TINNITUS: WHAT TO DO ABOUT THAT MADDENING RINGING IN YOUR EARS Tinnitus is sound in the head with no external source. When it lasts more than six months, it’s known as chronic tinnitus. I’ve had it for years—in fact for so long that I can’t remember when I first developed it. Tinnitus is especially common in folks over age 55 and is strongly associated with hearing loss. Over time I’ve “habituated” myself to the buzzing in my ears and hardly ever notice it anymore. I’ll speak about that later in this post. But first here is more information on tinnitus...
BABY ASPIRIN—TAKE IT OR TOSS IT? In my post Lessons of Getting Older last month I wrote of taking a fall during the Ventura half marathon and “bleeding buckets” for the last 3 miles, I didn’t mention that as soon as I crossed the finish line I was whisked into the first aid tent. The first thing they asked was if I was taking a blood thinner. I answered, “Just baby aspirin.” “That explains all the bleeding,” was the reply I got from the nurse. I had been taking it for only a few months. My doctor knows I try...
THE HERPES – ALZHEIMER’S CONNECTION I wrote about Alzheimer’s disease in my post Exercise Might be the Best Medicine for Avoiding Alzheimer’s. I continually monitor what’s happening in Alzheimer’s studies and since then have discovered new research connecting herpes viruses—such as common cold sores—and dementia. The best news to us seniors is that these investigations are pointing to possible development of a vaccine to prevent or at least treat Alzheimer’s. Here are excerpts from the July 12, 2018 TheAtlantic.com article Even More Evidence for the Link Between Alzheimer’s and Herpes In 1907, the German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer published a description...
RECIPE FOR REDUCING STRESS: GET UP & MOVE Too much to do, too little time. Sound familiar? It seems like my life gets busier by the year. When I was much younger and looked to the far future, I thought it would be the opposite. I thought at 75, I’d probably be retired and spending time working in my vegetable garden every day, seeing my kids and grandkids regularly, going on cruises and exotic vacations. But things haven’t exactly happened that way! I’m still producing an art festival every year, putting together a new senior fitness business, and hoping enough...
FOR A HEALTHIER GUT JUST ADD PROBIOTICS Amazing but true: Bacteria can be good for your health! 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. In researching the role of “good bacteria” or probiotics, I came along a couple of online articles in which I’ll share excerpts with you. The first is a March 2018 column by the Mayo Clinic Staff, titled Prebiotics, probiotics and your health....
EXERCISE MIGHT BE THE BEST MEDICINE FOR AVOIDING ALZHEIMER’S Even though we aren’t sure what causes Alzheimer’s disease, scientists do give us various suggestions to help ward it off. My dear mother died from Alzheimer’s 17 years ago and ever since—especially because of my increased genetic risk of developing it—I’ve paid close attention to new research on how to cut risk. Here’s some basic info on the disease from Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org) “Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other cognitive abilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s accounts for...
ADD SOME SPICE TO YOUR LIFE FOR SUPER HEALTH BENEFITS Certain spices can add loads of flavor to your food while also boosting your health. Plus they can help reduce the amount of salt and fat in your recipes while adding next to no calories. Most spices have strong flavors and come from tropical plant and tree parts—seeds, fruits, roots, buds, stems and bark—and are usually available in dried forms. Here are excerpts from the February 2016 Harvard Health Letter article Can everyday spices make you healthier? “Spices are underused, but it would be very easy to take advantage of...
WAIT, WAIT…DON’T TELL ME!—NOVEL WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR MEMORY We all have “senior moments” of forgetfulness—what an object is called, where we left our cell phone, where we put our keys. That’s because, along with everything else, our memories age. However, a healthy lifestyle will greatly support your mind and encourage your brain to grow new neurons, a process known as neurogenesis. Here are some thoughts from the July 2017 Harvard Health letter, 4 tricks to rev up your memory: “In terms of brain function, everyone has a decline over time in all areas, with the exception of vocabulary,” says...
NOTHING LIKE A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP Lately, I’ve had trouble getting a full night’s sleep. It seems that if I go right to sleep after lying down, I wake up at 2:30 am and lie there for an hour before finally dozing off again. If it takes me half an hour to fall asleep, maybe I can go to 3 am before waking. Anyway, it’s hard to get those 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night that I keep hearing I should have. So now I take over-the-counter sleep aids like Unisom Sleep Tabs (doxylamine succinate), which is an...
SKIN CANCER—KEEPING YOUR SKIN IN THE GAME Yesterday I saw my dermatologist for my quarterly skin checkup. Nothing new, thank goodness. Besides these regular appointments, I keep a continual skin watch on myself. You see I had melanoma 20 years ago. I lived in Portugal for three years in the mid 1990s and didn’t bother having a physical exam. When I got home and finally went in, the doc spotted a lesion with an irregular border on my back. “Oh, oh, we need to biopsy this,” he said. Sure enough it was the melanoma variety of skin cancer and it...
