Ninety-six year old Rejeanne Fairhead, left, says until two years ago the most athletic things she had ever done involved bowling and horse shoes. Now she is a world-record holding racer.HO/The Canadian Press
In May, 2022, when Rejeanne Fairhead was 95 years old, she finished the five-kilometre Ottawa Race for ages 95 to 99 in 58 minutes and 52 seconds, a Canadian record. Participating in the challenge – let alone smashing a record – wasn’t a goal of hers; she didn’t do any training in advance. She was there simply to accompany a friend.
But, as it turned out, the 5K was a walk in the park for Fairhead, who treated it like any other stroll around her neighbourhood, stopping occasionally to chat with her pal. The next year, she thought: “Oh, I can beat that record,” she says. And, with a little determination, she shaved more than seven minutes off her time, finishing in 51 minutes and nine seconds– cinching the world record.
Fairhead credits her good health to a collection of little habits, not any kind of special exercise regime or diet. She walks in her neighbourhood, makes sure she stretches and keeps her brain sharp with puzzles and reading.
Here’s more on how the now 97-year-old stays fit.
Get your steps in
Even before she had her eyes set on the Ottawa Race, Fairhead went for a stroll nearly every day. She’s an active volunteer in her community, frequently walking to and from Perley Health, a long-term care home in her neighbourhood, to play cards or bingo with residents – who are sometimes decades younger. When the weather is nice, she’ll walk laps around the building.
Fairhead also gets her step count up by helping workers at the home with simple tasks. For example, during bingo, she’ll retrieve the cards from the players, going between them and the caller. “I’m up and down and back and forth – it’s a lot of walking,” she says.
Don’t look down on the power of simply walking: A 2022 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that for every 2,000 steps the risk of heart disease, cancer and premature death decreases by 10 per cent, peaking at 10,000 daily steps.
Small functional exercises go a long way
Though Fairhead didn’t meet with a trainer or hit the gym to prepare for her record-breaking walk last May, she did work with physiotherapist Richelle Weeks, who taught her some easy-to-do exercises. “They weren’t very difficult,” Fairhead says. “Just simple everyday exercises you can do all the time.” She never spent much time on the routine: just five minutes, every other day.
The moves were functional, focused on keeping Fairhead’s joints limber and maintaining her muscle strength. One was simply sitting down in a chair and standing up again, over and over. Basic, yes, but studies have shown that for older people, practising sit-to-stand repeatedly can be an effective way to improve muscle strength. It’s also a great way to improve mobility and balance, which can help decrease the risk of falls.
Stay busy
More than any other factor, Fairhead attributes her good health to always being on the go. Ruth McMahon, her daughter-in-law, says that the 97-year-old says “yes” to almost everything. “We recently had a family event at a pool hall and she was right in there with a cue, having fun.”
Fairhead also leads an active social life. She spends a lot of time chatting on the phone, with everyone from great-nieces and nephews to the adult children of her old friends. She often plays cards with a group of nearby women, or visits them for dinner.
Socializing and staying busy is integral to keeping seniors healthy, research shows. Aside from maintaining fitness levels, certain activities may improve older adults’ cognitive function. A study out of Penn State found that social interactions immediately affect cognitive performance that same day and for days later – which is important for staving off diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Ultimately, Fairhead doesn’t see anything she does as extraordinary: She lives an active lifestyle that enables her to stay healthy with very little added effort. “People have stopped me and said I inspired them to get out there and do something, no matter their age, I’m very proud of that,” she says. “Age is just a number.”
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
