To Help You Body Age Well

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THINGS TO HELP YOUR BODY'S STRUCTURE LAST WELL INTO OLD AGE

"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease."  Thomas Edison, 1903

Edison's prediction has not come true completely, but as he knew, much of our general health & wellness depends on a soundly functioning spine, joints, muscles & nerve system. There's a big relationship between structure and function. So much to our health is genetic and otherwise outside of our control, but there is much we can do to look after, and make the best of what we have.

Some sad things chiropractors see are: preventable hip replacements (not looking after the hip before osteoarthritis comes on), falls from poor balance, being unable to get up off the floor due to lack of mobility & strength, very slouched postures, people who have left caring for their frame too late, and people who just can't be bothered, lose motivation, don't care about it, or have 101 excuses. No time? If you don't make time for caring for your frame now, sooner or later you'll have to make time for the orthopaedic ward or shopping for mobility scooters. A little time now (prevention) beats a lot more time later (rehabilitation).

Here's how to help yourself and have the best chance of ageing gracefully with mobility, strength, fitness, and balance:

If you're a gym person - great! Activate Gym offers a wide range of services from strength training to flexibility classes, core strength & posture; Spin & circuit training for cardio; Balance classes; and the "Living Stronger for Longer" programs: Lite Pace (low impact aerobics for over 50's) and Sit & Be Fit for seniors, which is great value.  Aqua Aerobics at Wai Splash is also very good.  

The purpose of this article however, is to encourage everyone to develop a simple routine you can do anywhere, anytime - even if it is just by creatively turning everyday activities into mindful exercise. As always, keep it sensible and safe - for you:

1. STRETCH, STRETCH, STREEEETCH!!!  

·  Our joints naturally stiffen with age, causing pain & loss of function. So we need to fight this. If you don't use it, you lose it. Stiff joints wear out quicker due to improper loading, weak supporting muscles, and poor joint nutrition (circulation)

·  Take all major joints (neck, spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles) through a FULL range of motion every day. Be creative and just stretch any way the joint moves: frontwards, backwards, sideways, turning

·  To help keep full neck movement, look up & over your shoulder, hold for 10sec each way. Reversing the car will be easy

·  Try to keep your joint movements feeling symmetrical (the same on both sides). For example, if one leg feels tighter stretching backwards (an early sign of hip osteoarthritis), that is something to really work on

·  Regarding hips, walking is not enough. Because the hips move through quite a small arc walking, you need to stretch them fully in all directions to spread the load so the joint can wear evenly. You can lunge into a chair or on the floor; march on the spot with high knee lifts; do donkey kicks (hip extensions on all fours, or holding back of a chair); stand on a book and swing one leg high; lying on your back and pulling one leg up & over etc. - anything you can think of!

·  Develop your own stretching floor routine. Watch some You Tube videos, ask your chiropractor or gym trainer for ideas... You can even stretch a lot sitting in a chair (Google: "chair workout for seniors")

·  Consider decompressing the spine by using an inversion table, or just hang from your arms on a door frame or rafter (if your shoulders can handle it). Or do the "catlike" stretch on hands & knees, lengthening your back, with arms out front

·  A GREAT way to help mobility (+ strength & balance) is to practice getting right down and up off the floor as many different ways as you can think of. Many elderly people lose the ability to do this way earlier than necessary, and if they had a fall, need to call for help. So keep practicing getting up & down as long as possible. If you can still do this in your 70's or 80's you'll be able to play Twister with your great grand-children, and grow older "slower"

·  Two good things to invest in are a gym ball for stretching and balance (you can also use it as an office chair), and a foam roller for stretching out your spine, hips, and other tight joints. The Warehouse & K-Mart has these.

·  For chronic tight muscles, regular massage can also be of great benefit, especially if you have postural imbalances.

2. STRENGTHEN

·  We naturally lose muscle size with age, so we must work harder to stay strong. Look up "Sarcopenia" and "Frailty Syndrome" and you will find this loss of muscle mass associated with all kinds of general health problems

·  Strength ("resistance") training benefits the neuromuscular system, protein formation, and hormones, which, when not operating normally, work together to cause Sarcopenia. It also helps maintain bone density

·  Joints wear out quicker when the stabilizing muscles are weak or out of balance

·  If you're not going to the gym, develop a simple home routine. You can do a lot with just body weight, but it may be helpful to get a stretchy band for pull-push exercises, and a pair of light weights for lifting (or at least use some cans)

·  To strengthen the major muscle groups, do something each day that involves: pushing, pulling, legs and core (waist area). There are many ways to do this from full-on gym to modifying simple daily activities. Here are some ideas:

·  PUSH: push-ups (on floor, or against wall), on your back & pushing weights above your chest ('bench press"), sitting & pushing weights above your head, pushing a stretchy band away from you, and "planks" (on elbows & knees)

·  PULL: chin-ups, lat pull-downs, bicep curls, one arm upright row (like starting a lawn mower with weight in hand), pulling the stretchy band towards you, lying on your back & holding your head up just a few cm's off the ground

·  LEGS:  Squats, lunges, calf raises, alternate heel & toe raises holding back of chair, donkey kicks (on all fours on carpet), step ups onto a step stool (good for your balance too), getting up & down from a chair (holding arms out in front of you, and without pitching forward or using hands for support), walking up flights of stairs two or three at a time

·  CORE: Planks, crunches, and on the gym ball: back arches, side twists, lying front on it with opp. arm & legs up etc.

If you think about it, you can easily turn everyday activities into mindful exercise. For example: doing up shoe laces, pushing a lawnmower, pulling weeds, lifting the wheelbarrow, lunging up stairs, carrying shopping bags to the car (park at far end of carpark) etc. Whilst sitting waiting for your fish & chips (kebab) you can twist and bend. While standing in a queue you can practice belly breathing to tone your deep ab's. Almost anything can be turned into stealthy exercise - just modify it to make it a bit more of a challenge. Start BEFORE problems develop, and do something, every day for life. Keep it FUN, SIMPLE, and REGULAR. Prevention is better than the cure. One of the best all-round activities is climbing. In fact, keeping childhood movement patterns going, such as: jumping, skipping, hopping, rolling, throwing & catching (and yes, even crawling!) are all very good for you.

3. FITNESS & WEIGHT CONTROL (for your heart, lungs, and joints)

·  Keep your weight close to ideal. Extra weight we carry around isn't just hard on our heart, lungs and metabolic system, it is also hard on our joints. For example, for every 5kg of extra weight from the waist up, there is 30-40kg more load across the ball & socket hip joints. So you can see why hips could wear out prematurely.

·  Eat properly, with enough quality protein (not just red meat) to reinforce muscle mass, and lots of fresh veges & fruit. Cut the refined, sugary, processed junk & bad fats. Get at least 30 mins of continuous cardio workout 3-4x per week. If you just walk, that's fine, but make it a more challenging by increasing the pace, doing some high knee lifts, or adding in some hills. Otherwise, consider swimming, cycling, squash etc. Do some outdoor exercise for vitamin D.

4. BALANCE & POSTURE - Tai Chi anyone?

·  We naturally lose balance and coordination with age, and don't realize that it's gone until we need it; like when we trip or fall or have to catch ourselves before we wipe out. That's where stand up & sit down exercises and standing on one leg really pay off. Not surprisingly, a study showed Tai Chi practitioners fall about half as much as their peers

·  Better balance definitely reduces the risk of injury from falling, esp. hip fractures and head injuries (very serious if you're on blood thinners). Doing balance exercises gives you the confidence to move!

·  Be creative and make up your own set of daily balance exercises. Do some with shoes off as it's better for your foot bones, muscles & nerve receptors. Here are some balance ideas from easy to hard (remember, keep it safe!):

·  EASY: Stand on one leg holding on something for support + raising the other leg up, back & to sides. Stand normally and practice weight shifting from one leg to the other with a slight dip each time (land softly)

·  MEDIUM: Walking slowly heel-to-toe (frontwards & backwards); and sideways crossing one leg over the other

·  HARD: Marching slowly on the spot with high knee & arm raise. Stand feet together up on your toes

·  EXPERT: Doing the above (balance on one leg, heel-to-toe walking etc.) with eyes closed

·  Standing on one leg improves hip strength too, but be sure to stand straight, not with the hip kinked out to side. Try standing on one leg doing everyday things around home - brushing teeth, ironing...

·  Another way to help nerve pathways stay more active is doing normal daily activities (like using your phone, brushing teeth) with the other hand. If it feels a bit awkward at first, good - that's the idea!

·  Try to maintain a nice tall POSTURE for life. Walk tall "looking up at tree tops" not down all the time. Stand back against a door feeling heels, bottom, back, and head (if possible, without forcing it back) all touching the door. Close your eyes & really sense how it feels, then walk away relaxed holding that nice tall posture. Imagine a helium filled balloon tied to your head pulling you up. Related to posture is proper breathing and workstation ergonomics (chair/desk/screen etc).

Our bodies are generally born to be healthy, but are soon subject to all kinds of physical, chemical, and emotional stressors from our lifestyle and environment, which can mess things up. The main issue is not a lack of pills or procedures, it's just that we need to remove blockages to our inborn health potential, repair damage, and do what we can to prevent or slow down deterioration. People often blame "old age". But it can't be old age if one hip, for example, wears out before the other, because it is the same age as the good one! It's much more likely (in the absence of disease or trauma) to be due to some kind of pelvis imbalance causing a short leg, forcing more weight through one side. This is something chiropractors focus on - keeping the body in balance with a good foundation, so your spine and nerve system can work optimally. The things outlined here are a great addition to chiropractic care - adjustments will hold better, and it'll be more about maintenance, not crisis care.

If you had a $6M race horse, would you have it lazing around, up half the night eating junk food etc? No, you would have that horse finely tuned, eating the best food and supplements, working out every day - and probably even getting its spine adjusted and muscles massaged as trainers do. Are not our bodies, the most complex of all creations, worth more than $6M??

Outside the scope of this article, but just as important are things like:

·  Supplements. To help guard against osteoarthritis, consider Glucosamine (stimulates cartilage formation & repair) with Chrondroitin (helps with cartilage deterioration), and Fish Oils. That, and a good multi-vitamin would be a good start

·  Avoiding the need, if possible, for prescription medication (or over medication with all the side effects). I love hearing about some of our elderly patients who end up in a Rest Home taking just half an aspirin per day. Staff don't believe it!

·  Look into the health benefits of things like garlic, turmeric, baking soda, apple cider vinegar etc. Drink plenty of water (before you get thirsty). Even on a cold day you can get dehydrated - a common cause of hospital visits with the elderly

·  Injury prevention. Good lifting techniques - not using your back like a crane. No more "brute force & ignorance"

·  The importance of filling your lungs with fresh air, and avoiding chemical irritants: pollution, smoke, sprays, dust etc.

·  Keeping your mind active ("cognitive fitness") doing puzzles, crosswords, learning new things, travelling to new places etc.

·  Sleep, stress management and healthy relationships.                           Health is our most valuable gift - cherish it while we have it!

I would like to thank some people for their inspiration and input regarding this article: Ross at Chiropractic House in Palmerston North, Tony from Small Wonders Gym in Palmerston North, Erana from Activate Gym in Dannevirke, and a 78 yr ex-professional ballerina (my Mother) who's boundless energy and dance-moves put me to shame.                                                Dannevirke Chiropractic - Tel. 374-9044