Today’s Telegraph Health Section really bring homes just what an uphill battle “we disableds” have in keeping ourselves trim:
Dr Loosemore, a leading sport medicine consultant states that government guidelines, which advise people to do 30 minutes of ‘moderate’ exercise five days a week, discourage people from becoming active by setting targets which appear too daunting.
Dr Loosemore states that we should be “simply avoiding the sort of sedentary behaviour that sees us spending hours of our day sat in front of a computer, at the wheel of car or watching the gogglebox.”
“It’s time to stand up for yourself. Literally.”
“There is now enormous evidence that simply standing makes huge differences to your health.”
Dr Loosemore is working with the Thalidomide Trust on a project to assist with enabling Trust beneficiaries to obtain a more accurate blood pressure reading. Obtaining the blood pressure in somebody who has either very short or absent arms or legs can present quite a challenge, and even when the reading is obtained, there are some concerns about just how accurate it is.
Blood pressure readings provide a lot of useful information about the heart and the pressure of the blood in the arteries and the condition of blood vessels. It can therefore be a useful tool in identifying potential serious health conditions.