VITAMIN K—ARE YOU GETTING ENOUGH? I’ve heard that Vitamin K is vital to our health. But I didn’t know much about it, so began a bit of research. I found that vitamin K is important because of its involvement in blood clotting and production of proteins in bones. In addition, some research shows that too little vitamin K can also affect us older adults in cognitive function, heart health and mobility. I’d like to share more information that I gained from a Harvard School of Public Health (The Nutrition Source), article, Vitamin K. Here are excerpts: Vitamin K is a...
A LEAD TO A POSSIBLE ALZHEIMER’S CURE Just in: A new target for drugs to potentially slow or even possibly cure Alzheimer’s. I periodically post on Alzheimer’s disease because the risk is forever looming for us seniors; By age 85, half of us will have developed it! These posts include: Exercise Might be the Best Medicine for Avoiding Alzheimer’s, The Herpes-Alzheimer’s Connection & Reduce your Alzheimer’s Risk with the MIND Diet. Now, here are excerpts from the November 27, 2019 Harvard Health Blog article by Andrew E. Budson, MD: A clue to a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. I’m writing today...
SURMOUNTING FITNESS OBSTACLES Some 20 years ago, completely out of shape, I decided it was time to get fit. Yet, I kept finding reasons to not begin exercising: I was too busy, I thought the workout routines would be boring, I didn’t want to join a health club. But I finally conquered my fitness obstacles after I realized what was my biggest challenge: I didn’t want to exercise cooped up indoors. So I went outside and began to jog a little, starting off at a mile twice a week. Next, I tightened and oiled the chain and pumped air...
THE TOP 14 FITNESS TRENDS FOR 2020 The most popular fitness trends change every year as you can see comparing this survey with last year’s post The Top 12 Fitness Trends for 2019 and the post two years ago The Top 10 Fitness Trends for 2018. Here are excerpts from the new 14th annual survey from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) published in its Health & Fitness Journal, Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends for 2020. For the survey, the authors identified 38 possible fitness trends for 2020 and received responses from more than 3,000 fitness professionals who ranked...
START EXERCISING AT ANY AGE Here’s a New Year’s resolution I think we can all subscribe to: Get fitter. As we grow older, we need to keep active more than ever. But perhaps you haven’t worked out for years—or maybe never—and don’t especially know how to start exercising. If this is you, I’m giving you excerpts from two Cleveland Clinic online articles. The first is a February 2016 piece titled You Can Start Exercising After Age 60—Here’s How. Here are six practical tips to get you going. Get the go-ahead If you haven’t seen a doctor lately, that’s your first stop. He...
REDUCE YOUR ALZHEIMER’S RISK WITH THE MIND DIET The holiday season would seem like a lousy time to talk about diets. Yet, you can start following the MIND Diet and still enjoy those fantastic Christmas-time feasts. You’ve probably heard of the DASH diet (the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) for reducing blood pressure and the Mediterranean diet for heart health. Well, the MIND diet is a hybrid of these two. (MIND is the acronym for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.) Its goal is to reduce Alzheimer’s disease, other types of dementia, and the decline in brain health that normally occurs...
TO STAY SURE-FOOTED—KEEP UP YOUR MOBILITY I’m sure you, like me, have noticed your muscles getting a little stiffer over the years. And you probably don’t feel as flexible as you did when you were younger. However, not being flexible directly affects our mobility. Mobility can be looked at in a couple of ways: There is joint mobility, which is moving a joint or a group of joints—such as your hips or shoulder—through a full range of motion. And then there’s total-body mobility or how your body moves as a unit. For that you need multiple body parts to work...
YOUR GUT MICROBIOME CAN FORETELL YOUR FUTURE I just finished finishing reading Brain Maker [2015, Little Brown & Co., $28 ($12 at Amazon)], a fascinating book by David Perlmutter, MD. Its subtitle, The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain—for Life, pretty much explains its subject matter. You are home to some 30 to 50 trillion microscopic creatures, mostly bacteria, both inside and outside your body. These bacteria create a micro-ecosystem called the microbiome (along with fungi, viruses and archaea). Your gut hosts by far the most bacteria Dr. Perlmutter, one of the nation’s leading neurologists, explains...
PLANKS —THE BEST EXERCISE FOR PUTTING BACK PAIN BEHIND US I keep reading where doing planks is one of the most effective exercises we can perform. So along with my hip stretches, I’ve added planking to my morning exercise routine. The basic plank is simple: All you need do is hold a push up position while resting on your forearms. But holding the position had been a bit of a challenge. I started with doing 3 sets of just 15 seconds each, and have now worked up to 3 sets of a minute each. Plank Benefits Doing planks is the...
MINDFUL EATING FOR THE HOLIDAYS I was intending to write a post this Thanksgiving week on how not to gain weight over the holidays. But you’ve seen all the suggestions many times before: snack wisely, don’t go overboard on appetizers, watch your portion sizes, limit desserts, limit liquids, skip seconds. In other words, deprive yourself and take the fun out of Thanksgiving (or Christmas) dinner. You don’t need to hear all that again. Matter of fact, from what I’ve read depriving yourself can actually lead to increased cravings and overeating. If you don’t eat that holiday dish you really want...
