_ Mental & Emotional Health Laugh it Up! The Best De-Stressing Technique By article Whether you're guiltily guffawing at an episode of "South Park" or quietly giggling at the latest New Yorker cartoon, laughing does you good. Laughter is a great form of stress relief, and that's no joke. Here, from the experts at the Mayo Clinic, is proof that laughter really can be the best medicine. Stress relief from laughter A good sense of humor can't cure all ailments, but data are mounting about the positive things laughter can do. Short-term benefits
_ Exercise Exercise and Menopause By Jane Farrell article Along with managing weight and avoiding smoking or excess alcohol use, exercising regularly is one of the most important health habits women can practice throughout their lives. And working out becomes especially important during menopause, because it helps prevent osteoporosis as well as illness such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. It may also improve mood disorders that some women go through and help avoid middle-aged weight gain.
_ The 7 Hidden Causes of Fatigue By Jane Farrell article From the Cleveland Clinic Fatigue can signal anemia, diabetes, hypothyroidism or hepatitis C. But once your doctor rules out major medical causes of fatigue, it’s time to consider hidden ones. "We look for the less obvious roots of fatigue — that’s our job,” says Tanya Edwards, MD, Medical Director of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Integrative Medicine. Hidden causes include: 1. A junk food diet
_ Exercise The Benefits of Correct Breathing By article By Joe Vennare, PT & Fitness Program Director at LeanonLife.com Just breathe. Seems simple right? Whether you’re relaxing or running breathing is kind of essential for performance and well, staying alive.
_ Heart Health New BP Guidelines Questioned By Sondra Forsyth article On December 19th 2013, ThirdAge.com reported on the new hypertension guidelines from The American Society of Hypertension Inc. and the International Society of Hypertension. The revised recommendation was150/90 for people 60+ before starting treatment, up from the recommendation of 140/80 that has been the standard for 30 years.
New Love Research By blog The average British woman will kiss fifteen men, enjoy two long-term relationships, and have her heartbroken twice before she meets ‘The One’, a new study reveals British researchers found she will also average four disaster dates and be stood up once before she finally settles down with the man of her dreams, but she will also have been in love twice, lived with one partner, and had four one-night stands. In comparison, men face being stood up twice and having six one-night stands before they meet their ideal partners.
_ Exercise Safety for Senior Athletes By Jane Farrell article Aging affects multiple organ systems, from the heart and lungs to your bones and metabolism. Of all the changes, musculoskeletal issues have the most impact on the aging senior’s sport. These changes include:an overall decrease in muscle and bone mass; stiffening of muscles; weakening of tendons and cartilage.
_ FDA Warning About OTC Laxatives By article The Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers that over-the-counter laxatives with sodium phosphate, marketed as Fleet, are potentially dangerous if dosing instructions or warnings on the Drug Facts label are not properly followed or when there are certain coexisting health conditions including kidney disease, heart problems or dehydration. People over 55 are also at increased risk. An article on the FDA page for consumers notes that there have been “dozens of reports of serious side effects, including 13 deaths” with these laxatives.
Making Peace with Failure: A Love Story By blog Allegedly, it is life at its best when we are succeeding and life at its worst when we are failing. How do we define success and failure? How do we come to have such a strong attachment to success and a deep aversion to failure? How does our relationship to success and failure define our relationship to life? What is Failure?
_ ICE Your Cell Phone for Cold Weather Safety By article As frigid temperatures continue to affect every state in the union, Visiting Angels -- one of the nation’s largest in-home senior care agencies -- has launched the ICE a Cell Phone Safety Campaign to help people in case of emergency. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. To ICE your cell phone or the phone a loved one in your care, load emergency contacts with the word ICE in front of the names so that if you’re ever in trouble, people will know who to call.
_ Aging Well Welcome, Youngest Baby Boomers! By Sondra Forsyth article Here at ThirdAge, where we focus on the health and well-being of women 50+ and their families, we want to extend a heartfelt welcome and a happy 50th birthday to those of you who were born in 1964 -- the last year of the post-war baby boom. The oldest Boomers, born in 1946, are 18 years older than you are so plenty of people point out that your coming-of-age experiences are a lot different that those of people in the 60+ cohort.
_ 5 Treatments Older Adults May Not Need By article By Anne-Marie Botek, Editor-in-Chief of AgingCare.com Overtreatment is a persistent problem among the aging population. Research shows that the more doctors an individual has, the more likely a patient is to be prescribed conflicting medications. Indeed doctors may over treat elderly patients unintentionally.
_ Drugs Protect Against Post-Stroke Damage By article Anticoagulant medications such as Warfarin have long been known to help prevent strokes, but now a large Danish study has shown that the blood thinners can also reduce the risk of death and brain damage when a stroke happens anyway. The research was published in Stroke - Journal of the American Heart Association.
_ Online Colorectal Cancer Risk Calculator By article Researchers at Cleveland Clinic have developed a new tool called CRC-PRO that allows physicians to quickly and accurately predict an individual's risk of colorectal cancer, as published in the January 2014 edition of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.
How Can I Give What I Never Had? By blog Most of the insecurity and low self-esteem in the world is caused by rejection by a parent, boyfriend/girlfriend, husband or wife, or the loss of a parent or some other significant other early in life. Early shame, rejection or abandonment may become internalized at an early age, making us feel worthless and unworthy of love. The greatest loss and the most difficult to work through is the death of a parent.
_ Age-Related Obesity Explained By article If you’ve found that you’re packing on more pounds as the years go by even if your calorie intake and activity level remain about the same, you’re not alone. Now research published in the January 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that as we age, the thermogenic, or heat-producing, activity of brown fat is reduced. Brown fat is a "good" fat that helps burn "bad" white belly fat. The researchers also discovered a possible metabolic on/off switch that could reactivate brown fat.
_ Women's Health and Wellness High BP Riskier for Women By article Doctors may need to treat high blood pressure in women earlier and more aggressively than they do in men, according to scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The study was published in the December 2013 edition of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease.
Sex and Depression: A Gender-Specific Approach to Healing By Jane Farrell blog Depression runs in my family. I became aware of that fact when my father took an overdose of sleeping pills when I was five years old. Growing up I had little understanding of what had happened or why he was hospitalized and disappeared from our lives. But I did grow up with a hunger to understand depression and a terror that I would become depressed myself and face my own suicidal demons.