SENIOR LIVING: Six Tips for Aging Well
By Guest Columnist Rita Piedras, Massage Therapist
Part of aging well is taking care of your minor health problems as they arise instead of waiting until they worsen. Set aside some time from your day to take care of yourself. As a massage therapist, I spend my days trying to help people get back to a healthier state.
As part of aging well, we all want a vibrant and active life. We want to have an enjoyable social life, participate in hobbies and sports and travel to new places. To be able to do this, we need to take care of ourselves by following a healthy diet and exercise program and monitoring our health. This monitoring is not just seeing your doctor once a year, but includes taking a look at yourself regularly and attending to those chronic aches and pains. Try these tips at home to help maintain a healthy life.
One of the first steps is to prevent yourself from getting sick. A simple way of doing this is drinking lemon juice. This can be done through either lemonade or drinking hot lemon water. For the hot lemon water, just add a teaspoon of lemon juice and a little sweetener to hot water. This is especially good at night as a substitute for other drinks that might disturb your sleep. One of my clients who was going to graduate school kept picking up colds from all the people she was around. Once she started drinking the lemon water, she never got another cold.
Secondly, as we age, the padding on our feet wears down and we are more prone to foot problems. One of my clients was experiencing heel pain. She had a house with tile floors and just wearing thicker shoes wasn’t doing enough. I advised her to start incorporating calf raises as part of her exercise regime. She would just stand at the edge of a step and lift up ten to twenty times. Next, she would point her toes in and then lift up. Finally, her toes would point out and she would do a set. After a few weeks of exercises three times a week, her heel pain disappeared.
My third tip may seem very strange. Have you ever noticed your dog rolling on the floor on his back—sometimes with a tennis ball underneath? What your dog is doing is stretching out his muscles. You can do the same thing. Lie down on a carpeted floor and just put a tennis ball (preferably a clean one) under your back and gently push down with your body. Don’t force the movement. Your back will tell you what feels good and what doesn’t. This will help stretch out tight muscles. Sometimes just laying on the floor will help the alignment of your back and spine.
When your hands start hurting from arthritis, lay one of them flat in front of you and start rubbing it both lengthwise and then sideways. This rubbing, especially the side/lateral slow movements helps prevent the finger joints from “locking up” early. This can be done while you’re relaxing and watching TV.
My fifth tip is for those who spend a great deal of time at their computers or other intense mental concentration. People don’t realize that the skull is encased in a sheath of muscles. As you think, these muscles tighten up over the course of several hours; the whole head becomes one tense ball of muscles. When this happens, relax and gently rub your index finger into your head. Just rub your finger in small circles for a few seconds on the tight spots of your skull. People who are right handed will find the right side of their skull tighter and vice versa. Another solution is to buy one of those buckwheat pillows that you can heat up in the microwave and put it under your head when you lie down.
Finally, always use common sense. If you are working out and an exercise hurts—don’t do it. I can’t tell you how often I have clients come in who have done a weight-lifting exercise and ask me if they should continue to do it. My response is always—if it is hurting (and not ‘sweet’ discomfort), stop doing it!! Your body is unique and an exercise that works for one person might actually cause damage to another. This is especially true for women. We have a different hip structure and certain exercises such as squats can cause more harm than good. Also, as we age, we have to be more careful of the exercises we do. Our range of motion is different from a 20 year old so we can’t do the same exercises. I often work on clients who have overdone their sport and are trying to relieve the damage they have caused to themselves.
About the Author: Rita Piedras has over 26 years in therapeutic massage and has practiced in Silver City for the past 18 years. She specializes in treating headaches, neck and jaw pain, earaches, arthritis, posture, knees, ankle and foot problems and other mild and chronic conditions. If you have any questions about any of the information contained in this article, call Rita at 505-538-5736. Before using any of these tips, please consult with your physician.