Speaking specifically about fall risk in older people: if you want to ensure a high quality of life when you're older, maintain strong muscles through exercise.

Speaking specifically about fall risk in older people: if you want to ensure a high quality of life when you're older, maintain strong muscles through exercise. This may seem like a no brainer, and yet almost nobody actually does it. Balance and strength are highly dependent on exercise. Even fairly old people can maintain very good balance and strength if they don't let their muscles deteriorate through inactivity. Being frail in old age is not inevitable. A sedentary person after age 50 loses something like 5% of muscle mass annually. But that same person can boost their muscle mass 20% in a single year if they just get serious about strength training, and then slow the deterioration to 1 or 2% thereafter. Run the numbers, it makes a dramatic difference in outcomes.