Senior health
Staying strong, flexible, and mobile as you age can protect your independence, reduce frailty, and help you enjoy life more. From building muscle to protecting your joints, we asked the experts for practical strategies that will help you move better, feel steadier, and stay active for years to come. Read on to discover the actions you can take that make the biggest difference.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://patient.info/senior-health/10-week-healthy-ageing-course
I was involved in a serious road traffic accident that left me with brain injuries and four broken vertebrae. I was placed on fentanyl patch’s and oxycodone because I received no treatment being sent home with bruises only. It took a year for the breaks to be confirmed when I also discovered I’d lost 4’‘’ in height due to the compacted vertebrae and 7 years for the brain injury to be diagnosed. Anyway, over the 21 years since the accident I went from 11 stones to 18 stones as I was unable to do much in the way of exercise since 2005. I was 49, almost 21 years later, I’d finally had enough. I was previously invited to a pre diabetic course where I reduced my weight to 100Kg. That was three years ago.
Two months ago I had a life changing experience that gave me the determination to change my outlook on life: so, I started exercising, reducing the amount of food I ate and also decided to wean myself off the opiate medication that my doctor had prescribed and happily kept me on for all those years since 2005.
Well, two months later, I’ve weaned myself off all the opiates, lost almost three stone in weight and I’m slowly reaching my goal of 75Kg (I’m 83KG at the moment) I feel so much better, with more energy, I go for several mile walks daily and am looking forwards to the next decade. Also, the pain meds I was using had no effect as I am still almost pain free (I was never pain free even with the opiate meds due to the severity of the injuries and I still have to take hormone replacement therapy due to my pituitary gland being macerated in the accident (I no longer produce the essential hormones growth hormone, cortisol and testosterone).
Regards
Stephen Brown
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Well done, your determination to improve your wellbeing is impressive and it’s yielding results.