May 2025

Take Five to Age Well: sign up for free to boost your health and wellbeing this May!

From 1st May, The Open University and Age UK are launching a free, UK-wide public health campaign: Take Five to Age Well.

The campaign invites you to join a community of people making small daily changes for better ageing across 5 action categories: Eat, Drink, Move, Connect, and Engage and Think.

You can sign up online and choose an action to try everyday in May. During the month the team at the Open University sends out emails with fun facts, tips, games and resources to help you keep going.

Take Five was piloted in 2023 and over 3000 people participated with overwhelmingly positive feedback. All content is evidence-based and expert-led, helping to bring a lasting positive impact. The campaign is supported by ambassadors such as Kaye Adams from Loose Women and is open to everyone - ageing well research suggests “the sooner the better but never too late” to adopt these habits - look at the website for more details or email takefive@open.ac.uk to contact the team.

Why take part?

Everyone wants more time on Earth in good health and the science indicates almost all of us, regardless of our genes, can systematically do things to improve our chances of a longer and healthier life. We don’t have a choice about whether we age or not but we do have a choice about how we age. There are simple habits that can help us keep strong, sharp, independent, and feeling good; Take Five to Age Well aims to empower people to adopt these habits over a month long period and beyond.

There are 5 areas where you can choose new habits:

Eat: healthy eating is good for your health

Our nutrition is our fuel for our body – we need vitamins and minerals to support every cell that makes us up from our bones to our teeth and everything between. Having a varied and nutritious diet is essential for our health. As we age it can become even more important.

Choose your action:

  • Breakfast: have a healthy breakfast every day
  • Eat regularly everday: eat regular meals and have regular nutritious snacks everyday
  • What works for you: good nutrition varies according to the individual – do what works for you everyday

*If you are taking part in Take Five and have allergies or are on a particular diet, please speak to a healthcare professional before making any changes to your dietary intake.

Drink: stay well hydrated for healthy ageing 

Water makes up over two-thirds of the healthy human body. It lubricates the joints and eyes, aids digestion, flushes out waste and toxins, and keeps the skin healthy.

Choose your action:

  • Drink enough water: stay well hydrated everyday.
  • Reduce your alcohol intake: limit alcohol to within the NHS guidelines
  • Carry a water bottle: keep a water bottle with you when you leave home

Move: exercise boosts body and mind 

You are built to move. Being active is one of the keys to a longer, happier life and can reduce the risk of everything from cancer to heart disease to Alzheimer's Disease. But, it’s not easy for everyone and we are here to support you to move more, regardless of how fit you feel right now.

Choose your action:

  • Walk for your health: go for two short walks every day
  • Get outside: take five minutes outside a day to breathe and take in the outdoors
  • Power: do 3 short (6-10 min) bursts of weight bearing exercise every day
  • Stand: Get up and move for 5 or more minutes every hour throughout the day. It can be easy to stay seated most of the day, but we know that this isn’t good for us – regularly movement throughout the day can help us age better. You could set an alarm to help you to remember to stand up and move.
  • Stay flexible: every couple of hours you are sitting, do two minutes of stretching and moving

Connect and Engage: make and maintain social connections for your health 

Loneliness affects millions of people and the number of people chronically lonely has increased since the pandemic. This seriously affects your mental and physical health. We are here to help support you to connect and engage with others as part of your Take Five to Age Well challenge.

Choose your action:

  • Connect: call or meet a friend or family member for a chat every day
  • Know your community and neighbours: engage with someone everyday
  • Share a hobby: try a new hobby this May with others
  • Are you a carer share your action and knowledge from Take Five with the person you care for - taking part together is easier than alone

Think: use your brain to stay sharp

There are loads of things that you can do for your brain health – from meeting new people to learning new things to moving more.

Choose your action:

  • Learn: learn or do something new, practice daily and perhaps share it with others
  • Get creative: draw something everyday – you could do this with a grandchild or swap pictures about your day with a friend.
  • Play: do puzzles and play games every day
  • Be mindful: pause and take notice of your surroundings for at least 1 minute, 3 times a day
  • Read: hug your brain with a nice book by reading at least 5 pages a day
  • Write about your day: keep a daily journal

Tips for your actions

Make it specific: choose an action and make sure it’s quantifiable - for instance, you may want to eat 5 pieces of fruit or vegetables a day or cut down to 8 units of alcohol or walk for 30 minutes everyday. Whatever it is - make sure you can measure it.

Make it achievable: you know yourself better than anyone - choose actions that are challenging but attainable. Remember, you need to do this everyday so make sure it’s something you will be able to do.