Walking your dog is good for you

A new study has shown that walking a dog on a regular basis, boosts levels of physical activity in older people, especially during the winter.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study used data from the EPIC Norfolk cohort study, which is tracking the health and well-being of thousands of residents of the English county of Norfolk.

The researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the University of Cambridge found that owning or walking a dog was one of the most effective ways to beat the usual decline in later-life activity, even combatting the effects of bad weather.

Dog owners were sedentary for 30 minutes less per day, on average. More than 3000 older-adults participating in the study were asked if they owned a dog and if they walked one. They also wore an accelerometer, a small electronic device that constantly measured their physical activity level over a seven-day period.

As bad weather and short days are known to be one of the biggest barriers to staying active outdoors, the researchers linked this data to the weather conditions experienced and sunrise and sunset times on each day of the study.

Lead author of the paper, Dr Yu-Tzu Wu, said "We know that physical activity levels decline as we age, but we're less sure about the most effective things we can do to help people maintain their activity as they get older.

"We found that dog walkers were much more physically active and spent less time sitting overall. We expected this, but when we looked at how the amount of physical activity participants undertook each day varied by weather conditions, we were really surprised at the size of the differences between those who walked dogs and the rest of the study participants."

The team found that on shorter days and those that were colder and wetter, all participants tended to be less physically active and spent more time sitting. Yet dog walkers were much less impacted by these poor conditions.

Project lead Prof Andy Jones said: "We were amazed to find that dog walkers were on average more physically active and spent less time sitting on the coldest, wettest, and darkest days than non-dog owners were on long, sunny, and warm summer days. The size of the difference we observed between these groups was much larger than we typically find for interventions such as group physical activity sessions that are often used to help people remain active."

The researchers caution against recommending everyone owns a dog, as not everyone is able to look after a pet, but they suggest these findings point to new directions for programmes to support activity.

Prof Jones said: "Physical activity interventions typically try and support people to be active by focussing on the benefits to themselves, but dog walking is also driven by the needs of the animal. Being driven by something other than our own needs might be a really potent motivator and we need to find ways of tapping into it when designing exercise interventions in the future."

Article: Dog ownership supports the maintenance of physical activity during poor weather in older English adults: cross-sectional results from the EPIC Norfolk cohort, Yu-Tzu Wu, Robert Luben, Andy Jones, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, doi: 10.1136/jech-2017-208987, published online 24 July 2017.

Shape your life

Mid-September, time to dream a little as summer starts to fade away.  

If you were to be given some wicked power tools, plus a hammer, chisel, and ax, to craft, carve, and shape the life of your wildest dreams...

I'd bet you all the money in the world that you'd be really, really careful with each of your bangs, buzzes, and chops, huh? 

I mean, we both know how much you'd have riding on the line, right?

Well, that same extraordinary care and precision should be exercised when using your imagination, choosing your words, and dancing life’s dance.

Can computer games and activities improve cognitive abilities?

I was giving a workshop on “Knowing your Bladder” and we were talking about Kegel exercises and one of the women in the room, said, “Use it or lose it.”  I agree and this advice can apply to many situations but is often used to stress the importance of keeping our bodies and minds active in order to stay healthy, independent and mentally fit for as long as possible.

Research evidence supports this old adage “Use it or Lose it” and there are plenty of good options for staying physically active, but one of the questions I get when I give my seminars is, how can we best exercise our brains?  Well, there is one option for a cognitive “work out” and it is computerized cognitive training (CCT). There are various types of computer programs designed to strengthen overall cognition and improve memory, attention span and learning. With many options now available online, CCT is showing promise in helping to prevent cognitive decline.

For many seniors, Computerized cognitive training (CCT) is an enjoyable, easy and relatively inexpensive way to stay mentally fit. CCT contributes to short-term cognitive improvements in people with mild cognitive impairment. Small improvements were also seen in people with dementia.

More research is needed to find out the longer-term benefits of CCT, to see if it helps prevent people with mild cognitive impairment from developing dementia.

That question led researchers to investigate whether CCT could benefit those who have already experienced cognitive decline. So some research was done to include people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) who have noticeable problems with thinking, memory, language and decision making but are still able to function independently, and people with dementia whose cognitive impairments interfere with daily activities.

People in the research participated in supervised computerized cognitive skills training, video games or virtual reality activities for at least four hours in total, after which their cognitive abilities were measured and compared to control groups who didn’t take part in CCT or did different types of training.

What the research tells us

Cognitive “brain games” may be screen time well spent! People with MCI experienced moderate improvement in their overall cognitive abilities after taking part in computerized cognitive training sessions, specifically in areas such as memory, attention, verbal and non-verbal learning, and psychosocial functioning. For people with dementia, the evidence was less encouraging but some minor improvements were noted.

Cognition tests were taken immediately after the completion of training, so the results don’t tell us much about the longer-term impacts of CCT. More research is needed to address those and other questions, including whether CCT can help prevent the progression of mild cognitive impairment to full dementia.

Although these results are promising, computer “brain games” should not be considered a one-step solution to keep our brains healthy and sharp. Research evidence shows that people with cognitive impairment, and their caregivers, benefit most when support programs have multiple components, including physical exercise and social interaction (5), and most of us can benefit from less sedentary screen time!

However, this research suggests that computer-based cognitive training can be considered one promising addition to treatment for people with cognitive impairment.

Source: https://www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org/blog/detail/blog/2017/07/24/computer-brain-games-for-treating-cognitive-impairment

After Knee surgery, should you rehabilitate at home or the hospital?

I have had my knee replaced and I may have to have my second knee replaced because I have osteoarthritis, so I was interested in the results of this study done by Donghai Li, Zhouyuan Yang, Pengde Kang, Xiaowei Xie. which was published by the  American journal of physical and medical rehabilitation in  August 2016 Aug.

The researchers asked the question “How does home-based rehabilitation compare to hospital-based rehabilitation in terms of quality of life and physical performance after hospital discharge following knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis?”

This is a great question because I did my rehabilitation at home but the hospital based rehab was an option that was presented to me. For a number of reasons, I chose not to use this option and did my rehabilitation at home.

Many of us who undergo knee replacement surgery to treat pain and joint dysfunction resulting from osteoarthritis. However, upon discharge, we have a number of options and a choice of numerous rehabilitation programs. What I was not aware of was that there was little evidence or no evidence supporting their effectiveness.

Currently, patients are discharged to home after knee replacement surgery and receive outpatient rehabilitation routinely at the hospital. However, one idea catching interest is home-based rehabilitation which allows patients to receive physiotherapy and rehabilitation in their homes.

This study aimed to compare home-based with hospital-based rehabilitation after knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis patients, in terms of quality of life and physical performance improvements.

How the review was done

A detailed search of four electronic databases was conducted for studies published from 1974 to February 2016. Studies that compared the effects and costs of home-based rehabilitation to hospital-based rehabilitation after knee replacement surgery for osteoarthritis patients were included.

A total of 168 studies were identified in searches, and seven were included in the review after assessments for eligibility.

This review was funded with support from the National Natural Science Fund of China.

What the researchers found

This review found that home-based rehabilitation is similar to hospital-based rehabilitation in terms of physical performance at 12 and 52 weeks post-surgery.

The review also found that the hospital-based group had less pain than the home-based group. However, the range of motion of knee flexion in the home-based group was better than the hospital-based group.

This review found that the costs of the two rehabilitation programs were similar. 

Conclusion

This review found that the use of home-based rehabilitation is comparable to hospital-based rehabilitation, in terms of quality of life and physical performance of patients such as knee range of motion. The study concludes that rehabilitation at home can be recommended as an alternative. However, these results should be used with caution as further research with more participants is required.

Having completed my rehabilitation at home, I am in favour of the home alternative, but that is based on personal experience, not research.