Coach Gostnell
04-11-2005, 02:57 PM
The local Community College has early morning broadcasts of
tele-courses, which I often watch with half an eye while doing Warrior
Wellness. Depending on the day it might be Economics, Geography,
Geology/Earth Processes (my favorite!), Cultural or Health Studies.
This morning, I tuned into a program on aging at the point they were
discussing heart function. Learned some things of course: Resting heart
rate in older people can be as good as in younger folks, but working
heart rate not so much because the walls of the heart tend to thicken
(part of the hardening-of-the-arteries process) so the heart is able to
move less volume at the beginning of each beat. At least that's how it
typically works in the USA.
People in other countries who work hard and have low/no salt diets, and
those who engage in regular strenuous exercise generally experience less
of this thickening. No surprise there.
>From the heart, the program moved onto the brain & nervous system. The
gist of that: While we lose brain cells that can't be replaced, we've
got so many "spares" that we can make new synaptic connections pretty
much at any time in life. Yep, sounds good.
Now comes the TILT! Reflexes, fine motor skills and BALANCE are out
the window when one gets old. Period. Really!?! This is where I wanted
to grab the people in the TV and shake them - NOT SO! There were no
disclaimers, or studies cited showing people can hang on to these
attributes with even a little work. Heck, older people in Dr. Teagle's
class are improving in all these areas - and more - slowly but
surely.
Did the producers even listen to what they said before that? That the
brain can make NEW connections. Duh!
Two things really killed me - the 50 year old guy calmly accepting all
kinds of physical limitations "because of my age." He didn't think
being overweight and not moving off the couch except to get creamed in
back yard basketball by his teenage sons have anything to do with it?
The second: A lovely, much older lady who said her handwriting and
typing skills had deteriorated but she teaches literacy as a volunteer
and needed to be able to write clearly. So she started printing instead
of writing, and her printing was now beautiful. (Didn't Scott say
something sometime about "Use it or Lose it"?)
Okay, so cells do age, and there are age-related changes that can't be
completely eliminated - else why am I wearing these stupid reading
glasses when I had great vision for the 50 years before? But the
propaganda machine continues to crank out the message, "You're old. What
do you expect?" I hear it from doctors, clients' families, articles and
now, "educational" TV shows.
What I expect is not only to not fall apart just because I've
reached some arbitrarily designated age, but to actually improve by
working "smarter, not harder" and CST is absolutely the place to be for
that.
I so much appreciate what I've learned here, want to spread the message
to anyone willing to listen, and am grateful that so many people on this
Forum are doing likewise.
Live and Age Well,
Jeanne
tele-courses, which I often watch with half an eye while doing Warrior
Wellness. Depending on the day it might be Economics, Geography,
Geology/Earth Processes (my favorite!), Cultural or Health Studies.
This morning, I tuned into a program on aging at the point they were
discussing heart function. Learned some things of course: Resting heart
rate in older people can be as good as in younger folks, but working
heart rate not so much because the walls of the heart tend to thicken
(part of the hardening-of-the-arteries process) so the heart is able to
move less volume at the beginning of each beat. At least that's how it
typically works in the USA.
People in other countries who work hard and have low/no salt diets, and
those who engage in regular strenuous exercise generally experience less
of this thickening. No surprise there.
>From the heart, the program moved onto the brain & nervous system. The
gist of that: While we lose brain cells that can't be replaced, we've
got so many "spares" that we can make new synaptic connections pretty
much at any time in life. Yep, sounds good.
Now comes the TILT! Reflexes, fine motor skills and BALANCE are out
the window when one gets old. Period. Really!?! This is where I wanted
to grab the people in the TV and shake them - NOT SO! There were no
disclaimers, or studies cited showing people can hang on to these
attributes with even a little work. Heck, older people in Dr. Teagle's
class are improving in all these areas - and more - slowly but
surely.
Did the producers even listen to what they said before that? That the
brain can make NEW connections. Duh!
Two things really killed me - the 50 year old guy calmly accepting all
kinds of physical limitations "because of my age." He didn't think
being overweight and not moving off the couch except to get creamed in
back yard basketball by his teenage sons have anything to do with it?
The second: A lovely, much older lady who said her handwriting and
typing skills had deteriorated but she teaches literacy as a volunteer
and needed to be able to write clearly. So she started printing instead
of writing, and her printing was now beautiful. (Didn't Scott say
something sometime about "Use it or Lose it"?)
Okay, so cells do age, and there are age-related changes that can't be
completely eliminated - else why am I wearing these stupid reading
glasses when I had great vision for the 50 years before? But the
propaganda machine continues to crank out the message, "You're old. What
do you expect?" I hear it from doctors, clients' families, articles and
now, "educational" TV shows.
What I expect is not only to not fall apart just because I've
reached some arbitrarily designated age, but to actually improve by
working "smarter, not harder" and CST is absolutely the place to be for
that.
I so much appreciate what I've learned here, want to spread the message
to anyone willing to listen, and am grateful that so many people on this
Forum are doing likewise.
Live and Age Well,
Jeanne