Technology for your Health
Time Out for your Health!
Regular exercise and physical activity are important to the physical and mental health of almost everyone, including older adults. Being physically active can help you continue to do the things you enjoy and stay independent as you age. Regular physical activity over long periods of time can produce long-term health benefits. That’s why health experts say that older adults should be active every day to maintain their health.
In addition, regular exercise and physical activity can reduce the risk of developing some diseases and disabilities that develop as people grow older. In some cases, exercise is an effective treatment for many chronic conditions. For example, studies show that people with arthritis, heart disease, or diabetes benefit from regular exercise. Exercise also helps people with high blood pressure, balance problems, or difficulty walking.
One of the great things about physical activity is that there are so many ways to be active. For example, you can be active in short spurts throughout the day, or you can set aside specific times of the day on specific days of the week to exercise. Many physical activities — such as brisk walking, raking leaves, or taking the stairs whenever you can — are free or low cost and do not require special equipment. You could also check out an exercise video from the library or use the fitness center at a local senior center.
Talk to your therapist about the many types of exercise and physical activity. They can also give lots of tips to help you be active in ways that suit your lifestyle, interests, health, and budget, whether you’re just starting out, getting back to exercising after a break, or fit enough to run a 3-mile race or even a marathon! Exercise is for everyone* — people who are healthy and those who live with an ongoing health problem or disability.
*talk to your physical therapist and/or doctor before beginning any new strenuous exercise program.
Giving Thanks
Have you been through something that's made you glad to be alive? Has someone made a difference in your life? We're all thankful for the usual: our health, our families, the fact that we've seen another year pass. But what are you especially thankful for this year? Taking time to reflect on the things that you are grateful for may be more important that you think.
The mental connection. Scientists are discovering a bigger connection between our mental and physical health every day. This is likely the biggest factor in preventing illness as well. It includes the messages we send ourselves, and the more negative thoughts we have, the greater chance for those thoughts turning into something that physically attacks the body. A good example of this is when people break out in hives or eczema when under emotional stress. Other connections may not be as obvious, but rest assured, chronic stress, difficult relationships and other challenging situations can weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to illness.
You already know the importance of exercise and nutrition. But you may be missing an even more important factor in your health. Here are five ways to lessen your chance of illness during the flu season, and all year round.
Start your day out right. By starting your morning with a positive act, such as meditating on what you are thankful for, or by creating a grateful list, you'll be sending your body messages it will use to help you stay happy and healthy all day.
Music. On your way to work, or school, listen to music that makes you feel good. Whether it's soothing, or fun, as long as it makes you smile, you'll be much better prepared to start your busy day.
Breaks. Whether you spend your day working with the public, on the computer, or at home, remember to stop and take a break. Use that time for positive thinking to counteract any of the negative stress that you've experienced. Breathe, meditate, read a book, take a walk and get some fresh air, or just think about your favorite things in life.
Laughter. Laughter is really the best medicine. It actually reduces stress hormones and even benefits your immune system. Finding the humor in the most difficult of situations is one of the best kept secrets of a happy, and healthy, life.
A hot bath and a good night's sleep. Relaxing in a hot bath soothes sore muscles and joints, reducing stress and tension which helps you to get a good night's sleep. Getting enough sleep has a big impact on your immune function and disease resistance. This is the time your body uses to repair itself and your immune system, strive for 7-8 hours a night.
When Thanksgiving rolls around you will be ahead of the game, because you will be in the habit of being thankful everyday for the good things in your life.
When Thanksgiving rolls around you will be ahead of the game, because you will be in the habit of being thankful everyday for the good things in your life.
Fall is a treat!
Seasonal constants include maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This includes sufficient amounts of water for hydration, sleep to rest and recuperate, physical exercise for strength and agility, and proper nutrition to stave off illness. Fall can be a great time to renew goals, change habits and try something new.
Summer dining generally equates to lighter food fare, like salads, seasonal fruits and vegetables, herbal iced teas, iced fruit infused waters, etc. These were ideal for summer, because they were less taxing on the digestive system, and also kept a person cool. The colder months of fall and winter call for heartier foods like hot cereals, stews, soups, casseroles and the like are ideal for those colder months. These foods are nutritious, but also warming. Try dried fruits and nuts and make your own granola. Consider frozen fruits and vegetables, which are quick frozen right after harvesting, preserving more of the nutrient value; they’re a nice reminder of the fresher seasonal produce during the warming months.
Continue using an SPF product to protect the skin from the sun’s harmful rays.
Consider gathering up dried twigs, branches, leaves, etc. and creating an arrangement for a seasonal tablescape, or put them in a large basket and display by your entry.
When winter hits and the colder weather, and shorter days are giving you cabin fever, be sure to keep the spring and summer indoor with live plants and flowers. Don’t forget to open your windows every so often just to let some fresh air inside. Take walks to shake the “blues” away and enjoy the beautiful scenery around you, if necessary, bundle up with a jacket and scarf. Remember to enjoy each season and the change it offers.
Cold and flu season: Keep yourself healthy!
When cold and flu season hit, we are bombarded with advice for getting well, but the best way to be well is to prevent yourself from getting sick. While there are no known cures for colds and flu, there are some proactive measures you can take to keep yourself healthy.
#1 Wash Your Hands
Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a doorknob. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often. If no sink is available, rub your hands together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold germs. Or rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands.
#2 Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands
Germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it away immediately. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow.
#3 Don't Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents and teachers.
#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the toxins as it rehydrates you. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow, you need more fluids.
#5 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.
These are just a few tips to help you avoid catching a cold or the flu this season.
#1 Wash Your Hands
Most cold and flu viruses are spread by direct contact. Someone who has the flu sneezes onto their hand, and then touches the telephone, the keyboard, a doorknob. The germs can live for hours -- in some cases weeks -- only to be picked up by the next person who touches the same object. So wash your hands often. If no sink is available, rub your hands together very hard for a minute or so. That also helps break up most of the cold germs. Or rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer onto your hands.
#2 Don't Cover Your Sneezes and Coughs With Your Hands
Germs and viruses cling to your bare hands, muffling coughs and sneezes with your hands results in passing along your germs to others. When you feel a sneeze or cough coming, use a tissue, then throw it away immediately. If you don't have a tissue, cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow.
#3 Don't Touch Your Face
Cold and flu viruses enter your body through the eyes, nose, or mouth. Touching their faces is the major way children catch colds, and a key way they pass colds on to their parents and teachers.
#4 Drink Plenty of Fluids
Water flushes your system, washing out the toxins as it rehydrates you. How can you tell if you're getting enough liquid? If the color of your urine runs close to clear, you're getting enough. If it's deep yellow, you need more fluids.
#5 Do Aerobic Exercise Regularly
Aerobic exercise speeds up the heart to pump larger quantities of blood; makes you breathe faster to help transfer oxygen from your lungs to your blood; and makes you sweat once your body heats up. These exercises help increase the body's natural virus-killing cells.
These are just a few tips to help you avoid catching a cold or the flu this season.
Physical Therapy and Fibromyalgia Syndrome
Physical therapists teach self-management skills to people with all types of conditions, including fibromyalgia. Physical therapists can show people with fibromyalgia how to relieve symptoms of pain and stiffness in everyday life. They can also help people with fibromyalgia learn how to make sensible decisions about daily activities that will prevent painful flare-ups.
How Can a Physical Therapist Help my Fibromyalgia?
A licensed physical therapist has a background in anatomy and kinesiology -- the study of movement. If you have fibromyalgia, this allows the therapist to develop specific stretching and strengthening programs to meet your individual needs.Physical therapists work with all types of patients -- from infants to adults. They provide health services that help restore function, improve mobility, relieve pain, and prevent or limit permanent physical disabilities. Working one-on-one with people, physical therapists help restore overall fitness and health.
How Can Physical Therapy Help Relieve Fibromyalgia Pain?
While there is no known cure for fibromyalgia, physical therapy may help ease the symptoms of pain. It can also help reduce stiffness and fatigue. In addition to exercise, physical therapists use a wide range of resources -- from deep tissue massage to ice and heat packs for hydrotherapy. With these tools, physical therapists can help people with fibromyalgia use their muscles, stretch for flexibility, and move their joints through range-of-motion exercises.The benefit of physical therapy is that it allows a person with fibromyalgia to work closely with a trained professional who can design a fibromyalgia-specific treatment program. The therapist documents your progress and gauges whether you're practicing good therapy habits, alignments, and movement patterns when doing "homework" or exercises at home.
The ultimate goal of physical therapy is for you to learn the specific exercises and then do them daily at home.
Clinical studies have shown that stretching and exercise such as tai chi can help relieve symptoms of fibromyalgia.
What Other Tools Does a Physical Therapist Use for Fibromyalgia?
The physical therapist may use different types of tools with fibromyalgia patients including:- deep tissue massage
- low-impact aerobic conditioning (water aerobics)
- pain relief exercise
- stretching and strengthening exercises
- TENS units (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation)
- ultrasound
Tips To Avoid Knee Pain
Nearly everyone has experienced knee pain. Whether it’s caused by arthritis, excessive foot pronation or overuse of the muscles that protect this vulnerable joint. Here is the GOOD NEWS: Most chronic knee pain is avoidable. New research published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that exercise and physical therapy are just as effective as surgery for relief from chronic knee pain related to arthritis. Learning to strengthen and stretch key muscles that support the knees, and other ways to protect and take care of our knees, can ultimately prolong the health of this vital body part.1. Strengthen your "butt" muscle. When these muscles atrophy or become imbalanced because we tend to sit much of the day, the hamstrings and hip adductors (inner thigh muscles) also overwork — to compensate for the underdeveloped gluteus maximus — resulting in compressive force on the knee joint. By stretching out these support muscles, you decrease the chance that they’ll get tight and cause muscle imbalances. So remember the complementary two-fold process: As you strengthen naturally weak muscles like the glutes, also stretch supporting muscles like the inner thigh muscles.
2. Strengthen your core. Abdominal weakness will cause your pelvis to tilt forward, creating excessive low-back curvature and shifting the leg bones inward. You can experiment with this yourself: Over-arch your back and notice how your legs and knees want to roll in toward the midline of the body. Then flatten your back and notice how the opposite movement occurs at the legs.
Strengthening the core helps to keep your back in a neutral spine position and places the lower extremities — specifically the knees — in the best possible position for movement without joint compression.
There are many ways to strengthen your abdominal muscles besides doing crunches. Dance, yoga, kickboxing, ab routines using fitness balls, or a core workout with elements of Pilates. Pilates was created with a strong emphasis on improving core strength to improve the function of the entire body.
3. Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight makes men five times more likely (and women four times more likely) to develop knee osteoarthritis. New research shows that a 10% decrease in weight will result in a 28% increase in knee function (in such activities as climbing stairs or walking). Another study found that for every 11 pounds a woman loses, there is a remarkable 50 percent decrease in the risk of knee arthritis.
Why? Fat decreases muscle strength, and excess body weight adds strain to knee joints. In fact, there’s an inverse relationship between body weight and quadriceps muscle strength: the higher your body weight, the weaker your knee muscles.
To start burning those extra calories required for weight loss without adding additional impact to the knees, try water aerobics, an elliptical trainer or cycling (making sure you have proper seat height).
4. Take care of your feet. Replace your workout sneakers frequently — every 300 miles, which could be three months or a year depending on your level of activity. This is a safe way to avoid wearing a shoe with poor cushioning support for your arches and joints.
You may look great in three-inch stilettos, but keep in mind that high-heeled shoes increase the compressive force on your knee joints by 23%. Wearing heels also encourages tight calf muscles, another common cause of knee pain. A tight calf can pull the foot inward to a position called pronation, which essentially collapses the arch of the foot and causes the lower leg to roll inward, placing stress on the ankle and knee. So embrace the flat shoe fashion trend and stretch out those calves.
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