ADVANCE Perspective: LTC : exercise

Seniors Can Stay Fit. Very Fit.

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:35:00 GMT

I see plenty of older people at my gym every day. There are a variety of Silver Sneakers classes, as well as individual exercisers lifting weights, jogging or walking the track. Yet I was still a little surprised when my partner in a new Muay Thai kickboxing class told me her age: 71.

While I firmly believe you're never too old to exercise, I apparently had a false idea about the intensity that seniors enjoy. So that led me to take a look at some highly accomplished senior exercisers.

Harriet Anderson was 74 when she completed her 18^th Ironman Triathlon. The Ironman includes a 2.4-mile swim, followed by a 112-mile bike ride, concluding with a 26.2 mile run with no breaks.

Ray Moon, 80, is considered the oldest bodybuilder. He has won four Victorian and Australian bodybuilding competitions.

Think that only people with a lifetime of exercise under thier belts can reach these heights? Not so. Robert McKeague, who was 80 when he completed the Ironman, only started jogging at the age of 57.

High Blood Pressure May Cause Falls

Heather Simons — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:20:00 GMT

Altered blood flow in the brain due to high blood pressure and other conditions may lead to falls in elderly people, according to a recent study.

Researchers followed 419 people age 65 or older. Ultrasound tests were used to measure brain blood flow response to carbon dioxide levels, a standard test of blood vessel function in the brain. Walking speed was measured by a four-meter walking test. The seniors and their caregivers reported any falls that occurred over two years.

The study found that the 20 percent of people who had the smallest blood flow changes in the brain were at a 70 percent higher risk of falling compared to the 20 percent of people who had the largest blood flow changes in the brain. Those with the slowest rate had an average of nearly 1.5 falls per year, compared to less than one fall per year for those with the highest rate.

The findings suggest that daily exercise and treatments for high blood pressure could be used for fall prevention, since blood pressure affects blood flow in the brain and may cause falls.

The research will be published in the May 18, 2010, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Are Your Residents Getting Enough Vitamin D?

Heather Simons — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:46:00 GMT

A recent study has found that increased vitamin D intake can improve muscle strength and physical function in seniors.

Denise Houston, MD, Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University, and collaborators studied the relationship between vitamin D status and physical function in a group of relatively healthy seniors living in Memphis, Tenn., and Pittsburgh, Pa.

This study was part of the Health, Aging and Body Composition (Health ABC) study initially designed to assess the associations among body composition, long-term health conditions and mobility in older adults. For Houston's segment of the investigation, she studied 2,788 seniors (mean age: ~75 years) for four years.

At the beginning of the study, they assessed vitamin D status by analyzing each person's blood for 25-hydroxyvitamin D, a precursor for activated vitamin D. At baseline and then two and four years later, the research team then determined whether circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D was related to the participants' physical function. Specifically, they looked at how quickly each participant could walk a short distance (six meters) and rise from a chair five times as well as maintain his or her balance in progressively more challenging positions. Each participant was also put through a battery of tests assessing endurance and strength.

When the results were tabulated, participants with the highest levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D had better physical function. And, although physical function declined over the course of the study, it remained significantly higher among those with the highest vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study compared to those with the lowest vitamin D levels.

In general, vitamin D consumption was very low in this group of otherwise healthy seniors. In fact, more than 90 percent of them consumed less vitamin D than currently recommended, and many were relying on dietary supplements.

It is possible that the participants with better physical function had higher vitamin D status because they were able to go outside more often (sunlight encourages our bodies to produce vitamin D). Nonetheless, it is also possible that getting more vitamin D from foods (like fortified milk and oily fish) or supplements will help maintain quality of life into old age.

Baby Boomers May Outlive Their Children

Heather Simons — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 14:20:00 GMT

Americans are getting increasingly heavier at a younger age, and that could mean that baby boomers will start to outlive their children, according to a new study by the University of Michigan Health System. The study suggests that the impact of long-term obesity on chronic diseases and life expectancy may be worse than previously thought.

Researchers used national data on children and adults born between 1926 and 2005 to reveal the trend, published Monday in the International Journal of Obesity, that younger generations are becoming obese earlier in life than their parents and grandparents.

Researchers report that 20 percent of those born between 1966 and 1985 were obese by ages 20-29. Among their parents, those born between 1946 and 1955, that level of obesity was not reached until ages 30-39, not until ages 40-49 for individuals born between1936 and 1945, and obesity prevalence was even later for those born between 1926 and 1935.

Further research is needed to understand the future effect the obesity trend will have on diabetes rates and mortality.

Evidence shows body mass index, a calculation of fat and weight, increases with age, and children who are obese are more likely to become obese adults. Obesity is a well-known contributor to type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, disability and premature death.

The federally funded U-M study shows obesity trends were worse for women and blacks, a bad sign for reversing racial disparities in health, U-M authors say. Among 20-29-year-olds, born between 1976 and 1985, 20 percent of whites were obese compared to 35 percent of blacks in that age group.

Intentional Weight Loss in Elderly is Safe

Heather Simons — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:56:00 GMT

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is the first to refute the widely held belief that intentional weight loss in older adults leads to increased risk of death. Study results showed that seniors who intentionally exercised and/or modified their diets to lose weight were half as likely to die within eight years of follow-up as their peers who did not work toward weight loss.

Prior to this study, research that has examined the association between mortality and weight loss has not factored in the many different potential causes of the weight loss. Using a more rigorous randomized trial approach, researchers sought to prove or disprove the idea that older individuals who actively tried to lose weight increased their risk of death.

The research team re-analyzed data from a study of 318 community-dwelling, older adults over age 60, all with knee arthritis, who were enrolled in a trial assessing the effects of weight loss and/or exercise on physical function in the late 1990s. The initial weight-loss intervention took place over a period of 18 months from 1996 through 1998, during which time the 159 individuals in the intervention groups actively lost an average of 10.5 pounds. The non-intervention group lost an average of 3.1 pounds naturally.

The researchers then checked to see if the study participants were still living eight years later.

"Overall, we found that there were far fewer deaths--half the number--in the group of participants that lost weight compared to the group that did not," says M. Kyla Shea, PhD, first author on the study and a research associate in the Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine.

The finding was unexpected to seasoned gerontologists.

"For years, the medical community has relied on multiple epidemiological studies that suggested that older people who lost weight were more likely to die," says Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD, director of the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging at the Medical Center. "Weight loss in old folks is just understood to be a bad prognostic sign. The data that people have been using has been unable to separate the cause and effect of the weight loss, however, and our study suggests that the weight loss they've been studying may be the result of other health problems and not of intentional weight loss."

The study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, is currently available online and is scheduled to appear in a future print issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

Muscle Strength Reduces AD Risk

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:36:00 GMT

Dr. Patricia A. Boyle of Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago and her colleagues found that the greater a person's muscle strength, the lower their likelihood of being diagnosed with Alzheimer's over a four-year period. The same was true for the loss of mental function that often precedes full-blown Alzheimer's, reports Reuters Health.

Studies have linked grip strength to Alzheimer's, while a person's weight and level of physical activity also influence risk of the disease. To date, however, no one has studied whether muscle strength in and of itself might play a role in dementia risk, Boyle and her team note in November's Annals of Neurology.

Read the article here.

"Exergames" Improve Symptoms of Depression

Heather Simons — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 13:43:00 GMT

A recent pilot study has found that regular use of "exergames"--video games, like Nintendo Wii, that combine entertainment with exercise--can improve symptoms of subsyndromal depression (SSD) in seniors.

SSD is much more common than major depression in seniors, and is associated with substantial suffering, functional disability and increased use of costly medical services. While it's known that physical activity can improve depression, fewer than five percent of older adults regularly meet physical activity recommendations.

In the study, conducted at the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, 19 participants with SSD ranging in age from 63 to 94 played an exergame on the Nintendo Wii video game system during 35-minute sessions, three times a week. They chose from five Wii sports games: tennis, bowling, baseball, golf or boxing.

The participants reported high satisfaction and rated the exergames on various attributes including enjoyment, mental effort, and physical limitations. Though some participants expressed nervousness at the start, most reported that learning and playing the video games was satisfying and enjoyable.

Do residents at your facility play Wii or other exergames?

Exercise and Healthy Eating Still Important

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:04:00 GMT

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When time is too short for exercise or healthy eating, supplements can fill the gap, right? Not necessarily, according to Jane Brody, author of "Healthy Aging, With Nary a Supplement."

Volunteering Prevents Frailty in Elderly

Heather Simons — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:29:00 GMT

A recent UCLA study has found that volunteering, more than other productive activities, can prevent the onset of frailty in the elderly.

Frailty is a geriatric condition marked by weight loss, low physical activity and low energy and strength. UCLA researchers followed 1,072 healthy adults aged 70 to 79 between 1988 and 1991 to determine if productive activities--volunteering, child care and paid work--prevent frailty.

At the beginning of the study, 28 percent of participants volunteered, 25 percent performed child care duties and 19 percent worked for pay. After three years, participants in all three activities were found to be less likely to become frail. After accounting for levels of physical and cognitive function, however, only volunteering was associated with lower rates of frailty.

A randomized trial is needed to determine whether volunteering itself prevents the onset of frailty, or if there is something about the types of people who volunteer regularly that keeps them from becoming frail.

NSL Wii Tournament Begins in February

Heather Simons — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:15:00 GMT

Beginning on February 15, 2010, long-term care residents across the country will show off their athletic prowess as participants in the National Senior League Wii Bowl and Wii Golf Tournament, without ever having to leave the facility.

Residents and communities can register for the national league here until February 1. You can register multiple teams and choose an all-inclusive annual package offering participation in multiple competitions, or you can sign up for each league session individually.

To participate, senior living communities or centers need to have a Wii gaming system. Teams bowl at their convenience during the week, with a team captain/coach submitting scores online for their match with another community from across the nation. National Senior League tracks weekly competitions, team stats and team standings on its Web site and assigns playoff match-ups to crown a national champion.

Last year, nearly 200 teams from more than 100 senior living communities and centers participated in the NSL Wii Bowl and Golf Tournament. A community from Boca Raton, Fla., won the crown.

Visit the NSL Web site here.

Cardiac rehab can help prevent recurring heart attacks

Maureen Salera — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 16:29:00 GMT

Researchers found that people who get all 36 sessions of cardiac rehabilitation (that most Medicare plans pay for) are not as likely to have a heart attack or die in the next three to four years as people who have less cardiac rehab sessions, according to the AP.

While approximately one-fifth of heart patients attempt rehab, most people don't get all the recommended sessions.

The study, conducted by Duke University scientists and published online yesterday in the journal Circulation, is one of the first to examine how the recommended dose of cardiac rehab affects survival.

To read the entire article on MSNBC.com, click here.

More Robots for Seniors

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:58:00 GMT

Two things many seniors can be hesitant about-exercise and technology-are coming together in Taizo, the Japanese fitness robot. Taizo weighs about 14 pounds and stands two feet tall. It can do about 30 moves, mostly while sitting down. It will sell for about $8,000. See the fit little guy here.

I'm not sure seniors would be best served by an $8,000 robot. It seems like a human would be far better served to ensure a safe exercising environment. So you see any benefits to a robotic exercise instructor? Maybe for community-dwelling seniors who lack access to formal exercise programs?