Do You Know Your Movement Vital Signs?

Most people think of heart rate or blood pressure when they think of vital signs. It is common to use numbers to quantify health and risk of disease. The American Heart Association encourages people to "know their numbers" referring to blood pressure, blood cholesterol, blood glucose, and weight. However, research is now showing the importance of moving properly for health. Let's take a look at some of the numbers you can use to quantify your movement health: Walking Speed Walking speed has been called the "sixth vital sign" in medical literature recently. It is easy to measure, and takes into account strength, balance, coordination, confidence, cardiovascular fitness, tolerance to activity, and a whole host of other factors. It has also been shown to be predictive of future hospitalizations, functional decline, and overall mortality. Normal walking speed is considered to be 2.6-3.1 mph.

Push Ups - Push ups are popular to build strength, but a recent study found that they can show us a lot about your heart too. Researchers found that men who could do 40 or more consecutive push ups were at a 96% lower risk for cardiovascular disease than were men who could do less than 10. The push up test was also more useful in predicting future cardiovascular disease than aerobic capacity measured on a treadmill.

Grip Strength -Hand grip strength has been shown to be strongly correlated with health. The stronger your hand grip is, the less likely you are to suffer from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, COPD, and all types of cancer. In the study, muscle weakness was defined as grip strength <26 kg (57 pounds) for men and <16 kg (35 pounds) for women. Grip strength below these numbers was highly correlated with an increase in disease.

Standing From the Floor - If you can't easily get down on the floor and back up your health might be in trouble, according to a study that looked at more than 2,000 people. The study asked people to go from standing to sitting on the floor and back up with as little support as needed. They found that if you need to use more than one hand to get up and down from the floor that you were 2 to 5 times more likely to die in the next 7 years than someone who can do it with just one hand, or even better, no hands at all.

Moving well is obviously important to overall health and longer life. These tests can give a snapshot of how you're doing. If you're having trouble with any of them, considering seeing a movement specialist - your physical therapist.

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For further information, I recommend you reference the perspective article below by Wheeler et al, 2017 from the journal, Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions, titled Sedentary behavior as a risk factor for cognitive decline? A focus on the influence of glycemic control in brain health.

Wheeler et Al., 2017

Intro

Many of us know that exercise is good for you. However, the effects of exercise go beyond just looking good and feeling good. New research is being conducted, looking at the effects of exercise and disease prevention. However, is exercise enough? New literature suggests no. The benefits of exercising for the recommended 150 minutes per week may be cancelled out by sedentary behavior (sitting/laying) the rest of your waking day. Think about it. How much sitting do you do in a day? One hour? Five hours? Eight hours? Take some time to actually tally this up between driving to and from work, sitting at work, sitting for meals, and sitting in front of a screen. The number may surprise you. A survey by the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows that on average people are sedentary greater than 9 hours per day, perform light activity 5 hours per day and perform 11.3 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per day. Of the 150 minutes per week of recommended moderate to vigorous activity, nearly one-third of people do not meet this recommendation. The number of people not meeting this recommendation increases as age increases as well.

What is it about?

This article reviews the physiologic processes involved in regulation of glucose (sugar) in the brain as well as the effects of abnormal glucose levels in the brain. Glucose is the primary fuel for the brain and is essential for the proper functioning and health of the brain. When blood sugar is too high, the brain will regulate this by decreasing blood flow to the brain as to decrease the overall amount of glucose to the brain. When it is too low, the brain struggles to have enough energy source to work efficiently and may cause damage known as apoptosis (cell death). Also, when your brain accustomed to high glucose levels (hyperglycemia), it can experience relative hypoglycemia when it returns back to normal blood glucose values, leading to damage.

Why does this matter?

Think about eating a big meal, full of carbs and sugar. You will have a large spike in your blood sugar, which signals the brain to decrease blood flow to the brain, as well as release insulin from the pancreas. The insulin helps drive glucose into your cells, effectively lowering your blood glucose (ie, blood sugar). However, this tends to overshoot and leads to a “hypoglycemic event” as referenced in the above article. This hypoglycemic event can lead to apoptosis (cell death) in the brain. This is a process involved in Alzheimer’s and Dementia. They cite that those with type 2 diabetes are 50% more likely to develop dementia compared to those with normal blood sugar control and regulation.

Tying it all together

Reviewed in the above article, sedentary behavior increases the risk for diabetes and poor glucose control. By decreasing sedentary behavior, an individual may better regulate the hyperglycemic events that subsequently lead to a hypoglycemic event and causing damage to the brain. Limiting this undulating pattern of high blood sugar to low blood sugar may limit the damage to the brain and maintain brain health. It recommends that outside of the recommended 150 minutes/week of exercise, intermittent walking or light activity throughout the day may help control blood sugar and maintain brain health. Point of the story is, get up and move and move often.