Fall is in the air

Here are two scary stats for you:Seventy percent of people older than 70 take blood pressure meds. Yes, you read that right: 7 out of 10. More than 30 million men and women.And…25 percent of older people who fall and fracture a hip die within a year. Eighty percent are left with mobility problems severe enough that they are unable to walk a city block.Why am I passing along this depressing information? Usually I’m all upbeat and full of beat-the-clock energy and brimming with just-do-it spirit. It’s not that I’m feeling grouchy today. Au contraire. Things are going very well for me on my latest counterclockwise journey (my quest to dance in The Nutcracker this holiday season). But I feel compelled to comment for two reasons:First, these two equally depressing, seemingly unrelated health statistics are, in fact, closely related. People who take blood-pressure-lowering medication are at significantly increased risk for serious falls. This according to a study published last April in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Other drugs commonly prescribed for older people including anti-depressants, anti-anxiety drugs and sleep medications can, in the words of a Yale geriatrician who studies falls, “directly affect your balance.”)And second (here’s where I switch back to my just-do-it self): This is AVOIDABLE. ("This" being both the taking of such medications and the falling.) Why do 30 million older people require medication to lower their blood pressure? Elevated blood pressure is not a natural consequence of aging. It is a natural consequence of an out-of-shape heart and stiffened arteries…which are not a natural consequence of aging. They are a natural consequence of lack of exercise, poor diet, obesity, smoking – the decisions we make (or don’t make) and live by every day. And the decisions we make today at age 40 or 50 or 60 WILL have consequences when we are 70 or 80 or older.Why not have those be good consequences?