Walking, as briskly as possible, is perhaps the most convenient and beneficial exercise if you are older – almost everyone can do it, almost anywhere, almost anytime, and it doesn’t cost anything. It places little strain on your heart and joints while improving the functioning of your muscles and bones, and benefiting your cardiovascular system. Get yourself some good walking shoes -with sturdy heels, flexible rubber soles, and uppers made of materials that ‘breathe’ such as leather or nylon mesh. Walk wherever it is the most pleasant and convenient in your neighbourhood, but preferably not city streets that would expose you to too much air pollution from vehicles and dust.

Think about the amount of walking you actually do each day and how small changes in your habits can increase the activity: leave the car in the garage, and walk to the shops, to the railway station or to work. Walk the dog. Walk to visit a neighbour. Walk to the newsagent for the daily newspaper instead of having home-delivery. If you take the car for shopping, park in the furthest slot and not the closest to the supermarket. Park half a mile from your office building and walk the remainder; then increase the distance from work as your energy increases. At your work place, walk up stairs instead of taking the lift, and in your lunch break, instead of talking get walking!

If weather is bad and you have to stay indoors, there’s no need to abandon exercise. Have a treadmill for long-distance walking, right in your living room or office. Some models change angles so that as well as level walking you can give yourself the extra challenge of going uphill or downhill.

Exercise bicycles and rowing machines are often better than hard-impact exercise if you have joint or foot problems. Exercise bicycles can take up little space in the corner of a room, and some fold away smaller still, fitting into the tiniest of cupboards. (However, don’t store your equipment – you may forget to use it!) Some have magazine racks for reading while cycling, to stave off boredom, and movable hand-levers to work upper arms as well as legs. There are bicycles that not only measure speed and distance, but also tell you the time spent cycling, calories expended, pulse rate and work rate (calories per hour).

Weight-training can be with elaborate machines, with heavy weights tied to wrists or ankles, or with simple devices such as a couple of soup cans.

Swimming can be a gentle way of embarking on an exercise programme and is beneficial if you are already osteoporotic or arthritic, for flexing your muscles, and helping stiff joints, while being buoyed by the water. Build up gradually with short swim sessions until you can be more vigorous.

Whatever activity you do, be sure to have warm-up and cool-down periods, so that muscles are limbered up and not strained, and the pace of your heart and lungs speeds up and then returns to normal. Regular stretching can be for everyone, to prevent muscle strain or injury, improving circulation and increasing your range of motion, while relaxing you.

Your body contains 200 bones and 600 different muscles, all benefiting from exercise to some extent. Medical opinion is agreed that most of us should be more active, and it’s never too late to start. You don’t have to buy fancy home equipment or join expensive clubs to be fit. Whatever you do will bring dividends. While running and aerobics may be too strenuous if you are elderly, make small changes in your lifestyle to put more activity into your day.

If you are already doing some form of exercise, how does it

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There is nothing wrong with older people eating certain baby foods for calcium, if you are bored with food or perhaps have problems with ill-fitting dentures. Check the nutrition information labels to make sure of the calcium content needed for an adult.

Green vegetables

Collards, turnip greens, mustard greens, kale, broccoli, all contain a good proportion of calcium, although vegetable sources of the mineral are not so well absorbed into your system.

It is important to remember that there are some leafy vegetables which would be good calcium sources if it were not for the oxalic acid (oxalates) they also contain, which binds with calcium to block absorption when they are eaten in large amounts. These vegetables include asparagus, beet greens, silverbeet (Swiss chard), dandelion, lambsquarters, parsley, sorrel and spinach – so don’t rely on these for calcium. Rhubarb is also in this category of food containing oxalates, reducing calcium absorption.

If you take anticoagulants or thyroid medication, check first with your doctor before eating green leafy vegetables.

Seafood

When eaten with their bones, canned sardines and canned salmon will contribute important amounts of calcium to your diet. Try to select sardines packed in water. If sardines are canned in oil, calorie-watchers and the heart-conscious will drain this off carefully and dress the sardines with vinegar. When using a can of salmon, don’t discard the skin and tiny bones as they are all edible and contribute flavour as well as valuable calcium.

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Diuretics are sometimes purchased as over-the-counter remedies to counter water retention, and many women abuse them with excessive use in order to lose weight (temporarily).

If your water retention is a monthly occurrence as a premenstrual condition, it can frequently be controlled by a saltless or sodium-free diet in the week immediately before your menstrual period, and by eating naturally-diuretic foods such as bananas, oranges, apples, cucumbers, strawberries, grapes and pineapple.

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People with this illness go on ‘food binges’ and then purge themselves immediately after eating, through vomiting (often induced with Ipecac) or through the heavy use of laxatives or diuretics. With this disorder, the intestines have a reduced chance of absorbing nutrients from food intake.

Anorexia and bulimia affect approximately 5 per cent of the population, especially young women, with bulimia the more common disorder. Treatment for the problem needs the help of doctors, therapists and nutritionists for counselling.

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