This month is American Heart Month! What better way to take care of your heart than by following the tips below! 1. Exercise – Being active is a major contributor to keeping your ticker ticking. Getting enough exercise can significantly improve your cardiovascular health. At least 30 minutes of exercise a day is recommended. 2. No Smoking – There are numerous reasons to quit smoking, including improved heart health. So, if you are trying to keep your heart healthy, it is time to quit. 3. Healthy Diet – Diet plays a huge role in our health, including the health of
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Archives for weight loss
Equipment Free Exercises For Seniors
Exercise is ideal for maintaining good health, losing weight, and staying in shape. But as we age, our body begin to lose muscle mass. Sarcopenia or the loss of muscle, is the responsible for fractures, falls, low bone mineral density and insulin resistance. For seniors, strength training is not only key to fighting these deficiencies, but it’s also an effective way to build muscle, burn calories, and increase stamina and agility. In one study, a group of people in their 60’s, 70’s and 80’s developed a strength training routine. Soon after, they noticed improvement in bone density, faster metabolism, greater
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Exercise and Physical Activity Have Similar Positive Effects in Seniors
As we get older, our bodies still require movement, whether we like it or not. There are plenty of ways exercise and participate in physical activity that will help improve our health and livelihood, especially for seniors. Surprisingly, there are differences between exercise and physical activity. Knowing what those differences are and how each can benefit your health can help people over the age of 60 maximize their potential when it comes to staying active. Physical activity can include things like walking, jogging, biking, hiking, climbing stairs, carrying groceries or gardening. Exercise is considered to be a specifically planned, structured, and repetitive
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Video spotlight: Meals On Wheels
This week, we here at Freedom Home Care have focused on helping the elderly loved ones in our lives maintain a healthy weight. Therefore, we thought it was only natural for us to stop for a moment to sing the praises of the Meals On Wheels Association of America. The organization has been working hard to keep the needy senior population healthy and happy since 1954. What began in Philadelphia more than 50 years ago has grown to be America’s largest national organization, which represents about 5,000 community-based senior nutrition programs across the States as well as the U.S. territories.
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Tips for how to maintain a healthy weight later in life
Yesterday, we here at Freedom Home Care took a closer look at why older individuals are prone to lose weight. And we learned that a certain amount of weight loss can be considered normal. As it turns out, the actual decrease in pounds isn’t always attributed to a loss in body fat. Some of it can be due to a decrease in bone density, as well. Therefore, observing weight loss in your elderly loved one might not be something to lose sleep over. However, it’s also not something to ignore. In some cases, weight loss can cross the line from
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Understanding weight loss in older individuals
Weight loss in the older population is a common issue. As functions in the body begin to slow down – alongside activity levels – appetite also decreases. This, of course, is a simplistic explanation of why some of the aging individuals in our lives may look skinnier and skinnier as years pass. To truly understand weight loss later in life, however Livestrong.com, a website dedicated to healthy living, laid out the changes that take place in the body from a medical standpoint. As most know, the human body is composed primarily of bone tissue, lean muscle and organ tissue, fat tissue,
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Consider a sundae this Sunday for your aging loved one
Often times, we here at Freedom Home Care focus our blogging efforts on ways for elderly individuals to stay safe and healthy while living at home. A lot can change as we grow older, and with that change comes the need to adopt new habits. Adjustments to diet and nutrition might not have to come with quite as many sacrifices, however, as far as frail elderly are concerned. According to AgingCare.com, “there is a misperception that frail elderly peo diflucan ple should adhere to the same low-fat, low-calorie diet that is recommended for the general population.” Dr. Amy Ehrlich, associate
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Sit and be fit with Mary Ann Wilson
Yesterday, we here at Freedom Home Care reported on the importance of maintaining healthy bones, joints and muscles in order to increase coordination and balance. In our post, we talked about the benefits that come from weight-bearing activities like taking a walk. Understanding that all older individuals might not have the mobility to get out of the home, we are happy to take advantage of the exercises suggested by the PBS series, Sit and be Fit. In it, Mary Ann Wilson focuses on healthy activities that can take place while sitting in any household chair. For the video that we’ve
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Getting health benefits from video games
It’s a beautiful, sunny Saturday afternoon, and chances are that a lot of Chicagoland kids are inside playing video games. As adults, whether it be a parent or a grandparent, it should be our responsibility to get those kids off the couch and outside. And then once Chicago’s youth have taken a deep breath of fresh air, we adults, should then feel it our responsibility to pick up those controllers and start playing video games where the kids left off. Although it might sound a bit odd, a recent Wall Street Journal post titled “How Video Games Keep Seniors Fit,” discussed
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Competing in the 2012 Olympic Games at age 71
Hiroshi Hoketsu of Japan, pictured here, is 71 years old and is, believe it or not, competing at the 2012 London Olympics in the individual dressage for Japan's equestrian team. According to an article recently published by the Huffington Post, Hoketsu isn’t just the oldest athlete to compete at London 2012; he's the oldest one to do so in the last 92 years. As we have come to understand, staying active at a later age in life is not just important; it is imperative. And physical activity isn’t just good for aging individuals; it’s good for people of all ages. Simple
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