Light physical activity yields significant benefits for those suffering from osteoarthritis, according to latest research. Lead scientist Dr. Dorothy Dunlop at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University found that staying as physically active as possible is very beneficial to people a they get older.
In a study with about 1,700 adults between 45 and 79 years of age, participants wore accelerometers (devices that tracked their movement including intensity level) for about 7 days. After two years the researchers reached back out to the study participants to see if they had developed any physical disabilities over the 2 year period.
Researchers found that the people who regularly participated in light physical activity like vacuum cleaning, pushing a shopping cart, or walking leisurely, were one third to one half less likely to have experienced a disability, as compared to the individuals who engaged in the least amount of regular light activity.
This is an important finding showing that doing even light activity has benefits in terms of osteoarthritis treatment. Another interested benefit of light physical activity was that it helped slow down the disease progression for those suffering from some type of disability.
People who engaged in more moderate and intense physical activities had even better results, but the bottom line is that some movement, however moderate, is better than no movement at all. Dr. Dunlop explains: “Even among those who did almost no moderate activity, the more light activity they did, the less likely they were to develop disability.” Read more on this interesting medical research here.
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