Why assisted living beats living alone

As people age, things change in many aspects of their lives. It might be the loss of social interaction with dear friends and relatives who move to other states for a lower cost of living and warmer climates. Friends and family may move, and it is important to be supportive, but it’s still painful emotionally. When other friends or relatives pass away, this creates new painful feelings of loss.

The importance of connection

Most aging adults benefit greatly from being in diverse and exciting social communities that offer a variety of social gatherings and physical activities such as low and medium impact exercise classes, swimming activities, as well as a range of motion chair exercises to upbeat music. And according to exciting research from AARP and Harvard Health Publications, regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory and thinking skills.

Groundbreaking brain research

This exciting research highlights one of the many positive reasons why this happens with seniors. Researchers found that regular aerobic exercise that increases your heart rate and stimulates your sweat glands appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, which is the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. The lead research mentioned another interesting point involving brain fog that affects many aging adults. With these types of exercises, the brain fog goes away. That is amazing.

Unfortunately, resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results, but they are still important forms of exercise for other reasons such as an increase in strength, firmness, and stability with balance affecting your legs and feet.

In assisted living communities, you will not be on your own to attempt to figure out and structure a workout plan. That is taken care of since the community has professional trainers there to guide, train, and supervise your activities. They are highly skilled and experienced in dealing with seniors, by keeping a watchful eye on your activities, it will help to keep you from overdoing things. Also, this certainly beats the fees charged by fitness centers and gyms.

Aging adults can thrive in assisted living communities versus aging in place and living alone at home. Even seniors who live alone in a new home face the same issues with isolation, security issues, and in some cases driving restrictions apply due to medical, or vision problems.

Seemingly endless possibilities

In assisted living communities like Vista Springs, there are plenty of opportunities to meet new and vibrant people who share your interests and tastes whether it’s playing pool, poker, movies, jazz, dancing, or even learning a new computer language.

Reprinted with permission from Vista Springs Assisted Living.