TO NAP OR NOT Oftentimes, after eating lunch, I’ll slouch back in my lounge chair for a short 15 to 20 minute snooze. I didn’t allow myself this catnap back when I had an office, but now that I work from home—and am also somewhat older—it comes easy. And from what I read, many of us older adults partake in an afternoon nap. I wanted to know if this were a particularly good or bad habit, so I searched a bit online and found an excellent Harvard article from June 1, 2021 by Kelly Bilodeau, Is your daily nap doing...
YOU CAN BEAT FATTY LIVER DISEASE Lately, I’ve been reading that a lot of our livers aren’t doing very well. In fact one out of three American adults—over 80 million people—have a “fatty” liver. Their liver cells are filled with excess fat, in the form of triglycerides. The liver is a 3+ pound organ that sits on the right side of your abdomen, below the diaphragm and above the stomach. It has a variety of functions, among which are: filtering blood, storing and regulating cellular fuel, and producing the bile that helps digest fat. Many folks with a fatty liver...
CAN EXERCISE PROVOKE A HEART ATTACK? I’ve heard that some of us seniors are fearful of exercising, thinking it might bring on a heart attack. For the great majority of us this just isn’t the case. Quite the opposite, actually—regular physical activity offers a wide range of health advantages including increased heart health. Of course, if you already have under-lying or genetic risk factors for heart disease you should avoid extreme events which might trigger a heart attack, such as competitive racquetball or basketball, heavy weight-lifting and HIIT exercise. Still, this leaves good-old walking—especially on a level surface with the...
TAKE THE STAIRS! We live in a 2-story house with kitchen and living room downstairs and bedroom and office (Warren) and studio (JoAnne) upstairs. We’re both up and down our flight of stairs many times per day. I’ve heard this climbing back and forth is actually good exercise. Heck, it certainly feels like it! But I hadn’t gone to the trouble of researching the fitness advantages of taking the stairs, especially for us seniors. It didn’t take long for me to find this informative July 2019 U.S. News online article by Ruben Castaneda: The Benefits of Stair Climbing Exercise. Here...
MORE ALZHEIMER’S PREVENTION ADVICE: SLEEP DEEPLY Once again I’m posting on Alzheimer’s disease. I think it’s one of the scarier things about aging. In fact, at least one third of us will have it after age 85. While there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, and we don’t yet know exactly what causes it, researchers continue to get closer to providing some answers. Scientists have known for years that poor sleep promotes an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s. Yet, researchers haven’t been able to zoom in on exactly what causes this relationship. But now, new research suggests that deep sleep helps defend against...
A SHORT PRIMER ON KNEE REPLACEMENT I try to take good care of my knees. Most important, they help me walk, climb and carry heavy objects. And when I’m jogging I work to keep my knees bent and land in a mid-foot strike. Plus, I stop running whenever I feel a pain in my knee. But I have friends that injured a knee when they were younger and then as older adults developed osteoarthritis in that knee. Eventually they decided to have a total knee replacement. For them it was life-changing, both relieving pain and restoring movement. I recently read...
CAN YOUR FAULTY SENSE OF SMELL BE FIXED? I haven’t had a good sense of smell for years. It’s terrific that most cases of bad eyesight can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses and loss of hearing can at least be partially restored with hearing aids. But a faulty nose is a different matter. There isn’t a device that’s been yet invented that you can attach to your nostrils to enhance the sense of smell. And, frankly, I worry about my personal loss because this can be an early sign of either Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Another reason I jog,...
MOST FOOD EXPIRATION DATES ARE BOGUS I routinely check dates on food packages in my refrigerator or pantry. And I throw out most items that are more than a week past the “expiration date” on the label. Perhaps you also follow this practice. But lately I’ve begun to wonder if I’d actually endanger myself by eating these “out of date” items or if I’m just wasting good food. So I did a bit of reading online and found that the dates on food packages are actually rather bogus. The “expiration dates” are calculated to advantage the food manufacturer or supermarket...
SIMPLE WAYS TO WARM-UP & COOL-DOWN WITH YOUR WORKOUT At least for us who’ve chosen to get vaccinated, the pandemic seems to be winding down. While I realize that many of us seniors still aren’t ready to return to the gym, at least we feel safe performing outdoor activities such as running, biking, volley ball, pickle ball and outside pool or ocean swimming. But before we leap into our run or swim, we should do a bit of warming up. We used to be instructed to perform a “static” warm up including the classic forward bending to touch your toes. ...
TRY RUNNING—YOU JUST MAY LEARN TO LIKE IT I personally enjoy running—or should I say jogging. But most older adults I talk to, say that running or jogging isn’t for them with answers such as: I never enjoyed it when I was younger, why would I now?; it looks too physically exerting; I’m afraid I might hurt myself; I don’t have the time. I realized I wasn’t going to convince any of them—and perhaps you—just by smiling and saying running’s fun. But then I thought, maybe they’d listen to an “authority.” So I searched online and found this short April...
