It struck me the other day how at varying points of our lives, we have different outfits that we wear for different reasons. And my thesis suggests that we can determine how healthy we are by how many outfits we use during the week. Strange way of thinking, huh? Or is it?

You see, in my world as a physical therapist, I’m constantly aware of how often and how well people are moving. It’s my job to help people move as best as they possibly can - that’s the basis of every patient we see - the end result is to make people move better because there is a direct and strong connection between how well people move and their overall health.

Studies have proved that people that are more mobile and active as a matter of habit stay out of the hospital, need less medication and doctor visits and live a longer, healthier life. Those facts guide my professional and personal life.

So, now back to the clothes that you wear.

When you are a young child, you have pajamas, school clothes, uniforms for sports like baseball or basketball, uniforms or outfits for other activities such as scouting or performing in a band or instrument recital, church clothes, play clothes and so on. That’s arguably the time in our lives where we are most mobile and active and of course, the time when we are least likely to have any medical concerns whatsoever. Our health is at its peak.

Then, we move onto adulthood … the number of ensembles that we have in rotation is less.

Pajamas, work clothes, clothes for around the house, clothes for working outside on your property, perhaps clothes for hobbies like golfing or bowling or gardening, church clothes, and occasionally formal attire.

That’s still a fair number of options that we need in our closets but less than we had in our youth. And as we know, most people in this stage of life remain pretty healthy and very mobile for the most part. Are you seeing the connection? Seems legitimate!

Let’s move to older adulthood beyond the time when young family may no longer be living in your home, beyond your working years into retirement.

You’ve got pajamas, around the house clothes, perhaps clothes related to hobbies or working on your property. Total outfits needed continue to decline.

In later years, hobbies likely go by the wayside and your mobility might move to a point where you have maybe two sets of clothes … one for home and one for outside the home.

It is at this point where we see people moving less and certainly that connects to their weakest state functionally and their most fragile state related to their overall health.

The connection could not be clearer … the more outfits you wear on a regular basis, the more mobile and functionally capable you will be and your health with benefit greatly.

To me, it’s all connected and could even be used as a benchmark to manage your health.

So, every once in a while, think about how many times you change your clothes in a week and how many different looks you have, and you will have a pretty good idea of how healthy you are.

The bottom line, the more activities that you are involved in, the more outfits you will need. The more outfits you need, the more you will be moving and the healthier you will be. So, do more and you will have a longer, healthier life, that’s my thesis and I’m sticking to it!

If you can be happy when it comes down to wearing your very last outfit, you’ve lived a great life and that’s what this is all about … helping people live their best life! Be well and do good.

Joel J. Digris is a Schuylkill County resident with a master’s degree in physical therapy. He is currently employed by Achieva Rehabilitation as an outpatient provider of physical therapy and serves residents in Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties.

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