Easy ways to protect your mobility
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For most people, mobility is something that is taken for granted—at least until you lose it. Unfortunately, loss of mobility is common among older adults, and it has profound social, psychological, and physical consequences. "If you're unable to get out, then you can't go shopping, you can't go out with your friends to eat dinner, you can't go to the movies. You become dependent on other people to get you places," says geriatrician Dr. Suzanne Salamon, an instructor at Harvard Medical School. "So you become a recluse, you stay home, you get depressed. With immobilization you have trouble getting to the bathroom. With that comes incontinence, which can make you more vulnerable to urinary and skin infections."
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