Retirement May Not Be All It is Cracked Up To Be
YOU ARE NOT A CHINA CUP UNLESS YOU TREAT YOURSELF THAT WAY!
We all seem to hold this vision of hanging out on a beach, once we have adequate rupees in the bank, sipping a Mai Tai while watching the sunset. But so many retire only to suddenly hit a brick wall of poorer health or severe diagnosis. What’s up with that?
Researchers studied retirement. Older retired folks tend to sleep more and exercise less.
Retirement and Aging Study
The Finnish Retirement and Aging study FIREA of the University of Turku used accelerometers to study how the 24-hour movement behaviors, i.e. sleep, sedentary behavior, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity change in relation to each other when a person retires.
The results show an increase in the amount of sleep, which contributed to a decreased amount of physical activity. Which leads, fairly rapidly, to poorer health.
When studying people who retired from manual work or the service industry, the amount of sleep and sedentary behavior increased in relation to physical activity. This change was stronger in women than in men.
As for people who had retired from non-manual work, the proportion of sleep increased in relation to physical activity and sedentary time.
Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity decreased more than light physical activity.
We push ourselves less as we age. Maybe our joints hurt more. But if one joint hurts, you have lots of others. If your knees hurt, sit at the gym and use your arms on various machines.
Too many patients give up entirely with one malady.
Keep going, or else you go less.
Previous research shows that replacing moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with lesser movement behavior, predisposes people to illness. Such as cardiovascular diseases and type 2 diabetes.
Authors conclude:
"Based on our research, people who are retiring should aim to increase the amount of physical activity, particularly moderate-to-vigorous activity.
“At the same time, long periods of sedentary time should be avoided and sitting should be divided into shorter periods with frequent walking breaks.
The study: The Finnish Retirement and Aging Study (FIREA) commenced at the University of Turku in 2013, and its main goal is to investigate the changes in living habits, health, and functional capacity as well as the factors affecting them in the age of retirement. The study is led by Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology Sari Stenholm.
YOU ARE NOT A CHINA CUP UNTIL YOU START TO TREAT YOURSELF THAT WAY!
Dr. B.
References:
Changes in the 24-h movement behaviors during the transition to retirement: compositional data analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2022; 19 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s12966-022-01364-3
University of Turku. "Retiring increases amount of sleep and decreases physical activity." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 October 2022. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/10/221004104955.htm>.
This is very true! The more you do the more you can do..Sitting all day is not useful. And the same goes for the brain-we do need to find purpose..Thankyou Dr. B