Health and Fitness

Mental And Emotional Health: Top Tips To Keep In Tip Top Shape During Retirement

1. Exercise. 30 minutes of daily exercise can improve your mood and relieve anxiety and depression. It also increases brain function since oxygen consumption is increased by aerobic exercise, which is good for brain function, according to the Mayo Clinic.
2. Socialize. Join a walking group, try a water aerobics class or simply schedule more outings with friends to the museum or a new restaurant.
3. Continue to learn. Trying different activities and learning new skills can also keep you mentally young.

“People who do the same things day in and day out seem not to age well in terms of brain health,” says Dr. David Trinkle, medical director of Carilion’s Center for Healthy Aging.

Learn to cook a new ethnic cuisine. For example, if you love sushi, buy a book or go to a class and find out how to make it yourself.

4. Stress less. Be careful not to overload yourself with too many activities all at once. While it is not good to sit at home and stare at the TV for hours on end, it isn’t advantageous to mental health to stress yourself by packing every second with appointments and classes. Stress is mentally taxing and aging. Meditation, yoga, massage and listening to soothing music are just a few ways to un-kink bunched up nerves when you’ve taken on too much. —Andrea Clark

Keeping Fit After 50: The Lateral Lunge

Retirement. A chance to tap into those aspirations you had when you were in your twenties or thirties but never got around to. Finally, time to pick up a hobby, like hiking or cycling, but suddenly your body is too stiff or your muscles move too slowly to do the activities you’ve been planning for the past 25 or more years.

Enter Krista Kurvits

As trainer/owner of Xcelerated Performance, Kurvits has made a career out of helping people get in shape. Her clientele ranges from age nine to 95, and having worked with older clients, Kurvits says one of the major setbacks she encounters in people over 50 is the fear of falling. Most injuries happen when a person moves to the side or their body does a rotational movement, and Kurvits says this is because people do everything in the forward motion. They walk and run forward, they move their legs forward when they bike, and they even lean down to pick things up in a frontward motion. So, when people’s bodies make sudden movements in directions other than forward, it often results in a fall or an injury. That means it is very important, especially in the older years of life, to train and strengthen your body to move in other directions. This will not only prevent falling and injuries, but will also improve overall fitness. Kurvits recommends the exercise below to jump-start your fitness routine.

Lateral Lunge

Stand with feet hip width apart and hands placed just behind the ears or place a wooden dowel across the shoulders onto the trapezins, the thick muscle where the neck enters the body. Step to the side going as deep as you can with control. Move back to center and go in the opposite direction. It is important to maintain good posture with your rib cage elevated and with your eyes looking straight out to the horizon. To start out, try doing five on each side. Once that becomes too easy, advance to ten on each side.

–Lauren Eubank

Fit After 50

So now that you’ve made sure you’re healthy, you think you’re done? Not so. Let’s talk quality of that healthy life. If you’re having a hard time getting out of a chair or walking up the stairs, living longer isn’t that much fun.Loss of mobility is most likely due to inflexibility and muscle atrophy. Basically, the old adage proves true here – if you don’t use it, you lose it.Krista Kurvits, trainer/owner of Xcelerated Performance, believes the biggest physical grief for people over 50 is
shoulder pain caused by upper cross syndrome. UCS can happen for a variety of reasons: sitting in one position for too long, too much forward movement and an imbalance in the muscles are common causes of this hunchbackmaking condition. If left uncorrected, problems can occur. “As a result of UCS, there’s shoulder impingement, bursitis, which can lead to rotator tendonitis and muscle tears,” says Kurvits. So what can a person do to avoid physical pain – not to mention the embarrassment of looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame? Kurvits recommends the exercise below (for a start).

Upright Row with Free Weights

With feet shoulder width apart and knees soft (not locked in place), hold free weights naturally by your side with palms
facing you. Pull in the bellybutton and tighten the pelvic floor (tighten your gluteals). Bring the chest up and engage the scapula (tighten shoulder blades a little). Squeeze the shoulder
blades together as you lift. Lift your elbows until the elbow is level with the shoulder. At the end of the movement the hands will be at the lower chest area. Slowly lower the weights (a 4-
6 count). Repeat for a total of 8 repetitions. Every week add 2 reps until you reach 14. Use enough weight to be able to complete the repetitions with good form. When it becomes too easy, go up 2-4 pounds.—Andrea Clark

Eat Well, Live Well: Valley Dieticians Offer Nutrition Tips (from ’03 Retirement Guide)

“People eat with their eyes,” says Don Menkie, a registered dietitian at Lewis-Gale Medical Center. A colorful meal assures a good variety of vitamins and minerals.

For example, yellow and orange vegetables are rich in nutrients, says Tammy Morton, a registered dietitian at the Salem V.A. Medical Center.

For seniors, nutrition is a crucial factor in staying healthy and happy. There are a few easy ways to help balance daily nutrients and calories:

• According to Morton, seniors often overcook food, losing water-soluble nutrients and enzymes.
• Morton suggests washing food under running water.” She also recommends steaming or stir-frying meats and vegetables.
• Fruits are also an important part of a nutritional diet. Jeanie Redick, a certified nutritionist suggests an automatic juicer for oranges and grapefruits and using appliances that make raw applesauce from fresh apples.
• Restaurant foods have an unusually high amount of salt,” says Martha Anderson, director of the Carilion Center for Healthy Aging. Restaurant portions are also usually too large. Anderson and Menkie suggest splitting a meal with a friend or family member.

Since joint pain is a common problem with aging adults, it’s important to take certain precautions to prevent the wear and tear on cartilage, and that includes nutritional precautions: Morton says every extra pound of body weight adds three to four pounds of pressure on the knees.

Vitamin C may help prevent cartilage loss and slow the progression of joint pain and arthritis. And, Menkie says, drink lots of water and stay active: “Staying still will only compound the problems.”

—KS

Vitamins Can Round Out a Balanced Diet…But Beware Interactions (from ’03 Retirement Guide)

Supplements are a good way to help balance the nutrients needed in a daily diet, especially for aging adults, but supplements should not be a complete substitute.

A multivitamin is a good idea for most senior citizens, says Tammy Morton, a registered dietitian at the V.A. Medical Center. It provides a “little kick” that can balance a small loss of nutrients from day to day.

Vitamin B12 is also easier to absorb in a supplement than it is in real food since B12 in food is bound to protein, which is harder to digest, Morton says.
“Both Vitamin D and B12 have absorption problems when they’re from regular food,” says Don Menkie, registered dietitian at Lewis-Gale Medical Center.

According to Martha Anderson, director of the Carilion Center for Healthy Aging, certain combinations of supplements may interact with each other or with other medications. Morton says that supplements can have side effects and toxicities just like medications.

Since patients often see different doctors that are specialized for different problems, it’s important that they have one primary doctor that knows what each medication is and can help with choosing the right supplement.

Anderson’s advice is to take in every bottle of medication in a ziplock bag.
“This way,” Anderson says, “the doctor will know what prescription drugs are already being taken and what doctor prescribed them.”

Anderson and Morton agree that all senior citizens should talk with their doctors about taking a multi-vitamin or calcium supplement.

—KS