A. Accept what will happen if I limit my activities
We cannot stress this enough. In order to overcome limited mobility, you must move. If not, you will continue to suffer, become sicker over time, increase your risks for many other health conditions, and continue in the Vicious Cycle.
Let's learn more about Limited Mobility.
Eventually cause you to lose your independence and the ability to care for yourself and others. Your limited mobility will only get better when you become the CEO of your own health and start moving. The benefits will amaze you. In fact, if injury, disability, illness, or weight problems have limited your mobility, it's even more important to experience the mood-boosting effects of movement and exercise. It can:
- Increase your ability to move.
- Ease depression.
- Relieve stress.
- Enhance self-esteem.
- Improve your entire outlook on life.
Cause your mobility issues to continue to get progressively worse. The less you move, the worse your mobility issues will become. It's understandable that inactivity has caused your mood and energy to sink, but you must take control, or you may eventually have to depend on others for your care.
Make you more susceptible to falls and other health issues. That's right. The limited mobility that you may be experiencing now, or will experience in the future if you don't begin moving more, can lead to falls, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and other debilitating conditions and diseases.
Movement, to get your heart rate up, is the key to increasing your mobility. This includes any kind of movement, such as:
- Walking
- Running
- Dancing
- Tennis
- Swimming
- Water aerobics
- Playing with children
These are also especially good for your heart. Even if you're confined to a chair, you can still do exercises that get your heart muscle pumping.
Strength training can also help your arthritis and mobility issues. These involve using weights and other resistance to build muscle and bone mass, strengthen your bones, improve balance, and prevent falls.
Flexibility exercises can also reduce pain. These help with your range of motion, prevent injury, and reduce stiffness. Examples include stretching, tai chi, and yoga.
Knee repairs and replacement surgeries can offer relief. But African Americans and Latinos/Hispanics are less likely to undergo these kinds of treatments. Even after adjusting for insurance and healthcare access, minorities are as much as 50% less likely to have the surgeries that might help them gain better mobility.
Perhaps your mobility issues have started to keep you inside, lonely, and isolated. The trips to the mall or lunch with friends may happen less and less. You may not feel your community is a safe place to walk or perhaps you mistrust the healthcare system to treat you fairly. Some of you may accept arthritis pain and lack of mobility as a natural part of aging. Some may even name arthritis "Arthur." It's time to stop putting your pain on the backburner and begin to seek the possibility of a better quality of life.
Did You Know?
54% of African-American women reported having doctor-diagnosed arthritis in the past five years, compared to 37% of white women.
Source: Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation,Kaiser Women's Health Survey, 2008
Some doctors and nurses find it difficult to communicate well with patients from different ethnic backgrounds. It's up to you to find the right person who is culturally sensitive and aware. Find ways to share the intensity of your pain and the need to be mobile. Talk to your healthcare provider and request information on practical life tools to reduce pain, get you more mobile, and create positive change.
Did You Know?
An NIH Women's Health Initiative study reported more osteoarthritis and mobility issues in Hispanic/Latina women than in Caucasian women.
Source: National Institutes of HealthYou're on your way to solving the puzzle and breaking the cycle. Now you know the importance of movement for Limited Mobility. If you would like to go back to follow choice B, please click here. If you are ready to move forward, let's take a look at the next piece of the puzzle by clicking on Lack of Physical Activity …
