Don’t we all want to “age gracefully?”
“Live long and prosper?”
“Keep moving pain-free?”
“Maintain independent living?”
Of course, we do!
One of our mottos at Caring Medical Florida is Keeping People Active for Life!
This is why we strive to provide our Caring Medical patients with the most cutting-edge, progressive, and effective diagnostics, treatments, and rehabilitative strategies possible.
However, as Dr. Hauser and Danielle discuss with every Caring Medical patient – your full recovery is part us and mostly YOU!
What can YOU do to stay active, healthy, strong, and mentally sharp?
- First and foremost, MOVE YOUR BODY! 30 minutes of daily exercise (at minimum) will keep you from becoming frail and your mind from weakening as well. Exercise is more effective than medications by far!
Here are few ways to measure your ability to move:
- Walk 3 blocks with ease.
- Walk up a flight of stairs without getting out of breath.
- Get out of a chair without pushing on the chair handles *One tip we learned from Dr. Gray at Back in Motion is to spread your feet a bit farther apart, engage your quads, then push up. Be able to repeat this exercise 10 times 3 times during the day, minimum.
- Lay flat on the floor and be able to get yourself up. *Roll onto your side, get on all fours position, and push yourself up to standing.
- Walk for at least 5 minutes every hour.
If you find that you are falling short in this category, we encourage you to speak with your Caring Medical provider so that we can help you get back moving. Sometimes you need a little help from a personal trainer or physical therapist or both. We cannot stress the importance of this enough!
- Keep your weight in check. Obesity increases risk of chronic diseases manyfold, as well as increases the risk of osteosarcoma, which is reduced muscle mass, loss of bone density, and increased fat stores.
- Get good restful sleep of at least 7 to 9 hours per night. Those with poor sleep have increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease, as well as developing more brain plaques.
- Keep a positive attitude. Those who maintain a positive outlook on life tend to live longer, healthier, more active lives than those who maintain negative attitudes about growing older. A Yale study revealed that positive thinking people lived 7.6 years longer than those with negative feelings about aging.
- Eat real food. We talk about this in nearly every e-newsletter. You cannot underestimate the power of food. You just can’t. If you are not consuming essential nutrients for health maintenance and disease prevention, you cannot expect to be strong and healthy. Eat your veggies. Eat lean protein sources. The Mediterranean diet principles emphasize vegetables, whole grains, good fats, lean proteins especially fish, along with some fruit and dairy, and of course, drink water. These nutrients feed the brain, the bones, the muscles, and keep every aspect of your body running better!
- Again, broken record here, disconnect! We recently read a quote stating, this: “TV is a passive activity which makes us stupid and increases senility rates.” A study from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that those who spent long hours in front of TV had almost 2.5 higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s than those who read books, participated in a hobby, played an instrument, worked crossword puzzles or other “brain games,” learned a new skill, attended a class, or actively discussed/conversed with friends.
- Don’t stress out. Work on realizing that you cannot control everything, and, for us, giving things over to God, helps tremendously in maintaining peace in life. Meditate. Deep breathe. Pray.
- Take your supplements. Most people need to take Vitamin D3 – at minimum 1000 IU, but we take 5000 for immune support. Because most people do not consume perfect diets, most people need a high quality, pharmacy grade multi-vitamin.
There you have it.
These things take intentionality – as Nike says, “Just do it!” (We know, it is not always that easy!)
We want to help you get there – and stay there.