"Healthy" , "aging" and "disability", now there are three words you don't often think of as going together. There is a lot that you can do to have a healthier age but it all breaks down to the two critical factors in healthy aging; mobility and function.
Mentally and physically, it is preferable to maximize the degree of mobility for any given individual.
In other words, if you can walk with a walker, that is preferable to being in a wheelchair, if you can use a wheelchair, that is to be preferred over being bed-ridden.
Regardless of how impaired your mobility might be, you want to prevent it from declining further. Range of Motion exercises can prevent muscles from becomin contracted.
Using a wheelchair or being bed-bound you are susceptible to pressure sores. Pressure sores are injuries caused by lying or sitting in one position too long. If a person has had damage to nerves or the spinal cord, he may not feel the discomfort that would cause a non-disabled person to change position or may not be physically able to change position. Pressure sores can be prevented and treated.
Diabetes, like physical disabilities, has its complications that can lead to additional disabilities, including amputations and blindness.
Strokes, while the number one cause of disabilities acquired during adulthood, are preventable in 80% of the cases.
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Range of motion exercises