healthy living for women + their families
Sondra Forsyth is Co-Editor-in-Chief of ThirdAge.com. She is a National Magazine Award winner with scores of major magazine bylines and twelve books to her credit. Her most recent book is “Candida Cleanse: The 21-Day Diet to Beat Yeast and Feel Your Best”. Sondra was Executive Editor at “Ladies’ Home Journal,” Features Editor at “Cosmopolitan,” and Articles Editor at “Bride’s”. A former ballerina, she founded Ballet Ambassadors, an arts-in-education company in New York City, and served as Artistic Director for 16 years.
“The stairs are getting so hard to climb.”
“Since my wife died, I just open a can of soup for dinner.”
“I’ve lived here 40 years. No other place will seem like home.”
These are common issues for older people. And, you may share the often-heard wish—“I want to stay in my own home!” The good news is that with the right help you might be able to do just that.
It’s frustrating when you’re going to the gym regularly, doing a great job at healthy living, and then you get sick – and you’re pretty sure the elliptical machine is the culprit.
Your local 24-hour fitness center is like a daycare for adults: Like any enclosed space full of people, it can be a breeding ground for viruses and bacteria. Fortunately, we can tell you how to live a healthy lifestyle while you’re working out. It’s not as hard as you think, and worth the extra effort!
A new analysis of data from 1988-2008 by researchers at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine has revealed a 40% decrease in the incidence of stroke in Medicare patients 65 years of age and older. The decline is greater than anticipated considering this population’s risk factors for stroke. Not only that, but the drop applies to both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The team also found that deaths resulting from stroke declined during the same period. The findings are published in the July 2014 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.
Over the past decade, a greater number of patients age 80 and older have been undergoing elective orthopedic surgery. A study published in July 2014 in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) found that these surgeries are generally safe with mortality rates decreasing for total hip (THR) and total knee (TKR) replacement and spinal fusion surgeries, and complication rates decreasing for total knee replacement and spinal fusion in patients with few or no comorbidities (other conditions or diseases).
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that patients taking prescription potassium supplements together with loop diuretics for heart failure have better survival rates than patients taking diuretics without the potassium. The degree of benefit increases with higher diuretic doses. The team, including senior author Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, associate professor of epidemiology in Penn’s Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (CCEB), report their findings in a study published online July 16th 2014 in PLoS ONE.
Medicare spending on breast cancer screening increased substantially between 2001 and 2009 but the detection rates of early stage tumors were unchanged, according to a study done at Yale and published July 16th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Niacin has been a mainstay of cholesterol therapy for 50 years, but Northwestern Medicine preventive cardiologist Donald Lloyd-Jones, M.D. maintains that the drug should no longer be prescribed for most patients due to potential increased risk of death, dangerous side effects, and no benefit in reducing heart attacks and strokes. His editorial was published in the July 17th 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Here’s another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
Monday, July 21st
Can certain foods make you less anxious? The experts at the Mayo Clinic say the answer is yes!
The gym can be a very germy place. Here’s how to avoid the bugs.
There’s no place like home for living independently as you age. Learn how to adapt your house or apartment so you’ll stay safe as the years go by.
Our video shows the nano laser peel treatment.
Blogger Nancy Anderson asks whether you see others as they are or as you want them to be.
Tuesday, July 22nd
The choice of contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) by women with breast cancer (BC) diagnosed in one breast has recently increased in the US but may confer only a marginal life expectancy benefit depending on the type and stage of cancer, according to a study published July 16th 2014 in the JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
From a cognitive perspective, aging is typically associated with decline. As we age, it may get harder to remember names and dates, and it may take us longer to come up with the right answer to a question.
However, the news isn’t all bad when it comes to cognitive aging. according to a set of three articles in the July 2014 issue of Perspectives in Psychological Science.
By James Tamkin M.D. and Dave Visel
This article originally appeared on DemosHealth.com. It is adapted from The Myeloma Survival Guide.
As a newly diagnosed cancer patient, you are beginning a long, complicated, physically and mentally taxing journey. Here are twelve things to start doing now to make your journey a little easier.
Fewer Americans are having strokes and those who do have a lower risk of dying from them according to a a study led by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health researchers and is published in the July 16th 2014 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
A relatively frequent genetic variant turns out to provide significant protection against Alzheimer’s disease and can delay the onset of the disease by as much as four years. That is the finding of research done by Judes Poirier, PhD, C.Q., and colleagues at the Douglas Mental Health Institute and McGill University in Montréal. The discovery opens new avenues for treatment against this devastating disease. Dr. presented the study at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Copenhagen in July 2014.
Here’s another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
By Joe Vennare
Sometimes going to the gym can be a chore. We have to create a training plan and master the machines. Just when we start to get into the swing of things, all of these things start to lose their luster. Let’s be honest, strength training machines and cardio equipment aren’t very much fun. They don’t leave us longing for more. Workouts can be boring. What’s worse is that over time they become ineffective.
By Dan Nguyen
We all know how easy it can be to procrastinate in order to avoid going to the gym or to put off starting our workout routines. Here are my tips to help you get moving:
• Unpack Emotional Baggage: Many people have limiting beliefs they are not even aware of that keep them from achieving their health and wellness goals. Let go of these counterproductive thoughts and replace them with thoughts and visualizations to help you get and stay fit.
The 2014 United States of Aging Survey found that 37% Americans 60 and older say they exercise every day, compared with 26% in 2013. Maybe all those reports about how “sitting is the new smoking” are motivating us! Even so, we can do better. Almost 2/3 of us are still not living lives that are active enough to promote good physical and emotional health. Yet older adults who do exercise daily are much more likely than those who never exercise to say the past year of their life has been better than normal.
