Attitude adjustment If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, age is right there behind it. A new study out of UCLA found that people's attitudes about aging had a significant impact on how they felt and behaved physically. They set out with the underlying belief that most people associate getting older with becoming less active and that they consider being more sedentary an inevitable part of aging. So they set up a program using a technique called "attribution retraining" and enrolled 46 sedentary adults over the age of 65. First, the researchers gave each participant a pedometer that he or she was to wear at all times. They also conducted preliminary surveys on each subject regarding their expectations about aging. During the attribution retraining program, the participants attended four hour-long lessons designed to help them realize that they can continue engaging in physical activity at any age. Following each session, the participants attended an exercise class. After completing the program, the participants' number of daily steps increased by 24 percent. And their feelings about aging improved dramatically too. Follow-up surveys showed 30 percent higher "age expectation" ratings than the ones conducted at the study's outset. All of this positive energy translated into other benefits as well: The subjects reported fewer difficulties with daily activities, less pain, and better sleep. It's important to keep in mind that the "attribution retraining" program didn't have some magical power that made these people feel better about themselves. What really made a difference for the people in the study was a simple attitude adjustment -- something each and every one of us has in our power to accomplish any time we wish. Source:
"Seniors' activity levels and quality of life boosted by pilot program," Medical News Today (www.medicalnewstoday.com), 11/16/07 | 
