People usually see a physical therapist for pain or loss of function. Think of the person who has back pain, the injured athlete or the person who’s had a stroke. They all want to improve how they move and complete tasks. Now, particularly as we learn more about COVID-19 and the risk factors that seem to be associated with severe cases of the new virus, there is good reason to wonder if physical therapists will start seeing more people who are not necessarily currently in pain or having difficulty moving. Why would these people come to a PT?To improve their overall health and wellness and therefore reduce their risk of disease and dysfunction.
There is strong evidence suggesting that the quality of movement is a valuable predictor of future health and resilience against disease. Physical therapists are movement specialists, so taking advantage of their expertise makes sense – particularly if your goal is to become healthier and live longer. Here are some examples of the power of movement when it comes to predicting future health:
Gait Velocity
Gait velocity is how fast you walk. Studies have shown that if your typicalwalking speed is over 1 meter per second or 3.3 feet per second, you’re likely able to complete typical daily activities independently. You’re also less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to have adverse events like falls.
If you’d like to test yourself, measure out a straight, flat course to walk between 10 feet and 30 feet long. You’ll also need 5 feet or so of space at the beginning and the end of the walkway for acceleration and deceleration. Walk the course at your typical speed and then divide the length of the course by how long it took you to walk it (distance/time). That’s your gait velocity.
Get On and Off the Floor
A series of studies suggestthat if you can go from standing to sitting on the floor and back to standing without using your hands, you’re a lot less likely to die than someone who can’t. It’s called the sitting-rising test. Here’s how it works:
You start standing, and without support you sit down on the floor, and then stand back up. You start with a score of 10. Every time you put a hand, knee, forearm or the side of your leg on the floor you lose 1 point.Putting a hand on your knee or thigh to help also costs a point. In a sample of over 2,000 people, researchers have found that scoring less than 8 points made you twice as likely to die within the next 6 years when compared to people who scored higher. Score 3 or less and you’re 5 times more likely to die in the same period. Overall, each point in the test is approximately equivalent to a 21% decrease in mortality from all causes – or a better overall survival rate.
Notice that both gait velocity and the sitting-rising test aren’t specific to the prediction of any one type of illness or injury. The risk of hospitalization in the gait velocity studies was for hospitalization for any reason. Death in the sitting-rising studies was death from anything. So while we know that exercise and healthy lifestyle reduce your risk of specific diseases like heart disease or diabetes, it also appears that being able to move may provide much more wide ranging protection than we previously thought.
If these screening tools have prompted you to work on improving your general health and fitness or on specifically addressing life skills that are challenges for you, call a physical therapist. You’ll be better off for it!