Not more on HABITS???!!?!?!!?

I keep coming back to habit formation.  I think this may be important.  Good habits, formed now, might carry through into eldertime and perhaps prevent some of the issues that will not be addressed by the family that is not there.  I know they cannot take care of every issue.  A habit of not getting sick may not prevent you from getting sick.  A habit of not having accidents may not prevent you from being rear-ended by another senile old fart.  But a good habit can prevent some health-related issues from arising.

For Example:  Yesterday I spoke with a massage therapist who described an elderly patient who had developed bad posture habits.  She would slouch in her comfortable chair and look at TV.  Because of the slouching posture, her head was tilted forward for long periods in order to see the TV.  Now in her elder years, she has lost the ability to hold her head up, and has trouble swallowing which leads to drooling.  She is appalled that she drools, but can do nothing about it.  She cannot recover from this.

This is an extreme example of a self-induced medical issue.  A bad habit, formed in facile times, carried over into elder times and caused problems.  But there are smaller things that can have similar results.  Tilting your head back to read something through your reading glasses or bifocals changes your spine alignment and balance, creating lower back problems that make you less mobile, thus allowing your leg muscles to weaken from lack of use, thus making it more difficult to climb those stairs, making it more difficult to do laundry, resulting in unsanitary conditions resulting in bladder infections resulting in ......

You get the idea.

Another gem of advice from the same source - If you exercise now, the conditioning will carry forward as you age.  If you are in bad shape now, you will not get bretter as you age, no matter what.  Weight training is as important as, maybe more important than, cardio training.  Do both.

So, at the risk of sounding like your mother, STAND UP STRAIGHT!  TURN THAT TV OFF!  GO PLAY OUTSIDE!

Michael