“Life is about movement - everything that is alive moves.”
(1)
What a great reminder!
No matter your age, you have
to move. As you get 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 topic that will motivate
us all (and our loved ones!) to exercise so that we can all grow old and grow old(er)
gracefully. Satterwhite Chiropractic and our Oxford 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
frightening than moving and be even a bit
comforting. Satterwhite Chiropractic will give you that! If
you have 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 uncovered information that inpatient
mobility was negligible despite their individual capacities to
move and desires to move. (1) It’s 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 enhanced their muscle strength and power while they
were in the hospital following a personalized
multicomponent exercise program that incorporated power
training in just 3 days! (2) In a review of the good that exercise offers for frail older adults,
researchers emphasized the importance of maintaining
functional abilities for those who want to age healthily.
They further put emphasis on the
fact 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 at bay, and
Satterwhite Chiropractic 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 lot
of other adverse health issues, both cognitive
and physical. The hope we all have is that frailty is reversible.
Researchers have analyzed 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 just pre-frail or just mildly frail). (4) Those are positive
outcomes! One study shared 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% improved
their frailty rating. Particularly, muscle power improved
by 47%, muscle strength by 34%, and aerobic capacity rose
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 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) Satterwhite Chiropractic thinks you’ll
concur that these are beneficial!
CONTACT Satterwhite Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Tom Menendez on The
Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he
details the effective gentle
protocols of The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management in treating the older
patient.
Make your Oxford chiropractic
appointment soon. You’re alive. What a wonderful fact!
Celebrate that with some movement.