Post by carruthersjam on Oct 20, 2007 5:22:32 GMT -8
www.fhs.usyd.edu.au/research_innovation/mfiataronesingh.pdf
Pumping iron: a health pill for the aged
An interview with Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh (MD,
FRACP), John Sutton Chair of Exercise and Sport Science in
the School of Exercise & Sport Science.
Get a 90-year-old weight lifting and you will see health benefits in two to three
weeks, says Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh.
Even a person who has led a life of inactivity can respond to beginning lifting weights
in their 80s or 90s. Walking up stairs where previously they couldn’t, carrying
shopping bags or lifting a grandchild are the kinds of life enhancing outcomes that
can be achieved.
And yet the treatment – which has fewer side effects than aerobic exercise and can
achieve almost immediate results - is under utilised, says Professor Fiatarone Singh.
Twenty years of research into the effects of resistance training or weight lifting on
frail and chronically ill elders has led her to the conclusion that exercise is ‘one of the
most powerful forms of medicine’, which doctors should be prescribing like a drug.
‘Exercise is one of the most potent medicine available to doctors today,’ she says,
‘and yet it isn’t being prescribed’.
‘The problem may lie in the fact that exercise is a behaviour, not a pill. It has no
advertising budget to force it into the mainstream of clinical practice, and few
sponsors can benefit from its prescription or its long-term adherence by patients.
Professor Fiatarone Singh says there is plenty of evidence to warrant the training of
all physicians, including geriatricians, in the basics of exercise prescription.
She rejects the idea that frailty is simply part of old age and in designing fitness
programs for the elderly takes the approach that ‘old people are like young people’ in
terms of the way they adapt to exercise.
‘A considerable body of data exists to demonstrate the safety of initiating exercise
treatments, even in settings such as nursing homes. There have been no reports to
date of serious cardiovascular incidents, sudden death, myocardial infarction,
exacerbation of metabolic control of diabetes, or hypertension in frail elderly, aged
between 80 and 100, undertaking resistance training in nursing homes.’
In short, Fiatarone Singh says high intensity weight lifting – three sets of eight
repetitions, three days a week, lifting 80 per cent of the weight the person is able to
lift - is a simple treatment that has a myriad of benefits.
‘Frailty is not an inevitable consequence of ageing,’ she says. ‘A substantial portion
of what we formerly thought of as biological ageing may be explained by disuse
syndromes, in particular muscle wasting or sarcopenia.’
Research has shown that weight-lifting is an effective treatment for a vast range of
conditions associated with ageing, such as heart disease, hypertension, stroke,
chronic renal failure, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, chronic pulmonary disease,
depression and diabetes.
In order to bring exercise into mainstream medical care, Professor Fiatarone Singh
is focused on expanding the evidence of exercise as a tool for the prevention and
treatment of chronic diseases associated with ageing.
She is also testing ways to inform the ageing public and the medical profession
about the effectiveness of weight lifting and, to this end, has devised exercise and
nutrition programs to be delivered in health care settings such as nursing home,
adult day care centres, retirement communities and outpatient clinics.
Central to her efforts to inform and educate the public and medical practitioners is
the non-profit Fit for Your Life Foundation Ltd, of which she is the founder and
executive director.
Pumping iron: a health pill for the aged
An interview with Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh (MD,
FRACP), John Sutton Chair of Exercise and Sport Science in
the School of Exercise & Sport Science.
Get a 90-year-old weight lifting and you will see health benefits in two to three
weeks, says Professor Maria Fiatarone Singh.
Even a person who has led a life of inactivity can respond to beginning lifting weights
in their 80s or 90s. Walking up stairs where previously they couldn’t, carrying
shopping bags or lifting a grandchild are the kinds of life enhancing outcomes that
can be achieved.
And yet the treatment – which has fewer side effects than aerobic exercise and can
achieve almost immediate results - is under utilised, says Professor Fiatarone Singh.
Twenty years of research into the effects of resistance training or weight lifting on
frail and chronically ill elders has led her to the conclusion that exercise is ‘one of the
most powerful forms of medicine’, which doctors should be prescribing like a drug.
‘Exercise is one of the most potent medicine available to doctors today,’ she says,
‘and yet it isn’t being prescribed’.
‘The problem may lie in the fact that exercise is a behaviour, not a pill. It has no
advertising budget to force it into the mainstream of clinical practice, and few
sponsors can benefit from its prescription or its long-term adherence by patients.
Professor Fiatarone Singh says there is plenty of evidence to warrant the training of
all physicians, including geriatricians, in the basics of exercise prescription.
She rejects the idea that frailty is simply part of old age and in designing fitness
programs for the elderly takes the approach that ‘old people are like young people’ in
terms of the way they adapt to exercise.
‘A considerable body of data exists to demonstrate the safety of initiating exercise
treatments, even in settings such as nursing homes. There have been no reports to
date of serious cardiovascular incidents, sudden death, myocardial infarction,
exacerbation of metabolic control of diabetes, or hypertension in frail elderly, aged
between 80 and 100, undertaking resistance training in nursing homes.’
In short, Fiatarone Singh says high intensity weight lifting – three sets of eight
repetitions, three days a week, lifting 80 per cent of the weight the person is able to
lift - is a simple treatment that has a myriad of benefits.
‘Frailty is not an inevitable consequence of ageing,’ she says. ‘A substantial portion
of what we formerly thought of as biological ageing may be explained by disuse
syndromes, in particular muscle wasting or sarcopenia.’
Research has shown that weight-lifting is an effective treatment for a vast range of
conditions associated with ageing, such as heart disease, hypertension, stroke,
chronic renal failure, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, chronic pulmonary disease,
depression and diabetes.
In order to bring exercise into mainstream medical care, Professor Fiatarone Singh
is focused on expanding the evidence of exercise as a tool for the prevention and
treatment of chronic diseases associated with ageing.
She is also testing ways to inform the ageing public and the medical profession
about the effectiveness of weight lifting and, to this end, has devised exercise and
nutrition programs to be delivered in health care settings such as nursing home,
adult day care centres, retirement communities and outpatient clinics.
Central to her efforts to inform and educate the public and medical practitioners is
the non-profit Fit for Your Life Foundation Ltd, of which she is the founder and
executive director.