To what age would you like to live, 70, 80, 90, or 100+? May be a better question is: To what age would like like to stay independent, with strength, stamina and balance to tackle everyday activities and then some, age 70, 80, 90, or a 100+?
Life expectancy in the United. States is 78.8 years on average, although women still outlive men by about five years. The Journal on Active Aging May/June 2018 issue states that a woman who already has reached the age of 75 can expect to live to 88 and a man to 86.2 years. The quantity of life and quality of life in which you spend the last decade of life depends a lot on how your treat yourself the years leading up to this time.
Research shows that the best way that aging adults can assure a better and possibly high quality of life is by taking an active role in disease and injury prevention. By reducing the amount of time that we are sick and/or disabled at the end of life we compress morbidity and can remain living fully functional well up to the last week or weeks of our lives.
Several years ago I received a phone call from a son telling me that his mother had passed away the night before. He called to thank me. He explained that she attended one of my exercise training classes I was teaching at that time, exercises that allowed her to stay independent and live an active lifestyle. She took my class term after term, year after year. He said that she was always talking about the class and how much she enjoyed being there. He thanked me for giving her the chance to remain physically active to the very last day of her life. She made it to age 92 and lived independent in her own home in Beaverton, made her own clothes, learned painting with oil and watercolor, participated in many community activities and lived actively. She simply just went to sleep that night and never woke up. Tears welled up in my eyes after learning how much she valued the class I was teaching and learning that she enjoyed a high quality of life and truly lived life to the fullest which was her most important goal.
The point I want to make by sharing this story is, that it is never too late to practice prevention and extending both quality and quantity of life. Genetics have a lot to do with this, however ‘epigenetics’ maybe more important than our genes which refers to the alterations in our genes and their expression due to lifestyle and environmental factors, which include fitness, diet, weight, sleep, mood, social interaction, alcohol consumption and other habits. These factors lead to alterations in our genes that also affect longevity.
Dr. Fries postulated about 40 years ago: The healthiest among us not only have the longest life, but also spend the shortest time being sick.
Our health and fitness professionals work with many a older adults to restore function, optimize health, fitness and performance through specific exercise and physical activity and many of these seniors have received regular and consistent training10 years or more twice to three times per week. Despite some serious health issues (such as strokes, TIA’s, stage 4 cancer and various cancer treatments) they were able to regain function and resume a life of independence. Several of these clients were close to losing independence when they started their personalized exercise program. Now those clients moved from their sixties to their seventies, those in their seventies are now eighty something and we have several clients at the advanced age of 92, 93, 97 and 98 who up to this day reside in their own home in the community and who are living proof that life can be improved and extended.
According to the late Dr. Robert Butler MD, there are several characteristics or behaviors that promote healthy aging. Some of these are:
- Mental exercise to preserve brainpower
- Muscle strengthening to keep mobile
- A good night sleep or taking a nap during the day
- Staying slender by eating a healthy diet
- Having strong social ties and love in one’s life
- Receiving good medical care
Additional recommendations for longer lasting quality of life
- Emphasis on a plant-based diet with occasional consumption of meat, with lots of high fiber foods, like whole grains, beans, nuts, yams
- Avoid overeating. Be mindful of the “hara hachi bu” principle of only eating to 80% full. Eating food of lower calorie density(e.g. More vegetables, beans, berries, fish, high fibers, and nuts). Portion sizes should shrink as we age.
- Stay physically active. Not necessarily having to go to the gym everyday, but instead just moving more in daily life, functional exercise such as gardening, cleaning, carrying groceries and perform structured exercise to restore function, improve health and optimize your wellness potential.
- Enjoy and be mindful, happiness is a critical component of health and disease prevention.
Source: the Journal of Active aging and me Jacqueline Sinke, my personal experience as a health fitness professional.
Fitness & Function has been offering the Delay The Disease # 1 Parkinson’s Exercise program for about a year. As the number of people being diagnosed with Parkinson’s increases, I as a fitness professional am excited to offer the # 1 Parkinson's Exerise Program that fights the symptoms of Parkinson's. I am excited to let you know that several of my team members also received certification in 'Delay The Disease".
Delay The Disease was developed at OhioHealth and reduces the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease. We provide personal training and private physical therapy in the reduction of Parkinson's symptoms, optimize physical function and fitness and help clients stay independent and functionally mobile longer. We work with clients in beginning to advanced stages of Parkinsons's Disease.
Most people with Parkinson's Disease (PD) are older adults and may have additional medical conditions (e.g. diabetes, heart disease, balance problems, degenerative joint disease, heart diseaase, hypertension, arthritis etc.), for whom an interdisciplinary exercise training and wellness program must be created to provide a safe and effective exercise experience and beneficial to all medical conditons.
The exercise program will be modified throughout the aging and disease process(es) to provide maximal benefit. Delay the Disease Exercise Program is individualized and aimed to help our clients with PD:
- Move about with ease and confidence in a crowd
- Get out of bed or rise from a chair independently
- Improve handwriting
- Dress independently
- Diminish worry that stiffness, slow steps and other symptoms are obvious
- Regain a sense of moving with normality Delayed The Disease Exercise like most exercise training programs needs to be sustained and modified throughout the aging process and disease progression to maintain maximal benefits
Let me know how I can help you.
INNOVATIONS IN AGING recently published the article 'Implementing STEADI in Academic Primary Care (OHSU) to Address Older Adult Fall Risk'.
The STEADI is an important falls screening tool that is recommended by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to healthcare providers and is benefiial to fitness professionals in determining fall risk in senior clients and the outcome of the screening is essential in the development of an effective and beneficial exercise program that allow older adult clients to stay functionally healthy and independent.
Fitness & Function has been using the STEADI Fall Risk Screening as a major defense plan for their older adults clients who wish to remain independent while aging for at least 4 years or more. This article shows that timely intervention can prevent a lot of pain and despair in the aging population when used appropriately.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths in older adults.Objectives include describing implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries (STEADI) initiative to help primary care providers (PCPs) identify and manage fall risk, and comparing a 12-item and a 3-item fall screening questionnaire.
When any of our clients is identified as being at high fall risk, a falls Intervention program is designed specifically tailored to target the balance disorder. Our highly specialized personal trainers and physical therapists provide in-home fall risk intervention, balance and mobility training aimed to help our clients to achieve optimal function to remain independent to advanced 90+ years of age.
Read the complete article by following the link below. https://academic.oup.com/innovateage/article/1/2/igx028/4669728
Innovations in Aging, Volume 1, Issue 2, 1 September 2017, igx028, https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igx028 Published: 28 November 2017 Article history
I have incorporated the Senior Fitness Test as a functional fitness assessment with many of my personal training clients and class participants.
Most people do not like to get tested, however most like to stay independent.
As an older adult, this assessment when administered correctly is your TOOL TO LIFELONG INDEPENDENCE.
When your goal is to remain physically independent until ‘late in life’ (defined as 90+ years of age). The appropriate wellness goal to strive for is achieving the ‘FITNESS STANDARD’ which is the MINIMUM level of fitness needed to support functional mobility and physical independence.
Achieving the Fitness Standard means having the ability to do common everyday activities such as simple housework, climbing steps, lifting and carrying objects, and walking far enough to do your own shopping and errands.
Going beyond the Fitness Standard is something that is achievable by many older adults, some are even OFF THE CHART!
Appropriate and timely assessments can identify areas of weakness that will need attention if declines leading to functional limitations are to be prevented or reduced. (Senior Fitness Test Manual 2nd edition Roberta E. Rikkli and C. Jessie Jones.)
BENEFITS of The Senior Fitness Test ASSESSMENT:
1 Can tell you whether your physical capacity on each item ranks in the Above Normal, Normal, or Below Normal categories compared with others of same age and gender.
2 Can tell you whether you have the recommended fitness level for your age to remain functionally independent until late in life - defined as 90+ years of age.
3 By taking the test on a regular basis you can track scores over time and monitor changes in performance.
4 Identify areas of weakness that will need attention if declines leading to functional limitations are to be prevented or reduced.
FITNESS STANDARD The appropriate wellness goal to strive for when you want to remain physically independent until late in life (90+ years of age) | |||||||
| AGE GROUPS | ||||||
TEST | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | 90-94 |
CHAIR STAND | (# in 30 seconds) | ||||||
Women | 15 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 |
Men | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 9 |
TEST | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | 90-94 |
ARM CURL | (# in 30 seconds) | ||||||
Women | 17 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 11 |
Men | 19 | 18 | 17 | 16 | 15 | 13 | 11 |
TEST | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | 90-94 |
2-MINUTE STEP | (# steps in 2 minutes) | ||||||
Women | 97 | 93 | 89 | 84 | 78 | 70 | 60 |
Men | 106 | 101 | 95 | 88 | 80 | 81 | 60 |
TEST | 60-64 | 65-69 | 70-74 | 75-79 | 80-84 | 85-89 | 90-94 |
8-FOOT UP AND GO | (seconds) | ||||||
Women | 5.0 | 5.3 | 5.6 | 6.0 | 6.5 | 7.1 | 8.0 |
Men | 4.8 | 5.1 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 6.4 | 7.1 | 8.0 |
When you are experiencing changes in balance or having difficulty with balance and mobility the best place to practice skills and balance exercises is in the home. Since most falls happen in and around the home part of a targeted exercise program is learning to navigate safely through and around the home, build more confidence and prevent a falls or injuries.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that one out of every four older adults 65 years and older fall annually and that falls are the main reason older adults lose their independence. Since falls and fall-related injuries happen in the home, older adults benefit more from bringing either the balance and mobility specialist or physical therapist to the home and receive targeted exercises that can be practiced on a daily basis.
Exercises at a fitness center or a physical therapy clinic do not often or always directly relate to the home. Additionally, older adults at high risk for falling or physically de-conditioned often do not have the stamina to fully benefit from an exercise or therapy session outside the home because by the time they get there they are already tired. Remembering the exercises for daily at home practice can also pose a problem and exercises are either not performed correctly or not done at all.
FALLS INTERVENTION is part of a Balance and Mobility Specialist and Physical Therapist's job. Restoring functional health, strenth, balance, mobility, adding years to our client's life and quality of life to our client's years with targeted exercise programs is our business.
When you are beginning to experience balance issues, had a near fall, a fall with or without injuries it is time to find out why you are having these problems. Just beginning an exercises program that includes balance exercises may or may not improve your balance or prevent falls from happening.
Medications Increasing Fall Risk
One of the risk factors for falling we look at during the initial assessment and evaluation is the number of medications prescribed; according to CDC- Center of Disease Control, taking four or more medications daily increases fall risk among the elderly. We often notice that the type of medications prescribed to older adults are also associated with falls and fall related injuries. Medications such as Metformin for diabetes, Citalopram, Lamotridine, and Loratafine for depression, Simvastatin for cholesterol, Nadalol and Valsartan for blood pressure, and many more are prescribed to older adults. Some medications need to be taken to sustain life, however with targeted exercise many of these medications maybe reduced in dosage or can be completely eliminated, thus reducing and eliminating medication side effects and dramatically lower the fall and injury risk.
Reducing Fall Risk Factors
When we also are able to improve muscle strength, posture, joint range of motion and stability, we reduce the number of balance disorders and fall risk factors for falling which often leads to huge improvements in quality of life and even restore someone's ability to live independently.
There are many reasons why people fall, however the risk for falling seems to increase with age. Falls are not a normal part of aging, an inevitable part of aging and the aging process by itself does not cause falls to happen. Unfortunately many older adults wait too long and falls with or without injuries happen. Falls are the number one reason older adults lose their independence and one out of every four older adults falls annually. About 40 percent of all assisted living admissions are relegated to falls and fall related injuries.
The Good News
Many seniors hire us to receive intervention and exercise training for improving balance, mobility, strength aimed to prevent falls and fall related injuries. Even at advanced age (90+ years), older adults can make improvements in strength, balance and mobility and improve functional health to the level that they can remain independent living in their own home. Reducing and eliminating risk factors for falling that are within your control can bring years to your life and quality of life to your years.
Nordic Walking allows people with fibromyalgia a safe exercise intervention that allows them to walk outdoors without having to avoid hills and increasing fall risk.
Persons with fibromyalgia can enjoy the same improvement in strength, flexibility, aerobic capacity and perhaps postural control as can healthy persons according to Arthritis Research Therapy.
Symptom flares are commonly exacerbated by exercise that is not modified for fibromyalgia. Specific aerobic activities that involve fast cycling, running, jumping, quick turns and certain dance moves may result in symptom flares, as can higher intensity exercise compared to lower intensity exercise.
Clinician often recommend exercise program for fibromyalgia patients 'start low and go slow', exercise should provide significant fitness improvements without a symptom flare, improve fatigue, pain, sleep, mood/distress and quality of life.
Research shows that moderate to high intensity (Rating of Perceived Exertion 13-15) outdoors Nordic Walking with nordic walking poles can activate muscles in the trunk and upper and lower body while adding balance.
The poles also allowed participants to increase their stride length and employ a faster gait or walking speed.
Learn the technique of Nordic walking in one of our clinics and and join the group outdoor Nordic Walking events offered in your community.
Feet, Forks, and Fingers are the Master Levers of Medical Destiny have the knowledge to eliminate fully 80 percent of all chronic disease and premature death. The leading causes of death are heart disease, cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, unintentional injuries, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease. David Katz explains that most of these diseases are immediately responsible for an enormous loss of years from life, and an even greater loss of life from years. In that context, heart disease is indeed the most common immediate precipitant of early death among women and men alike. Cancer, stroke, and diabetes do indeed follow close behind. It’s just that these diseases aren’t really causes. They are effects.”
In the United States, people age 65 can expect to live an average of 19.4 years.
How are we going to live the 19.4 years after age 65 depends on many variables. We cannot “prevent” death. But what makes death tragic is not that it happens — we are all mortal — but that it happens too soon. And even worse, that it happens after a long period of illness drains away vitality, capacity, and the pleasure of living. Chronic disease can produce a long, lingering twilight of quasi-living, before adding to that injury the insult of a premature death. And that, we can prevent. We can preserve vitality, and we can postpone death to its rightful time, at the end of our full life expectancy.
In other words, the actual, underlying “cause” of premature death in our country fully 8 times in 10 comes down to bad use of our feet (lack of physical activity), our forks (poor dietary choices), and/or our fingers (holding cigarettes).
Flip the switch on any of these factors from bad to good, and the lifetime risk of serious chronic disease was reduced by nearly 50 percent. By changing what we eat and how we live, we can alter the expression of our very genes in a way that immunizes us against chronic disease occurrence, recurrence, or progression.
In his book Disease-Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well Dr. David Katz provides information on how our behavior has tremendous effects on our health, well-being, and even gene expression.
What really kills us prematurely, and all too often imposes years of misery beforehand, isn’t a list of chronic diseases, but the factors that cause those diseases. What really takes years from life and life from years is a willingness to know WHAT, yet neglect the opportunity to know HOW.
What really kills us is the failure to turn what we know and have long known into what we do.
Enlist health fitness professionals such as a personal trainer, medical exercise specialist, health coach and exercise physiologist lifestyle modification to boost vitality, capacity, and the pleasure of living. We are specialist in exercise training and modifying behavior in the prevention and better management of chronic medical conditions and illness, optimize function, health fitness and physical performance.
Redirecting Aging is choosing an aging path that is different than that often portrait by advertisements you see on tv and social media where aging adults are needy, having multiple chronic medical conditions and taking medications and drugs, incontinence pads, assistive devices, scooters, etc. that just flood the tv channels distrupting your viewing pleasure and other media. All these things maybe needed at one point in our life, however many may also be avoided until very late in life.
Aging by itself does not cause a decline in function
Aging by itself does not cause development of most chronic disease that a large percentage of Americans face.
Aging by itself does not cause falls and injuries to happen.
Aging by itself does not cause bladder problems
These are merely as a result of lifestyle choices, physical inactivity, eating too much and choosing unhealthy foods and beverages.
REDIRECT THE WAY WE AGE:
I often hear that aging is not fun and is not for sissies. Yes, aging comes with change, we have been aging since we were born. Poor lifestyle choices combined with age-related declines accumulate over the years, and catches up with us as we get older, unless we stop it, reverse and redirect it at a time when we are still able to make that choice. Redirecting the way you age is choosing a different path, a path that helps you maintain and improve your quality of life, a path to long-term and extended independence, a path where you are able to make choices.
WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?
The alternative is being led along a path that makes you choose an unhealthy lifestyle; by consuming healthy food and beverage choices, physical inactivity, and/ or exercise that is simply insufficient to balance out your lifestyle. Avoid a path that causes you to take increasingly number of unnecessary medications and other drugs that just fatten the bank accounts of the drug companies and others. When we wait too long to make changes in lifestyle the number of choices that we can make disappear, choices are reduced to the point that there are no more choices, or others must make the choice for us.
STAYING INDEPENDENT AND VIBRANT AS YOU AGE:
Be pro-active in aging and take an active interest into your own aging process by optimizing function, health and fitness, to live a lifestyle that reduces the risk and prevents development of chronic medical conditions, and for those of us with significant medical conditions, to actively slow down the progression and optimize function where possible.
LIFE WELL SPEND?
Today over 86% of healthcare dollars are send treating chronic medical conditions. These conditions directly affect quality of life, affect length of life, they also cause financial struggles by patients and their families, and cause insurances rates to skyrocket thus making it another financial burden for all citizens who are forced to spend thousands of dollars each year on health insurance that no one really can afford to live without, money we all prefer to spend on things that bring us joy and fulfillment in life.
ACHIEVING ENJOYMENT, FULFILLMENT AND HAPPINESS:
Redirecting Aging is about taking charge of your life care, achieving enjoyment, fulfillment and happiness. Redirecting Aging is about being your own Heath Care Provider first by taking on the responsibility realizing that we create our health and well being. Choosing foods, lifestyle choices , activities and products that are truly healthy and protect our being and questioning everything that that is placed before us.
Redirecting how we age is also about choosing and hold accountable our health care provider(s), health insurance company and our fitness professional, and to make sure they truly have our best interest in mind and not their pocket book.
Redirecting how we age is being part of our life plan, taking charge and not taking things for granted, to ask questions and to educate ourselves constantly.
BE THE CEO OF YOUR OWN PERSONAL HEALTHCARE TEAM:
Redirecting Aging and how we age is about being the CEO of your own personal healthcare and life wellness team.
Redirecting Aging is about signing our own personal Declaration of Independence, a life lived by you and not directed or limited by the current healthcare system and the poor lifestyle choices in the media portrait as normal everyday life.
It is well known that most chronic medical conditions are preventable, and seniors falling and losing their independence is something we become accept as normal when in fact these are NOT NORMAL.
The fact is that all these things I just mentioned contributed to the over 86% of healthcare dollars spend. One out of every four older adults over the age of 65 falls annually and those falls are the main reason older adults lose Independence. Fourty percent of assisted living residents lost their independence because of a fall, most if not all of those falls were preventable.
Redirecting age is not picking it anymore and to say; "No, hold on there is another way, and I want to make that choice while I am still able to make choices." Lifestyle changes through increased physical activity, using portion control, truly healthy and more plant based nutrition, and exercise targeted to live well, strong, prevent and/or better manage and control chronic medical conditions with lifestyle medicine first and supplement this with medication only when needed.
Chose to live life redirected and be open to the idea that you have a large control over your health and how you age in your lifetime.
Jacqueline Sinke - business owner - and aging apprentice
