Tag Archives: Healthy Aging

Healthy Aging: Exercise lowers risk for serious health problems

Posted on by

Being Physically Active…move your body more…pursue a well-rounded exercise plan that fits your lifestyle

Hundreds of studies have shown that exercise lowers your risk for serious health problems, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and certain forms of cancer. What’s more, physical exercise eases arthritis and preserves independence while trimming your waistline. Put simply, exercise helps you feel better, look great, and live a longer, more joyful and satisfying life.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend exercising moderately for 150 to 300 minutes or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity — and that the higher number should be the target. Exercise strengthens your heart muscle, lowers your blood pressure and cholesterol, and burns calories. It can also enhance your mood.

Aerobic exercise can improve the way your heart and other muscles use oxygen. The right blend of exercises for you incorporates aerobic workouts (including walking), as well as stretching and strength-building / resistance exercises.

Exercise is the best investment you can make for your health.

“It is never too late to reverse how you look and feel, and develop the mindset of how you do it. Day in and day out, if you want to live longer and live better, you need a clear and basic understanding that the outcome of your journey is the sum of its steps.” Strauss Zelnick, Becoming Ageless

Researchers are learning just how exercise fights cardiovascular disease. What they know is that exercise improves the efficiency of the muscles that it puts to work, including the heart. It improves blood flow to the heart muscle and reduces the risk of abnormal pumping rhythms.

Studies have evaluated exercise and health in men and women of diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. Although the details vary, the vast majority agree that regular exercise is associated with a sharp reduction in heart attacks and cardiac deaths; most cite protection in the range of 35% to 55%.

Furthermore, studies show that modest exercise, such as walking about two miles a day or burning about 1,000 calories a week, can provide enormous protection against heart disease. And exercise helps even people who don’t start exercising until later in life, as well as patients who don’t start until they suffer a heart attack. In fact, a meta-analysis of 48 trials involving nearly 9,000 cardiac patients found that exercise-based rehabilitation reduced the patients’ risk of dying from heart disease by 26%.

Aerobic exercise helps your heart and other muscles better use oxygen.

In addition, exercise lowers LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and triglyceride levels while boosting HDL (“good”) cholesterol. It also reduces body fat, insulin levels, and the risk of diabetes — all cardiac risk factors. Regular exercise improves the body’s defenses against artery-blocking blood clots and quiets the vascular inflammation that fuels the fire of atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis is the accumulation of pockets of cholesterol-rich gunk inside the arteries, according to Harvard Health. These pockets, called plaque, can limit blood flow through arteries that nourish the heart — the coronary arteries — and other arteries throughout the body. When a plaque breaks apart, it can cause a heart attack or stroke.

A healthy lifestyle which includes exercise goes a long way to preventing cardiovascular disease. Aerobic and resistance exercise can prevent heart-harming trends, like high blood pressure or high cholesterol, before they can cause damage.

“A man is as old as his arteries.” Thomas Sydenham, English physician

A regular exercise program has a major effect on the health of your arteries. Every artery has three layers in its wall. The endothelium is the innermost of the artery’s three layers and is composed of a thin layer of endothelial cells that are in direct contact with the bloodstream. It produces nitric oxide, which helps keep the artery open and healthy. Plaques have the opposite effect.

Endothelial cells have a crucial role in vascular health, and exercise has an important effect on endothelial cells. Among other things, endothelial cells produce nitric oxide. Tiny amounts of nitric oxide produced by your endothelial cells are a boon to your circulation.

This nitric oxide has two crucial functions. It keeps the arterial lining smooth and slippery, preventing white blood cells and platelets from latching on and causing damaging inflammation and artery-blocking blood clots. In addition, it relaxes the smooth muscle cells of the artery wall’s middle layer, preventing spasms and keeping arteries open.

Invest in yourself!  Exercise is the best investment you can make for your health

Cardiovascular and chronic diseases are not inevitable as we get older. Although, more research is needed, the evidence suggests that regular exercise can reduce the risk of heart disease and other common chronic health problems as you age.

References:

  1. https://www.harvardhealthonlinelearning.com/courses/starting-to-exercise
  2. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/supplements-vs-exercise-for-heart-disease-and-cancer
  3. https://www.veteranshealthlibrary.va.gov/HealthyLiving/Active/Benefits/142,82041_VA

Age-related muscle loss | Harvard Men’s Health Watch

Posted on by

After age 30, men begin to lose as much as 3% to 5% of muscle mass per decade, according to WebMD.com. Most men will lose about 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes. Less muscle means greater weakness and less mobility, both of which may increase your risk of falls and fractures.

A 2015 report from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research found that people with sarcopenia, age-related muscle loss, had 2.3 times the risk of having a low-trauma fracture from a fall, such as a broken hip, collarbone, leg, arm, or wrist.

“Older men can increase muscle mass lost as a consequence of aging,” says Dr. Thomas W. Storer, director of the exercise physiology and physical function lab at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It takes work, dedication, and a plan, but it is never too late to rebuild muscle and maintain it.”

Increasing strength and endurance

One possible contributor to sarcopenia, age-related muscle loss, is the natural decline of testosterone, the hormone that stimulates protein synthesis and muscle growth. Think of testosterone as the fuel for your muscle-building fire.

The FDA has not approved taking testosterone supplements to build muscle mass in men due to their side effects.

The best means to build muscle mass, no matter your age, is progressive resistance training (PRT), says Dr. Storer. With PRT, you gradually amp up your workout volume—weight, reps, and sets—as your strength and endurance improve. This constant challenging builds muscle and keeps you away from plateaus where you stop making gains. To gain more muscle mass, older men need a structured and detailed PRT program, says Dr. Storer.

Set up a detailed progressive resistance strength training workouts

You should do strength-training that works all major muscle groups—legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders, and arms—at least two days a week.  Strength training can involve lifting weights, using resistance bands, or exercises like push-ups and sit-ups, in which your body weight furnishes the resistance.

A typical training program might include

  • 8 to 10 exercises that target all the major muscle groups
  • sets of 12 to 15 reps, performed at an effort of about 5 to 7 on a 10-point scale
  • two or three workouts per week.

After you have established a routine, the way to progress is to add a second and then a third set of the exercises. Another way is to decrease the number of reps per set and increase the weight or resistance to the point where you are able to complete at least eight reps, but no more than 12.

Increasing muscle power

Building muscle is not all about strength, says Dr. Storer. You also need power. “Muscle power, how fast and efficiently you move, is more connected to the activities of daily living and physical function than muscular strength,” he says.

A good way to improve overall muscle power is with your legs, since they are most responsible for mobility. “Doing quicker movements against resistance, like one’s own body weight, can be an effective means of developing power,” says Dr. Storer.

For instance, when rising from a seated position, try to do it quickly. When climbing stairs, hold the handrail and push off a step as fast as possible. “It does not have to be every step—begin with one to three steps—but this teaches your muscles to use strength in a more effective way.”

References:

  1. https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/guide/sarcopenia-with-aging
  2. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/preserve-your-muscle-mass

Long-Term Care Insurance and Aging

Posted on by

Chances are that as you age, you may need long-term care at some point … one viable option: hybrid long-term care insurance.

Unfortunately, there is a stealthy stalker that could raid a retiree’s savings and destroy their financial security.  It’s the cost and expenses of extended long-term care — the assistance many retirees will need as they age to manage the tasks of everyday life, such as bathing, dressing and personal care. For those less ambulatory, this may also include transferring to and from a bed to a chair.

Long term care is care that you need if you can no longer perform everyday tasks by yourself due to chronic illness, injury, disability, or the aging process. It isn’t care that is intended to cure you; it’s ongoing care that you might need for the rest of your life. This means you may need help with activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, continence, eating, toileting, and transferring.  In general, traditional health insurance plans do not pay for the chronic, ongoing assistance with daily living that is most often associated with long term care.

The need for long term care can happen to anyone at any time. It can occur because of an extended illness such as cancer, a disabling event such as a stroke, a chronic disease such as multiple sclerosis or Alzheimer’s, or a permanently disabling automobile or sporting accident.

In many cases, however, retirees need long term care due to aging. As we live longer, into our 80s, 90s, and even beyond, health conditions that we’ve managed successfully for years may become worse. We may lose our ability to function independently on a day-to-day basis, resulting in the need for assistance.

Everyone should have a plan for long-term care. This could mean needing some extra help with everyday activities as you age. The benefits of long-term care insurance go beyond what your health insurance may cover by reimbursing you for services needed to help you maintain your lifestyle if age, injury, illness, or a cognitive impairment makes it challenging for you to take care of yourself.

According to AARP, 52% of people who turn 65 today will develop a severe disability that will require long-term care at some point in retirement.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that 70% of people over 65 will need long-term care at some point in their lives.

“The older you are, the more likely you’ll need long term care.”

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

A 2019 study by Georgetown University Medical Center reported: “Nursing home care is arguably the most significant financial risk faced by the elderly without long-term care insurance or Medicaid coverage.”

2019, the annual Genworth Cost of Care Survey found that the median monthly cost in the U.S. for long-term care was $7,513 for a semi-private room at a nursing home, $4,385 for a home health aide, and $4,051 for an assisted living facility.  Cost of care can be expensive and it’s important to understand the financial impact a few years of long-term care can have.

  • Nursing Home Care: The average cost of a year’s care in a private Medicare-certified long-term nursing home room is $104,000.4
  • Home Care: The average in-home care costs $49,920 a year for 40 hours of help per week.4
  • Assisted Living Care: A year in a 1-bedroom assisted living care facility averages $57,000 per year.4

long term care insurance claims paid for home care

Medicare and Medicaid

Many think that government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will pay for all of their future long-term care needs. Surprisingly, they may only pay for some of these services and have many restrictions.

Medicare: May cover a maximum of 100 days of services after a hospital stay.2 Coverage is designed to assist people during a short-term recovery and doesn’t include personal care or supervision services.  Medicare won’t pay for what it calls “custodial care” unless you require skilled services or rehabilitative care, and even then, there are limits.

Medicaid: If you have limited assets and income and are relying on Medicaid, the state may make key care decisions on your behalf, including where you receive the care you need.  Medicaid won’t kick in unless your income is below a certain threshold and you meet minimum state eligibility requirements.

Traditional long-term care policies are becoming increasingly difficult to qualify for coverage. Premiums, which are lower if you buy in when you’re young, can increase and become unmanageable when you’re older. And, just like car, health or homeowners insurance, if you end up never needing the policy, you lose all the money you’ve paid in.

Hybrid Insurance

A hybrid insurance policy, also referred to as asset-based long-term care, combines long-term care insurance with permanent life insurance. A policy of this sort provides both living and death benefits.

You can purchase this type of policy with a single upfront premium, with a set of premiums for a fixed term or with ongoing premiums. If you need long-term care (due to age, illness, etc.), you can withdraw the funds from your life insurance policy, and when those funds run out, the insurance company will pay. If you don’t need care, or if you have some money left over after receiving care, your heirs will receive the remaining insurance benefit 100% tax-free.

Like all financial strategies, hybrid policies have pros and cons. The premiums can be higher compared to a traditional long-term care policy, and it’s important to be clear about what types of care will qualify under the policy you choose. But the underwriting process is typically less rigorous for a hybrid policy, and a couple can share one policy. This can make obtaining coverage easier and more affordable than a traditional policy.

As long as you pay your premiums, you’ll have a contractually guaranteed death benefit, guaranteed cash value and a guaranteed amount of long-term care coverage. And if, for some reason, you decide to cancel the policy, you can get most of your premiums back — once you pass a designated surrender charge period. That’s a way out that traditional long-term care insurance doesn’t offer.

Long term care insurance (LTCI) provide benefits to cover services you may need if you’re unable to care for yourself or your family, due to chronic mental or physical conditions.  Because there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to long term care insurance, people must choose among policy options such as daily benefit amount, benefit period, and inflation protection options

One of the largest providers, the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP) is one of the largest LTCI programs and is available to all federal employees and military service members.  The Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Program is designed to reimburse for long-term care services at home or in a facility such as assisted living, adult day care or a nursing center.

Long term care insurance may be a smart way to protect your income and assets and remain financially independent should you need long term care services at home, in a nursing home or an assisted living facility, or in other settings.

References:

  1. https://www.kiplinger.com/retirement/long-term-care/long-term-care-insurance/601056/even-in-good-times-a-silent-stalker-can
  2. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1077558719857335?journalCode=mcrd&
  3. https://longtermcare.acl.gov/the-basics/how-much-care-will-you-need.html
  4. New York Life Cost of Care Survey, 2018
  5. https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html
  6. https://www.military.com/military-report/long-term-care-insurance.html
  7. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “The Basics,” https://longtermcare.acl.gov/the-basics/
  8. https://www.brownleeglobal.com/ltc-daily-benefit-amounts/