Your doctor may walk the talk while writing out your prescriptions but here’s the thing: make sure he hasn’t prescribed one too many. Research has shown that too many medicines can slow your gait, a sign your body is reacting adversely to the overload. In the Central Control of Mobility in Aging study conducted during 2011 and 2016 in the US on 482 people over the age of 65, 34 per cent of participants used five or more medicines and 10 per cent more than eight. All these patients were guilty of what experts call polypharmacy. As part of the study, they were assessed on physical health, mental well-being and mobility for over a year, to determine changes to their brains and central nervous system. The results showed that those in the polypharmacy group were more likely to walk slower and have had a fall within the last year than the others. The study was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Another study suggests that a slow gait could be a sign of cognitive decline and an indication of dementia. The study, conducted at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, zeroed in on 175 people aged between 70 and 79 with good health and normal mental functions. They were assessed over 14 years. The results showed that those who had developed a slow gait had shrinkage in the right hippocampus, the area in the brain associated with memory. The results were published in journal Neurology.

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Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
September 2017