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Colleagues,
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The power of
evidence-based living
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We've chosen to republish an e-mail sent over a year ago. It was one of the most popular ones we've ever sent.
A compelling article by Jane Brody titled, "Even More Reasons to Get a Move On," appeared in the Health
section of The New York Times, March 1, 2010. It should be a must read for all aging services staff! Consider using the article to motivate your staff and residents towards increasing their physical activity.
Excerpts are below. To read the full article, click HERE. |
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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, a new series of studies prompts me to again review the myriad benefits to body, mind and longevity of regular physical activity for people of all ages....My hope is that every new testimonial to the value of exercise will win a few more converts until everyone is doing it.
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In a commentary on the new studies, published January 25, 2010, in The Archives of Internal Medicine, two geriatricians pointed to "the power of higher levels of physical activity to aid in the prevention of late-life disability owing to either cognitive impairment or physical impairment, separately or together."
"Physical inactivity," they wrote, "is one of the strongest predictors of unsuccessful aging for older adults and is perhaps the root cause of many unnecessary and premature admissions to long-term care." "...Higher quantities of physical activity have beneficial effects on numerous age-related conditions such as osteoarthritis, falls and hip fracture, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, cancer, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, low fitness and obesity, and decreased functional capacity."
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In a 2010 study of 13,535 nurses who were healthy when they joined the study in 1986, those who reported higher levels of activity in midlife were far more likely to still be healthy a decade or more later at age 70. Physical activity increased the nurses' chances of remaining healthy regardless of body weight, although those who were both lean and active had "the highest odds of successful survival.
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Research-based Evidence
Here is what recent studies have shown, including several published in The Archives of Internal Medicine. Areas include cancer, osteoporosis and fragility, diabetes, dementia, and cardiovascular disease.
Cancer
In a review last year of 52 studies of exercise and colon cancer, researchers concluded that people who were most active were 21 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who were least active, possibly because activity helps to move waste more quickly through the bowel. The risk of breast cancer, too, is about 16 percent lower among physically active women, perhaps because exercise reduces tissue exposure to insulin-like growth factor, a known cancer promoter. |
Osteoporosis and Fragility
Weak bones and muscles increase the risk of falls and fractures and an inability to perform the tasks of daily life.
Weight-bearing aerobic activities like brisk walking and weight training to increase muscle strength can reduce or even reverse bone loss. In one of the new studies, German researchers demonstrated that exercise significantly increased bone density and reduced the risk of falls. And at any age, even in people over 100, weight training improves the size and quality of muscles, thus increasing the ability to function independently.
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Diabetes
Moderate activity has been shown to lower the risk of developing diabetes even in women of normal weight. A 16-year study of 68,907 initially healthy female nurses found that those who were sedentary had twice the risk of developing diabetes, and those who were both sedentary
and obese had 16 times the risk when compared with normal-weight women who were active. Another study that randomly assigned 3,234 pre-diabetic men and women to modest physical activity (at least 150 minutes a week) found exercise to be more effective than the drug
Metformin at preventing full-blown diabetes.
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Dementia
As the population continues to age, perhaps the greatest health benefit of regular physical activity will turn out to be its ability to prevent or delay the loss of cognitive functions. A new study of 3,485 healthy men and women older than 55 found that those who were physically active three or more times a week were least likely to become cognitively impaired.
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Cardiovascular DiseaseAerobic exercise has long been established as an invaluable protector of the heart and blood vessels. Though early studies were conducted only among men, in a 2002 study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that among 73,743 initially healthy women ages 50 to 79, walking briskly for 30 minutes a day five days a week, as well as more vigorous exercise, substantially reduced the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events. In another study, women who walked at least one hour a day were 40 percent less likely to suffer a stroke than women who walked less than an hour a week.
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If this doesn't get people moving, shaking, and off their duffs, what will?
In good health,
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Neil Beresin
National Program Manager
COLLAGE, The Art & Science of Healthy Aging
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 610.335.1283
Website: collageaging.org
Blog: blog.collageaging.org
Twitter: twitter.com/collageaging
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Learn More About COLLAGE
Our next free one-hour webinar is Thursday, June 23 from 12:30 to 1:30, ET.
Click HERE to register.
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"The results of this study are exciting in that they suggest an association between physical activity, in the form of walking, brain structure, and dementia across the period of a decade. Such results provide yet another reason for the medical community to prescribe physical activity as a means to reduce the probability of age-associated neurodegenerative disease."
--Dr. Arthur Kramer University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign |
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COLLAGE, The Art & Science of Healthy Aging
A membership consortium of aging services organizations, including CCRCs, moderate income and federally subsidized housing, and home care and community-based agencies using a holistic, evidence-based assessment tool and person-centered process to advance healthy aging and improve outcomes of older adults living independently.
[email protected]
610.335.1283
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