Aging Well - Staying Healthy!

According to the Chicago Tribune HEALTH section from February 2014, reporting from scientists at the annual Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago, the best way to age well and stay healthy is to exercise regularly, stay mentally active, nurture rich social connections and find things you enjoy doing and people you enjoy doing them with.

Great advice…very similar to the advice we offered years ago when we brought a book called the “BLUE ZONES” to your attention.

Experts say that by 2050, the proportion of adults over age 60 is expected to match the number of people younger than 15, each group representing 21 percent of the population.

It's called the Silver Tsunami. But, they emphasized, it's never too early or too late to work on aging well…and we agree!

Kirk Erickson, associate professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, studies the effects of exercise on aging. He pointed to studies of people ages 59 to 81 who were all free of dementia and found that those who exercised more frequently, who did something as simple as taking a brisk walk three times a week, had a larger hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with memory and spatial navigation.

And, after a year of this type of simple exercise, they showed an actual increase in the size of the hippocampus. Greater hippocampus volume correlates with improvement in memory.

Even more far reaching is the study below:

Everyone has heard of the Rand Corporation…they also did a study on aging. Almost two decades ago, they issued a report claiming that senior citizens who received regular chiropractic care reported better overall health, fewer symptomatic chronic conditions, spent fewer days in hospitals and nursing homes and were more mobile in their communities than their non-chiropractic counterparts.

Be social, exercise, have a healthy lifestyle and chiropractic works!!