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 realize! No matter your age, you have to move. As you get older, you have to move more (than you may want)! Life is motion. Motion is life. Researchers are really delivering some amazing information on this topic that will motivate us all (and our cherished family members!) to exercise so that we can all grow old and grow old(er) gracefully. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office and our Groton 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 is not always best! It may be less frightening than moving and be even a bit comforting. Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office will give you that! When hospitalized, there is 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 negligible despite their individual capacities to move and desires to move. (1) It’s so important 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 improved their muscle strength and power while hospitalized using a personalized multicomponent exercise program that incorporated power training in just 3 days! (2) In a review of the benefits of exercise for frail older adults, researchers stressed the value of maintaining functional abilities for those who want to grow old gracefully. They further emphasized 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 away, and Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more susceptible to frailty, increasing our risk of several undesirable health issues, both cognitive and physical. The desire we all have is that frailty is reversible. Researchers have studied this issue by going over published studies on this topic of frailty reversal. Luckily, 56.7% of the papers suggested that it is reversible (returning a person who is frail/severely frail to a state of being ‘pre-frail’ or just mildly so). (4) Those are promising outcomes! One study said that frail and even “pre” frail older patients demonstrated better physical performance and function after a brief (6 week) facility-based exercise program that involved a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% upped their frailty rating. Specifically, muscle power went up by 47%, muscle strength rose 34%, and aerobic capacity rose 19%. (5) And other advantages with physical activity in general: energy and a better emotional state! Frailty and aging are more apt to lower energy levels and stated fatigue and emotional distress. Moving and physical activity has been reported to fight those feelings in older women as well as extend life expectancy and cut back on some negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. (6) Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office thinks you will agree that these are positive things!
CONTACT Shoreline Medical Services/ Hutter Chiropractic Office
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Tom Menendez on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he details the effectiveness of the gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the older patient.
Schedule your Groton chiropractic appointment today. You’re alive. What a wonderful thing! Celebrate that with some movement.
