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  • Pets And Health

    PuppyMany of us pet owners know that pets keep us saner, happier and healthier.

     

    Now there is research that backs up our life experiences.

    A recent study indicated that owning a pet, especially a dog, might reduce the risk of your having a heart disease.

    Is it the constant walking, playing with, snuggling with or just having a living critter in your home that you have to take care of?

    I know I have lost weight since getting my puppy – it’s the weight I put on after my old dog died.

    It’s too easy to NOT take a walk in the early morning or late at night when you do not really have to…but with a puppy or a dog – those walks are necessary and are as good for you health-wise as they are for the puppy or dog.

    So here’s to our pets… and if you are not a dog person, please do not go out and get one thinking it will be “good” for you…try taking care of a neighbor’s dog or puppy for a while first.

     

    Pets come with lifetime commitments!!

     

    Comments? Thank you!! 

     

     

  • When I Was Young, I Wanted To Be A ……

    reading_a_book

    Me?  I always wanted to write.

    When I was a kid, I used to write books for children.

    They were usually about horses and/or dogs.

     

    Anyway – I grew to be an adult who did write [and talk] about children because I was in the field of early childhood and developmental psychology – but I kept thinking about books for children.

    Then somewhere in the early 70s I started writing some books, but in those pre-computer days it was typewriters, carbon paper, and sending manuscripts and queries to children’s magazine and book editors.

    Never had much interest shown, but I still kept writing things for children, and things for adults. The adults ones, text books and Kindle books, were published and that was good.

    BUT….I still wanted to write books for kids

    Then a few weeks ago I thought okay – I saved all of these old type written papers and I looked and found them.

    All sorts of writings. For children, adults, text book ideas, etc.  With all my many moves, it was remarkable that the old files were not lost over the decades.

    So now I am going to use the advent of technology to put these ideas into books for Kindle.

    Even in the pre-technology days, somewhere in my head I always wished there was some way that would make it easy for me to put my words and my pictures together and you that day has arrived.

    I am so happy that the world of technology has finally caught up with all the things that I’ve always wanted to do!

    So – I am going to write some children’s books

    When you are young, what did you want to do? Did you? Will you?

    Comments?

    Thank you.

  • Your Aging Brain and Scams

    brainIt turns out that as we age, some brain changes seem to make it more difficult to assess untrustworthiness.

    It turns out that older people have less activity in a part of the brain called the anterior insula.

    A study on brains and scams indicates that:

    One of the functions of this area of the brain is that it helps interpret sensations in the body that form “gut feelings,” according to lead author Elizabeth Castle.

     [This part of our brain is sort of behind the green section in the image]

    This may account for older persons being more prone to believing scam artists.

    Email scams, telephone ploys and door-to-door scam artists are taking advantage of older citizens and taking off with large amounts of money.

    The scammers seem to know this and older people are being targeted more and more..

    So if you are getting older, or know people who are older – PLEASE tell them to say NO or “let me think about it” when asked for money, car rides, or approached by strangers to do “house repairs.”

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thank you. 

  • Is It Age? Or Is It Me?

    I seemed to have had a harder time adapting to the time change this Spring and gave it some thought.

    Adapting To Light, Dark, And Other Phenomenon

    time changes

     

    I know, as I have aged, I am learning to accept that my body reacts differently to various phenomenon. 

    For example if I do a lot of heavy work like lifting, hauling heavy stuff around, gardening etc. I need extra time to feel like I’m back to normal.

    And, as I wrote, I do tend to hibernate in the winter and I think this has to do with light/dark [as opposed to my being a bear.]

     

    In the Portland winter, it is dark until nearly 8 AM. I don’t think I’ve ever lived in a place where it is so dark so late in the morning that I am waking up when it’s still very dark out. 

    This phenomenon can be adapted to.  We go from summer to fall – gradually losing a minute or two of morning daylight and we adapt. After a while, I am waking up in total darkness and that’s ok.

    But then we suddenly shift the clock and this year I had a more difficult time adapting to the time change and I wonder if it’s age-related.

    It took me almost 2 weeks to get back into the swing of getting up in the dark.

    For me, the time changes are not a matter of gaining or losing an hour of sleep because I personally sleep the same amount of time. 

    I figured it is the sudden shift of the light/dark cycle that gets me… 

    We humans like to adapt to changes but it seems it is easier to adapt over some period of time than it is to adapt so suddenly.

     

     You? Comments? Thoughts?

    Thank you

     

     

  • Boomers: No Longer The Healthiest Generation

    boomer couch potato

    Baby boomer?

    Better watch that lifestyle!

     

    Wow – for years the thinking was that the exercise-conscious generation, who ate organic food and who tended to not smoke, were healthier than past generations.

     

    But no – boomers are unhealthier!!

    Never mind the fact that Baby boomers have been dubbed the Healthiest Generation, since they have the longest life expectancy of any previous generation, and that  they were able to exploit advances in medical care and reap the benefits of public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of smoking and unhealthy diets. That moniker may simply no longer apply, since it turns out that they have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol than members of the previous generation

     

    This is a far different version of where we are going as a culture then we previously thought.  Will we, the older-than-boomers stay healthy enough to help take care of the generation after us? 

    Will their kids also be unhealthy?

    Our national obesity levels indicate that today’s children may not live as long as did their parents.  We are in fact shortening their lifespans!  

    And now we see it is creating potential disabilities in the boomer generation.

    Where does this all lead in terms of aging?  public policy?  health guidelines?

    I don’t know – but it shows boomers and the rest of us all need to make BIG changes to get and keep being as healthy as we can….

    I am a believer in the idea that anyone can make changes at any time in their  lives.  

    BUT – the time to start is

    RIGHT NOW

    obesity and belly fat

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Comments? Thank you!