Today is your day Boomer! "83 per cent of Canadians don't get enough physical activity, 30 per cent have high blood pressure and 31 per cent are obese."(CBC.ca) Do these numbers shock you? They should. They reflect a recent study of over 30,000 Canadians aged 45 or older, and they point to increased risk of dementia. Yikes! But what can we do as a generation of Boomers to reduce this risk? Here are 12 "controllable" strategies according to the medical experts: Physical inactivity
Hearing loss, Obesity, Hypertension, Mid-life traumatic brain injury, Depression, Less education early in life, Sleep disturbances, Diabetes, Smoking, Excessive alcohol consumption, and Social isolation. Now, some of these are less-controllable than others....but number one, by far, is exercise! And they mean at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week! Are you doing this? About 700,000 Canadians have dementia and that number is expected to double in the next 25 years. Whew...let's get to it Boomers. Cheers!
Today is your day Boomer! Baby Boomers, another health benefit is back! It is backward walking and the trend-often associated with the 1980s-is making a return as grey-haired wonders, like you and I, look for new-or-newish ideas to help keep us fit! According to cbc.ca, "walking backwards has shown that there's less impact on the joints by using these different muscles — and it can increase flexibility and even help alleviate back pain." One 62-year-old Boomer says "Every time I walk, I just do a little twirl and walk backwards for a bit, and I'll do it just a few times during my walk." It may look a little unusual and may get a few laughs from passersby....by consider the actual benefits. Clinical exercise specialist André Noël Potvin says "When you start to walk backwards, you actually start to rebalance the forces around the ankle, knee, hip and lower back." This really helps Boomers recovering from knee surgery and older Boomers who are havi...

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