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Successful Aging: Strategies to Help Maintain and Nurture a Healthy Brain
When it comes to aging, is there anything to look forward to from a neurocognitive perspective?
What can we do to protect our brains from cognitive and functional decline?
Here, Helen Lavretksy speaks about one of her favorite subjects – healthy, happy, and graceful aging. Dr Lavretsky is a geriatric psychiatrist and Professor in the department of psychiatry at UCLA. She directs the Late Life Mood, Stress, and Wellness Research Program at the Semel Institute at UCLA. She is coeditor of the newly published Late Life Mood Disorders—a comprehensive review of the current research advances in late life mood disorders.
Globally, many societies are being affected in major economic and social ways in countries where the population is aging rapidly, such as Japan (23% over 65), Germany (20.5%), Italy (20.4%), and the US (13%). The countries that show that fastest rate of change in population age, in order, are Iran, Vietnam, Mexico, India, and South Korea. The obvious consequences are a shrinking labor force and shifting of a nation’s wealth to health care.
. In general, as we age, our bodies and brain experience changes: some are positive -- and some are not so much. Although some cognitive functions such as memory, reasoning, and complex problem solving can decline with age, the National Institute of Aging states that approximately 87% of those age 65 years and older are cognitively healthy.
Full story of healthy aging at Psychiatric Times
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Anti-Aging: 10 Ways To Cheat The Clock — Starting Today
About 10 years ago, Washington Post reporter Margaret Webb Pressler visited the West Virginia State Fair with her husband, Jim, and their small children, and came across a small wooden booth with a sign that read: "Guess your age within 2 years. $2."
They thought, "why not give it a try?" The Presslers got in line behind a pair of middle-aged women. To their astonishment, the man at the booth guessed the women's age -- 51 -- exactly. Undeterred, the Presslers went forward. After looking Jim up and down, the man surmised he was 37, only to be stunned to hear he was actually 55.
Since then, Pressler has watched her husband barely age, witnessing conversation after conversation in which Jim has been asked "how he does it." She decided to find out. By interviewing a variety of scientists and experts on aging -- and by closely monitoring Jim's habits -- Pressler said she uncovered the simple diet, exercise and lifestyle changes that people can make now -- no matter how old they are -- to slow down the aging process.
In "Cheat the Clock," a book coming out Dec. 4, Pressler talks about the science behind the minor adjustments one can make to feel and look younger -- just like her husband, Jim.
Full story of anti-aging at Huffington Post
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Health & Fitness: Movement can help pain in stiff, aging joints
This is the second article of our four-part series exploring common myths of aging.
We began last month with common misconceptions regarding imaging findings (X-ray or MRI) that show “arthritic” or “degenerative” changes. We discussed how arthritis or degenerative changes on an X-ray or MRI are actually a normal part of aging and do not necessarily cause pain. Some of you who have these findings on an X-ray and have pain have asked us if your pain is due to the arthritis seen on the X-ray. It is commonly thought that if you have pain and an imaging study shows arthritic changes, the pain is due to the arthritic changes.
This is not always the case.
Many people think they have to accept pain and stiffness due to the arthritis and therefore, not much can be done about it. The reality is much of your pain may be due to the stiffness in the joint and tightness in the muscles around the joint and not always due to the degenerative changes. Furthermore, you can frequently reduce or eliminate your pain by treating the stiffness even though the arthritis will still be present on an X-ray.
Full story of movement for joints at Coloradoan.com
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Practical Nutrition: Strawberries are a super food
Many folks in central Virginia look forward to picking their own strawberries. Others are happy to pick them up in the produce section of their favorite grocery store. Either way you pick them, that luscious red fruit is full of nutrients and is considered a super food.
Super foods are those that provide health benefits which go beyond providing basic good nutrition. These foods may reduce risk for cancer or heart disease. They can enhance overall health, strengthen our bodies and possibly even slow down the aging process.
Super foods are nutrient dense in that they provide extra nutrition for fewer calories. Some are also high in omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, vitamins and minerals, but low in saturated fats, trans fats or refined sugars. They also may contain phytochemicals, colorful plant pigments, that can be helpful in preventing disease.
Many foods including oatmeal, salmon, beans, nuts, kale, avocados and sweet potatoes are also regarded as super foods, so it's important to eat a variety of colorful foods daily.
Full story of practical nutrition at Richmond Times-Dispatch
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Exercise and a Healthy Diet of Fruits and Vegetables Extends Life Expectancy in Women in Their 70s
Women in their seventies who exercise and eat healthy amounts of fruits and vegetables have a longer life expectancy, according to research published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Researchers at the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University studied 713 women aged 70 to 79 years who took part in the Women's Health and Aging Studies. This study was designed to evaluate the causes and course of physical disability in older women living in the community.
"A number of studies have measured the positive impact of exercise and healthy eating on life expectancy, but what makes this study unique is that we looked at these two factors together," explains lead author, Dr. Emily J Nicklett, from the University of Michigan School of Social Work.
Full story of aging nutrition at Science Daily
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Superfood or superhype?
It seems like there’s always a new “it” food on the health scene, with nutritional claims a mile long. We all know that no one food can cure all of our ailments and protect us from all disease, but it’s still hard not to run out and buy the fruit, vegetable or seed that’s billed as a fountain of youth or shield against cancer. We looked at the five hot health foods, and judged their nutritional profile against the hype. Read on to find out how they stacked up.
Chia Seeds
The chia plant, or Salvia hispanaca, is a member of the mint family grown primarily in Mexico, Guatemala and Australia. Its seeds were first cultivated by the ancient Aztecs, for whom it was a dietary staple. You can buy the seeds whole or ground, and they’re often added to commercially prepared breads and snacks.
The claims: As the current superstar of the natural food scene, chia seed’s list of nutritional benefits is a mile long. It’s said to help with weight loss, balance blood sugar, prevent diverticulitis, boost energy, and fight aging.
Full list of superfoods at South Florida Health Local 10
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Eating Berries May Help Prevent Age-Related Memory Loss
By Jennifer Warner
Making berries a part of your daily diet may help keep your memory sharp, a new review shows.
The review shows there’s strong evidence that eating berries boosts brain function and may prevent age-related memory loss.
“In addition to their now well-known antioxidant effects, dietary supplementation with berry fruits has direct effects on the brain,” writes researcher Marshall Miller, of the USDA-ARS Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, and colleagues in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Researchers say laboratory and animal studies suggest that eating berries has beneficial effects on brain signaling pathways involved in inflammation and cell death. The net effect of these improvements in brain function may stall age-related brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
B healthy, B happy
By Ching M. Alano
To B or not to B. Here I am, drowsy and woozy, staring at two perfect portraits of health: Philippine football stars James and Phil Younghusband who declare that they’re going for the gold Aronamin Gold, that is at a press conference at E Bar, Edsa Shangri-La.
Surely, brothers Phil and James get a kick out of Aronamin Gold, the first and only active-form B vitamins daily supplement for people on the go.
Full of life and full of dreams, the dashing duo confesses with a passion, “We take our supplements seriously because it is very important for us to maintain high energy levels. Luckily for us, Aronamin Gold suits our lifestyle.”
Now, you know where James and Phil get their energy, of which they seem to have an inexhaustible supply that on top of being topnotch football players, they have also founded The Younghusbands Football Academy and earned their European Union Football Association coaching licenses. The brothers are simply having a ball promoting football to the masses by touring the provinces to preach the gospel of football and the importance of an active and healthy lifestyle to children and public school teachers. Likewise, they conduct various football clinics within Metro Manila and host a TV segment titled “Football Younghusband Instructional (FYI).”
Green Tea Protects Against Functional Disability Linked To Aging
By Christian Nordqvist
Regular green tea drinkers have a lower risk of developing functional disability, researchers from Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Functional disability refers to problems with daily chores and activities, such as bathing or dressing.
As background information, the authors explained that prior studies had found that consuming green tea reduced the risk of diseases associated with functional disability, such as osteoporosis, cognitive impairment and stroke. Although most experts believed the risk of incident functional disability would be lower for regular green tea drinkers, no direct studies to prove this had ever been carried out.
Yasutake Tomata and team set out to determine whether regular green tea consumption might reduce incident functionality disability in older people.
Life without meat and milk
By RIA Novosti
Vegetarians hold that carrots are the best kind of meat. This attitude to nutrition is not surprising today, as the number of advocates of ‘green’ food grows every year and not only among adults but also children. Many Russian cities are opening special vegetarian kindergartens. On the other hand, the larger the number of such kindergartens, the louder the doubts in the usefulness of this kind of nutrition.
Buckwheat and green tea for breakfast, vegetarian cabbage soup, brown rice and pumpkin, and a vitamin cocktail for lunch and dry fruit for afternoon snack. Someone might find this menu scant but not the mothers of children who go to Tina-garden, a Moscow vegetarian kindergarten. Do the children suffer from the absence of beef-burgers, omelettes and cream cakes in their ration? The children do not complain and eat the food offered to them with great appetite. What is even more important (from the parents’ words), the children fall ill less often and show better results in their studies.
At first I opened an ordinary kindergarten, its owner Tina Trusova says, but then we decided to change the focus.