Dr. Chung
Can This Simple Movement Predict Your Risk of Death?
To identify any disease processes that may be hiding underneath the surface so that a potentially deadly illness can be caught and treated early (cancer, heart disease, brain illness, etc)
To have routine tests done that can help you gauge your overall level of health and fitness to prevent chronic illness (pulse, blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, etc) These routine exams and tests are generally unremarkable while we are young and healthy, but they become a lot more meaningful as we age, and our risk for illness increases. When we think about your risk of death, we generally think about our blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar numbers. All of those numbers are important, and certainly help predict your risk of dying from cardiovascular and metabolic disorders in the future. However, one of the things we see in the aging population is a gross loss of mobility and strength. You can see it in the way that many older people move. Walking is slow and cautious. Bending and picking up things from the floor become an extraordinary challenge. From an evolutionary perspective, a lack of mobility and fitness can drastically affect your survival value. While elder adults can be wise and crafty in their survival skills, this lack of fitness can make you less likely to catch/produce food, escape danger, and become a burden on a migrating group of hunter gatherers. But does that still carry over into today's world where we aren't being chased by tigers or migrating across a continent? The scientific eviduce seems to say yes. Strength and cardiovascular fitness have repeatedly been shown to be protective from your risk of death from all causes. <Source=">Source" 1,="1</a>," ="2</a>">