“Life is about movement - everything that is alive moves.”
(1)
What a great reminder!
No matter your age, you have
to move. As you grow older, you have to move more (than
you may desire)! Life
is motion. Motion is life. Researchers are really delivering
some amazing information on this fact that will motivate
us all (and our loved ones!) to keep
active so that we can all age
gracefully. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic and our McHenry 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
calming. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic will give you that! When hospitalized, there
is 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 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 to get them better! Beneficially, acutely hospitalized older
patients improved their muscle strength and power while they
were in the hospital using a personalized
multicomponent exercise program that integrated power
training in as little as 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 grow old gracefully.
They further underscored 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 away, and
OrthoIllinois Chiropractic encourages it!
FRAILTY AND MOBILITY
Those of us over 65 years old are said to be more prone to frailty, amplifying our risk of several undesirable health issues, both cognitive
and physical. The hope 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 suggested 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 promising
outcomes! One study said that frail and even “pre” frail older
patients demonstrated better physical performance and function following
a brief (6 week) facility-based exercise routine that
included a walking-based high intensity interval training. 64% improved
their frailty rating. Specifically, muscle power improved
by 47%, muscle strength by 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 stated
fatigue and emotional distress. Moving and physical activity has been reported
to combat those feelings in older women as well as extend
life expectancy and reduce some negative effects of a
sedentary lifestyle. (6) OrthoIllinois Chiropractic thinks you’ll
concur that these are positive things!
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Tom Menendez on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
details the effectiveness of the gentle
protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the elderly.
Make your McHenry chiropractic
appointment today. You’re alive. What a wonderful thing!
Celebrate that with some movement.