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As we grow older, maintaining an active lifestyle becomes more important than ever. Regular exercise can even reverse some of the symptoms of aging and help you:

* Boost energy
 * Maintain your independence, and
 * Manage symptoms of illness or pain.



And not only is exercise good for your body, it’s also good for your mind, mood, and memory. Whether you are generally healthy or are managing an illness, there are many ways you can get more active, improve confidence, and boost your fitness.

150 Minutes Per Week
Our bodies were designed for moving and medical experts recommend that we all do at least 150 minutes of heartbeat-increasing, temperature-raising physical activity every week. Five 30 minute sessions spread out over a week is ideal, however, you can break them down into smaller periods of 10-15 minutes if you don’t feel fit enough to do a full 30-minute session.

If you have been inactive for a long time or suffer from any chronic health condition such as arthritis, diabetes, or heart disease, you should, of course, talk to your GP before starting any strenuous exercise regime, however, the good news is that moderate-intensity aerobic activity, like brisk walking, intensive house-cleaning or gardening is generally safe for most people.

Mini Exercise Bikes - A great solution!
An even safer and more convenient solution is cycling on a Mini Exercise Bike, like the ones we sell at www.ZestHomeFitness.com. They are just like a proper exercise bike but with the seat and handle bars removed. As a result they are small, light-weight and inexpensive so you can use them every day in the comfort of your own home, whilst watching TV or listening to the radio.


This is a photo of our most popular mini exercise bike, the Zest PLUS
Mini Exercise Bike

How Exercise Will Keep You Young And Healthy
Making physical activity part of your weekly routine will help you:

1. Control Your Weight
You gain weight when the calories you burn are less than the calories you eat or drink. If you are carrying a few extra pounds, you seriously need to increase your activity levels and moderate your diet. Not only will you feel and look better, but you will also reduce your risks of developing various life-threatening illnesses.

2. Reduce Your Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
The key to living a long healthy life is to look after your heart and ensure that it continues pumping blood around your body as effectively as possible. By doing at least 150 minutes a week (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate-intensity aerobic activity you can lower your blood pressure and reduce the risk of cholesterol clogging up you arteries.

3. Reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Diabetes is a major cause of coronary heart disease, blindness, kidney failure and damage to arteries and yet hundreds of thousands of people in the UK suffer from Type 2 diabetes and don’t even know it! It is a largely preventable disease, however being overweight is the most common cause because it puts strain on the pancreas, the organ that produces insulin, the hormone that regulates the body's blood-sugar levels. Diabetes increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, nerve damage, blindness, bone and joint problems, including osteoporosis and foot damage, potentially even leading to amputation so it is best to do whatever you can to avoid getting it. The best way to do this is by watching your diet and being physically active so as to maintain a healthy weight. Even if you are unfortunate enough to actually develop diabetes, doing regular physical activity will also help you control it.

4. Reduce Your Risk of Some Cancers
Being physically active also lowers your risk for two types of cancer: colon and breast.
Research shows that:
 • Physically active people have a lower risk of colon cancer than do people who are not active.
• Physically active women have a lower risk of breast cancer than do people who are not active.

If you are a cancer survivor, research shows that getting regular physical activity not only helps give you a better quality of life, but also improves your physical fitness.

5. Strengthen Your Bones and Muscles
As you age, it's important to protect your bones, joints and muscles. Not only do they support your body and help you move, but keeping bones, joints and muscles healthy will enable you to continue being able to do your regular daily activities. Doing the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-level physical activity every week will also lower your risk of falling and having a hip fracture which is a serious health condition that can have major, life-changing, negative effects. It also helps with arthritis and other conditions affecting the joints.

6. Improve Your Mental Health and Mood
Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age and help slow down cognitive decline. Also by activating the hormones in your body, it will also reduce your risk of depression and help you sleep better.

7. Improve Your Ability to do Daily Activities and Prevent Falls Looking after your heart and also doing some strength-building exercises will help maintain your physical abilities so that you can continue doing everyday activities such as climbing stairs, grocery shopping, and playing with your grandchildren.

By making a positive lifestyle choice to include physical activity in your daily life, you will reduce your risk of physical and cognitive decline and increase your chances of living a long and healthy retirement for many years into the future.


By George Pirintzi, Managing Director of Zest Home Fitness Limited, the UK’s leading specialist supplier of Mini Exercise Bikes.

Our mission is to help people become healthier by making it easy for them to remain physically active. Our Mini Exercise Bikes are an easy and affordable way to keep fit, every day, in the comfort of your own home. For more information please visit www.ZestHomeFitness.com

Oh dear, more warnings from the scaremongers determined to keep us tip-toeing along a knife edge as they issue their pronouncements about what is, or is not, good for us. Now it’s the turn of non-steroidal painkillers that might lead to a minute increase in the risk of a stroke or heart attack. I’m beginning to think the answer is to ignore all such and get on with life while bearing in mind the age-old advice of all things in moderation when eating and drinking.

 

I was prescribed a minimum dose of statins when a blood test revealed a near-the-borderline cholesterol level. I did as I was told and took one every night, but over the ensuing months; my joints began swelling, becoming both stiff and very painful. I had to go for walks along my country lanes using two walking poles; climb stairs one at a time, coming down the same way; after one hour of shopping I was exhausted, while drinking a cup of tea or coffee needed two hands as one was no longer strong enough to hold a cup by the handle.

After reading through the leaflet in the packet of, by this time, my third or fourth prescription, I noted that my symptoms were described as worth reporting to my doctor. This I did and the medication was changed for another brand, but the symptoms persisted, so I told my GP I would abandon the statins and watch my diet; cutting out, or reducing my intake of foods considered most detrimental.

The one I most lamented was cheese, all varieties of which I love. Now, I indulge only on rare occasions when I have guests to lunch or dinner – and as that is such an uncommon event these days it might indeed be classed as a rarity, which is why I relish the visits of my son or daughter as an excuse to splurge when they travel from Sussex or Worcester, staying for the occasional week-end when they can get away. That also gives me an excuse to indulge in my love of cooking too.

So, it was back to my sensible good food diet and long-term tried and trusted food supplements. Gradually my mobility returned as the swelling, and the pain in my joints disappeared. Now I can trot up and down stairs; walk unaided; kneel in the garden – on my kneeler it’s true, but crouching to pull out the odd weed presents no problem, while strolling behind the petrol-driven lawnmower is a doddle, and the glass, or two, of wine I allow myself afterwards tastes all the better.  

Jean drove me over to the Freeman by 8.30 for my 9am appointment. I was immediately scooped up into their procedure by Nurse Kylee, but told I 
"Yes dear, youre 3rd on the list for the afternoon!”
I was visited by the Ward Secretary & an assortment of
 medics & nursing personnel all wanting to check this or record that.

10am I was sent down to ECG for a new test, got lost returning but was rescued; & checked again for MRSI. I had a bit of a head ache & was aware of a touch of LWS [Laptop Withdrawal Syndrome] & then from 11am just waited - & waited.

              
Lunch consisted of a soup of unspecified ingredients which never the less was tasty, a ham sandwich with real live mustard & cress & then genuine Tapioca pudding! It was all nice - if a bit quaint!

              
A silent place, as hospitals go; the exact opposite to Charring X - just the occasional crisp sound of ¾ heals on hard floors upstairs. The afternoon ticked by & I dozed & read by turned.
I waited - & waited.

              
Quite suddenly I was whisked off down to "Minor Surgical Procedures."
The staffs there were friendly, the surgeon was a young boy & his assistant a scots lady of mature years [who could have been his mother, but for the accent]

 – but the procedure… the procedure was bloody painful.

The job consisted of a small incision above my left nipple followed by his finger prodding around in the hole “…to open out the cavity.” – It was no fun!
I have a pretty high pain threshold, but that was getting towards the nasty end.
I was given plenty of local anaesthetic – but not enough.

He then inserted a small recording device - exactly the size of a standard Flash Drive, & was stitched up again.

               When I was done & wheeled back to the ward I was kept a bit because my BP was around 150/101, by which time I was offered the evening meal. It was very nice, mined.

Eventually I was given a letter & put into a mini cab home.

I was shattered!

 

Years ago  I could lay in bed for hours if school or work didn't mean I had to get up.  What has happened?  

Over the last few years I started suffering from bad neck ache and hip ache, and thought it was down to that,  but even after largely eliminating those pains with a water-pillow and strategically placed cushions, I still can't have a nice lie-in like I used to back in the day, even though I have tried.  I cannot snuggle down and doze anymore, I get restless.  I have black-out curtains for my bedroom as well, but nothing works.

I don't have sleep problems , but I used to think that when I was retired I could languish in bed every morning if I wanted to, but it just doesn't seem to work that way.   It is so unfair.

i have tried every diet under the sun and take it from me, they dont work.  you sail along denying yourself all the things you want, and little brain starts preening itself on ones success, then disaster, it starts going into decline and says, GIMME.

then all that work fails, and one piles on a bit more as well.   only to fall foul of the next diet that comes along, and the next and the next and the next.

if you are singularly blessed with larger stuff in your family, you might as well sit down and forget it.

what you have to do in the end to achieve peace of mind, is to say to yourself, oh well im meant to be a slightly large size, so i accept that and lets find a plan that means i can diet and eat what i want anyway.

sound too good to be true.  but it works. 

i am not a person who finds this wild gruelling exercise campaigning to my taste.  ive done all that too and made myself seriously unhappy into the bargain.

oh, i had a very slim waistline with it, and serious dieting, but i didnt want to face the day. and thats no good either.

how am i so serene?  well, the policy i adopted was, and especially since i put on weight to 18 and a half stone when i had chemo four years ago, i ate normally, and had exactly what i wanted, but smaller portions, but also i kept busy.

no sitting down and nodding off on the sofa when there was nothing to do, i made things to do.  and i lost four and a half stone. 

since i have been unable to get about i put some on, which shows you what inactivity does for you.   i am pretty careful not to exceed my 'diet'.
i have ice cream, i have a little butter when i fancy, but small portions and im keeping too much weight at bay with almost no exercise at all.

im still pretty big, but i can never be a greyhound, more your dulux dog, but its learning to be happy with what you are is the whole point.

i watched with interest an old topic on the tv the other day, that there is a fat gene.  i have said this as long as i could think, that there must be something that makes us fat or thin.

i have two grandmothers and a father who were on the weighty side, and
my mother who was six and a half stone.

my mother and incidentally my grandfather who she took after, could eat their way through a supermarket and have no ill effects of getting fat.
i have to be restrained in what i eat, and i put on weight.

sensibly, there has to be a reason for size.  i wish they would hurry up and declare it, and then i could have a decent wardrobe of clothes. all the sizes of 20 and up are in browns beiges and blacks. those that i can afford that is. manufacturers must think we are a very depressed lot.  we are with whats on offer.  id love to wake up one day a size 14. 

but its not going to be, im a realist, so, i have learned to love myself and who i am. and thats good.

im no egoist, dont get me wrong, far from it, ive lived a different sort of life from that, but liking yourself is the best thing. and when you have found out what you are and can forgive yourself for all those petty little things you disliked about yourself, you are on the road to a winner.

so, these days, instead of noting down the latest diet from the magazine in the doctors surgery,  i go home and lift a nice cake and cuppa, and, yes ENJOY IT.

as my mother always used to say, moderation in all things, including moderation. 

a little of what you fancy does you good.   youre worth it!

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent, The Telegraph writes: The so-called “Sandwich Generation” who juggle work and family life with caring for their own frail parents will receive an entitlement to help, such as respite holidays, and training in care techniques. Under new laws to be announced in Wednesday's Queen’s Speech, councils will have to assess what support carers need to manage their own lives and provide services to those who need them. Although financial assistance will be means-tested, other help with advice and guidance will be offered to all for the first time. Downing Street hopes the reforms will combine with a new flat-rate state pension to offer more support to millions of women approaching retirement. An estimated 1.25 million people, many of whom are women, spend more than 50 hours each week caring for family members who cannot look after themselves because they are frail, disabled or have dementia. The number is due to rise sharply as the population grows older. For more details please visit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10040248/Carers-to-receive-legal-rights-under-new-laws.html

Dear Members in Surrey, Out-of-hours services in Guildford & Waverley, Surrey are due for review and a new contract will be awarded in January 2014. 'Out-of-hours' care is the access that you have to many NHS services outside of normal surgery hours. This might mean healthcare professionals making home visits, access to walk-in centres, or advice over the phone. We are keen for as many members of the public in Surrey as possible to contribute to this process, as your views help us to design services suited to your needs. We therefore invite you to fill out this anonymous questionnaire. You don't have to answer every question and can ignore any questions that aren't relevant or that you don't want to answer, however the more detail you give, the more we can represent your views in the process. https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZDLJRMC Thank you for your help. Dr Ann Hennell Clinical Lead for Unplanned Care Guildford and Waverley CCG ann.hennell@nhs.net

Please share  with Every health Authourity and care organisation in the land!!!
Here is the proof, here is the “EVIDENCE they all keep talking about !! This is the way forward to DE-STIGMATISE this awful disease.

Hi, if anybody EVER doubted the power of people speaking about their own experiences with Dementia and their carers then please read this. This is some of the feedback we got from a presentation given to first year NURSING students last week, the exact same people we should ALL be speaking to,not only to de-stigmatise this awful disease but to blow away any preconceptions they may have had about people with Dementia all being in late stages and not having a story to tell before they get there!!!! 
 
I feel so strongly about this and would like to ask all my wonderful friends to copy ect to every NHS health site and nursing site they know, and i promise a copy of this is being sent to my friends in our local hospital of Torbay and my great friends around the cottage hospitals here in Devon!! We have changed the minds of so many 2nd year Paramedics and first year nursing students in the last two weeks and taught them that there really is a person behind this disease, especially as by the time they usually get to see them they are usually in the later stages.
 
All this is connected to the Dementia Aware community the Torbay Dementia Action Alliance has strived to achieve and just proves with even someone WITH Dementia at the helm what CAN BE achieved!!! so my question is my friends,
 
What Can You Do ??
 
Very best wishes, Norrms and family
 
Here are a few comments
 
Thank you so much  – to you, George, Norman (and his wife), and Keith for the excellent session you all provided today. You all made such a significant impact into our insight about people affected with and by dementia, and I know you have positively inspired these 1st year nursing students about some of these important issues.
As you know, today was the last taught day of this module. You will not be surprised that you were all awarded many outstanding “gold stars” in the students’ overall module evaluation commentary, and several expressed their appreciation to me after you had finished.

Researchers at University College London have analysed the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA) to look at the impact of social isolation and loneliness on cognitive functioning and mortality. The first study found that social isolation and loneliness were significantly associated with poorer cognitive function in older adults and adds to the body of research indicating the benefits of a socially integrated lifestyle for older people. At the same time, interventions to address this issue have typically shown only limited success. A further study assessed the impacts of social isolation and loneliness on mortality, looking at them both together and independently. It found that while social isolation is associated with higher mortality in older people the effect is independent of the emotional experience of loneliness. So while both are important for well-being, efforts to reduce isolation might have greater benefits in terms of mortality: http://www.ifs.org.uk/conferences/AShankar_ELSA_Presentation.pdf

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