(Don’t!) Watch Where You’re Walking!

As toddlers we’ve probably all heard “Watch were you’re walking!”.  But as adults this can be a very dangerous thing to do and here’s why.

First of all falling as a grownup is extremely weird and a much bigger deal than all those times we landed on our butts and tumbled around as kids.  Luckily falling is quite rare as we get older but when it does happen it can be very jarring and disorienting (if we’re sober).  Other than feeling embarrassed, we’re just not as good at it anymore as we used to be.  The ground is much farther away and we don’t bounce nearly as well now.

It’s bad enough that falling down as grownups is so weird but the older we get, the more emotionally vulnerable a fall can make us feel.  There’s something that happens for older adults as we get farther into our second half of life.  Falling now becomes high stakes – a threat to our freedom.  Locomotion is the single most important thing for the human body and as we age that becomes wildly apparent.  Studies show that there is an extremely strong correlation between ambulation (being able to walk around) and the survival rates through illness and old age.

With this all looming.  A mere stumble up some stairs or stubbing a foot on an uneven part of the sidewalk, can really throw someone’s psyche for a loop.  It’s only natural after something like that to start to become concerned about sureness of footing.  The next most natural thing is to start becoming more likely to look down at your feet when you’re walking or stepping, to make sure you don’t have another fall.

Well, watching your feet by looking down at them while you’re moving is guaranteed to cause you to fall again.  The habit of watching your feet is disabling your brain.  The part of your brain responsible for predicting where your body is in space and where it is going, depends on you to look in the direction of the horizon or at least several steps ahead of your feet while moving.  If we look down and watch our feet as we walk, we’re actually turning off the part of the brain that handles this sense of where we are in space – our ability to balance upright against gravity at all moments depends on the system of proprioception inside the brain and spinal cord.  You do not want this part of your brain to get lazy! Again the saying: “Use it or lose it!” applies all too well.

If you’re an older adult and you’ve had some falls and you’re worried about your sureness of step, it’s more important than ever for you to NOT watch where you’re walking – at least not directly by looking down at your feet.

Have you had falls that make you feel insecure? Share your story in the comments section.

 

References:

Journal of Intellectual Disability Research.Volume 32, Issue 3, pages 203–213, June 1988,Prediction of mortality in community and institutional setting, R. K. EYMAN^1,*, S. A. BORTHWICK-DUFFY¹,T. L. CALL¹ andJ. F. WHITE²

http://www.resourcesonbalance.com/clinical_info/BalanceControl.aspx

Menopause, Andropause and now “Somatopause”?

Well it’s no secret what menopause is.  Luckily there’s an increasing body of information widely available out about it these days.  Among other hormonal shifts, the primary change in menopause and peri-menopause occurs with estrogen levels.  Estrogen production decreases as women age, and move away from the reproductive stage of life.

Men have an equivalent transition as their androgens shift and the production of testosterone wanes.

Somatopause is not as commonly discussed and the term might be unfamiliar, but depending on your age you might not be surprised to hear what it is.  This is a change that happens for both men and women as we approach later life.  The prefix soma comes from the Greek meaning “body”.  In medicine the term somatic refers to the physical body – the machine: muscles and bones.

If you’re someone who’s nearing mid life or just past it, then you may already have noticed that your body is definitely changing – possibly even before you notice changes in estrogen or testosterone.  In addition to finding hairs where there didn’t used to be any or skin tags in inconvenient places, skin may not be as firm or as thick, but above all, our muscle mass is suddenly not what it used to be.  Many middle aged people will notice that seeing and feeling the results of exercise becomes harder and harder.  It becomes really easy to lose the effects of exercise.  The decrease in muscle mass and the decreased ability to build muscle is what the term “somatopause” refers to.

Somatopause, or this decrease in muscle mass, just like the other two ” -pauses”, is also because of a decreasing hormone.  In this case it’s the human growth hormone (HGH).  The human muscle cell (sarcomere) needs HGH in order to grow.   Our body stops naturally making as much growth hormone as we do when we’re younger.

Does this mean we should all just roll over and become flabby and weak?  We certainly can but it’s not a fate we have to accept silently. At the very least this information should make us want to work a little harder at staying with an exercise regimen.  The “Move it or Lose it” adage definitely becomes louder and clearer the older we get.

Incidentally, there’s some really interesting evidence just coming to light recently that seems responsible for feeding yet another trendy exercise fad.  In recent months you may have heard more and more about high intensity interval training.  The allure of this kind of workout is that it touts much less of a time commitment in the gym (for the busy professionals) but promising to deliver the same or better outcomes fitness-wise.

Well, I’m the first to dig my heels in when I notice the frenzy for a fad taking hold and I always advise caution to all patients considering trying this particular one – no matter what age.  The potential for injury is high when we combine speed or time stress with intensity since neither leave much room for focusing on safe form unless closely supervised.  So, I generally don’t advise anyone to do this kind of training, but I am changing my tune a little bit and here’s why:

Studies have shown this kind of training appreciably stimulates an increase in growth hormone production. So, if  it’s done safely, the high intensity, short spurts of exercise can be particularly useful to those of us approaching somatopause.  The added stints of growth hormone production will aid in the building of muscle mass even in someone who has entered this stage of life where the natural decline of HGH has begun!

If you’re struggling to put on muscle mass don’t forget to think about your nutrient intake but you might as well also consider  kicking it up a notch once or twice a week for the sake of these muscle building benefits.  But don’t leave behind the traditional workouts that you enjoy.  It’s far too important to our brain chemistry to leave those behind.  Workouts of a minimum of 30 min. and longer, will be what give you a good dose of “happy chemicals”.  These will become more important as you add the naturally more stress hormone inducing high intensity workouts, simply for balance. (Take a moment to read this post to learn why it’s important for some people to be especially careful with stress inducing activities – you might be adding fuel to the fire despite your best intentions)

I hope you’ll consider the fact that maintaining and gaining muscle mass at all ages is not just about looks. You will look great and feel much better about your looks but more importantly, it’s very much about life sustaining function that will make all aspects of daily living easier, safer and seamless.  It’s a biological fact that movement is ultimately what sustains life and you can’t move if you don’t have muscle!

 

References:

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2013/06/21/interval-training.aspx

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10442584