New Year, New You

It’s a new year, and if you’re like half the American population, you’ve made a few New Year’s resolutions. Self improvement, losing weight and working out account for almost half of resolutions of, and for good reason. Study after study shows that exercising is one of the best things you can do for your overall health.

And as you age, it’s even more important to add regular exercise to your life because it helps prevent injury-causing falls. At MyNotifi, we know a lot about why people fall. One of the biggest causes is problems with balance and gait. This is followed closely by lower body weakness. In fact, as your lower body weakens, your chance of falling increases fourfold.

Falling is the leading cause of fatal injury among older adults. One in three of our senior population will fall each year. Serious injuries such as broken bones or head injuries will result from a staggering one out of every five falls. If that’s not enough, every 20 minutes an older adult will die from a fall.

But what can be done?

Well, according to the National Council on Aging (NCOA), a leader in the study of fall prevention, “Performing exercises that improve strength, balance and fitness are the single most important activity that adults can do to stay active and reduce their chance of falling.”

MyNotifi is a fall detection device. Worn on the wrist, it detects falls and sends notifications to a personalized list of family, neighbors or friends. But it does more than that. The MyNotifi app comes pre-programmed with 38 exercises specifically designed for fall prevention, including strength, balance, gait, and range of motion exercises, and a guided program that monitors and records your progress and keeps you on track.

In addition to injury, there’s another important harm from falling that many people don’t realize. Loss of confidence can have a serious impact on quality of life. “About 30% of older people who fall lose their self-confidence and start to go out less often. Inactivity leads to social isolation and loss of muscle strength and balance, increasing the risk of falling.” And falling once is the leading predictor of another fall.

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine, a non-profit, the most important thing you can do to prevent falling is moderate exercise, to slow bone loss and maintain muscle strength, while improving balance and coordination. “Balance and coordination are essential to avoiding falls, which is the number one cause of hip and bone fractures in older adults,” according to Orthopaedic Surgeon Nathan Ehmer. And the sooner you can make those changes, they advise, the better.

So as you make your new year’s resolutions, ensure that exercising tops the list. MyNotifi can help. Contact us today!