Just read a short piece by Jackie Oberst, writing for Provider.
She prefaces by advising us to rethink “those Google glasses for Grandpa!”
(everyone seems to be taking shots at Google these days…)
The fact is, technological healthcare gadgets (so beloved at Regency Nursing Centers), such as smart devices may have sharpened the minds of our seniors, but, as she posits, may have also contributed to a more sedentary lifestyle and a risk for physical decline.
She writes:
“Aging is more than reaching a number—it also involves body and mind. For decades researchers have been under the impression that these aspects of aging move in the same direction. Those who are more physically fit are more mentally acute, and vice versa. But the current findings are more complicated.”
She proceeds to invoke a new report from PLoS One (based in part on a conducted study) and also quotes from Nadia Steiber, PhD (the Study Author and Assistant Professor of the Department of Economic Sociology at The University of Vienna in Austria), who concluded that “Functional decline is age-associated, not age determined, and there is evidence that aging processes can be delayed if older people keep on doing physical activities and continue challenging their brains.”
Respectfully, I’m not sure there is anything new to be gleaned from these findings.
At Regency, the fact that we have and continue to embrace all advancements in healthcare and other related technologies for the betterment and wellbeing of our residents, has never come at the expense of traditional modalities like exercise and physical fitness.
Physical exercise and cognitive stimulation are not mutually exclusive.
It should be obvious that sedentary behavior may threaten both physical health and cognition, since physical activity plays a role in cognitive health.
That is precisely why at Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers, we put together the most advanced and robust therapy programs, to involve both mind and soul, body and psyche, brain and heart!
Nobody does it better than we do.
