You may not look particularly frail right now, but obesity could very well threaten your ability to enjoy life as an independent senior. A staff author writing for the (Savannah Morning News: Savannah, Ga. May 26, 2011) talked frankly about obesity statistics and how they impact on lives of older adults. She stressed the importance of curtailing this trend if we expect our seniors to live healthier and more independent lives.
Age and disabilities threaten seniors who are fighting to remain healthy and independent. Extra pounds contribute to complications of diabetes, arthritis and impaired mobility. These conditions are disabilities, whether you are prepared to think about them that way or not. Disabilities have an enormous impact on the quality of life of older adults. Being obese increases your chance of becoming physically disabled, prolongs hospital stays, retiring earlier, or having to spend more years in a retirement facility.
So what will it be? Think about it, people who are 30 to 40 pounds overweight are more likely to have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, debilitating joint pain or a host of other problems. Lack of physical exercise means decreased muscle mass. Decreased muscle mass means less strength. Obese adults have less muscle strength than other older adults.
If you can lose that weight now you will be able to move better later. Trim-up, writes Nancy Hellmich (USA Today: June 6, 2006) and avoid becoming disabled as you grow older. You don’t want to be in a nursing home with someone else waiting on you, do you? If you are fit and healthy you re less apt to be a burden on your children and you just may be around longer to enjoy those grandchildren.
The call is out for middle aged people to take action while they are younger and more active. When you are older and perhaps wheelchair bound, it is difficult to exercise adequately and even more difficult to lose weight.
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