Getting old – does it mean suffering?

I get sad almost every time that I visit people in nursing homes. The situation there is depressing and I ask myself, does all this suffering when we get old, have to be? Is it normal that we die sick, bedridden and in pain?  It seems that other than mental problems limited mobility and pain are the most frequent reason old people cannot take care of themselves.  When you ask young people how old they would like to get, the answer is usually 70 or 75 years old, because the general belief in our society is that sickness and suffering begins around this age.

Clearly it is a mistake to think that this way of dying is normal or not avoidable. Sometimes, but nowadays very seldom,  an old person just dies a natural death from old age and not because of a long lasting devastating illness.

Have these lucky people just been blessed with a kind destiny or are there factors that can help us move toward a more joyful last phase of life?
“Take it easy when you get older”, is not good advice!!!

I am absolutely convinced that it has not to be that way.  Here at Lakeside, in recent years we have developed a strong movement toward more physical activities with gyms, exercising groups, dancing classes and yoga.  This is great!

But still – the majority of us is too inactive and sitting too many hours in comfortable chairs, zapping through  TV programs with remote controls and  looking for parking lots exactly right in front of the store. We enjoy gardeners and cleaning ladies. Wonderful! But not so healthy! Our body’s chemistry and function is just not designed to take it easy and especially not after we are retired!

Long hours of sitting are dangerous!   It is training in the opposite direction, not toward health and flexibility, but toward stiffness and sickness.  The sitting position shortens all the muscles and fascias in the front of the body and decreases the macro and micro circulation of all tissues, including the inner organs. Nerves and vessels gets squeezed, edemas, numbness, pain and stiffness are the results.

Sedentary life style and inactivity is the leading cause of immobility and sickness .But there is good news: This process is reversible. Just get up every 10 or 15 min. from your sitting position and bend carefully backwards to stretch the front of the body. Make this an habit!

Avoid long hours of sitting. Always get up in between  Our modern comfortable life  spoils us with cars, remote controls, escalators, even pavements and streets and this comfort is drastically limiting the body’s  most  basic need, the need of movements. Instead, we treat or even more accurately, we “train” our body with a life condition of minimal movements. This leads directly to impaired macro and micro circulation, muscle shortness and tension, stiffness and pain. The common “wear and tear” diagnosis is mostly caused by immobility and unbalanced patterns of repetitive movements. Most important to know is that circulation not only provides nutrients to all our organs including the eyes and the ears, but also is necessary to remove the waist substances so that the metabolism can function well.

Scheduled exercising and stretching is strongly advised, but it is continuously doing everyday physical activities that have the biggest and longest lasting beneficial effects.

I recommend Dr. Mercola’s interview with Nasa scientist Dr. Vermikos http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/06/23/vernikos-sitting-kills.aspx?e_cid=20130623_SNL_Art_1&utm_source=snl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20130623
Barbara Rotthaler, German certified Naturopath, Tel. (376) 108 0444, barbararotthaler@gmail.com, www.ChapalaHealth.com

One thought on “Getting old – does it mean suffering?

  1. I am so grateful I found this website-thank you for providing such thought provoking and practical knowledge on holistic health!!

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