If you need yet another reason to get up and get moving, consider the fascinating findings of a study showing that adults 65 and older with active lifestyles are less likely to experience psychological distress. The research was led by Gregory Kolt, PhD of the University of Western Sydney School of Science and Health andreported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, a Wiley publication. The researchers analyzed data from nearly 100,000 Australian men and women who participated in the "45 and Up Study."
What the authors discovered was that that older adults who experienced any level of psychological distress were over four times more likely to experience "functional limitation" than those who did not. In other words, in a kind of reverse cause and effect the less you move, the more likely you are to lose strength and mobility, and the more likely you are to feel anxious and upset. This study is backed up by previous ones that have shown that psychological distress is linked to reduced physical activity and increased functional limitation across a range of age groups. A separate study also indicated that approximately 30% of reductions in physical activity, and increases in psychological distress over time, are due to functional limitations and chronic health problems.
