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What Does Aging Have To Do With Anything?
Plant and grow your garden
It is interesting to travel, observe cultures from around the world and what happens with aging. Â Yes, we have remarkable luxury, abundance, and quality of life in America, but the factor of natural aging, functional fitness, and health awareness can often be overlooked. Â Taking a pill, getting something tightened, or wearing the clothes can often obscure the reality of actual movement, healthy eating, and mental acuity. Â There really are no short cuts, easy methods, or substitutes for the ingredients of the wellness path. Â Aging can often provide wisdom, experience, and gratitude, but the fundamentals are not negotiable.
How does one stay motivated and inspired by the concept of health/wellness? Â That is personal and requires exploration, trial and error, and creativity. Â As individuals, we need to discover our true nature. Â Selfseeds was created as a program containing the basic ingredients of wellness and in a palatable sample size. Â The hope is to find a motivating start point, Â grow it, and/or maintain it.
Column: Exercise, active lifestyle even more important as we age The Coloradoan Research has shown that regular exercise helps boost energy, elevate mood, increase memory, and manage symptoms of illness or pain. …Column: Exercise, active lifestyle even more important as we age
Column: Exercise, active lifestyle even more important as we age
First, exercise helps with weight. Metabolism naturally slows with age, but exercise can increase metabolism and build muscle mass, which burns more calories.
Second, exercise reduces the impact of illness and chronic disease. Seniors who exercise experience improved immune function, better heart health and blood pressure, greater bone density, and better digestive functioning. They also have a lowered risk of chronic conditions including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, osteoporosis, and colon cancer.
Third, exercise enhances mobility, flexibility, balance and coordination, which reduces the risk of falls. The NIH reports that hospitals in the U.S. register 300,000 admissions for broken hips each year, many of them seniors, and falling is often the cause.
Fourth, exercise improves sleep, helping people fall asleep more quickly and sleep more deeply. Fifth, exercise boosts mood. Endorphins produced by exercise can reduce feelings of sadness or depression and boost self-confidence.
And, finally, exercise benefits regular brain functions. Keeping the brain active can prevent memory loss, cognitive decline, and dementia. It may even help slow the progression of brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recommend strength, balance, stretching and endurance exercises for older adults who want to stay healthy and independent. Strength exercises build muscles and increase metabolism, helping to keep weight and blood sugar in check. Balance exercises build leg muscles, and can prevent falls. Stretching exercises increase freedom of movement. Endurance exercises include any activity that increases heart rate and breathing for an extended period of time: walking, jogging, swimming, biking, even raking leaves. Endurance should be built up gradually.