Chiropractic Care and Mobility for Seniors
By Dr. Tim Fargo, Chiropractor
There is a prevalent notion that as people get older, they lose their strength and mobility; and that this is the driving force behind their inevitable decline. There is another truth about aging with causality going in the opposite direction; when you lose strength and mobility, you age more quickly. I recently turned 70 and am inclined to tell you that the latter statement is more true than the former. What is critical for seniors is to maintain strength, flexibility, and mobility. What we witness is that older people have a harder time exercising and even doing mundane tasks around the house. They reach a point where they can no longer live independently because they cannot feed, clothe, or bathe themselves. This happens because they lose balance and strength to do even basic activities of daily living.
Among many other things, chiropractic care at its most basic seeks to restore not only the mobility of individual joints and body parts, but the person as a whole. When a person has greater mobility, they can get out and do the things that they enjoy for themselves and with their families. They can exercise and maintain muscle strength and mass. It has been shown that the single greatest factor for both life extension and health extension is exactly that, muscle strength and mass. When a chiropractor is able to take an older person and allow them to walk without pain, get up from a chair, or toilet, open a jar, lift a bag of groceries, play pickle ball or any number of activities, then what we are doing is improving both the quality and potentially the length of that person’s life.
It may seem simplistic or optimistic to suggest that seniors can actually maintain their strength and mobility as they age, but it has been my experience that it is entirely possible for them to do so. It is not that we are going to live forever. That is not the game. The game is to live each moment of our lives with vitality until, like a candle, we simply flicker and go out. The alternative is to spend the last 30 years of our lives in precipitous decline and not be able to enjoy the things that we value most. I like to play golf, downhill ski, lift weights, ride my bike, and do hideously strenuous things in the yard. I do regular testing of my strength, body composition and cardiovascular fitness. I have, over the past few years, been able to improve along all of those parameters. Chiropractic care has been the key to unlocking this potential with aging. It can do the same thing for you.
We evaluate your spine, extremity joints, muscles, posture, and ergonomics. We devise strategies and deliver care to improve all these areas. At the end of a short period of time, there is almost no one who cannot improve the way they function, get stronger and more mobile. If you are a senior citizen and see your life becoming more confined than you would like, then give chiropractic a try. We are here to help you stay young.
