No, I’m not talking about your waist, but your height. A new study by the University of Gothenburg found that women who shrink in height by more than an inch in their 50s are more than twice as likely to die of a stroke than someone that doesn’t lose any height.
The study looked at 2500 women over 19 years, and found an average height loss of 0.8cm. A height loss of over 2cm was deemed to be a major reduction and incredibly women in this group were between 74-80% more likely to have died during the study follow up.
Interestingly the biggest mortality risk factor was a stroke, followed by heart disease, and the researcher hypothesised that, “regular physical activity may be beneficial not only in prevention of cardiovascular disease, but also in prevention of height loss.”
Both men and women can experience shrinkage in midlife, and it’s mainly down to our changing hormones, and the physiological changes that result.
We start to lose muscle mass, and our bone density decreases, at the same time we produce less collagen, meaning our ligaments and tendons are less elastic, so we lose flexibility.
Combine all those and you have loss of strength, body shape, posture, flexibility and bone density, the result of which is shrinkage.
So far so bad, but… you can do something about it!
– Start resistance training if you’re not already – I wrote about this earlier in the week
– Start stretching regularly, something like yoga is great for flexibility
– Move your body more – a sedentary body means a weak core, get up and move around regularly and start going for long walks if you’re not doing any other exercise
– Clean up your diet and get the right supplements – vitamin D plays a key role in our immune system, hormone production, and bone density, for women vitamin K is useful
Our clients lose inches where they want to – their waists! They also get to embrace life with energy, joy and gratitude, not just because they work with guidelines like these, but because we work on the neuroscience of habits, employ positive psychology, and generally empower them with the tools for lifelong success.
The best time to start making these changes was yesterday, the next best time is today. What are you waiting for?
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