I vividly recall my first trip to Florida in 1961; I went there with a college classmate to visit his grandparents. We passed many retirement homes, and saw large porches with rows and rows of rocking chairs. Elderly men and women got up in the morning, went out to sit on those chairs, and left only to eat and go to the bathroom. Day after day, rocking their lives away. If that was living to a ripe old age, I thought, I’m glad I have a family history of heart disease!
Well, the times certainly have changed since then. Today my own mother lives in a retirement village in Laguna Hills called Leisure World. In reality, it’s more a city than a village, with five Olympic’ size swimming pools, two golf courses, lawn bowling, tennis courts and horse stables. There’s scarcely a time when you can’t see men and women in their walking/jogging shoes briskly marching along the roads and paths that wind through the area, their arms pumping up and down as they log their daily kilometres.
A while back, doctors rather patronisingly felt that there was little reason to try to influence lifestyles of the elderly. “Let them enjoy their lives, why make them give up their pleasures or make them work,” was the well-intentioned rationale. Well, bunk!
A lot of doctors (though not all by any means) have seen that the elderly are among the best patients. Maybe that’s because they’re more aware of life’s finite limits, and maybe it’s because they have more time to devote to their own care. Whatever the reason, those senior citizens are likely to take every word of advice to heart. We now know that, regardless of age, one can derive benefits—and added years of life, both quantity and quality—by quitting smoking, by eating less fat and cholesterol and by getting more exercise.
Older people who regularly exercise also think better. Dr Louise Clarkson-Smith of Scripps College in Claremont, California found that the more elderly folks worked out, the better their mental fitness. She surveyed 300 men and women aged 55-91 in terms of their physical activity which included heavy housework, gardening, vigorous work and recreational exertion. Those who exercised most scored at the top in tests on vocabulary, memory, reaction time and reasoning.
Ask any older person, and he or she will tell you that one of the worst parts of getting old is the feeling of “losing it” mentally. Here’s a way to forestall or possibly even eliminate that aspect of aging by simply getting out and exercising.
Another all-too-frequent part of aging is the occurrence of diabetes. While there is a genetic component, weight gain along with reduced physical activity seem to trigger the problem. Studies done at Washington University with men and women in their mid-sixties indicates that both low-level and high-intensity exercise can do wonders by reducing triglycerides, raising levels of protective HDL cholesterol and increasing insulin sensitivity which would limit the effects of diabetes.
Effectiveness of the exercise programs was measured in terms of maximal oxygen uptake. During six months of low-intensity training by way of brisk walking, oxygen uptake increased by 12 per cent. After an additional six months of high-intensity training in which participants jogged, cycled or walked on an inclined treadmill at least three times a week, the oxygen uptake went up another 18 per cent.
*80\85\2*
Cardio & Blood/ Cholesterol
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.