My aunt is exactly 60 this year, and she broke a bone a few days ago, just because she took a big step and twisted her foot. My mother commented, "Hey, it's like this when you're old."
Is that really the case?
In the case of my aunt, it is a fragility fractureA fragility fracture is a fracture of a bony part of the body in the absence of visible trauma or in the presence of low-energy violence
Fragility fractures are indeed more common in older people than in younger people.
However, there is no causal relationship between fragility fracture and age, and bone quality is the decisive factor.
The data tells us that more than 30% of the elderly over 60 years old in China have osteoporosis problems, and these people are the high-risk groups for fragility fractures.
In fact, my aunt's usual life is very positive, yoga, swimming, exercising almost every day, often learning music with piano friends, and she is also a houseworker. But she has a problem, that is, she is a serious picky eater, she doesn't eat this, she doesn't eat that, and she doesn't know what to cook when she is invited to the house, but the strange thing is that milk tea, snacks, cakes ......These "delicious processed foods" are not refused.
Thankfully, it was only a broken ankle.
It is important to know that the fracture site of the elderly, the closer to the center of the body, the higher the mortality rate, from high to low, in order of proximal femur, femur, pelvis, spine, ribs, clavicle, humerus and calf.
Here, I would like to give a suggestion to a situation like my aunt: although I didn't save much bone mass when I was young, I still have to start now, eat a balanced diet, socialize more, keep exercising, and pay more attention to the safety of my feet.
These suggestions are not casual words.
According to a study published in the Japanese Journal of Epidemiology, moderate-to-vigorous exercise, a variety of diets, and social activities can reduce the risk of disability in the elderly by 35%, and if all three are combined, the risk of disability can be reduced by 46%.
To put it more seriously, lifestyle choices, especially those of old age, will largely determine how we leave this world.
Take bone health as an example, whether you can walk with your wife and grandchildren in the park, or stay in bed for a long time after a broken bone, are all small choices that are common to the day.
When you're old, it's really not all like that.