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Awaiting moderation 21454 Article |
Prevention of social problems PREVENTION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS
We all have social problems but the elderly are worse off than most for three reasons. First, they are often pessimistic and hold negative beliefs and attitudes, many of which are totally false. Many old people, for example, see old age as an inescapable downhill slide to illness and death whereas the former of these two is in fact no longer inevitable. Some are too depressed or too tired to summon up the energy to do anything much.
Second, many young people tend to write off the aged and are pessimistic about the scope for prevention in old age. Some are overprotective or guilty and so don't give the help they could.
Third, there are very real practical problems, including poverty, and poor heating, housing and mobility. Also, many old people are very lonely and isolated socially. They often know little of the social and other amenities and benefits that are available and are often too proud to seek them out or even to accept them when they are specifically offered.
All of these problems can only be prevented, in our culture, by a team approach-the family, the elderly •person's doctor, the health visitor, the local authority, and any others involved, all have to pull together to reduce the social burdens that are almost inevitable in a society that pushes its old people out of family homes to live alone for many years.
Finally, here are a few facts that should encourage the elderly in their preventive-health-care programme:
• A study of 200 men and women aged between 56 and 87 who participated in a programme including walking, jogging and stretching 3-5 times a week found that 'dramatic changes' began as early as six weeks into the programme. Regular exercise turned back the clock for the volunteers, and men and women of 60 and 70 became as fit as people twenty or thirty years their junior. Over a forty-two week training period the amount of oxygen carried per heartbeat went up on average by 29 per cent.
• At the Pritikin Longevity Center in California the effects of exercise and diet have been tested over many years. After twenty-six days serum cholesterol dropped from 222 to 179mg/100ml; blood triglycerides (fats) fell from 156 to 141mg/100ml, and nine out of eighteen subjects studied had falls in blood pressure sufficient to allow them to stop taking their drugs. The caliber of certain arteries increased, thus improving blood flow dramatically.
The most critical measurement of cardiovascular and respiratory fitness is the 'V02 max'. It declines at the rate of 1 per cent a year after age 30. Using controlled exercise programmes 70-year-olds can improve their V02 max by 15 years. Again, physical exercise is the best way of keeping young and fit.
• The more you exercise the more energy you have. For millions of people getting old means slowing down and being almost constantly tired. The problem for such people is that they tire at the slightest exertion. In one study of old people the volunteers became less tired after each work-out and claimed to have more energy than before to carry them through the day.
• Wrinkled skin is a normal part of ageing as the connective tissue weakens and fat is lost. However, studies show that this process is worsened by spending long periods in the sun, by smoking and by the use of alkaline soaps. The remedy? Stay out of strong sun; stop smoking; use sunscreen creams when you go into the sun and nourish your skin by taking vitamins ?, ? and E.
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