Another Benefit of Lifestyle Changes in the Elderly

We love when our residents become healthy enough that they can leave our home permanently. On their way to moving back home, we love to see them go out with their family temporarily.

Recently one of our residents spent a couple of days at her son’s home.

Unfortunately, while she was at his home, she fell. And fractured her hip.

Her son sent her to the hospital where the doctor determined she needed surgery. She’s 95 so we were worried she was too old for surgery. That happens often for elderly people.

The doctor decided she could handle the surgery. So they proceeded ahead.

The surgery went very well.

What was really amazing was the post-surgery recovery. Within about 3 days of the surgery, she was able to use a walker and stand up.

That was crazy to me. Her son texted my manager and I a picture of her.

I started to wonder if what we’re doing at our home had anything to do with it. She had improved a lot of her health prior to the fall. She had been exercising with our personal trainer 4-5 times a week. She has also been eating our low-carb meals for a long time.

Prior to the fall she visited her cardiologist. The cardiologist told her “whatever you’re doing keep doing it. All your markers look fantastic.”

So I looked into why some people might recover from surgery more quickly than others. Especially elderly people.

What I found made me more certain of my suspicions.

Most of these suspicions seem to be common sense. However, it’s always nice to have science back it up.

First let’s talk about exercise. A study has shown that resistance exercise and muscle training improve outcomes from surgery. The study took 43 people who were scheduled for hip surgery. They divided the people into 3 groups:

1. People who did exercise before surgery

2. People who exercised both before and after surgery

3. People who just received the usual care

The study measured length of stay and the number of post-operative complications to determine the effectiveness of the exercises. The exercises included some aerobic exercise and 6 resistance exercises that targeted major muscle groups.

The results were as expected:

“Patients reported significantly greater quality of recovery in the prehab+rehab exercise group compared to control (p=0.05)”

“CONCLUSION The preliminary results of this study indicate resistance-based exercise training prior to and following surgery results in greater muscular strength and enhanced quality of recovery compared to current standard care practices.”

What about diet? Apparently, that can make a difference as well.

When you have a broken bone, your body mounts its defense and recovery mechanisms to heal the bone and bring everything back to normal.

One of the cell types that your body uses to heal broken bones are macrophages. Macrophages belong to a group of cells called phagocytes that ‘eat’ things that are harmful to your body. The macrophage will:

· Clean debris around the area of the broken bone

· Increase inflammation initially and then decrease it as part of the healing process

· Contribute to bone healing and making sure the bone becomes solid again

If anything slows down these macrophages, it will take longer to heal from surgery. Something that really slows them down is too much sugar in your system. Typically diabetics will take longer to heal from surgery than non-diabetics.

Low-carb diets help enhance macrophage activity. Like what we feed our residents.

For more information about a good diet for surgery, see a video here.

It’s very exciting to me to see new benefits for these lifestyle changes we are making for our seniors!