“Life is about movement - everything that is alive moves.”
(1)
What a great thing to realize!
No matter your age, you really must move. As you grow older, you have to move more (than
you may desire)! Life equals motion. Motion equals 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 age
gracefully. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre and our Toronto 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
scary than moving and be even a bit
calming. Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre 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 found that inpatient
mobility was negligible despite their individual capacities to
move and desires to move. (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 improved 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 benefits
of exercise for frail older adults,
researchers emphasized the importance of maintaining
functional abilities for those who want to age healthily.
They further emphasized that exercise and physical activity are valuable
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
Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more at
risk to frailty, increasing our risk of several undesirable health issues, both cognitive
and physical. The hope we all have is that frailty is reversible.
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 (getting
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 following
a short (6 week) facility-based exercise routine that
involved a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% bettered
their frailty rating. Particularly, muscle power improved
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 increase
fatigue and emotional distress. Moving and physical activity has been described
to combat those feelings in older women as well as extend
life expectancy and cut back on some negative effects of a
sedentary lifestyle. (6) Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre thinks you will
concur that these are positive things!
CONTACT Yorkville Chiropractic and Wellness Centre
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 older
patient.
Schedule your Toronto chiropractic
appointment today. You’re alive. What a wonderful thing, one to be thankful for by moving!