Extending our health span is a great way to start the year

Welcome back everyone, I really hope you got some time off to relax with family or friends, think about the year ahead and what you’d like to get out of it and perhaps you even set some goals!

A new article came through my social media feed and really got me thinking about just how important being physically active is for our bodies, minds and health. I was fortunate enough to have a conversation on New Years Day with Bex Townley, one of the Directors from Later Life Training in the UK, who are experts in exercise and falls prevention training. We spoke about ageing, physical activity and goals. If you would like to listen to our chat, please click here.

As well as Later Life Training, Bex and the team also run something called Make Movement Your Mission (MMYM) on a private Facebook group (it’s free and you can ask to join) which started during the height of Covid-19 and is aimed at helping older people to move more, move mindfully and get connected. Bex asked for feedback from the MMYM participants about our conversation, and they gave some fantastic comments to help us to grow and improve things. One comment I really enjoyed reading:

“A very interesting and thought-provoking conversation Bex. Thank you both. I've signed up for the blogs, I think they'll be so useful to us both. My partner doesn't like doing the hard things (well neither do I sometimes) but I can now explain to him that if he does those, he'll be able to achieve lots more nice things.”

Emma Gorge in Western Australia

It’s pretty much the reason why I get up early each morning and work out before going to work. Do I love it, not really, do I do it for immediate results, no, then why do it, I hear you say? There are many reasons, here’s just a few:

• When I go on holidays, I want to be able to walk 15-20 kms a day and not feel it

• Also, our holidays are usually active, climbing over rocks to get to beautiful waterfalls like Emma Gorge above. I want to be able to do this and not have my body be the reason I can’t

• I am renovating my house currently (sigh!) and we moved large pieces of furniture around and I was actually surprised at just how much I could do, all thanks to the training

• The hypocrisy would overwhelm me, imagine if I encouraged others to live fit and healthy lives because the evidence shows it really works and is one of the best things for healthy longevity, but I wasn’t practicing what I preach, I see plenty of people in life do this, that’s not how I work. I am in this with you all!

• I’m in the long game. I helped my Grandma to live independently to 95 but she needed a lot of assistance in her final years. I want to avoid that for as long as I can and physical activity and building up and maintaining functional reserves as I go is an important way to do it.

Now to this new article. It is free to access, click here if you would like to read all 58 pages, but that’s why I have this blog, so you don’t have to if you don’t want to. The authors talk about exercise extending our “health span”, what they are meaning is instead of living for a long time, commonly known as life span, and this could be in extremely poor health for many, many years, they are talking about living a long time but with better health for longer – health span. When we look at getting older it is probably what we all want, to live a good life but in good health for as long as we can. I am going to talk about one section of the article today because I thought it may be of interest to some of you, either for yourself, or a friend or family member.

The authors have described 13 different types of diseases and then provided the evidence for which types of exercise are recommended for preventing, or if you have the disease, slowing the decline or helping in recovery. The table below outlines the different diseases, the prevalence of the disease for older people and which types of exercise is recommended to help to live well, prevent or recover from the disease.

Table describing recommended exercise for different diseases

Table based on work from M. Izquierdo, et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnha.2024.100401

Further information can also be found in the figure below for any of the specific diseases you, a friend or family member may be living with currently.

Figure accessed at: M. Izquierdo, et al. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnha.2024.100401

In some of my other blogs I have spoken about the different types of activity, such as aerobic which includes activities like walking, running, swimming and cycling, resistance or strength training which can include lifting weights, using therabands or simply using your body weight which can be an effective way of increasing your strength. Balance training, we know is effective in reducing falls and can also help people who have had a stroke or are experiencing balance difficulties. Yoga and other activities that include linking the mind and body and often breath, such as Tai Chi are also good for depression. Tai Chi has also been shown to be effective in reducing falls and falls injuries, so it’s double the benefits in one activity.

There are so many different types of exercise and physical activities that you can participate in, my first suggestion is to pick something you enjoy because you are more likely to stick with it. However, if you are a person who has a goal or great desire to be able to achieve something not related to exercise, think about what body movements are required to do it. I am not into cruising for holidays but many people love them, and yes once you are there perhaps you don’t have to be too active. However, getting your suitcases to the ship, loading them into the car, walking up and down the stairs around the ship, then when it docks you might go off and look at the city or village for the day. Some might have cobble stone roads, steep hills to an amazing view that you just don’t want to miss. If these are the types of things you are wanting to do this year it could be a good chance to have a think about how easily you will be able to do them. If you think it might be challenging and you have a few months till you go why not make a plan on how you are going to get a little fitter, stronger and more balanced. Small progress forwards every day can build into something impressive in no time. Sometimes it is not just about exercising for the sake of it, it’s better to have a purpose in mind.

• When was the last time you had a full annual check up with your local Dr or GP. If it has been a while consider making an appointment and also ask for a review of your medications. It is important to do this each year and you will be starting off in a positive way for the year by looking after yourself

• If you have one or more of the conditions described above have a look and see if you are doing the type of exercise recommended, you might find it reduces pain you are experiencing or simply makes you feel better physically, mentally and emotionally

• Start small with a plan to continue. People with new years resolutions usually have grand plans to achieve huge amounts of something!! It usually fails because it is not achievable within their life when they have to go back to work, babysitting the grand kids starts back up or the usual day to day things required in life take over after the holidays

• Some of these conditions mentioned above have specific exercise groups who meet regularly not only for exercise but for the community and social side too. Sometimes it can feel lonely getting treatment and trying to get well again, have a look on the internet and see if there are any groups in your area that you could join. An example is PROST!, it is an exercise support program for men with prostate cancer, it’s evidence based and available at six venues across Perth, they also have cycling groups too. For more information click here

• Give it a chance. When you start exercising you might feel sore for the first few sessions or weeks, it is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and usually goes within 3-4 days of doing different types of exercise. This is actually not a bad thing, it’s your body saying, oh wow you haven’t used those muscles in a while! But over time you will no longer get DOMS you will just keep getting fitter and stronger and be able to do this more easily. Expect it to take up to 8 weeks before you start to notice some tangible differences, sometimes it’ll be faster, sometimes it might take a little longer if you’re going slowly but surely. The key though is to just keep going, after all it’s a lifetime, health span kind of thing!

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See you next month.

Live the good life!

Reference:

M. Izquierdo, et al., Global consensus on optimal exercise recommendations for enhancing healthy longevity in older adults (ICFSR), The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging (2024), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnha.2024.100401