Coming Next Week! September 8th to September 12th 2014 By Sondra Forsyth article HereΓÇÖs a sneak preview of the articles, slideshows, and blogs weΓÇÖll be posting during the coming week on ThirdAge, the biggest and best site for ΓÇ£boomer and beyondΓÇ¥ women since 1997. As always, weΓÇÖll bring you the latest information from top experts about maintaining a healthy body, mind, and spirit as you navigate both the challenges and the joys of being a ThirdAger.
_ Exercise Could Prevent Cognitive Decline By Jane Farrell article Cardiovascular exercise, which has been shown to help our bodies, may also protect our minds, according to new research.
_ Aging Well Why Our Word Choices Matter As We Age By Sondra Forsyth article By Roger Landry MD Have you ever considered how the words we use impact the culture around us? How do those words reflect our own attitudes, beliefs, and values? Furthermore, for those among us who work in the aging profession, how does what we say affect both how we perceive older adults to be, and how they self-identify? How Our Brains React to the Words We Say
_ Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias Brain Health Pomegranate Tx for AD, PD, & RA By Sondra Forsyth article The onset of Alzheimer's disease can be slowed and some of its symptoms curbed by a natural compound that is found in pomegranates, according to the findings of a two-year project headed by scientist Dr. Olumayokun Olajide, at the University of Huddersfield in the UK. Also, the painful inflammation that accompanies illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis and Parkinson's disease could be reduced by the pomegranate drug. The study was published in August 2014 in Molecular Nutrition & Food Research.
_ Sleep Health Why the Elderly Have Trouble Sleeping By Sondra Forsyth article As people grow older, they often have difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep, and tend to awaken too early in the morning. In people with Alzheimer's disease, this common and troubling symptom of aging tends to be especially pronounced, often leading to nighttime confusion and wandering.
_ 5 Food-Drug Interactions You Want to Avoid By Sondra Forsyth article By Leah Shainhouse You have heard it again and again: Adapt to a healthy lifestyle. If you make sure to eat well, a plethora of diseases can be prevented or managed. However, there are times when you walk into your doctorΓÇÖs office, either for a routine check-up or for some sort of ache or pain and you have no choice. You walk out with another prescription, whether it is to help lower your cholesterol, control your blood pressure or fight off an infection.
_ Relationships & Love Connection is the Key to Positive Personal Relationships By Sondra Forsyth article By Lynne DΓÇÖAmico, PhD You can improve communication without improving a relationship, but you canΓÇÖt create connection without improving a relationship. Communication has been hailed as a ΓÇ£holy grailΓÇ¥ to interpersonal relationships, and is routinely promoted as the way to improve relationships between spouses, children, parents, and work colleagues. As years of research show, communication is definitely an important dimension of any relationship. But communication isnΓÇÖt the key to fixing relationship problems. Connection is.
Why Our Minds Are Velcro for the Bad, but Teflon for the Good By blog Most everyone has at least one traumatic memory embedded in their brains. One that still resonates for me was the time my mother left me alone when I was six years old to take the baby sitter home. When I looked apprehensive, she told me not to worry. ΓÇ£IΓÇÖll be right back,ΓÇ¥ she said smiling brightly and drove off. As it got dark I became more and more frightened that something had happened to her and she wasnΓÇÖt coming back. By the time she returned I was totally terrified. She found me standing outside wailing. She scolded me and took me inside.
_ Multiple Sclerosis: 5 Things You Should Know By Jane Farrell article MS can happen to just about anyone. The central nervous system disorder affects your brain and spinal cord. But it spares the nerves and muscles that lead away from the spinal cord. Nearly 350,000 people in the United States have MS. MS is a long-term illness. Infection-fighting white blood cells enter the nervous system and cause injury by stripping off the myelin sheath that protects nerves. When this happens, the nerves cannot conduct electricity as well as they should. This causes symptoms.
_ Caregiving Managing Dementia Related Personality Changes By Sondra Forsyth article AlzheimerΓÇÖs disease causes brain cells to die, so the brain works less well over time. This changes how a person acts. Here, from the National Institute on Aging, are suggestions that may help you understand and cope with changes in personality and behavior in a person with AlzheimerΓÇÖs disease. Common personality and behavior changes you may see include: ΓÇó Getting upset, worried, and angry more easily ΓÇó Acting depressed or not interested in things ΓÇó Hiding things or believing other people are hiding things
_ Mental & Emotional Health How We Form & Change Habits By Sondra Forsyth article Much of our daily lives are taken up by habits that we've formed over our lifetime. An important characteristic of a habit is that it's automatic-- we don't always recognize habits in our own behavior. Studies show that about 40 percent of people's daily activities are performed each day in almost the same situations. Habits emerge through associative learning. "We find patterns of behavior that allow us to reach goals.
_ Healthy Diet & Nutrition Fast Food Redeemed: Beyond Burgers and Fries By Sondra Forsyth article By Dr. Kevin J. McLaughlin Across the United States, North America and throughout the world, the impact of the fast food industry has really overtaken our collective culinary culture. It has driven demand, competitive pricing for fast meals and disease rates right through the roof in the U.S. To put it bluntly, fast food is one of the main reasons why Americans are getting fatter, sicker, and living with high morbidity as they age. This trend is also occurring within a much younger demographic than ever before.
_ Sex The Foods of Love By Jane Farrell article By Eve Marx Aphrodisiacs are aromatic foods, recipes and potions believed to be sexual and sensual enhancers found in nature. Many of these potent love tools and libido lifters have been in use for centuries. There are dozens of known aphrodisiacs in the world. Is it time for you to learn about some of them? Essential oils that do more than smooth
The Mini-Cog, A Memory Assessment Tool By blog Have you heard of the ΓÇ£Mini-CogΓÇ¥? I had read about it several years ago but a recent front page feature in the Star Tribune, our major daily newspaper in the Twin Cities, piqued my interest. The story focused on Dr. Michael Rosenbloom, clinical director of the HealthPartners Center for Memory and Aging, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Rosenbloom and his colleagues believe that primary-care physicians are frequently missing signs of cognitive issues in their age 55 and over patients. Instead of relying solely on observation and a short conversation during patient appointments, Dr.
Medical Care Migraine Relief from Cosmetic Surgery Technique By Sondra Forsyth article Dr. Oren Tessler, Assistant Professor of Clinical Surgery at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, is part of a team of plastic and reconstructive surgeons who report a high success rate using a method to screen and select patients for a specific surgical migraine treatment technique. More than 90% of the patients who underwent this surgery to decompress the nerves that trigger migraines experienced relief and also got a bonus cosmetic eyelid surgery.
_ Hope for Accurate Diagnosis of Memory Problems By Sondra Forsyth article More accurate tests could be created to diagnose diseases such as Alzheimer's or memory problems stemming from head injuries. These tests could lead to earlier intervention, according to findings from the University of East Anglia in the UK published July 30th 2014 in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
_ Sleep Health 3 Bad Sleep Habits To Give Up (And 5 Good Habits To Start) By Sondra Forsyth article This article, which is adapted from Sleep Soundly Every Night, Feel Fantastic Every Day, originally appeared on DemosHealth.com.
_ Brain Health Surprising Mechanism Behind Neurodegeneration By Sondra Forsyth article A research team led by Professor Susan Ackerman, Ph.D. at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Mane has pinpointed a surprising mechanism behind neurodegeneration in mice, one that involves a defect in a key component of the cellular machinery that makes proteins, known as transfer RNA or tRNA.