A SOBERING LOOK AT WEIGHT-LOSS DRUGS: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU STOP TAKING THEM I’ve read that once people begin taking glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs, they may need to stay on them indefinitely. Not everyone agrees with that view, of course—but a new study adds a sobering perspective. Researchers found that people who stop taking GLP-1s or other weight-loss medications regain weight four times faster than those who stop dieting or exercising alone. That’s a little unsettling, isn’t it? It may even give us seniors pause before considering these drugs. To help you better understand the issue, below are excerpts from...
START YOUR NEW WORKOUT ROUTINE THE SMART WAY Happy New Year Fellow Seniors! Wishing you a healthy, joyful, and energetic 2026!. One of my New Year’s resolutions is to add strength training to my workout routine. I have no trouble getting aerobic exercise—jogging, cycling, or swimming laps at the Y—but I’ve consistently struggled to make room for lifting weights or doing squats, lunges, planks, and crunches. Does this sound familiar? Is getting in better shape one of your 2026 resolutions? If so, it’s important to approach it wisely—without overdoing it, risking injury, or burning out before you begin. Below is...
WHICH IS IT—A COLD, THE FLU, OR COVID? Happy Holidays! This holiday season, it seems like more of us seniors are coming down with colds, the flu, or even Covid than in recent years. Could it be because we’re doing more local shopping instead of relying solely on the big online retailers? Or perhaps the newly emergent flu variant circulating this winter is playing a part. Maybe it’s simply that we’re being less cautious this year. Whatever the cause (or causes), it’s wise to pay attention to symptoms so we can take the best possible care of ourselves. Below are...
SIMPLE HABITS FOR A CALMER HOLIDAY SEASON—AND ALL YEAR LONG Now that we’re in the holiday season, it’s easy to become so overextended with shopping, family gatherings, and extra indulgences that self-care slides to the bottom of the list. We may exercise less, stay up later than usual, or enjoy one more glass than we intended—all part of the season, but sometimes at a cost to our well-being. Looking for a simple, realistic way to ease stress and move through the holidays with a bit more balance, I went in search of straightforward, credible guidance—nothing extreme. That led me to...
JUST ASK DR. CHATGPT Most of us have turned to “Dr. Google” at some point with our health questions. You type in your symptoms and sift through pages of medical websites to figure out what might be going on. But these days more and more of us seniors—including myself—are instead asking Dr. ChatGPT. With this online doctor you get immediate answers without waiting for a doctor’s appointment or digging though complex medical sites. An A.I. tool like ChatGPT can help you understand what a symptom might relate to. It can also give general guidance with everyday practical questions such as...
ANOTHER REASON TO GET YOUR ANNUAL COVID SHOT A vaccine that can protect you from severe disease already exists: It’s the updated COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. A new study shows that receiving the latest version significantly reduces the risk of severe disease and death across all age groups—even for people who already have some immunity from prior infection or earlier shots.. If you’ve been debating whether to get the next annual vaccine, this new evidence offers a clear answer: Yes. Schedule your appointment at your local pharmacy as soon as possible. Below, find excerpts from the October 21, 2025 MedicalHerald.com article...
WALK FASTER TO MAKE EVERY STEP COUNT I often write about the benefits of walking, since for many of us seniors it remains our most reliable and enjoyable form of exercise. In my December 1, 2024 post, Maximize Your Walk, I shared practical tips for getting the most out of your daily routine. What I didn’t cover in detail, though, was how to turn it into a fast walking workout. Today I came across a Harvard Medical School article that reinforces some of those earlier tips while offering excellent advice on how to make fast walking a genuine cardiovascular workout....
SLEEPING IN WON’T FIX LOST SLEEP When I was a teenager, I envied my friends who could “sleep in” on the weekends. I didn’t have that luxury. From age twelve until my seventeenth birthday, I had a morning paper route. Every day—including Saturdays and Sundays—I was up at 5 a.m., folding papers, loading them into the bags on my bike, and pedaling through the neighborhood to finish deliveries by six. Once I got to college, I finally discovered the joy of staying up past midnight for several nights and then sleeping in on weekends until ten. At that age, it...
BIOFEEDBACK—HOW IT WORKS When I attended health fairs in the past, I often came across booths featuring biofeedback devices. Exhibitors would invite visitors to try a brief session—measuring things like heart-rate variability or breath control—to demonstrate how the technology worked. I joined in a few times just for fun, but I never seriously explored it as a way to manage bodily functions. Recently though, I’ve noticed more articles from respected sources like the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School recommending biofeedback, particularly for pain relief. I selected one in particular because it’s concise yet informative, providing a practical introduction to...
THE LINK BETWEEN LITHIUM & ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Over the past week, I’ve come across several articles discussing a new Harvard Medical School study showing that lithium is vital for healthy brain function and may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease. For the hundreds of millions of people affected worldwide, this discovery could be groundbreaking—lithium may be the missing link in understanding and treating Alzheimer’s. Below are key takeaways from the August 28, 2025 PBS News article, 4 things to know about a new study on lithium and Alzheimer’s disease. The Harvard Study Led by Dr. Bruce Yankner, professor of genetics and...
