National Council on Aging

• 6 Steps for Preventing Falls Among Your Older Loved Ones

Did you know that one in three older Americans falls every year? Falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for people aged 65+.

Falls can result in hip fractures, broken bones, and head injuries. And even falls without a major injury can cause an older adult to become fearful or depressed, making it difficult for them to stay active.

If you have an aging parent, grandparent, or neighbor in your life, helping them reduce their risk of falling is a great way to help them stay healthy and independent as long as possible.

The good news about falls is that most of them can be prevented. The key is to know where to look. Here are some common factors that can lead to a fall:

• Balance and gait:As we age, most of us lose some coordination, flexibility, and balance— primarily through inactivity, making it easier to fall.
• Vision:In the aging eye, less light reaches the retina—making contrasting edges, tripping hazards, and obstacles harder to see.
• Medications:Some prescriptions and over-the-counter medications can cause dizziness, dehydration or interactions with each other that can lead to a fall.
• Environment:Most seniors have lived in their homes for a long time and have never thought about simple modifications that might keep it safer as they age.
• Chronic conditions:More than 90% of older adults have at least one chronic condition like diabetes, stroke, or arthritis. Often, these increase the risk of falling because they result in lost function, inactivity, depression, pain, or multiple medications.

6 Steps to Reducing Falls

Here are six easy steps you can take today to help your older loved one reduce their risk of a fall:

1. Enlist their support in taking simple steps to stay safe.

Ask your older loved one if they’re concerned about falling. Many older adults recognize that falling is a risk, but they believe it won’t happen to them or they won’t get hurt—even if they’ve already fallen in the past. A good place to start is by sharing NCOA’s Debunking the Myths of Older Adult Falls. If they’re concerned about falling, dizziness, or balance, suggest that they discuss it with their health care provider who can assess their risk and suggest programs or services that could help.

2. Discuss their current health conditions.

Find out if your older loved one is experiencing any problems with managing their own health. Are they having trouble remembering to take their medications—or are they experiencing side effects? Is it getting more difficult for them to do things they used to do easily?

Also make sure they’re taking advantage of all the preventive benefits now offered under Medicare, such as the Annual Wellness visit. Encourage them to speak openly with their health care provider about all of their concerns.

3. Ask about their last eye checkup.

If your older loved one wears glasses, make sure they have a current prescription and they’re using the glasses as advised by their eye doctor.

Remember that using tint-changing lenses can be hazardous when going from bright sun into darkened buildings and homes. A simple strategy is to change glasses upon entry or stop until their lenses adjust.

Bifocals also can be problematic on stairs, so it’s important to be cautious. For those already struggling with low vision, consult with a low-vision specialist for ways to make the most of their eyesight.

4. Notice if they’re holding onto walls, furniture, or someone else when walking or if they appear to have difficulty walking or arising from a chair.

These are all signs that it might be time to see a physical therapist. A trained physical therapist can help your older loved one improve their balance, strength, and gait through exercise. They might also suggest a cane or walker—and provide guidance on how to use these aids. Make sure to follow their advice. Poorly fit aids actually can increase the risk of falling.

5. Talk about their medications.

If your older loved one is having a hard time keeping track of medicines or is experiencing side effects, encourage them to discuss their concerns with their doctor and pharmacist. Suggest that they have their medications reviewed each time they get a new prescription.

My mom had an elaborate spreadsheet to keep track of her medications and schedules. Adding a timed medication dispenser that my sister refilled each month promoted her peace of mind and allowed us to ensure her adherence to the prescribed regime.

Also, beware of non-prescription medications that contain sleep aids—including painkillers with “PM” in their names. These can lead to balance issues and dizziness. If your older loved one is having sleeping problems, encourage them to talk to their doctor or pharmacist about safer alternatives.

6. Do a walk-through safety assessment of their home.

There are many simple and inexpensive ways to make a home safer. For professional assistance, consult an Occupational Therapist. Here are some examples:

• Lighting:Increase lighting throughout the house, especially at the top and bottom of stairs. Ensure that lighting is readily available when getting up in the middle of the night.
• Stairs:Make sure there are two secure rails on all stairs.
• Bathrooms:Install grab bars in the tub/shower and near the toilet. Make sure they’re installed where your older loved one would actually use them. For even greater safety, consider using a shower chair and hand-held shower.

For more ideas on how to make the home safer, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) offers a home assessment checklist in multiple languages.

NCOA, the Administration on Aging, and the CDC also promote a variety of community-based programs, like A Matter of Balance, Stepping On, and Tai Chi, that can help older adults learn how to reduce their risk of falling.

How to Build Up Atrophied Muscles – Livestrong

by JEN WEIR Last Updated: Apr 26, 2015

Muscle atrophy is the loss of size or mass of muscle tissue and can afflict any muscle in the body. Atrophy of the muscle can occur for a number of reasons, including disuse from an injury such as if your arm is in a cast or you are bedridden. Simple lack of activity and the natural aging process can also cause muscles to atrophy. These reasons for atrophy can all be reversed through a sensible, progressive exercise program.

Step 1

Begin with isometric exercises to improve circulation and increase strength in the atrophied muscle. Isometric exercises involve simply contracting the muscle for a few seconds at a time. For example, contracting your quadriceps with your leg straight would begin to improve quad strength just as contracting your biceps while your arm remains in a relaxed, bent position would begin to rebuild atrophied arm muscle. Gradually increase the contraction time and repetitions as your strength improves.

Step 2

Progress to range of motion exercises that involve joint movement but do not use outside resistance. For atrophied quadriceps muscles, for example, sit in a chair and simply straighten your leg to engage the atrophied muscles. These types of exercises can be performed several times throughout the day to keep your blood flowing and muscles limber.

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Step 3

Use light resistance such as small hand weights or resistance tubing to begin rebuilding your lost muscle mass. Resistance needs to be added gradually, adding too much too quickly can result in injury. A leg extension with a resistance band is an example exercise for atrophied quadriceps muscles.

Step 4

Add more resistance, moderately, in the form of heavier free weights or weight machines. Include more functional movements into your exercise program. Squats and step-ups will help to continue to build up atrophied quadriceps muscles while overhead presses will strengthen atrophied muscles in the upper body.

I continue to be astounded since I have come back from Korea about the numbers of overweight and out-of -shape people there are my age. The obesity is amazing and what is even more amazing is the romancing of illness and injury that goes on with the over 40 and over 50 set. It is as though men and women alike are having personal love affairs with their doctors. “My doctor said…..They told me….I am waiting to hear…” It is though doctors have replaced God and have become God in our society. Our need for them and complete dependence on them to cure us and save us is epidemic. It is as though all the love, sex and companionship we ever needed we are now finding in medical offices (plus inside little bottles). We turn our power and trust over to these people who we trust completely with our lives. Doctors are people too; usually highly trained technicians paid to diagnose symptoms and come up with a pill to fix that thing. They cannot save us from ourselves.

How to Help Prevent Age Related Muscle Loss

By Dr. Mercola

Chronological aging begins at birth, and you can’t stop the clock from ticking. However, there’s also biological aging, and evidence suggests the aging of your cells can indeed be slowed, and in some cases even reversed.

This is particularly true of muscle tissue, which can be regenerated even at an advanced age with the appropriate diet and exercise.

It may come as a surprise that muscle aging may start at a relatively young age. By the time you enter your third decade of life, age-related muscle decline may already have begun if you’ve neglected to take proactive steps to prevent it.

Without intervention, you can lose an average of nearly seven pounds (three kilos) of muscle per decade.1

It’s important to realize that your daily activities play a key role in this process. What you eat, when you eat, and how you exercise all translate into gene activities that dictate the speed at which your body ages.

Why Maintaining Muscle Mass Is So Important

Typically as a muscle ages, it not only diminishes in size and strength, it also loses its aerobic capacity. A less obvious side effect is that this loss of muscle mass can also lead to an overall decline in metabolic function.

Indeed, the biological role of your muscles goes far beyond mobility. Your muscles are also responsible for keeping your metabolic system intact, and maintaining muscle mass helps protect you against metabolic and hormonal decline, obesity,diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

It also enhances your cognitive function and slows down the aging process. Given the biological and metabolic importance of your muscles, age-related muscle degradation can herald a significant health crisis.

In short, once muscle loss sets in, your health is on a steep downhill slope. Loss of muscle equates to a general loss of physical energy, a tendency to gain excess weight, enhanced vulnerability to disease, and accelerated aging.

Not to mention the general loss of independence that comes with being too frail to move around unassisted.

As noted by Dr. Murtaza Ahmed in an article on sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss):2

“… [D]uring our youth we have far more muscle than we need for everyday tasks.

We only require 30 percent of our strength to carry out all the important tasks of everyday living such as getting up from a chair or climbing a flight of stairs, so as our maximum strength decreases by 5 percent every so many years we remain oblivious as we can still carry out all our activities of daily living with ease.

The trouble comes when our maximum strength starts to decline to around 50 percent of what it was in our youth, and suddenly everything that used to feel easy suddenly becomes hard.

First you find it hard to carry out more strenuous tasks such as getting out of a car, but eventually simple tasks such as getting changed or combing hair become challenging.”

Sarcopenia also increases your risk of falling, which can have life threatening consequences. Falls are the most common cause of hip fractures among seniors, which carry great risks of complications and usually require prolonged specialized care.

Fortunately, by making a few strategic changes to your lifestyle, you can significantly slow down or even reverse this chain reaction.

Insulin Resistance Promotes Muscle Wasting

First of all, it’s important to realize that maintaining healthy insulin sensitivity is part and parcel of maintaining healthy muscle and avoiding sarcopenia.

As you age, insulin no longer prevents your muscle from breaking down between meals and overnight as it normally does when you’re young. The same phenomenon occurs when you’re insulin resistant or diabetic.

The mechanism responsible for this is called mTOR (Mammalian Target of Rapamycin), which is part of the insulin pathway. This is why insulin sensitivity is essential for proper protein building in your muscle.

In short, to build muscle, the mTOR mechanism must be activated. If your insulin receptors are insensitive, this cannot occur, and muscle wasting becomes inevitable. The mTOR mechanism can be activated through both diet and exercise.

Whey protein is a highly beneficial dietary component as it not only increases GLP-1 — a satiety peptide that promotes healthy insulin secretion and helps your insulin work more effectively — it also boosts human growth hormone (HGH).

High-intensity interval exercises and intermittent fasting also promote HGH production in your body.

The triple combination of doing high intensity exercises while fasting and consuming high-quality whey protein 30 minutes after your workout is one potent strategy for preventing insulin resistance and muscle wasting.

Another lifestyle factor to consider is sensible sun exposure, as vitamin D is critically important for muscle function. (It’s also essential for bone health, along with calcium and magnesium.) Vitamin D deficiency also raises your risk for insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, regardless of your weight.

Whey Protein — A Potent Muscle Promoter

Amino acids are essential for healthy muscle, and perhaps one of the most important is leucine, found in a variety of animal foods, including dairy, beef, salmon, chicken, and eggs, just to name a few. Leucine serves multiple functions in your body, one of which is signaling the mTOR mechanism I just mentioned. This causes protein to be created and builds your muscle.

According to fitness expert Ori Hofmekler, author of Unlock Your Muscle Gene, the requirement for leucine to maintain body protein is 1 to 3 grams daily, but to really optimize its anabolic pathway, an estimated 8 to 16 grams a day may be required. You’d be hard-pressed to reach that level eating most foods — with one exception.

While you’d need to eat about 1.5 pounds of chicken or 0.5 pounds of raw cheddar cheese to get 8 grams of leucine from your diet, you only need 3 ounces of high-quality whey to reach the suggested amount, making it an ideal choice.

If you’re over the age of 50, you may also need to increase your protein intake to maintain optimal muscle protein synthesis. Recent research3 suggests older people may need about 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, which is double the current RDA guideline.

That said, there is an upper limit to how much protein your body can actually use, so protein in and of itself is not a magic solution against sarcopenia. There are risks involved with eating too much protein, including an increased risk for cancer, so you don’t want to exclusively rely on protein to “save” your muscles. You still need strength training to actually build muscle, and if you have cancer, you need to be particularly cautious about consuming excessive amounts of protein.

Beware of Inferior Whey Products That May Do More Harm Than Good

There’s no shortage of whey products on the market, but unfortunately most of them are of inferior quality and will not provide the health benefits associated with high-quality whey.  Make sure you use a whey protein concentrate. Concentrates also contain glutamylcysteine, the major precursor to glutathione; another phenomenal anti-aging nutrient.

For the highest quality possible, opt for whey derived from raw milk cheese manufacturing. One of the most important components of whey is glycomacropeptides (GMP), which has potent immune-supporting components that also support healthy gut flora. However, only whey produced from raw milk can grant you these benefits. Other varieties do not.

Avoid whey protein isolates, as they lack valuable nutritional co-factors such as alkalizing minerals, naturally occurring vitamins and lipids — all of which are lost in the processing of the isolate. To ensure you’re getting a high-quality product, make sure the whey you buy fulfills the following requirements:

Compounds in Apple Peel and Green Tomatoes Help Prevent Muscle Wasting

Overall, your best dietary strategy is to eat real food, ideally organic and grass-fed, to avoid chemical exposures. Making sure you eat a varied diet that includes a wide variety of fruits and vegetables can go a long way toward warding off premature aging. For example, researchers at the University of Iowa recently published findings4^,5,6 showing that apple peel and green tomatoes can help prevent muscle loss by decreasing the activity of a protein called ATF4.

ATF4 is a transcription factor involved in a process that depletes muscle protein synthesis; apples and green tomatoes contain two compounds that reduce ATF4 activity, thereby allowing for normal synthesis of muscle proteins. The two compounds in question are ursolic acid and tomatidine, found in apples and green tomatoes respectively. As explained by senior author Christopher Adams:7

“By reducing ATF4 activity, ursolic acid and tomatidine allow skeletal muscle to recover from effects of aging.”

Elderly mice fed a diet containing either 0.05 percent tomatidine or 0.27 percent ursolic acid increased muscle mass by 10 percent and muscle quality by 30 percent in a mere two months. The effects were large enough to effectively restore muscle mass and strength to a level comparable to that of a young adult mouse. As noted by Tech Times:8

“Previous studies had shown the compounds could prevent serious muscle wasting association with malnutrition or an extremely sedentary lifestyle, while the new findings suggest they can also be effective in reducing age-related weakness and atrophy in muscles.”

Exercise Is Key to Preventing Loss of Muscle

Total Video Length: 27:04

Last but certainly not least, avoiding age-related muscle loss is difficult if not near impossible without regular exercise. Resistance or strength training is particularly important for the elderly. The American College of Sports Medicine, the American Heart Association, and the US Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) recommend engaging in muscle strengthening activities targeting all major muscle groups at least two days per week.9

The video above discusses the many benefits of resistance training, and