ENCOURAGING older people to take it easy is damaging their health and costing the UK billions in social care, experts say.

Keeping fit and physically active staves off the need for extra support - but older people are often mistakenly told they should rest, they said.

They argue that the effects of ageing are often confused with loss of fitness, but it is loss of fitness that increases the chance of needing social care.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), experts including from Oxford University and the UK's Centre for Ageing Better said exercise can reverse physical decline by as much as a decade "and keep a person above the threshold for needing increased care".

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Those in their 70s with below-average ability who improve by 25% (measured by how long it takes to get out of a chair) could get to the average speed of people in their 60s, they said.

Meanwhile, a recent collection of studies has shown improvements in older people's "up and go" times when they took up exercise ranging from walking to weight training - with the benefits increasing the more they did.

The researchers called for a change in how people view getting older, with exercise becoming the norm.

They said: "Ensuring that as many people as possible maintain the ability to manage vital activities of daily living requires a cultural change so that it becomes normal to expect people of all ages to be active.

"The prevailing attitude that exercise is for young people while older people should be encouraged to relax needs to be challenged."

They said there was a need to show that the effects of ageing could be tackled "not by a drug or potion or elixir of life but by increasing activity - physical, mental, and social.

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"Encouraging recent research suggests that the key to reducing the incidence of dementia is unlikely to be any new drug but through encouraging activities that are important in keeping healthy and feeling well in the short term - namely, increasing activity, stopping smoking, good nutrition, and using alcohol sparingly.

"Gyms, walking groups, gardening, cooking clubs, and volunteering have all been shown to work in improving the health and wellbeing of people at all ages with long-term conditions."

The total cost of social care (including local authority, self funding, and informal care) is more than £100 billion a year, but exercise could cut this bill, they said.

Anna Dixon, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: "Falls account for four million hospital bed days every year.

"Physical activity that maintains and improves muscle strength and ability to balance is crucial in reducing the risk of falling, potentially saving the NHS £1 billion a year from hip fractures.

"Physical activity is also critical to helping people live independently as they get older."

The team also issued a warning over "dangerous" occupations - those that involve sitting down.

"The car, the desk job, and the internet have transformed work," they said.

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"A sedentary lifestyle is one of the top four causes of ill health in the UK, contributing to Type 2 diabetes, dementia, heart disease, and recurrence of some cancers."

But the team concluded that increasing a person's fitness levels "may not only restore the person to the ability they enjoyed 10 years earlier, it may make the crucial difference between living well at home or being dependent on social care or residential care".

Kenny Butler, ukactive health and wellbeing lead, said: "We need an urgent shake-up of our approach to ageing.

"Rather than putting their feet up and taking it easy, older people need to up and active in order to stay healthy and independent."