4 Tips for the Elderly Body to Stay Healthy When Fasting

4 Tips for the Elderly Body to Stay Healthy When Fasting

During Ramadan fasting, there are some health complaints that often approach, especially among the elderly, such as constipation and dehydration. These complaints usually arise due to lack of fiber, water intake, lack of exercise and consuming too much fried food.

It's important to maintain physical health and endurance while fasting. Of course this is not only through healthy food intake, but also exercise.

In fact, fasting is a powerful way to cleanse the body of excess toxins that have accumulated from the environment and food. Fasting is also one of the healthiest methods of controlling appetite and restoring body shape to an ideal weight.

Ensure the Healthy Body Condition of Elderly When Fasting

You must pay attention to the condition of the body before doing sports, especially elderly parents. Does the body feel fit and fresh to be invited to process physically or just the body feels weak. If the body feels weak, do not force it, fasting may be canceled or even unable to continue fasting in the following days.

Exercise

Adjust the choice of exercise with the needs and condition of the body. For the elderly need to be considered when going to exercise. Some of the recommended types of night sports are relaxing walking and yoga. To be sure, avoid doing sports with an intensity that is too heavy. In addition, elderly parents must be given an elderly nurse companion who can take care of him during the sport.

Doing exercise with high intensity for a long time can increase the risk of injury. So, it is important to know the limits of the body in sports. If you have an injury, it will disrupt your daily activities. That requires healing with physiotherapy to overcome the injury.

For young people, jogging is a type of mild exercise that you can do when fasting. But to do this, there are several things that need attention. Because if done carelessly, jogging can trigger dehydration and disrupt your fasting activities in the month of Ramadan.

The best time to exercise when fasting is 1 hour before breaking or after tarawih prayer. The reason is because at that time, you can immediately replace lost body fluids after exercising.

Before exercising, don't forget to warm up which is very important to do, especially if you want to exercise while fasting. This is because warming plays a role in giving a "signal" to the body that you are physically and mentally ready to exercise. While cooling acts to give a "signal" to the body that you have finished exercising by decreasing the rhythm of the exercise being done. To do this, you only need to spend 5-10 minutes stretching and relaxing before exercise (warm up) and after exercise (cooling).

Healthy Eating When Fasting

Make sure you eat healthy foods and avoid fried foods when breaking the fast. For the elderly, eating patterns while fasting will change the body's condition. It is recommended to get the assistance of elderly nurses to control diet. To meet the needs of body fluids by increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables at dawn or breaking.

If you already plan to jog while fasting, make sure that your body is properly hydrated. One way is to apply the 2-4-2 pattern, which is drinking two glasses of water when breaking the fast, four glasses of water at dinner, and two glasses of water at dawn.

Enough Sleep

Not only exercise and eating patterns that need to be considered to stay healthy during fasting, but also adequate and quality sleep. During fasting, you have to divide your time efficiently between getting out of bed for dawn and exercising. Make sure you get enough sleep by meeting your 8-hour quota every day. For the elderly it takes a lot of rest to control energy during fasting, find an elderly nurse who can help regulate sleep time. Not only because of fasting, the body can also be weak due to lack of sleep. Moreover, all day you will have a dense activity. Adequate rest is one of the keys to a healthy and fit life during fasting.

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