A University College Dublin (UCD) study found that just 20 minutes of activity each day can reverse frailty in people over the age of 65.
The study’s recommendations include 10 exercises for strengthening arms and legs aimed at improving balance and coordination.
It also encourages including protein in your daily diet, such as milk, eggs, tuna, chicken, or vegetable proteins such as beans and lentils to provide a foundation for building muscle and strengthening bones. .
Frailty is a state of reduced resilience to stressors such as falls and infections that increases the risk of disability, dependence and death.
The study, published in the official journal of the British Geriatrics Society, Age and Aging, explores how simple strength training combined with dietary changes can prevent frailty and increase physical resilience in people aged 65 and over. is showing.
Dr. John Travers, a general practitioner who led the study at UCD, said:
“However, this clinical trial showed that a simple, low-cost home intervention can reverse frailty and significantly improve muscle strength, bone mass, activity level, and slowness in three months.”
Senior co-author Professor Marie-Therese Cooney, a geriatrician and consultant at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, said:
Researchers at UCD, Trinity College Dublin, University of Technology Munster, and six general clinics in Ireland found resistance exercise and diet to consume protein proven effective in tackling the onset of frailty. developed the advice of
The intervention in the new study was collaboratively designed and tested with 112 older adults during the first year of the process.
After this, 168 participants from 6 general practices were enrolled in the clinical trial and randomly assigned to an intervention or control group.
The study concluded that there were significant improvements in the intervention group compared to the control group, including reversal of frailty, improved grip strength, increased bone mass, and improved activity levels.
The number of frail participants in the group that made the exercise and diet change was reduced by two-thirds, and two-thirds of the participants found the exercise and diet change easier.
The study also measured participants’ biological age as a secondary outcome.
We found that the mean age of the control group was 3 months older at the end of the 3-month period, and the mean age of the intervention group was 7 months younger.
Studies with a larger number of participants are needed to prove the importance of the findings of biological aging, he said.
Frail people are statistically twice as likely to have to go to the emergency department and spend four times longer in the hospital than non-frail people.
It is estimated that the condition adds more than €10,000 per person to health care costs each year.
“It’s never too late to start getting proper exercise,” said Dr. Travers.
“The older we get, the more important this becomes. This study provides hope and strong evidence that people can achieve higher levels of resilience than previously thought.”
