Health
Be well: Prevent dangerous falls among older adults by taking key steps
More than one out of four older people experience a fall each year — and three million of them are treated in the emergency room for their injuries, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dangerous falls can be prevented by following safety protocols.
Christynne Helfrich, PT, a physical therapist commercial consultant for Hinge Health in Illinois, shared some expert tips with Fox News Digital.
Be physically active every day
Going for daily walks or engaging in other low-impact physical activities can help to strengthen muscles, keep joints flexible and maintain overall endurance, Helfrich said.
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“By finding ways to stay physically active each day, older adults can greatly improve their ability to live independently and with full function while decreasing their risk of falling,” she said.
Finding an activity that you enjoy — whether it’s swimming, yoga or Tai Chai — is the key to staying engaged and making it a daily habit, Helfrich added.
Make necessary home modifications
Sixty percent of falls happen inside the home, according to the National Council on Aging (NCOA) — which highlights the importance of making homes as safe as possible for older people.
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“Using brighter lighting and removing clutter on the floor will help keep you on your feet,” Helfrich said.
“It can also be helpful to add grab bars in the bathroom, where there are slippery surfaces that can increase the risk of falling.”
Other tips include removing rugs that could pose tripping hazards, adding railings to staircases and installing ramps as needed.
Talk with your doctor
Less than half of older adults who experience a fall don’t tell their doctors about it, the CDC reports — but discussing fall prevention with health care providers can be life-saving, Helfrich said.
“Your doctor can refer you to physical therapy or a local fall prevention program,” she told Fox News Digital.
She said health care providers “can also review your current medications to determine whether [these] might cause a loss of balance as a side effect.”
The CDC also recommends asking a health care provider about taking vitamin D supplements, as some studies have found they can help reduce falling risk.
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Staying up to date on eye exams is also critical, Helfrich added, since vision is critical in determining where the body is in the environment and helping with orientation.
Get up slowly
Standing up too quickly can result in a phenomenon called ortostatic hypotension, which is when blood pressure drops too quickly and causes dizziness.
“As you age, blood pressure changes can cause you to feel dizzy if you move positions too quickly, which can increase your risk of falling,” Helfrich said.
“Take your time when getting out of bed or out of your chair to prevent this from happening,” she said.
Stay well-rested
Older adults are more prone to experiencing fatigue, which can make them more susceptible to falling, multiple studies have shown.
“Making sure you get enough sleep at night is really important in helping your body recover from the previous day,” Helfrich said.
To read more pieces in Fox News Digital’s “Be Well” series, click here.
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Health
Ivanka Trump stays fit with this self-defense practice: ‘Moving meditation’
Ivanka Trump, the daughter of incoming President Donald Trump, has been known to lead an active life.
As the mother of three kids and a lover of outdoor sports, the 43-year-old is always on the move, recently adding jiu-jitsu to her mix of physical activity.
In a recent appearance on The Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast, Trump shared how her daughter, Arabella, expressed interest in learning self-defense when she was 11.
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“I’m just so in awe of [her],” Trump said about her daughter. “She came to me and said, ‘As a woman, I feel like I need to know how to defend myself, and I don’t have a confidence level yet that I can do that.’”
Trump responded, “At 11 … I was not thinking about how to physically defend myself, and I thought it was the coolest thing.”
After researching self-defense options, Trump enrolled Arabella, now 13, in jiu-jitsu (martial arts) classes with the Valente Brothers in Miami, Florida – and soon the whole family joined in.
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“[Arabella] started asking me to join – I joined,” she said. “Then my two sons wanted to do what their older sister was doing. Then my husband joined … It is good for everyone.”
“It’s almost like a moving meditation.”
Trump, who is now a blue belt in jiu-jitsu, described that she likes how the sport “meshes physical movement.”
“It’s almost like a moving meditation because the movements are so micro,” she said. “It’s like three-dimensional chess.”
“There’s like a real spiritualism to it … The grounding in sort of samurai tradition and culture and wisdom.”
During President Trump’s first term in the White House, Ivanka Trump noted that she had very little focus on fitness, only taking weekly runs with husband Jared Kushner and “chasing the kids around the house.”
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Trump shared that she was “never a gym person,” but always loved sports, which still holds true today.
She said she enjoys skiing, surfing and racquet sports like padel tennis (a hybrid of tennis and squash) and pickle ball, which she described as “fun and social.”
‘Elevating awareness’
On the podcast, Trump said she was drawn to jiu-jitsu because it combines physical fitness and philosophy.
It also focuses more on how to extract yourself from a dangerous situation before having to harm someone who’s a threat, she noted.
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“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to,” Trump went on.
“Once you have the confidence that you can sort of move out of a situation, there’s a real focus on elevating awareness.”
In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Rener Gracie, head instructor of jiu-jitsu at Gracie University in California, stressed that the only truly reliable skills are those that have been “mastered into muscle memory.”
This occurs through extensively practicing self-defense methods like Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which are “leverage-based and don’t rely on you having a physical advantage over the subject,” he noted.
“Having these skills makes you less likely to get into a fight, not more likely to.”
“And by that, I mean strength, speed, power and size — because in almost every case, the attacker is going to target someone who they feel is physically inferior to them.”
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Gracie, whose family created Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), shared that jiu-jitsu is “highly sought after” because it only takes weeks or months for someone to “develop the core skills that could keep them safe in a violent physical encounter.”
‘Transformative’ strength training
In addition to mastering self-defense skills, Ivanka Trump recently revealed a shift in her fitness routine to include weightlifting and resistance training.
On Instagram, Trump posted a video displaying different exercises with various equipment in the gym, noting in the caption that she used to focus primarily on cardio, yoga and Pilates.
“Since moving to Miami, I have shifted my focus to weightlifting and resistance training, and it has been transformative in helping me build muscle and shift my body composition in ways I hadn’t imagined,” she wrote.
“I believe in a strength training approach built on foundational, time-tested and simple movements – squats, deadlifts, hinges, pushes and pulls. These are the cornerstones of my workout, emphasizing functional strength for life.”
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Trump added that prioritizing form is “essential” to ensure results before adding on weight.
“This ensures a safe and steady progression while maintaining the integrity of each movement,” she continued. “I incorporate mobility work within my sessions to enhance range of motion.”
“Weightlifting has enhanced not just my strength but my overall athleticism and resilience,” she added.
Trump said she dedicates three to four days a week to strength training, including two solo sessions and two with a personal trainer.
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She also said that increasing her protein intake has also been “critical” to her progress.
“I now consume between 30 and 50 grams of protein a meal,” she said. “It works … I’ve never been stronger!”
Trump also still enjoys weekly yoga sessions, spending time outdoors with her children and playing sports with friends, she said.
“I also incorporate a couple of short (10-minute), high-intensity interval training sessions (such as sprints) each week to keep my cardiovascular fitness sharp and dynamic,” she noted.
“This balanced approach has infused new energy into my fitness routine and yielded great results.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Ivanka Trump for comment.
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