Keep Moving As You Age So That You Can Grow Older Gracefully!
“Life is about movement - everything that is alive moves.” (1)
What a great thing to remember! No matter your age, you really must move. As you age, you have to move more (than you may feel like)! Life is motion. Motion is life. Researchers are really sharing some amazing information on this topic that will motivate us all (and our loved ones!) to exercise so that we can all age gracefully. Old Mill Chiropractic and our St Peters chiropractic patients will all grow old better working together, exercising, moving, and meeting at the office for gentle Cox® treatment!
BED REST AND MOBILITY
Bed rest isn’t always best! It may be less scary than moving and be even a bit comforting. Old Mill Chiropractic will give you that! When hospitalized, there’s lots of bed rest, maybe even a bit too much for a patient’s liking! A study of patients in an acute care hospital ward uncovered information that inpatient mobility was low despite their individual capacities to move and desires to get up and move around. (1) It’s vital to keep acute patients - and those with new bouts of back pain and/or neck pain, too - moving to get them better! Beneficially, acutely hospitalized older patients enhanced their muscle strength and power while they were in the hospital following a personalized multicomponent exercise program that incorporated power training in just 3 days! (2) In a review of the good that exercise offers for frail older adults, researchers stressed the importance of preserving functional abilities for those who want to grow old gracefully. They further stressed that exercise and physical activity are good for the prevention of falls, hospital stays, improved cognition, etc. Exercises from power training (yes – power training for older folks!) to resistance training, balance exercises, aerobic training, walking, etc. (3) Mobility is part of keeping frailty at bay, and Old Mill Chiropractic encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more prone to frailty, increasing our risk of lot of other undesirable health issues, both cognitive and physical. The desire we all have is that frailty is reversible. Researchers have analyzed this issue by examining published studies on this topic of frailty reversal. Luckily, 56.7% of the papers proposed that it is reversible (getting a person who is frail/severely frail to a state of being just pre-frail or just mildly frail). (4) Those are hopeful outcomes! One study shared that frail and even “pre” frail older patients showed better physical performance and function following a short (6 week) facility-based exercise routine that involved a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% bettered their frailty rating. Particularly, muscle power improved by 47%, muscle strength by 34%, and aerobic capacity rose 19%. (5) And other advantages with physical activity in general: energy and a better emotional state! Frailty and aging tend to lower energy levels and increase fatigue and emotional distress. Moving and physical activity has been described to fight those feelings in older women as well as extend life expectancy and lower some negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. (6) Old Mill Chiropractic thinks you’ll agree that these are positive things!
CONTACT Old Mill Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Tom Menendez on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares the effectiveness of the gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the older patient.
Schedule your St Peters chiropractic appointment now. You’re alive. What a wonderful thing! Celebrate that with some movement.
