grow older better

Category: Health

  • Sitting Longer and Disability Risk Factor

    I saw this research the other day and my first thought was:

    sitting_and_working“uh oh you’re in trouble – you’ve been sitting a lot again”

    I had a lot of work to do, and for some reason, even knowing that sitting is bad for me, I was sitting for long stretches to do the work on my laptop.

    Not good – and here is another reason why sitting is not good:

    Regardless of how much time older Americans spend being active, those who sit for more hours each day are more likely to be disabled, according to a new study.

    Researchers found that every hour people 60 years old and older spent sitting daily was tied to a 46 percent increased risk of being disabled – even if they also exercised regularly.

    So instead, for the last 2 days, when I was finishing up some of that work, I put my laptop up high enough so that it was at the right level for me while standing – and I stood all day to finish the work.

    feeling_virtuous

     

     

      I felt so virtuous.

     

  • Families and Holidays: OY! Stress!!

    stress

    The time that we spend hours with family…sometimes too many hours…

    And sometimes we are all in the old “where-the-kids-grew-up-home.”

    AND?

    We often find ourselves in the midst of renewed age-old family arguments, finding new things to argue or fight about, eating too much, drinking too much, and in the total midst of being stressed out!

    Isn’t this the time we are supposed to be enjoying being with our loved ones?

    Stress is a normal part of life – your reaction to it is all you!

    You can do many things to reduce that family stress by planning ahead and being ready with some stress-busting-skills.

     

    I am putting a course together on stress [Stop Stressing About Stress] which should be ready before “hoilday with family season” begins.

    For more information and a discount, here is a form to fill out [below]

     






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  • A Brainy Reason To Get Enough Sleep

    sleepingWe all know we need sleep.

    And now we know more as to WHY we need sleep….

    Because our brains are cleaned during sleep!

     Recent research has shown that:

    Cells in the brain, probably the glial cells which keep nerve cells alive, shrink during sleep. This increases the size of the interstitial space, the gaps between brain tissue, allowing more fluid to be pumped in and wash the toxins away.

     

    So make sure you get that sleep – don’t skimp on it…your brain will thank you.

    Thoughts? Comments?

     

     

     

  • Changing My Diet, Exercising, And More

    healthy_food

    This past year I have made many changes in my both diet and my exercise habits and I thought I’d post about it.

     

    Earlier this year I started doing yoga maybe once or twice a week and then tried every other day. At some point I just knew that 20 minutes a day every day seemed to be worth aiming for.

    So that’s what I’ve been doing – with an occasional missed day – but not very frequently – and never two days in a row.

    Additionally I’d been reading bad stuff about wheat and realized that I have had what feels like an addiction to bread. I don’t get that way when I make my own bread, but this feeling happened with what is considered healthy and local, but store-bought bread. So I decided – okay – I’m eliminating much of the wheat from my diet.

    I feel so much better and I no longer have many of those cravings for bread or wheat yummies like donuts and cookies.

    I also cut back on dairy by eliminating milk. I’m now only using almond milk in my coffee but I still eat cheese and Greek yogurt.

    And I added more fruit, garden fresh vegetable, and stayed with my usual consumption of nuts.

    The upshot of all of this is that I not only lost weight but also inches around my hips and my waist.

    And having a puppy again has gotten me outside walking a LOT – no matter what the weather is.

     

    I’m not sure which of my changes was the most relevant – and as a researcher, I should be interested…but I’m happy with the results so…..

     

  • Brains, Memory, and Aging

    human brain

    A study on what are called “superagers” shows that not all older people lose memory as they age.

     

    This study looked at those over 80….

     

    “Then we found something even more surprising, which was even harder to believe,” she says. “In an area called the anterior cingulate of the brain, it was actually thicker in the superagers than it was in the 50-year-olds.” The anterior cingulate is a small brain region important for attention and memory.

    A youthful cortex and thicker cingulate suggest to Rogalski that these two brain regions have been spared the typical age-related shrinkage, which may be what protects against the memory decline seen in most elderly people. Superagers also have fewer risk genes for Alzheimer’s than typical 80-year-olds, she notes.

     

     I am not sure why some brains at 80 look like younger ones, but I love this kind of research!

    We need to learn much more about how to keep our bodies and brains healthier as we age!!

    Thoughts? Comments?

    thank you