Seniors Give Their Bodies to Science--on a Loan : Exercises Fit Into Mobility Research : at Cal State Fullerton
Bernie Peralta, 61, hasn’t hiked the Sierra Nevada north of Lake Tahoe. But with the help of a new program at Cal State Fullerton, he believes he will.
“I’ve been an active person all my life, really, and I would like to age in a healthy manner and stay active,” said Peralta, a retired oil company executive who has hiked throughout Southern California. “This program’s wonderful, a gift.”
The Santa Ana resident is one of 125 seniors running in circles, touching their toes and flexing their muscles this summer for a group of university researchers trying to figure out ways to keep elderly people mobile as long as possible.
The researcher’s laboratories are like scenes from a health club. People clamber up and down a short set of stairs. Others huff and puff while checking out their strength on weight machines. Some are stretching and flexing their muscles. The only difference from a typical gym: Everyone is over 60.
Roberta Rikli and Jessie Jones, the professors coordinating the program, say it is the only one in the nation that focuses on preventing the problems in mobility that often accompany old age--such things as the trips and falls to which the elderly are especially prone.
“We are enhancing people’s mobility before a major accident (like a fall) happens,” said Jones, director of the gerontology program at the university’s Ruby Gerontology Center. “If (the participants) have a mobility problem, then we’re going to find out what it is and make referrals to make it better.”
The exercises used in the program are set up with the real world in mind.
One computer program tests how quickly seniors can switch from the gas pedal to the brake pedal in a car. A balance exercise measures how long they can stand on one foot--important when boarding a bus or putting on pants. A 50-foot speed walk lets them know how fast they can get across a street.
After the seniors take the tests, Jones, Rikli and their colleagues analyze the results. If they find any weaknesses, such as a poor sense of balance or weak leg muscles, they tailor an exercise program to help improve them.
The researchers are starting the program with a seed grant of $15,000 from the university but hope to win funding later this summer that will allow them to carry out their work on a year-round basis.
Eventually they hope to develop a set of standards to measure the mobility and fitness of an elderly person--standards that could be useful for design considerations such as how long a walk signal at a traffic intersection should last.
Many of the test subjects, such as Peralta, are seeking an exercise regime to maintain their active lifestyle.
Others, such as Bonnie Wallace, 64, are just looking for relief.
Since the onset of Parkinson’s disease eight years ago, the Fullerton homemaker’s left leg has slowly shrunken, becoming stiff and achy. It hampers her ability to take morning walks, but she says she has no wish to slow down.
“I don’t like the fact that it’s getting weaker, because I don’t like to give up,” said Wallace, who is hoping to learn exercises to strengthen her leg. “You’re almost afraid to do (exercises), because you’re afraid to do the wrong thing.”
Others in the program have a more noble goal: helping others.
Barbara Zevnik, 69, is a retired nurse who lives an active life in Laguna Beach. On Thursday, she grimaced as she pushed down hard on the weight machine’s foot pedal. A computer nearby printed out a graph, its wavy red line showing the strength of her ankle.
“This was the hardest work, but I like the idea of participating in the research,” Zevnik said. “It’s going to be a benefit to me and others in the future.”
