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 grow older, you have to move more (than you may want)! Life is motion. Motion is life. Researchers are really putting out some great information on this fact that will motivate us all (and our loved ones!) to exercise so that we can all grow old and grow old(er) gracefully. Vancouver Disc Centers and our Vancouver 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. Vancouver Disc Centers 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 negligible despite their individual capacities to move 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 improved their muscle strength and power while hospitalized following a personalized multicomponent exercise program that incorporated power training in as little as 3 days! (2) In a review of the benefits of exercise for frail older adults, researchers emphasized the importance of preserving functional abilities for those who want to age healthily. They further underscored the fact that exercise and physical activity are good to prevent of falls, hospital stays, enriched 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 Vancouver Disc Centers encourages that!
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 desire we all have is that frailty is alterable. Researchers have studied this issue by reviewing published studies on this topic of frailty reversal. Luckily, 56.7% of the papers proposed that it is reversible (returning a person who is frail/severely frail to a state of being just pre-frail or just mildly frail). (4) Those are promising outcomes! One study said that frail and even “pre” frail older patients showed better physical performance and function after a short (6 week) facility-based exercise routine that involved a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% improved their frailty rating. Particularly, muscle power went up by 47%, muscle strength rose 34%, and aerobic capacity rose 19%. (5) And other additional benefits 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) Vancouver Disc Centers thinks you’ll concur that these are positive things!
CONTACT Vancouver Disc Centers
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 Vancouver chiropractic appointment soon. You’re alive. What a wonderful thing! Celebrate that with some movement.
