The importance of ageing well: benefits of staying active
15 June 2018
Not one but two separate studies have evaluated and endorsed the importance of staying active as you get older.
The first, conducted by the department of medicine and preventative medicine at Chicago’s Northwestern University, showed that adults with lower limb joint symptoms were 80% more likely to experience improved function or sustain high function who met a minimum physical activity threshold of 45 total moderate-vigorous minutes per week, compared to those doing less.
The study, which clinically assessed 1,629 adults with symptomatic lower limb joint pain, aching or stiffness, measured their physical function by gait speed and the SF-12 physical component score. It was concluded that a minimum threshold of 45 minutes per week of activities such as brisk walking could help stave off a decline in osteoarthritis. This is a vastly reduced minimum compared to current guidelines set by US governmental bodies, who recommend a minimum of 150 minutes per week.
Meanwhile, a report published in the publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain revealed that older adults with higher levels of physical activity have pain-modulation patterns that may help lower their risk of developing chronic pain. The study, conducted by staff at Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, involved 51 healthy subjects aged between 60 and 77 who were required to wear a monitor device for a week to measure levels of physical activity. They then underwent two pain modulation tests, to investigate how their central nervous systems interpreted and perceived incidents of pain.
The results concluded that the subjects of the study who indulged in more moderate to vigorous physical activity as part of their daily routine said they felt less pain during the study, while even those who did a modicum of physical activity were more able to block perceptions of pain.
Obviously, this is not a revelatory statement. Scientists and the medical community have been aware for a long time that strenuous exercise briefly yet acutely dulls pain, as the aching muscles sustained during a workout are flooded with endorphins which can linger for up to thirty minutes afterwards.
A study carried out by the University of New South Wales and Neuroscience Research Australia in 2014 backs this theory up: it took a dozen healthy yet physically inactive adults and an equal amount of adults who were willing to take up an exercise regime, and tested and measured their individual thresholds of pain. This was followed by a six-week period where the subjects who were interested in exercise undertook a three-times-a-week programme of moderate exercise cycling for 30 minutes a session. When both parties had their pain threshold levels tested for a second time, the volunteers in the exercise group showed a substantially marked increase in their abilities to withstand pain – and the ones whose fitness levels had increased the most also showed the greatest increase in pain tolerance.
This could raise the possibility that a regular dose of less frantic exercise, such as a walk to the shops or a spot of gardening, could be achieving a similar outcome on a lower, more prolonged level. And considering that 45 minutes a week divides up into less than six and a half minutes per day, boosting your chances of improved pain management is as close as a walk to the shops.
