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 desire)! Life equals motion. Motion equals life. Researchers are really delivering some amazing information on this fact that will motivate us all (and our cherished family members!) to keep active so that we can all age gracefully. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn and our Ashburn and Herndon 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 soothing. Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn will give you that! If you’ve ever been hospitalized, you know there is 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 low despite their individual capacities to move and desires to get up and move around. (1) It is vital 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 enhanced their muscle strength and power while hospitalized following an individualized multicomponent exercise program that integrated 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 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 Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn encourages that!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more susceptible to frailty, amplifying our risk of lot of other adverse health issues, both cognitive and physical. The hope we all have is that frailty is reversible. Researchers have studied this issue by examining published studies on this topic of frailty reversal. Fortunately, 56.7% of the papers suggested that it is reversible (getting a person who is frail/severely frail to a state of being ‘pre-frail’ or just mildly so). (4) Those are positive 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 program 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 described to contend with those feelings in older women as well as increase life expectancy and cut back on some negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle. (6) Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn thinks you will concur that these are positive things!
CONTACT Poulin Chiropractic of Herndon and Ashburn
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 elderly.
Schedule your Ashburn and Herndon chiropractic appointment soon. You’re alive. What a wonderful fact! Celebrate that with some movement.
