In an interview with the Health Channel, Dr. Andrew Forster, an Internal Medicine Physician with Baptist Health Primary Care, talks about the health benefits of exercising for seniors. 

Dr. Forster states that exercise helps you live longer. Exercise helps prevent many common causes of mortality such as pneumonia, depression, and heart attacks. “People who exercise, especially as they get into older age, those people do much better and live much longer than people who don’t,” Dr. Forster explains. 

The exercise does not have to be intensive or include gym time, Dr. Forster says it can be little bits of exercise throughout the day. “Take the stairs, go for a walk around the block, that sort of thing, they all add up.” The Health Channel host offers a personal anecdote. She explains that her grandparents used to walk around the house during football game commercials to get in some exercise. 

The Health Channel host asks Dr. Forster, what could adults with conditions such as osteoporosis and arthritis do for exercise? Dr. Forster replies that they can pretty much do anything. They just have to be wary about falling. “Usually those conditions are treated with medication but they can [exercise] as long as they haven’t broken anything before,” assures Dr. Forster. He recommends weight-bearing exercises as well as walking, jogging, or running to help strengthen the bones.

Watch the full segment of Dr. Andrew Forster talking about the benefits exercising has for seniors, here: https://youtu.be/_gKbd8QWYZw