grow older better

Category: Health

  • Heat Waves Are Killers

    droughtEach year the earth is getting hotter and we are experiencing major heat waves and crop killing droughts.

    While we hear, usually well in advance, about taking precautions for tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards – we don't seem to get the same warnings through the media about heat waves.

    BUT:

    Natural disasters such as hurricanes, blizzards or tornadoes might be more dramatic and attention grabbing than a heat wave, but in reality, the heat may be capable of claiming more lives than even these violent storms.

    The drama of hurricanes may be great TV but the deaths from heat are greater in number and do not get as much coverage.

    Maybe because heat pictures are less interesting?

    And deaths from heat are not pretty?

    And sadly – maybe because most heat related deaths are older poorer people?

    Living alone, being poor, and being in an apartment building, hot sun on apartmentsare factors in heat related deaths.  the poor are congregated usually in the not-too-good parts of cities and no matter what is the temperature, residents do not open their windows because crime tends to enter.

    Open windows are an invitation to crime. That's a sad statistic about modern cultures. And older, poorer people do not tend to use air conditioners because either they aren't supplied or they fear they won't be able to pay the high electric bill.

    Please – if you have poor or elderly people living near you – do check on them.

    Most towns and cities have a cooling center where they can spend the day and some may have night services.

    We have overnight warming shelters for the extremely cold temperatures. We should have equivalent cooling shelters for the extremely hot weather.


  • Infographic: Inactivity Is Bad

    sitting for 3 hours is bad for you

    This is a follow up, in infogrpahic format, to the post on Inactivty is bad…

    These images, as fun as they are to make, still take way way too much time…

    but we are never too old to learn – right???    

     

    comments? thank you.

  • Inactivity is BAD

    sitting too many hours

    I posted about sitting more than 3 hours a day as being bad for us…

    then this came across my screen:

    Inactivity is BAD BAD BAD

    Inactivity is a major cause of death worldwide, with new research suggesting that a sedentary lifestyle is on par with both smoking and obesity when it comes to raising the risk for disease and mortality.

    Since posting the first bit of research I have tried to not sit as much and move around a lot more yet here I am sitting …. again.

    No matter how health conscious we are, it takes a whole lot more being conscious of how much sitting we do and how inactive we really are.

    All this research is forcing me to take a look at my lifestyle and make changes.

    I'm getting a new laptop and I plan on standing a lot more when I am on the computer…that's hard to do right now…

    And as it is summer and nice out, I am walking more, biking and kayaking – but sitting is still something I am doing too much of..

     

    Thoughts? Comments? Thank you….





  • New Scam Tied To Affordable Care Act

    phone scams

     

     

    Now that the Supreme court has upheld the Affordable Care Act –

    the scammers are in full swing scamming – using the act and saying they are from the government and need some further information.

    According to the Federal Trade Commission [the FTC:]

    They [the scammers] say they're from the government and that, using the Affordable Care Act as a hook, they need to verify some information. They might have the routing number from your bank, and then use that information to get you to reveal the entire account number. Or, they'll ask for your credit card or Social Security number, Medicare ID, or other personal information.

    I've said it before and I will say it again –

    Do not give personal information to people who call you!

    Even if they say they are from the government….

    Believe me, the government already has your information!

    Stay safe! Stay healthy! Keep your personal info private!

  • Stop Sitting So Much – and So Badly

    sitting-at-desk

    Do you want to live longer and be healthier?

    Then sit less than 3 hours a day – and when you do sit –  sit with better posture.

     

    Recent research shows that sitting for long periods of time is unhealthy and that sitting for fewer than 3 hours a day may add up to 2 years to your life.

    A wave of new research indicates that sitting all day is actively damaging your health. By forcing a body designed for movement to hold a crushingly immobile position, sitting strains muscles, slows your metabolism, increases your risk of heart disease, and even shortens your life span. "Sitting is a health hazard on the order of smoking," says Marc Hamilton, PhD, a microbiologist at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

    Wow!

    From about the 1st grade on most US schools have kids sitting hours and hours a day. And often physical education or even outdoor recess time are among the first "extras" to go when budgets are tight.

    [Or when we teach to the tests.]

    Sitting badly

    Sitting itself is a problem as our metabolism slows to a halt when we sit – and then most of us sit in bad positions posture-wise when we do sit.

    Add to this that we sit more than 3 hours a day makes this sitting-issue a double-plus whammy.

    Get out of your chair and move around! work while standing and when you sit:

    Here is a better way to sit

     

    Comments? Thoughts? Thank you