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 reminder! No matter your age, you have to move. As you age, you have to move more (than you may desire)! Life is motion. Motion is life. Researchers are really putting out some great information on this topic that will inspire us all (and our cherished family members!) to move so that we can all grow old and grow old(er) gracefully. Apple Country Chiropractic and our Williamson 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 frightening than moving and be even a bit comforting. Apple Country Chiropractic will give you that! If you have ever been hospitalized, you know there’s a lot of bed rest, maybe even too much for your liking! A study of patients in an acute care hospital ward uncovered information that inpatient mobility was low despite their individual capabilities and desires to get up and move around. (1) It is 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 enhanced their muscle strength and power while hospitalized following a personalized multicomponent exercise program that integrated power training in just 3 days! (2) In a review of the good that exercise offers for frail older adults, researchers emphasized the importance of preserving functional abilities for those who want to age healthily. They further put emphasis on the fact that exercise and physical activity are good to prevent 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 Apple Country Chiropractic encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more at risk to frailty, amplifying our risk of several undesirable health issues, both cognitive and physical. The hope we all have is that frailty is reversible. Researchers have analyzed this issue by reviewing published studies on this topic of frailty reversal. Fortunately, 56.7% of the papers proposed 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 hopeful outcomes! One study said that frail and even “pre” frail older patients showed better physical performance and function following a brief (6 week) facility-based exercise routine that involved a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% improved their frailty rating. Particularly, muscle power improved by 47%, muscle strength rose 34%, and aerobic capacity by 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 reported to contend with those feelings in older women as well as increase life expectancy and lower some negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. (6) Apple Country Chiropractic thinks you will concur that these are positive things!
CONTACT Apple Country 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.
Make your Williamson chiropractic appointment soon. You’re alive. What a wonderful fact! Celebrate that with some movement.
