WALKING IN PORTUGAL

Walking in Portugal was as wonderful as every other aspect of our recent visit. The main difference was getting used to two things, the first of these was cobblestones. So many places that we walked we found were paved with century old cobblestones. Very often these dated back to Roman times and, in particular, in cities like Lisbon , they were laid in fantastic geometric patterns , swirls, end sweeping designs in various tones of pinks and roses.

The other thing to get used to was the elevation. Being from a relatively flat environment it was always a little bit disorienting to be faced with steep climbs up or down as part of any given walk. One story in particular happened again in Lisbon. Late in the afternoon the four of us decided we would go out to a seafood restaurant, located in an old convent, which in itself had been converted into a brewery. We checked the map and, from our hotel, it was a mere four or five streets to the north. What we hadn't accounted for was that the restaurant's location was also uphill. This meant five blocks of continuous stairways , often twisting and turning between single lane three-story buildings. Because we were not used to street signage, we're not entirely sure if we were going the right way. At each intersection we would stop and look around and wonder whether we are to continue going up or give up and return to our hotel. In the end we found our restaurant and had one of the most memorable seafood meals of the trip, and possibly of all time. Thankfully after our meal, full of large quantities of seafood and Portuguese wine, we knew we had only a downhill walk back to our hotel .

HOW SENIORS WALK

I had the opportunity a few weeks ago to attend some further training in relation to doing assessments for memory loss and other conditions related to aging. In the course of our training we had a brief workshop on gait analysis. This involved examining how an individual walks and how that can be evidence to support a particular diagnosis.

Gait analysis gets used often in assessing orthotic devices for athletes or people with common anatomical issues related to walking. It can be used in a highly specialized way for elite athletes to refine their technique towards maximal performance. In the case of my training we were looking particularly at how gait relates to events that may be occurring in the brain or nervous system. Of primary interest were dementias, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, palsy conditions and so on.

Within the workshop we watched a set of video demonstrations by an extraordinary physician named Benjamin Weiss. Here is a link to Dr. Weiss's video set which you may find interesting in describing disease-related walking conditions.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaCGXOiLr-_WEbnybtwNYGnLiYaK_MB40

On that same channel you can also find more general links to gait analysis as it might be done in a chiropractic setting.

Yours , on the journey,

Ray

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet

Thich Nhat Hahn