Recently, a research team performed a study on life expectancy for people split into two groups: Active and Inactive. They asked these people—over 650,000 of them—to document how they spend their leisure time over the course of a few months, while also asking them to chart their overall weight and whether or not they felt they slept well the night before.
What they found was that the people they could categorize as Active—meaning 150 minutes (or 2.5 hours) of increased heart rate activity a week were likely to have a life expectancy between 3.5 and 4.5 years greater than the Inactive group. This Active group was also, on average, 6-7 pounds lighter than the Inactive group and recorded more good nights of sleep.
These scientists came to the conclusion that even a modestly active lifestyle can add years to a person’s life, and even more for those in the senior citizen ages, with the average life expectancy being almost 6 years higher for Active Seniors when compared to Inactive Seniors. It’s important to note that “Active” does not necessarily mean a lap around the block. For many seniors, vigorous daily exercise is not an option, but there are other forms of activity that can be just as important in maintaining health and prolonging life, such as yoga, walking, water-based exercise, and more!
Here in our Pacifica communities, we have been taking a similar approach to how we take care of our residents’ health and well-being. Across the country, we offer our residents a variety of healthful activities, including seated yoga, group exercise classes, guided exercise, water exercise classes in communities with a pool, spa treatments in communities with spas—and this is just a sampling of the creative and engaging programs we offer on a daily basis.
We also take your nutrition and dietary well-being into account as well. In all of our communities, our residents have access to delicious and nutritious chef-prepared meals that are designed specifically to meet their dietary needs, prepared with an understanding of a variety of special dietary modifications.
These are just a few of the measures we take at Pacifica Senior Living to ensure the health and well-being of every resident who calls our communities home. We are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways we can to continue to promote an elevated, whole-person focused wellness, and we invite you to keep up with us as we continue to seek better and more innovative ways to serve our residents.