Use it or lose it – a message for young and old alike

As Seniors Week and Arthritis Week swing around next week, Hunter New England Health is joining the throng of senior converts who are singing the benefits of regular exercise.

Typically as people age, the body starts to show signs of wear and tear. Most people start feeling aches and pains that they didn’t have the year before, and as a result they can find all sorts of excuses for reducing their activity levels.

The problem is however, that research shows that without regular exercise, those chronic conditions will actually worsen at a faster rate. In fact, regular moderate exercise has been attributed to slowing the progress of most chronic diseases, and in some cases halting them altogether.

One such success story is that of Beryl Siegers, a sixty-something year old from the Lake Macquarie area. Beryl has arthritis. Just like her late mother who was very debilitated for the last 25 years of her life because of the disease.

The difference for Beryl is that after she lost her balance and broke her coccyx, she started down a very different path to that of her mother.

Many years ago older people with chronic diseases such as arthritis, asthma, diabetes, and even heart disease, were told to take it easy and not stress their body too much. These days the message is ‘use it or lose it’.

After her fall, Beryl was referred to the occupational therapist and physiotherapist from her local health service. They advised her to make some simple changes at home, such as putting in a handrail beside the steps, and to begin with gentle exercise to start building up her strength and balance.

"When I first started, I could hardly do a thing. I got so puffed and everything seemed to hurt. Stiffness, poor balance and lack of fitness really creeps up on you.

"After the initial rehab program, it probably took another six months of going to the gym three times a week before I felt as though I really had broken the barrier. I didn’t feel like a victim any more, but more in control of my life.

"I cannot thank the staff at the Toronto Polyclinic enough. Not only did they encourage me to persevere with regular exercise - the treadmill, the exercise bike and what I call the ‘coffee grinder’ (an upper body exercise machine), they would book me into pain management clinics or the podiatrist or whatever else I might have needed at the time.

"It’s about holistic care – everything seems to affect everything else. But continuing to exercise has been my saving grace," Beryl said.

"It really has changed my life, I have so much more confidence," she said.

So much so, that last year Beryl went to Holland and got on a push bike with her grandchildren – something she hadn’t done for over twenty years.