Why Does Fall Risk Increase with Age?

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and remember a time you fell in love and the bliss you felt. Perhaps you thought about when you met your soul mate, the birth of your child, or when you discovered your life’s passion. You may remember your heart pounding a little harder, your mood lifted and an extra spring in your step. How would you like to feel this way every day? With physical activity and exercise, you can. Warm feelings of love are caused by chemical reactions that occur with the release of hormones and neurotransmitters inside your body and brain. The same feel-good chemicals are secreted when we fall in love and when we are physically active and exercise. First, let’s distinguish the difference between physical activity and exercise. Physical activity is simply adding more movement to your day, like doing housework, gardening or dancing to a favorite song. Exercise is physical activity that is planned or structured for the purpose of getting stronger and healthier. According to biological anthropologist, and Research Professor Dr. Helen Fisher of Rutgers University who studies love, the chemicals that the body releases with romantic love include: Dopamine creates feelings of euphoria, increased energy, focus and attention and also triggers an intense rush of reward and pleasure. (Interestingly, heroin, cocaine and sugar light up similar areas in the brain, making these substances highly addictive. Surprised by sugar? We’ll break down the science on sugar addiction in another article.) Norepinephrine causes the heart to go pitter patter, pound harder and gets blood pumping. Endorphins are the body’s natural pain relievers and are chemically related to morphine. They also create a sense of well-being, security and attachment. Like romantic love, exercise releases dopamine, norepinephrine and endorphins. But wait, there’s more! Exercise releases more chemicals into the brain that are powerful mood and mind-boosting substances including: Serotonin is a natural mood-enhancer that helps relieve depression. BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) also helps relieve depression and enhances brain health and memory. GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) which helps calm the brain’s emotional circuitry like Xanax® but without the side-effects! Exercise is a great outlet to cope with stress better. Then of course, exercise boosts energy and vigor, positively impacting all body and brain systems so you can feel good as the days and years fly by. As we age, diet, medications and stress levels all influence levels of hormones and other chemicals and can cause them to get discombobulated, leading to mood changes, anxiety attacks and confusion. Exercise has widespread effects on the body and brain to help balance the whole system. If there was a pill that had the same wide-ranging effects as exercise, everyone would be popping it. To experience these joyous feelings, you may be wondering how much exercise is needed. Glad you asked! Not as much as you may think. Research done by best-selling author, Gretchen Reynolds suggests that just 20 minutes of physical activity like walking is all that’s needed for the euphoric feeling, and for general health and well-being. In a 2021 research study , 6 minutes of self-paced walking improved energy, motivation and mood. The faster the pace, the greater the improvements! Even when it comes to better balance and walking faster, independent clinical studies with older adults show it’s possible in as little as 10-20 minutes per week using the MoveMor Mobility Trainer! That’s a small time investment with a big return. We have been led to believe that we need to work out long and hard for health benefits. Research is mounting to dispel this long-held belief. What are you waiting for? If you’re looking for better balance and more confidence when you walk, just sit down, strap your feet in and perform a MoveMor exercise video. Then head out for an invigorating walk and feel the love. Not sure where to start to get your balance and energy back? Schedule a 15-minute complementary call with Healthy Aging Architect℠, Cate Reade, MS, RD, CES, RYT, designing your blueprint to age powerfully! Get started today.

The start of the new year provides us time to pause and reflect on what went well and what we want to improve upon. Health is always at the top of my list for two reasons: first because I walk the talk as a nutritionist and exercise physiologist; secondly and more profoundly, it’s because I lost my health for a few years to chronic Lyme disease and recovered it. Anyone who has experienced a chronic or disabling condition knows wholeheartedly and bone deep that health is your most precious asset. As the saying goes, “A healthy person has a thousand wishes, a sick person only one.” When you’ve lost your health and vitality, you want it back more than anything else on earth. Living with physical, mental and/or emotional pain drains the life energy out of you. Your world gets smaller. You engage less. Depression sets in. You may lose hope and toss in the towel, simply accepting that further decline is inevitable. Or you can love yourself enough to take small, sustainable steps towards improving your health. If you look at all the changes you need to make, you can become overwhelmed and not know where to start. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. But before you take that first bite, ask yourself, “Why do I want to eat that elephant?” Regardless of your age or health challenges, we now know that small, gradual lifestyle changes are the foundation of health. What would happen to your home if it was built on a foundation made from sand? It wouldn’t be able to stand the test of time and the same goes for our health. The quality of how we choose to eat, move, drink, think, sleep and socialize each day all come together to create or break our health little by little.

The holiday season is here and heading into full swing. It’s a time filled with gathering together and sharing with family and friends. It can be a wonderful time of the year, and it can also be stressful. There’s all the planning, shopping, cooking, cleaning, entertaining and then gift giving that can be fun, but it also has its own challenges! As we get older, it becomes even more important to manage stress because it can lead to a 41% increased risk for falling (1).

Is it challenging for you to get up from the floor? You are not alone. Many older adults find that this skill becomes more difficult as the years fly by. Being able to rise from the floor is an essential activity to live independently and do the things you need, want and love to do; from playing with grandchildren, gardening and housecleaning. In the event of a fall, being able to get back up on your feet can be a lifesaving skill. Having difficulty or even losing the ability to rise from the ground is largely due to stiff joints and weak muscles of the lower and upper body. It is a skill that can be regained and maintained with consistent practice overtime. As we age it can be common to lose range of motion at ankles and hips. The loss of ankle flexibility is essential for the ability to get off the floor yet is commonly overlooked. It is also needed for daily activities like getting up and down from the couch, sitting on the toilet, and picking something off the ground. (Stay tuned, we will talk about ankle mobility in next month’s blog!) Flexibility and strength of the lower and upper body are functional fundamentals that are commonly lost with aging and inactivity and are needed to get from the floor to your feet include:

Here’s something we can all agree on. The older you get, the more experiences you have including the good, the bad and the losses. Aging is a great gift and when times get tough, you learn strategies that strengthen your resilience muscles. Just like the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is quoted as saying, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.” Resilience is what I admire most about my older adult clients. That ability to move through life’s challenges, to adapt to difficult situations, mentally and emotionally while learning, growing and becoming stronger. One of my MoveMor “frequent fliers” is a gal 92 years of age who recently lost her 67-year-old daughter. When I asked her how she was doing after class last week with sadness and a smile she said, “You have to deal with the cards that you’re dealt.” So true and you need strategies to manage your health emotionally, mentally and physically. It is such a blessing and privilege to work with older adults who have incredible experiences, stories and wisdom to share. At 61 years of age, I am blessed to be in great health and happily married for 33 years! My husband and I have raised three children who are amazing young adults living their lives. Now, in a couple of short weeks the nest will be empty. It’s a big transition time that doesn’t get a lot of discussion, but it should. It’s a time for reflection and big adjustments. Transitions are difficult as you feel the sand shifting under your feet. It feels unstable and uncomfortable. Everyone talks about the “empty nest” but I didn’t anticipate our children living far from home. Two are living on the central coast of California. They love the beach, having a 10-minute commute to work and access to fantastic fresh foods at the farmer’s markets. Now my baby boy is 6’3” and 22 years of age who graduated 4 months ago with his degree in architecture. He landed a fantastic internship in New York City. I am so happy for him as this is an amazing opportunity, but I am going to miss him, especially being so far away. It’s so wonderful seeing your children grow and become adults. As a parent, the most important thing is for your children to be happy and healthy. They are happy which makes me happy. But it’s still tough when they leave and fly far from the nest. That’s hard for mama bears. Now I have that same sense of sadness and cry like I did before each of my children left home to pursue their dreams. There is that sinking pit in my stomach, muscle tightness, and sleep disturbances surrounding the dreaded anticipation of him leaving. Our nest will be truly empty for the first time and our adult children will be on the west and east coast! This is a big transition time in my life, filled with emotions and the need for reflection. Our time on this earth is finite. Nothing is permanent so enjoy and relish each precious moment that you have with those you love.  When tough times and losses come your way, give yourself grace. Emotions have a huge impact on health and should be acknowledged, not buried or ignored. Take time for yourself. Process how and why you are feeling the way you do and nurture yourself.

Our lymphatic system is an extensive network of vessels and nodes that is often overlooked and integral to immune function and waste removal, significantly impacting physical, mental and emotional health. Unlike blood vessels that have the heart as a pump, the lymphatic system depends on movement for flow and function. Approximately 30% of my female clients who are over the age of 65, have lymphedema that causes swelling and discomfort. This can negatively impact physical function, mobility and balance. It can decrease the ability to perform activities of daily living and raises concerns about the ability to maintain an active lifestyle and functional independence as the years fly by. Cancer survivors have often had surgeries that involve the removal of lymph nodes that disrupts this powerful drainage system, leaving them with fluid imbalances, swelling and lymphedema in the lower and upper body. As we age, our lymphatic system can become clogged and backed up leaving us with excessive fluid accumulating in ankles, legs and arms. This can cause tightness, stiffness, fatigue and joint pain. Improving lymph flow can reduce swelling, boost detoxification and the immune system. It can relieve fatigue and joint pain as well as improve proprioception that is a prerequisite for the balance and confidence needed to reduce the risk of injury and falls.

Who doesn't love a success story?! Check out this video for some education and encouragement as Deanna shares her triumph over restoring her proprioception following her treatment for a brain tumor that damaged her body-brain communication that made her walking difficult and uncoordinated, putting her at a high risk of falling. Today Deanna walks with control and confidence! And you can too. Need balance? There is a special discount offer at the end so you can save $$$ and your independence at the same time! Act now! Offer good through August 4, 2024.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” ~ Hippocrates

As we age our risk of falling increases. Back in 1986, Mary Tinetti, a pioneer in fall risk and fall prevention research at the Yale University School of Medicine identified over 160 independent risk factors for falls! That was before “smartphones” so that number is certainly higher now as cellphones can be a major distraction. The risk factors she identified can be thought of as intrinsic (occurring within the body) and extrinsic (occurring outside the body). Research shows that the risk of falls increases linearly with the more risk factors that are present (1). The more risk factors we can reduce, the lower our chance of falling. That’s the purpose of today’s blog.