Anna,
Good luck with your MIL. My parents/in-laws aren’t elderly yet, but luckily they take pretty good care of themselves. Exercise and nutrition are important to most of them, even if their version of nutrition doesn’t quite mimic mine. Shuffling is a nice Catch-22. They feel more stable, but get weaker, which results in even less balance and even more shuffling.

Obviously there is some level of physical decline as one ages which is why the 70-year olds aren’t competing against the 22-year olds. Age reduces testosterone levels (in men) and makes recovery from intense exercise harder. Balance is probably comprised largely from the reduction in strength that comes from doing less and less. Course, not exercising intensely also reduces test. levels, so again, a catch-22. The bottom line is that we can make excuses as we age and become the typical frail elderly person, or we can take charge of our health, eat right, exercise to the level our body allows us to, and be vibrant, healthy old folks.

Of course, this is easy for us young folks to say. =)

Cheers
Scott

Love it! I have been paying attention to lack of exercise & the elderly, as I have a 79 yo old MIL who has been getting quite frail in recent years. As she is in another country there is only so much I can do or say, but it has been eye opening, to say the least. The declining state of her teeth over the past two decades (perhaps due to decades of high BP medication as she says, but also perhaps due to the “free” dental care of UK Nation Health Service) has negatively impacted her ability to eat meats, raw or crisp-cooked veggies, etc., so I really worry about her nutritional status (and of course her sweet tooth and love of soft breads doesn’t help). I sent my SIL a slow cooker crockpot so she can make bone broths for my MIL for better protein and mineral absorption.

I knew that falls are a real danger to older folks. often leading to other complications and a decline in health, but I assumed it was because of loss of balance, declining eyesight, etc. I learned another cause is loss of muscle mass and strength. Simply put, some older people “shuffle” because they don’t have the strength to walk properly with a sense of balance. Shuffling reduces the sense of imbalance. But shuffling also hastens a decline in strength and muscle strength because of disuse.