Strength Exercises Help Prevent Functional Decline

By Elaine Jarvik Deseret Morning News

Time, wear-and-tear and decades of lazy choices take their toll as bodies age, which is why exercise, medical screenings and the ever-popular “eat your vegetables” continue to be good advice even into our 90s, say fitness experts.

In the “oldest old,” says Dr. Frank Yanowitz, resistance training to maintain muscle tone is crucial. “Everybody should be doing some resistance training, but the very old need it the most,” says Yanowitz, medical director of the Health and Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital.

Health and Fitness Institute doctors will be fielding calls today as part of the Deseret Morning News/Intermountain Healthcare Hotline. The hotline, which will focus on “Tests and Prevention That Can Save Your Life” will run from 10 a.m. to noon; all calls are confidential.

Younger people, Yanowitz says, generally do enough in their daily activity to maintain strength and endurance, but the elderly usually don’t. So a day or two a week of strength training is important, along with aerobics and balance exercises he says. “Even the most frail person can do the strength exercises.”

Over the age of 80, he says, “What we want to do is prevent functional decline. The more we lose our ability to live independently, the more burden we are to our caregivers and the less enjoyable our lives become.” Tai chi, he adds, “has a good evidence- base as a means of preventing falls and maintaining function.”

Beginning at age 50, Yanowitz suggests, start getting your blood pressure checked at least once a year, more often if it’s too high. “If you don’t already have high blood pressure, there’s an 80 to 90 percent chance you’ll get it as you age,” he says. That’s because the large arteries lose their compliance, and the stiffness makes them act “more like a pipe.”

High blood pressure in younger adults, on the other hand, is a result of small vessel abnormalities that elevate both the systolic and diastolic pressure. As people age there is more likely to be a greater range between systolic and diastolic; the wider the difference between the two — 50 or 60 points — the greater the risk of stroke, heart attack and kidney disease, Yanowitz says.

He recommends home monitoring for people at risk, using a digital arm cuff rather than a wrist cuff. “Don’t just randomly take your blood pressure,” he cautions. “You need to sit comfortably, with both feet on the floor, for several minutes. Don’t take it after activity or eating, and throw out the first reading because there’s often a little apprehension.”

A third of the adult population has high blood pressure, he says. The first line of defense is exercise, nutrition and weight reduction, he says, including a large intake of fruits and vegetables, low salt for the third to half of older adults who are salt-sensitive and foods that are high in calcium and potassium.

E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com

(c) 2007 Deseret News (Salt Lake City). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.