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 grow older, you have to move more (than you may want)! Life equals motion. Motion equals life. Researchers are really sharing some amazing information on this topic that will motivate us all (and our cherished family members!) to move so that we can all grow old and grow old(er) gracefully. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic and our Augusta 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 soothing. Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic will give you that! If you’ve 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 found that inpatient mobility was negligible despite their individual capabilities and desires to move. (1) It is so important to keep acute patients - and those with new bouts of back pain and/or neck pain, too - moving so that they can heal! Beneficially, acutely hospitalized older patients improved their muscle strength and power while hospitalized following an individualized 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 value of preserving functional abilities for those who want to grow old gracefully. They further put emphasis on the fact that exercise and physical activity are good for the prevention 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 Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more susceptible to frailty, increasing our risk of lot of other undesirable health issues, both cognitive and physical. The hope we all have is that frailty is alterable. Researchers have studied this issue by appraising 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 demonstrated 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. Specifically, muscle power improved by 47%, muscle strength rose 34%, and aerobic capacity by 19%. (5) And other bonuses with physical activity in general: energy and a better emotional state! Frailty and aging tend to decrease 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) Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic thinks you’ll concur that these are beneficial!
CONTACT Lombardy Chiropractic Clinic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Tom Menendez on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares the effective gentle protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the elderly.
Schedule your Augusta chiropractic appointment today. You’re alive. What a wonderful fact! Celebrate that with some movement.
