stop old people from falling.....go barefoot?

My work is too busy at the moment for me to do much on this blog, but I am still keeping an eye on news and research.

This study popped up last week and I thought it had some interesting implications.

Altering gait by way of stimulation of the plantar surface of the foot: the immediate effect of wearing textured insoles in older fallers

Conclusions - Stimulating the plantar surface of the foot by way of wearing this type of textured insole causes an immediate effect - in this case a slower, more cautious gait in older fallers. Further work is required to determine how textured insoles can be used to improve gait in older fallers.

The whole study is there for you to look through.

Anyway, what this made me think of was the value of being barefoot.  So much information comes from the feet, from the sole.  While shod, all that information is blunted.  Barefoot there is so much more stimulation and data that can be processed by the brain to feed into the proprioceptive system.

Textured insoles are just a "stepping stone" to being barefoot.  If they can help to prevent falls, maybe being barefoot....on rough rich surfaces...could do even more

keep squatting....and eating coconut oil

I spent the weekend visiting my parents.  My Dad has dementia and is currently in a hospital ward.  His mental state oscillates, but when he is well he is still funny, loving, caring and sharp.  It is just the dislocation from reality that is difficult to witness.

Anyway, I was struck again by how basic and essential it is to be able to stand up from a chair.  There is balance involved, but so much more is the need for basic strength in the hip extensors, back and thighs.  Occupational therapy is fine, but it would be fantastic if we could get them on a leg press a couple of times a week.

I have got my Mum to start giving him coconut oil each day now, especially after listening to this podcast.  Podcast #13: How To Upgrade Your Brain with Coconut Oil & Ketones

Just take the exercise pill

Can we just make drugs which remove the need to exercise?  Perhaps, but I hope not.

"No one can deny that the human body was meant to move, and to move often," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of the FASEB Journal, "but the reality is that many of us don't move enough, whether because of disease, injury, or simply a busy schedule. This discovery is another important step towards the treatment of muscle wasting in cancer, severe infection or aging – or to maintain our muscle mass to help face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

The abstract is here

Discrimination is bad, mmmkay?

This is a post copied from Nigel, but it is powerful.  My own Dad has dementia and the reality of it beings all this stuff to life.  I hope he excuses my hijacking of his material but it is very important.  I've seen those things too.....


Discrimination is bad, mmmkay?: What do the following three images have in common? Images found with Google Image search.










They are all unable to fend for themselves or express how they feel. They all need a lot of care and attention and can be very demanding. The last two also have to be fed & toileted.

So why is it that the first two images make people go "Squeeeeeeee!" but the third one doesn't?

Is it because the first two images give you something to look forward to but the third one doesn't?

We're all going to end up old one day if we're "lucky". Just hope and/or pray that when you get there, you either have caring partners and/or relatives to look after you, or independent care for the elderly has improved a lot. I've seen things.

Those old triathletes

Ken Hutchins of Renaissance Exercise makes a good point about that study about the incredible old triathletes  .

"There are amazing CAT scans contrasting the muscularity of triathletic and sedentary elder men. It is apparent that destroying your body in a triathlon can, at least, maintain your muscularity. Or, perhaps the difference is completely due to a genetic aberration whereby the above-average muscularity of the elder man merely enables him to destroy his body in the triathlon. Of course, it is also true that such activities are sarcopenic. "

I had not thought of that when I saw the study but logically he is right. There may be survivor bias going on.   Those still training at 70 are those that have survived....how many have not managed to make it that far through injury or whatever?  What can we really conclude from that study?

Good quote from Coach Rutherford

I heard this as I was walking home last night after a long day at work and a crap week. 

This week Robb Wolf had Michael Rutherford on the podcast  and it was a fun listen, easvesdropping on some pals chatting away really.  One quote stood out:



Your best ally as you age is to take as much muscle mass into your latter years as possible.

Of course it is.

How to live forever

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