Health Promotion in Older Adults
Article 1
The first article titled ‘Systematic Review of Yoga Interventions to Promote Cardiovascular Health in Older Adults’ discusses the importance of using physical activities to improve both fitness and good health among mature adults. The topic urges them to increase their engagement in yoga due to the different benefits it has including improving mood, reducing stress, enhance the quality of life, promoting overall wellbeing, increasing strength, balance, and flexibility.
The article explains the health benefit of using yoga as one of the physical exercises that promote proper living among older adults. According to the author, it helps in preventing the development of different health complications such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, physical inactivity, and dyslipidemia. Moreover, the article states that it aids in modifying essential body aspects such as blood lipids, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), and blood glucose.
Older adults are a fragile population in society and it is important to find a proper strategy that can help them improve their overall health without subjecting them to opportunistic diseases. I chose the topic because yoga is one of the simplest physical activities that the population can engage in to improve their overall fitness including cardiovascular health. Through this, I would establish the different health benefits it has to them
While many researchers focus on how yoga reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, little has been done to establish the interventions that can be employed to reduce the effects of the disease among older adults. The population of mature adults in the United States is constantly increasing and is expected to double by 2050 (Barrows & Fleury, 2016). Similarly, the cost of treating CVD among older adults above 65 years is also increasing thus reducing the overall productivity of the country. Yoga aids in reducing the likelihood of the population suffering from chronic complications such as diabetes, cardiovascular complications, and obesity. Using yoga interventions in improving the population’s health through reducing stress, increasing strength, flexibility, improved endurance, and overall balance.
Article 2
The topic ‘Weight Loss and Physical Activity for Disease Prevention in Obese Older Adults: an Important Role for Lifestyle’ provides an insight on the importance of aspects such as engaging in physical activities and losing weight as a means of preventing diseases.
Engaging in activities that help in weight reduction and promote engagement in physical activities. Health conditions such as obesity and being overweight lead to the accumulation of fats in the body that could, in turn, lead to severe events such as death. As such, promoting good health through weight loss interventions and engagement in physical activities are critical in identifying other interventions that can help in promoting good health among obese older adults.
I chose the above topic due to its direct approach to finding solutions to some of the complications facing a section of the human population. The high number of Americans dying from weight-related complications presents an increasing concern to both local and federal agencies. I believe the topic provides detailed information that can not only help in managing obesity but also enable obese older adults to embrace physical activities as a means of reducing some of the opportunistic diseases affecting them.
Obesity and overweight is becoming a complex problem in the United States and has led to several deaths over the years. Among the older adults, it affects all four domains including medical, functional, social and psychological (Valencia et al., 2014). There exist several evidence showing that intentional weight loss (IWL) has several advantages on functional status, comorbidities and quality of life. Obesity is associated with an increase in global deaths than other factors such as low economic growth and underweight. The obesity paradox can be explained as the decrease of the number of complexities and deaths among people with obesity while their counterparts record more hospital complications such as cardiac arrest.
References
Barrows, J. L., & Fleury, J. (2016). Systematic review of yoga interventions to promote cardiovascular health in older adults. Western journal of nursing research, 38(6), 753-781.
Valencia, W. M., Stoutenberg, M., & Florez, H. (2014). Weight loss and physical activity for disease prevention in obese older adults: an important role for lifestyle management. Current diabetes reports, 14(10), 539.