Note that I'm not preaching to anyone but myself here—and maybe my runner husband who is still a few years short of 75.
The following is from an e-mail written by my father (emphsis mine). I don't think I'll ever be a runner, but I love walking; it's just hard to give it the time it deserves. The idea of self-care is popular these days, and most times I think I don't need any encouragement to think about myself more! But I'm trying to convince myself that paying attention to my health is actually a favor I'm doing to those around me on whom the burden of care would fall!
When I was at the Elderhostel program in the Smoky Mountains, one of the men—who was 75 years old—was telling me how he ran regularly. He wasn't particularly strenuous about it, but he ran for several miles either daily or every other day. When I said that my doctor would like for me to walk five miles a day, but I never found time, he asked "Is your health more important than the other things you have to do?"
Then he said that when he started running, his arthritis went away. When he stopped for a while it came back, and when he started again, it went away again.
Is it possible for that kind of activity to "cure" arthritis? My own feelings are that it might be quite possible. I have had a problem in my right foot for several years. When I start to walk on it, the foot is significantly painful, but the longer I walk, the less it bothers me. And in the Smokies, where I walked five miles a day for six days, the pain was gone and has only recently returned.
Still, the weather does not encourage five mile walks.
By "the weather," Dad was referring to ice-covered sidewalks and below-freezing temperatures. That's not my problem here in Florida, although summer days with temperatures in the mid-90's do make it tempting to avoid any kind of physical exertion.
When the weather is really bad, I sometimes go walking in the local mall. I'm not a shopaholic, so I'm not tempted to spend a lot of money there.
