago, I started EMDR therapy.

EMDR — eye movement desensitization and reprocessing — is a technique where you recall a fearful memory while tracking a moving stimulus. Over time, it desensitizes you to that memory and the emotional response that comes with it. I used it to address something I’ve carried for a long time: a deep, uncomfortable sense that something is wrong whenever I exercise intensely. Not normal discomfort. Something darker.

Two months in, I can tell you it’s genuinely helped. Exercise feels more enjoyable. I feel more confident. Would it have been better to address this 30 years ago? Probably. But was it too late at 69?

Absolutely not.

That experience crystallized a question I hear constantly — from listeners, from patients, and honestly from myself.

If we finally start exercising, get our blood pressure under control, quit smoking, or build new friendships later in life — does it actually matter? Or have we already missed our window?

Rather than give you the usual checklist of health advice, I built a five-part framework for thinking about when timing matters, when it doesn’t, and what the evidence actually shows. See the 1-page summary here.

Part one: start early, because damage accumulates silently

Some conditions injure you for years before you feel a thing. High blood pressure is the clearest example. The risk isn’t just how high your reading is today — it’s the cumulative effect of elevated pressure over time on your blood vessels, your heart, your kidneys. A 15-year study of 3,600 young adults showed that cardiovascular risk tracked closely with how long blood pressure had been elevated, not just the peak level. Glaucoma follows the same logic — silent damage to the optic nerve, entirely preventable if caught early. For younger listeners, the message isn’t “deal with this someday.” Your arteries are keeping score right now.

Part two: some damage can actually be reversed

This is where things get hopeful. A review of 26 studies on smoking cessation found that quitting progressively lowers lung cancer risk over decades — 10 years of not smoking beats continuing, 15 beats 10, 20 beats 15. The body repairs some of what was damaged. I also mention a fascinating and frequently-cited study where intensive lifestyle changes — a very low-fat vegetarian diet, exercise, stress management, and group support — actually reversed coronary artery narrowing in patients with established heart disease. I want to be careful not to oversell it: the study was tiny (about 20 patients per group) and the results haven’t been replicated at scale. But the direction of the finding is remarkable. Partial reversal of heart disease through lifestyle? It’s possible.

Part three: even if you can’t undo the past, you can protect the future

This is where “not too late” really shines for older readers. The Diabetes Prevention Program found that lifestyle changes reduced the risk of developing diabetes by 71% in adults over 60. Seventy-one percent. The past may be fixed — but tomorrow’s problems aren’t inevitable.

Part four: some things can be built at any age

This is what I find most genuinely exciting. In a study of adults aged 90 to 96, a resistance training program produced average strength gains of 174%. Not 10%. Not 20%. 174%. These weren’t young athletes. These were nonagenarians. The goal isn’t becoming a bodybuilder at 93 — it’s lifting a suitcase, recovering from a stumble, getting off the floor, staying independent. And the science says it’s never too late to start building that capacity.

Part five: honest uncertainty

Some health behaviors are clearly beneficial, but whether the timing of when you start matters — we genuinely don’t know. Social connection is one of the strongest predictors of a long and healthy life, with the Harvard Study of Adult Development showing that the quality of midlife relationships strongly predicts late-life health. But if someone is isolated at 70 and builds new friendships then, how much does that extend their lifespan? We don’t have a clean answer. Sauna use shows the same pattern — real benefits, real uncertainty about whether those benefits require a lifetime of use or whether starting at 60 delivers similar gains. My advice: if you enjoy these things, do them. Don’t wait for the perfect study. But calibrate your expectations honestly.

So where does this leave us?

Earlier is better. That’s real, and I don’t want to minimize it. Some of the damage we accumulate in our 30s and 40s can’t be fully undone. But later is not too late — for almost anything on this list. And the older person’s mistake of saying “I’ve missed my chance” may be the more costly one, because it leads to doing nothing at all.

At 69, I tried EMDR. It worked. I didn’t start serious strength training until a few years ago — it’s made a real difference. I’m not offering my own experience as evidence. But I offer it as a reminder: the question isn’t “did I do everything right before now?” Most of us didn’t. The better question is: what part of my future can I still change from here?

That’s the question worth sitting with.