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Before you start an exercise/activity program, discuss your plan with your Primary Care Provider at AgeWell.

Best Exercises for Senior Citizens

A major component of being healthy is to maintain an active physical lifestyle. Combined with eating well and getting enough sleep, physical activity ranks highly among the things you can do to increase your chances of living a long, healthy life.

Being physically active is even more important as you age. Doing the same physical activities you did in your 20s and 30s, however, is probably not a good idea when you reach your 60s and 70s. It is important to identify exercises and activities that are healthy, fun, and safe for senior citizens.

Exercises to Help Senior Citizens

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommends that senior citizens do exercises that address four important areas:

Balance: Falls are the leading cause of injury and death among people aged 65 and over. Incorporating activities like tai chi and yoga can help maintain your balance.

Endurance: This includes aerobic activities that increase your heart and breathing rates. You should aim to do these exercises for 150 minutes a week.
Flexibility: Simple activities like stretching once a day can dramatically improve your flexibility.
Strength: This includes activities like weightlifting and using resistance bands. You should aim to do strength-building activities two to three times a week.

The exercises and activities below include some or all of the identified core target areas outlined above. They are great for senior citizens who want to maintain an active lifestyle while ensuring they stay safe and healthy.

Water Aerobics

Exercising in water is a great way to move your body if you’re worried about arthritis and joint pain. The water helps support your body weight, and it also provides a natural resistance, eliminating the need to use additional weights. With water aerobics, you can improve your balance, flexibility, and strength.

Some exercises to consider in water aerobics are leg lifts, arm circles, and walking in place.

Chair Yoga

Yoga has been scientifically proven to not only have therapeutic effects but to also improve the quality of life of those who practice it.

Given inaccurate assumptions about yoga, however, many people think that they are not capable of doing yoga, especially older adults. While some yoga poses do seem daunting — such as a handstand scorpion pose —many are safe, easy, and beneficial.

Chair yoga, for example, is easy to do because it imposes little stress on muscles, joints, and bones. By simply sitting in a chair, controlling your breathing, and performing simple stretches like a seated forward bend, seated twist, or single-leg stretch, you can easily do yoga from the comfort of your favorite chair! Here are more chair exercises for seniors.

Pilates

Pilates has become a popular form of exercise because it is low impact. Developed over a century ago, this practice focuses on breathing, body alignment, concentration, and developing core body strength.

Pilates exercises are designed to increase endurance and muscle strength, and they’ve been shown to improve balance and posture as well.

A few Pilates exercises for older adults are step ups, side circles, and mermaid movements.

Walking

Often overlooked, walking is an excellent form of exercise and is accessible to almost everyone. While distances and time will vary from person to person, implementing a walking regimen that fits your lifestyle and comfort level is a great way to improve and maintain endurance and strength.

Studies have shown that simply walking 10,000 steps a day lowered the ten-year mortality rate by 46%.

An important part of maintaining a steady walking schedule is to make it fun. Identify areas around your home where a walk could be pleasant and enjoyable, like a nearby park, a safe trail, or a bustling city street.

Safety Considerations

Some physical activities are not suitable for people over the age of 65. Activities that require strenuous physical exertion, like long-distance running, abdominal crunches, rock climbing, and swimming, should be avoided. Regardless of what physical exercise you decide to engage in, you should communicate with your health care provider to ensure it is safe for you to do so.

Source: Web MD

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Wellness Wednesday 🩻🩺🩻 If you have a concern about Vitamin D - speak to your provider at AgeWell.

Am I Getting Enough Vitamin D During the Winter?
If you live in certain parts of the country, you’ll need a lot more than sunlight to maintain adequate levels this season. Here’s what the experts recommend.

Q: I spend most of my winter days indoors, and when I’m outdoors, I’m covered from head to toe. If I only get a few minutes of sun exposure on my face and hands each day, is that enough to get adequate vitamin D? And if not, what should I do?

If you live in a part of the country where winters are cold and gray, it’s smart to think about how you’ll get vitamin D — often called the sunshine vitamin — over the next several months.

Vitamin D is synthesized in the skin after exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet B rays, and is crucial for calcium absorption and the maintenance of strong, healthy bones, said Julie Stefanski, a registered dietitian nutritionist and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Deficiencies, which are common worldwide, can cause soft, weak and brittle bones, leading to fractures. Your vitamin D status can also play a role in other aspects of health including inflammation, autoimmune disease risk, heart health and cognitive function.

Most healthy people with fair skin can typically produce enough vitamin D during the summer by exposing their faces, arms and legs to sunlight for about five to 10 minutes several times per week during midday, when the sun is highest and its UVB rays are most powerful, said Antony Young, an emeritus professor of experimental photobiology at the St. John’s Institute of Dermatology at King’s College London, via email. People who have more melanin, or darker pigmentation, in their skin need longer periods in the sun (in some cases two-and-a-half to three times as much, though it depends on your skin tone) because melanin reduces vitamin D synthesis.

Winter sunlight does not have enough of the UVB component that is essential for vitamin D synthesis,” Dr. Young said. “For all practical purposes, one cannot make vitamin D in cold climates in winter.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t meet your vitamin D needs during the chillier months. “You don’t need to get it from sunshine,” said Dr. Deborah S. Sarnoff, president of The Skin Cancer Foundation and a clinical professor of dermatology at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

How much vitamin D do you need?

There is a lot of controversy about how much vitamin D you should have in your blood for optimal health, Dr. Young said. But in general, he added, most major medical organizations recommend at least 20 nanograms per milliliter as measured by a simple blood test.

How much vitamin D you should get from foods or supplements is also debated, Ms. Stefanski said, noting that it’s difficult to suggest one blanket recommendation for everyone. Your skin color, age, health conditions and sun exposure during warmer months, among other things, will influence how much vitamin D you need each day.

Still, federal guidelines recommend that in general, to maintain good bone health and normal calcium metabolism, people between 1 and 70 years of age should get 600 international units (or 15 micrograms) each day — from foods, supplements or both. Those over 70 should get 800 I.U. (or 20 micrograms), according to the guidelines, and infants up to 12 months need 400 I.U. (or 10 micrograms).

“But many organizations don’t feel those numbers are high enough,” Ms. Stefanski said. For example, the Endocrine Society — which recommends a blood level of 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter — says that most adults can safely take between 1,000 to 2,000 I.U. (or 25 to 50 micrograms) of vitamin D per day from either supplements or a combination of food and supplements.

If you’re concerned about a deficiency, are at risk for osteoporosis or have a condition that affects how you absorb nutrients, talk with a health care provider about getting your vitamin D level tested.

How to get vitamin D without the sun

While winter’s chill is in the air, you’ll likely need to look beyond the sun to satisfy your vitamin D needs, Dr. Young said. Foods that supply the highest amounts of naturally occurring vitamin D include fatty fish (like salmon, tuna and sardines), cod liver oil, beef liver, egg yolks and some mushrooms. But because the typical American diet tends not to include many or enough of those foods, manufacturers have been fortifying foods with vitamin D since the 1930s. Good sources of vitamin-D-fortified foods are cow’s milk, soy milk, cereal and orange juice. Keep in mind, though, that it can be challenging to get enough vitamin D from food sources alone, Ms. Stefanski said. And not all dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, so make sure to check the nutrition facts label.

“Especially as we’re entering the winter months,” Ms. Stefanski said, “most people would benefit from taking a supplement.”

When looking for a supplement, choose vitamin D3 over vitamin D2, Ms. Stefanski said, since research suggests you can absorb it more effectively. Also, look for a supplement that has the U.S.P. Verified Mark on the bottle, which indicates that the product contains the ingredients listed on the label and does not contain harmful contaminants.

Just don’t take more vitamin D than is recommended by the packaging or your health care provider, Ms. Stefanski added. In excess, vitamin D can build up in the body and lead to toxicity, which can result in symptoms like fatigue, weakness, confusion, vomiting, dehydration, constipation and pain.

Another thing to avoid in your pursuit of vitamin D, Dr. Sarnoff said: the tanning salon. Not only do the machines increase your risk of skin cancer, they also emit primarily ultraviolet A rays, which don’t spur the skin to make vitamin D. So stick with supplements and foods as your vitamin D sources in the winter, and consider adjusting your strategy when the summer sun returns.

Source: The New York Times
Rachel Rabkin Peachman

Wishing you a Happy & HEALTHY New Year from the providers and staff at AgeWell🎉