Older people who were cocooning should begin to get out and exercise again in order to preserve their bone health, a leading general practitioner has said.
During the peak of the pandemic, older people and those who were particularly vulnerable to the virus were urged to cocoon in their homes.
However, now that society is beginning to reopen, Dr Martin Coyne, a Donegal GP with expert knowledge on bone health, said it is important that older people begin to resume activity levels to keep chronic illnesses at bay.
“If you’re going to maintain healthy bone, you need to exercise, you need to be doing weight-bearing exercise on a daily basis, you need a bit of vitamin D,” Dr Coyne said. “The biggest risk for osteoporosis is age. The older you get, the more likely you are to get it.”
The Donegal GP said he understands that some older people may be apprehensive about returning to normality due to the virus, but his advice is to “get out, get active and pound the streets”.
“An exercise bicycle isn’t much good for you in terms of bone health. Your bones respond to the stresses of walking so if you are walking – weight-bearing exercise – your bones are responding to the stresses of walking.”
Broken hips
Dr Coyne added that bone health is “incredibly important” as you grow older.
“The stats are that if you break your hip, you’ve one chance in four of being dead in 12 months, that’s worse than many cancers,” he said.
“If you break your hip, you have two chances out of four of having lost one element of daily living, be that being able to climb the stairs, being able to get in or out of the bath, being able to dress yourself. You may lose independence because you’ve broken your health.”
Dr Coyne also advised those who were already diagnosed with the condition to continue with their medication, and to attend a GP for any injections they may require.
Asked if the lockdown could cause a surge in cases of osteoporosis, Dr Coyne said it is a disease that develops over decades as opposed to months.
However, he acknowledged that there had been a lack of diagnoses in recent months as the scan used to diagnose individuals with the disease was not in operation due to social distancing requirements.
