Just 20 minutes of daily activity can reverse frailty in people aged over 65, according to research by University College Dublin.
The study - published in the journal of the British Geriatrics Society, Age & Ageing - shows how a combination of simple strength exercises and adding protein to your diet could stop and even reverse frailty, as well as enhance physical resilience in older people.
GP Dr John Travers, the lead author of the study said researchers set out to test 'the myth' that frailty as most people believe it to be is an inevitable and irreversible part of ageing.
"We wanted to see if a very simple, home based, free intervention could in fact reverse frailty despite what people tend to believe about it."
The 168 older people who took part in the clinical trial over a 12-month period were split into two groups. One group underwent usual care, the other undertook simple, resistance based exercises and protein in their diet in a programme developed by researchers at UCD, Trinity College Dublin, Munster Technological University and six general practices in Ireland.
Dr Travers said for those who did the exercises and had sufficient protein in their diet, "there was a profound difference to their overall strength, their frailty status, their bone mass unbelievably, their speed of walking and their activity level.
"There was a significant difference between the two groups from this very simple, low cost, enjoyable-to-do, intervention", Dr Travers said.
Dr Travers said people did not realise the profound effect exercise and diet can have on building resilience and reversing frailty.
"We showed that despite the belief that's an irreversible ageing process, we showed that that is in fact reversible, so in fact there is great hope for us all that we can be more resilient than we believed," he said.
