Jul 21, 2008 9:19 am US/Eastern
HealthWatch: Senior Citizens Still Going Strong
Fall Prevention Class Strengthens Body And Spirit
By CBS 2's Dr. Max Gomez
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Senior Citizens work out in a class held at the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan that aims to build strength and fall prevention awareness.
CBS
Falls in senior citizens can take a terrible toll, from broken hips and bones to serious head injuries. In fact, one third of seniors who fall and break their hip are dead within one year. CBS 2's Dr. Max Gomez tells us about an innovative program to help prevent falls.
It's an approach you wouldn't usually think of when it comes to fall prevention, or seniors. The program uses exercise, flexibility and weight training of all things and it's helping prevent those potentially dead falls.
Plus the octogenarians love it.
Ok, they're not exactly pumping a lot of iron, but they are lifting weights, and at an age when most folks have long given up most physical activity.
Dr. Gomez attended a class of senior citizens putting in the effort and enjoying themselves at the same time.
"I walk more. I walk faster and better, a feeling of strength. I feel good about my body, better than before," said 86-year-old Mildred Hird.
But the workout has an even more important goal, and that is to keep the seniors from taking a serious fall, partly by correcting unsafe patterns.
"I took two very serious falls in the past two years. My wife kept telling me I shuffle when I walk," said Bob Seltzer, 73.
B.B. Swartt has fallen many times. She likes the class because it improves her upper body strength.
"I don't feel like I could manage the walker properly without having had the exercises with my arms because the arms are very important to walk with either a cane or walker," said Swartt.
The class runs for eight weeks at the Jewish Community on the Upper West Side and is open to anyone. The idea is that by getting stronger, seniors have the strength and reflexes to keep a minor trip or loss of balance we all have from becoming a major fall.
"It strengthens the bones as well as prevents the body from falling so easily," said Celeste Carlucci of the Jewish Community Center Manhattan, "so if you do fall, you're also less likely to break something."
And if someone does fall, the class also teaches you how to get up.
"There are lots of reasons to be on the floor, not just from falling, maybe playing with your grandchildren, getting something from a low cupboard. But, if by chance someone does fall, we want people to know the easiest way to get up so with the shock of falling, if they've practiced it, then it's something that comes a little easier," said Julie Kardachi, also of the Jewish Community Center of Manhattan.
"I feel strong and very active. And there is nothing more important than feeling good," said Hird.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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