“Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.”

[XPerceniol]

Sending healing energy and please pick up the vibe and love you are witnessing on here. Wrap yourself around it as long as needed and pass along to others. Its there; I promise.

[msfntor]

Mina, so you're not sick anymore? It seems to me, but I can't see you too clearly, because of the distance between us... Warm up at home for a few more days, then go out and walk around freely, please.

[msfntor]

If You Can Pass This 10-Second Test, There’s a Good Chance You’ll Outlive Your Peers

That is, if you’re over the age of 50.

BY STAV DIMITROPOULOS - PUBLISHED: NOV 7, 2022

 

Being able to stand on one leg for at least 10 seconds means you’ll likely outlive the majority of your peers, a new study says.

The research sheds light on the importance of balance for overall health, which the modern fitness industry has somewhat pushed to the curb.

Though other researchers suggest moderation in the way we interpret the outcomes of these simple tasks, you might want to start including the balance test in your morning toothbrushing routine.

Perhaps you’ve already tried balancing on one leg during a routine as simple as brushing your teeth. If you can balance on one leg for at least 10 seconds, rejoice! Chances are, you will outlive many of your peers. On the other hand, if you are over the age of 50 and cannot perform this balance test, you could be at a higher risk of dying within a decade compared to your peers, according to new research from Brazil.

The Brazilian study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicineearlier this year, found that the inability to balance on one leg for 10 seconds translated to an 84 percent higher risk of death from any cause for people ages 51 and above.

This was a longitudinal study, meaning that researchers observed the same subjects several times across a span of time. In this case, the research took place between 2009 and 2020, though it was part of a broader project that began in 1994. It recruited 1,702 people between the ages of 51 and 75, all living in Brazil. The researchers gave participants three chances to try to balance unsupported on one leg for 10 seconds during an initial checkup. They found that one in five failed to complete the task. Then, they followed up on the participants’ health over a period of seven years and found that 17.5 percent of those who had failed the test had died, while only 4.5 percent of those who had passed the test had died.

Though previous studies have made other longevity claims—anything from running 40 minutes a day to embracing new tech to feeling younger than your chronological age to mopping floors—this new study suggests that having good balance might be the secret sauce for survival (or is at least one of the main ingredients).

Try the balance test yourself: Find back-up balance support, like a wall or chair, in case you need it. Stand on one leg, resting your other leg on the back of the standing leg. Keep your arms at your sides. Repeat up to two more times if unsuccessful.

Typically, the average person experiences a decline in muscle strength after the age of 35 at a rate of 1 to 2 percent a year. The risk of sarcopenia, an age-related muscle-wasting disease, also increases drastically from the age ranges of 65 to 70 and 80 and older, from 14 percent to 53 percent respectively. Between the ages of 30 and 40, flexibility also diminishes, with men losing it faster than women. By comparison, balance on average tends to decline after a person’s mid-50s, according to the research. (The inability to complete the balance test became twice as difficult every five years among the participants).

“What’s the big deal?” you might wonder. You are getting older, and at some point in time you might lose your balance, fall, fracture your hip, and … the end. “Of course this is a possibility,” Claudio Gil Araújo, director of research and education at Exercise Medicine Clinic in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, who spearheaded the study, tells Popular Mechanics. “But to me, the most important reason for people falling is because they are unfit, physically speaking,” Araújo says. In part, living longer is a matter of being fit, but not necessarily in the way the fitness industry has taught you.

 

The modern fitness industry holds a very myopic view of what fitness is. “Go to any mega-gym in New York and you will find people running on the treadmill, usually those who run well, and people lifting in the weight room, usually those who lift well,” says Araújo. How many can you count working on things like balance or flexibility, though? “Things like balance, you can do at home. Balance is hard to sell,” says Araújo. 

But balance is the foundation of a person’s ability to move and function independently, and it requires the coordination of several physiological systems. It’s a core element of longevity, something well-documented in previous studies. Yet the desire to cheat death is stronger than ever, today, as shown by the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market, which is projected to reach $44.2 billion by 2030. So, this research could not stress more why you should focus on improving your balance if you are a fan of a longer existence on this planet.

 

“This study adds, perhaps in a new population, to numerous prior studies which have shown that quick and simple tests of physical performance—including walking speed, grip strength, or as in this case, balance—used with older adults can be predictive of poor health outcomes,” Thomas Buford, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Division of Gerontology, Geriatrics and Palliative Care and director for the UAB Center for Exercise Medicine, tells Popular Mechanics.

It is of course simplistic to think that poor test performance can cause these outcomes directly, Buford continues, but these outcomes are a good proxy for overall health. “These outcomes can have utility, but one must be cautious at the individual level to overreact to a single performance on any one of the individual tasks,” Buford says. That said, he believes encouraging and providing tools for older adults to maintain their physical function as much as possible as they age is essential.

Here: https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a41886676/longevity-one-leg-balance-test/

[mina7601]

39 minutes ago, msfntor said:

Mina, so you're not sick anymore?

No, I still am. Just that it's not very worse like on November 5.

43 minutes ago, msfntor said:

It seems to me, but I can't see you too clearly, because of the distance between us...

Well, this is the internet after all.

48 minutes ago, msfntor said:

Warm up at home for a few more days, then go out and walk around freely, please.

I feel bored when I go outside.

[Nerdulater]

On 11/7/2022 at 1:59 AM, XPerceniol said:

I just realized we've not heard from @sunryze and @Nerdulater in quite some time.

I only just noticed this from a notification, and the reasons I was gone was school and my laptop was playing up. But I am finally able to post again!

[XPerceniol]

22 hours ago, Nerdulater said:

I only just noticed this from a notification, and the reasons I was gone was school and my laptop was playing up. But I am finally able to post again!

Welcome back

[D.Draker]

18 hours ago, mina7601 said:

No, I still am. Just that it's not very worse like on November 5.

Well, this is the internet after all.

I feel bored when I go outside.

Gee ! Where did you get the cold !? It's stiil so warm outside ! Is it a form of Egyptian Covid or smth ?

Anyways, I hope you'll get much better very soon! 

[msfntor]

17 hours ago, mina7601 said:

I feel bored when I go outside.

So this, Mina... 

I don't understand this at all!

It's just outside, that there is something interesting going on.
First, you have the sunlight, which is beneficial because of the indispensable vitamin D... Then you can see various people, meet them, talk to them, help them! I ask people who use crutches, or who limp, or others with visible sequels, what they have experienced... and how I can help them...
You can also help the animals in the street, dogs and cats, feed them and even adopt them! 

All this happens outside.

[XPerceniol]

I much prefer and enjoy chatting with others with (both) intellectual and physical challenges. 

Just don't know how to get over the fear of people in this day and age when people are so two-faced and sneaky ... very hard to ever trust people again and I'm not sure I even could. That being said: I do hope you can fine a way to catch it before it gets out of hand and you start to lose control to the phobia. Anything I could say would be hypocritical as I couldn't follow my own advice, but we'll try, at least try. 

[UCyborg]

3 hours ago, msfntor said:

Then you can see various people, meet them, talk to them, help them! I ask people who use crutches, or who limp, or others with visible sequels, what they have experienced... and how I can help them...

Some of us aren't that open and tormented by our own anxieties or having mental blocks. I did give a bit of €€€ on few occasions to those in-need on the street, so there's that.

1 hour ago, XPerceniol said:

Just don't know how to get over the fear of people in this day and age when people are so two-faced and sneaky ... very hard to ever trust people again and I'm not sure I even could.

Can relate. Met very few people in my life and if that isn't challenging as it is and meeting the right ones, then there's also keeping them around. I need a lot of time on my own, then the work life came and then the COVID, so with the latter ended up from meeting one or two times a year to 0 times. They say it's much more difficult to meet people when you're out of school.

My mother keeps in touch with her aunt, who is 101 years old, she lost all the hearing in recent months, but her mind remained sharp well into her 100's. They were discussing that me and my brother would need to be in some shared interest group. I wonder how some other people manage to fit these things into their schedules. I come home from work and the rest is mandatory. Weekends fly-by as if it's nothing.

Edited November 10, 2022 by UCyborg

[mina7601]

9 hours ago, D.Draker said:

Gee ! Where did you get the cold !?

When I went to school during the monthly exams (which began on October 26, and ended on November 3). The weather is a bit cold for me here.

Also, thanks for the wishes.

Edited November 11, 2022 by mina7601

[mina7601]

6 hours ago, msfntor said:

Then you can see various people, meet them, talk to them, help them! I ask people who use crutches, or who limp, or others with visible sequels, what they have experienced... and how I can help them...
You can also help the animals in the street, dogs and cats, feed them and even adopt them! 

All this happens outside.

I know, but the thing is, it's hard for me to find people that I can trust outside. Same goes for animals.

[mina7601]

20 hours ago, Nerdulater said:

I only just noticed this from a notification, and the reasons I was gone was school and my laptop was playing up. But I am finally able to post again!

Welcome back, friend!

[XPerceniol]

12 hours ago, mina7601 said:

I know, but the thing is, it's hard for me to find people that I can trust outside. Same goes for animals.

I will write more in the AM. Today was brain fog city and it exhausted me and I'm not all that functional today, but I am reading.

[XPerceniol]

When I get this confused things seem quite surreal. Sorry :(