Living Well

Staying active all day linked to healthy aging

A generally active life, even without regular exercise sessions, was tied to better heart health and greater longevity in a study of older Swedes.

Based on nearly 3,900 men and women over age 60 in Stockholm, the study adds to evidence suggesting that just sitting around may be actively harmful, researchers say.

“We have known for 60 years that physical activity is important for the heart,” said lead author Elin Ekblom-Bak, of the Åstrand Laboratory of Work Physiology of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences in Stockholm.

But until recently the research has mainly focused on exercise and has “forgotten” about the background activity that we do during daily life, she told Reuters Health.

Someone exercises vigorously or not, it still usually only takes up a small fraction of the day. That leaves the rest of the time for sitting still or engaging in non-exercise activities, like home repairs, lawn care and gardening, car maintenance, hunting or fishing.

For older people, who tend to exercise vigorously less than younger people, spending more time doing low-intensity activities like these could help cut down on sitting time, Ekblom-Bak and her colleagues write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Between 1997 and 1999, more than 5,000 60-year-olds were invited to participate in the study, which began with a questionnaire about health history, lifestyle and daily activities, as well as medical tests and measurements.

At the study’s outset, people who were more active on a daily basis, regardless of their exercise levels, tended to have smaller waists and healthier cholesterol levels.

The participants were followed for the next 12.5 years. During that time nearly 500 people had a first-time heart attack or stroke, and nearly 400 people died from any cause.

People who had reported high levels of daily non-exercise activity were less likely to suffer a heart-related event and less likely to die than those who were the least active.

For every 100 people reporting low activity levels who had a heart attack or stroke, for example, only 73 highly active people experienced such events. For every 100 of the least active who died, only 70 of the most active did.

“These are fascinating findings,” said David Dunstan, of the Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Institute in Melbourne, Australia, “but not really surprising since other studies that have looked at this from a different angle – that is, describing the detrimental relationship between excessive sitting and mortality outcomes – are essentially showing the same thing but in reverse because there is such a high correlation between sitting time and non-exercise physical activity behaviors.”

While sitting, muscles do not contract and blood flow decreases, which reduce the efficiency of many body processes, like absorbing glucose from the blood, said Dunstan, who studies heart health and exercise.

Non-exercise activity likely prevents the general slowing-down associated with sitting, he told Reuters Health.

“In addition to engaging in regular health enhancing exercise, people should be encouraged to also think what they do during the long periods in the day in which they are not exercising,” he said in an email.

“Engaging in regular exercise is still important,” Ekblom-Bak said. “We saw that those who exercised regularly and that also had a daily physically active life had the lowest risk profile of all.”

Moderate-to-vigorous exercise helps strengthen the heart muscle and other body muscles, and may help regulate blood pressure more than general activity, Dunstan said.

But it is important for doctors and society in general to promote daily activity, not just exercise, she said.

“Human beings are designed to move,” said Phillip B. Sparling, a professor of Applied Physiology and Health Behavior at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta who was not involved with the new study.

“Ideally, we should have a mix of all levels of activity,” he said. “But, regardless of whether one exercises or not, the new message is to move more and sit less throughout the day.”

Source: Reuters

Going vegan? Here are 5 foods to help you get your protein

Many people turn to a vegan diet in search of better health and love it so much they can’t imagine ever going back. No matter what the reason, a common challenge for non-meat eaters is keeping their carbohydrate levels within a moderate range and making sure to get enough protein, every day.

The Mayo Clinic recommends getting 10 to 35 percent of total daily calories from protein, which amounts to between 50 and 175 grams of protein per day, based on a 2,000-calorie diet.

Proteins are the building blocks for life; they break down into amino acids that promote both cell growth and repair. Protein is important to a variety of physiological functions, from building and maintaining muscle and bone, to keeping cells functioning properly.

Studies have shown that protein is also important for maintaining a healthy body weight. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that an increase in protein from 15 percent to 30 percent of total calories resulted in sustained weight loss. This could be because protein takes longer to digest than carbohydrates, helping you feel fuller longer.

Here are some foods that will help you get a healthy amount of protein while eating vegan.

Legumes
Whichever you prefer, from kidney beans to chickpeas and green peas, they are all a great choice. Full of fiber, protein and magnesium they are versatile enough to eat in salads, soups, veggie burgers, dips or all by themselves. When cooking beans, try adding a piece of seaweed kombu which can help soften them and make them more digestible, thanks to its amino acid profile. Simply add a four to six inch strip of kombu to the pot of cooking beans, it will disintegrate after an hour or two of cooking and any remaining pieces can be eaten.

Hemp and Chia Seeds
These tiny little seeds are protein powerhouses. Hemp seeds contain about 10 grams of protein in 3 tablespoons, and chia seeds are just short of 5 grams of protein in only 2 tablespoons. Both can be sprinkled over salads, blended into smoothies, and made into delicious sauces.

Quinoa
Many think it’s a grain, but it’s actually a seed that packs a giant punch. It provides nine essential amino acids that our bodies cannot produce on their own and is known as a complete protein while containing more than 8 grams of protein per cup. This versatile little seed is most well known in its beige variety, but is also available in red and black varieties, which offer a slightly different taste profile. Quinoa can be eaten alone, added to soups, tossed with vegetables to make a salad, cooked with vegetable juices instead of water to change the flavor, or even served warm with a touch of cinnamon and coconut oil for a great breakfast.

Leafy Green Vegetables
Even though they don’t have as much protein as legumes, seeds or nuts, they still contain significant amounts while also being low in carbohydrates, rich in fiber and antioxidants and alkalinizing to the body. Spinach, kale and broccoli are some of the most protein-rich vegetable choices.

Avocados
While not the highest in terms of protein count, avocados should be a staple of any vegan diet. They provide all 18 essential amino acids necessary for the body to form a complete protein. They also boast an excellent combination of vitamins C and E, selenium, zinc, carotenoids and omega-3 fatty acids that protect against inflammation. Don’t shy away from this fruit because of its fat content; its healthy fats can actually boost your “healthy” cholesterol levels, and help protect against damage caused by free radicals.

Any healthy diet centers around fresh vegetables, and quality protein. Avoid empty calories from processed foods whenever possible, and strive to stay on the higher side of the recommended amount of protein – that will ensure you always get an adequate amount. And always remember to consult with your doctor before making diet and lifestyle changes.

Source: News.nom

Healthy lifestyle changes could help combat depression

New studies have showed that healthy lifestyle choices could have positive impact in depression treatment, the effects of aging, and learning.

The experiences and choices people make throughout life actively impact the brain.

As humans live longer, these choices also affect aging and quality of life. Lifestyle changes to diet and exercise will be important to aging populations as non-drug, easy-to-follow interventions with few side effects, make ideal potential therapies.

One study shows that as few as 12 consecutive days of exercise in aging rats helps preserve and improve movement function, an effect possibly caused by changes in dopamine.

The results suggest that exercise could stave off or reverse the slowed movements that are hallmarks of age (Jennifer Arnold, abstract 334.02).

Practices like yoga or meditation that increase mind/body awareness help people learn a brain-computer interface quicker. This finding may have implications for those who need brain-computer interfaces to function, such as people with paralysis (Bin He, PhD, abstract 16.06).

Long-term exercise in aging rats improves memory function, as well as increases the number of blood vessels in the white matter of their brains – the tracts that carry information between different areas of the brain. Increased blood flow may explain why exercise can help preserve memory (Yong Tang, MD, PhD, abstract 236.09).

Regular, supervised exercise helped young adults with depression overcome their symptoms in a pilot study. The results suggest that exercise could be an important treatment for depression in adolescents (Robin Callister, PhD, abstract 13.02, see attached summary).

A low calorie diet starting in middle-age onward protected rats against the effects of aging on movement. The results suggest that dietary interventions can help preserve movement function in a manner similar to exercise

Source: ani news

Woman hosts dancing party before surgery

Undergoing a double mastectomy can be a scary experience.  Yet for one woman, her surgery became a much more upbeat occasion.

Breast cancer patient Deborah Cohan checked into Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco on Wednesday to have both of her breasts removed. But before she went under the knife, she hosted a dance party with her team of doctors.

In a now viral video, Cohan and her doctors can be seen smiling as they dance to Beyonce’s “Get Me Bodied” in the operating room.

Oh her CaringBridge site, Cohan also asked family and friends to organize their own dance party flash mobs in the hallway of her hospital room the day after her surgery.

“I have visions of nurses, patients, my community members (and maybe a few surgery residents) transforming the solemn space of a hospital into a vibrant healing ward,” she wrote.

Several other videos of Cohan’s family and friends dancing in the halls of Mount Zion have been posted to YouTube.  On her site, Cohan even encouraged people she did not know to send her pictures or videos of themselves dancing, so that she could make a dancing montage.

“Nothing brings me greater joy than catalyzing others to dance, move, be in their bodies,” she wrote.

Source: airing news

 

Woman who never aged dies at 20

A woman who never aged has died.

Brooke Greenberg, of Reisterstown, Maryland, looked and behaved like a toddler until her last breath.

Brooke was eventually diagnosed by her physician with “Syndrome X”, an unidentifiable and unexplained rare disease – which is known to affect only about six people in the world – where they do not age physically or mentally since early childhood.

“While the outside world may have noticed Brooke’s physical stature and been puzzled by her unique development state, she brought joy and love to her family,” Rabbi Andrew Busch, who delivered the eulogy at the funeral yesterday, told the New York Daily News. “Her parents, three sisters and extended family showered her with love and respected her dignity throughout her entire life.”

Brooke and her family appeared on Katie Couric’s talk show in the US in January.

They said Brooke could not talk, had baby teeth and still had to be pushed about in a chair.

“From age one to four, Brooke changed. She got a little bit bigger. But age four, four to five, she stopped,” her father told Couric.

Source: fox news

 

Man lives without breathing for a month

A year ago, 42-year-old runner Victor Carlos never thought he’d be excited just to see the starting line. But that was before he almost died.

In fact, the father of two girls didn’t breathe for a month; a machine pushed oxygen through his body.

Now he’s training for another marathon.

It all began in December with a bad bout of the flu that led to an acute bacterial infection. By the time he checked into the hospital, Carlos was barely hanging on.

“We walked into the triage, and his oxygen level was only 57%, and everybody turned a corner,” Carlos’ wife, Brenda Voglewede, told CNN. Healthy blood oxygen levels are higher than 95%.

Carlos was in deep trouble. He had developed acute respiratory distress syndrome, also known as ARDS. It was slowly killing Carlos by attacking his lungs.

“Not only that, but he had multiple organ failure related to the infection. So his kidneys were not working. His liver was not working. And his bone marrow was failing as well,” said Dr. Ashok Babu, a cardiothoracic surgeon at the University of Colorado Hospital.

“The lungs basically collapse down to nothing. … They are just resting.”

Dr. Ashok Babu

Babu had no time to spare. He knew trying to force air into Carlos’ lungs would do more harm than good. But without oxygen, Carlos’ organs would soon shut down. Babu had one shot: a procedure called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or ECMO.

With this treatment, doctors turn down the patient’s respirator, then insert a special tube through the heart. A pump draws blood from the body, flushes it through an oxygenation machine that removes the carbon dioxide and delivers oxygen back to the heart. It functions as an external lung, without the patient taking a single breath.

“So (oxygenated blood) could pass through the lungs, and the lungs didn’t have to do anything to it because it was already processed,” Babu said. “And what we see on the X-ray is the lungs basically collapse down to nothing. … They are just resting. We support the patient until the lungs can heal on their own.”

Carlos’ family was told he had a 40% to 50% chance of survival.

“Dr. Babu initially said he thought he’d be on ECMO for a week,” Voglewede recalled. “Then the week turned into two weeks. And then he’s just like, ‘Well, sometimes you just have to wait these things out.’ ”

Babu said, “Two weeks into it we were all pretty worried that we had this young guy whose lungs just didn’t seem to be coming back. At the time, he was the patient we had had on ECMO the longest in the history of our program.”

Two weeks became four. Carlos didn’t take a single breath for a month.

Then a breakthrough came.

“Somewhat miraculously, his lungs just started to open up on their own,” Babu said.

By that time, Carlos was a shadow of his former self. He had lost more than 30 pounds.

“You can imagine, before going into the hospital you are this active person. Then you go in, they put you under, and when you wake … you can’t sit up, you can’t move your arms up and you look at your legs, and they’re just not there anymore,” Carlos said. “Then you realize it’s far worse than you ever expected it to be.”

Still, he was determined to make a full recovery. Seven weeks after entering the hospital, Carlos got to go home.

Carlos recently completed a 20-mile run while training for his next marathon.

“I started out just walking a block and then pushing that out the following day to a block and a half, or two. Then it was like walking to school with the girls,” he said.

Remarkably, just six months later, Carlos is running.

“My goal at the time was to be able to jog nonstop for three miles. And I didn’t think that was going to happen until November. That happened in May,” he said.

Once he was able to cover three miles, the distance he usually started out at to train for a marathon, “that’s when I knew it was just a matter of time.”

Carlos has set his sights on completing the Denver Rock ‘N Roll Marathon on October 20. He’s already covered the 26.2 miles in a training run.

Carlos isn’t running for time. He’s running just because he can.

“Every long run gets a little emotional for me this time around. I think of all the people who were there when I couldn’t do it for myself. I think of the nurses, people at work, my boss who sent cards … neighbors, friends, family, all praying for me,” he said.

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Men slow down for their ladies when walking as a couple: Study

Taking a stroll with a loved one? A study shows that men take their pace down a notch to keep up with their leading ladies.

A person’s walking speed is influenced by various factors, including body mass and lower limb length, the study author’s note. This is why men tend to walk faster than women.

The researchers looked at the walking speeds of 11 couples, as well as some male and female friends of the pair. Participants were asked to walk around a track alone and in various pairings.

When men walked alone they walked about 1.53 meters per second, and women walked at a rate of 1.44 meters per second.

When walking with their significant other, men slowed their walking speed down about 7 percent.

“It’s really men who do all the compromising,” study lead Cara Wall-Scheffler, a biologist at Seattle Pacific University, said to USA Today.

There may be biological reasons behind this, Wall-Scheffler told the Los Angeles Times. When men slow down, they may be doing so to give themselves the ability to protect their partners, especially their reproductive abilities.

And, Wall-Scheffler pointed out that studies have shown that when women are able to reduce their energy expenditure during walking, they are able to have more children. This could be another evolutionary reason why women don’t walk as fast.

“I definitely think there is an evolutionary outcome,” Wall-Scheffler said to the Times. “Whether or not selection has acted on this behavior so that we still see it among men today — I don’t know if I could go that far.”

Interestingly, when men walked with their non-romantic women friends, they did not slow down at all. When men walked with their male friends, they actually sped up.

When women walked with female friends, both women slowed their pace down. The researchers said that might signify how intimate female bonds are.

“In indigenous, hunter-gatherer populations — groups who are walking huge amounts — we see females walking together with other females and we see men tending to walk by themselves or maybe with one other individual,” Wall-Scheffler said to the Los Angeles Times. “That’s typical, cross-culturally.”

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Charity website raises $400G to aid paralyzed woman with rare disease

A Maryland woman has found new hope amidst a rare neurological disorder that paralyzed her from the waist down – thanks to a charitable website that raised $400,000 in a single month in her name.

TheBlaze reports Melissa Smith of Annapolis was sinking beneath despair and debt from a March diagnosis of Transverse Myelitis, a disease that spurs the immune system to attack the spinal cord.

“I was so depressed,” the 26-year-old reportedly said. “I was trapped in a third-floor apartment with no elevator. I didn’t get to leave my house all summer and fall unless I went to a doctor’s appointment because I didn’t want to burden anyone with carrying me down [the stairs].

“I felt totally out of control of every part of my life. When other people would see it and watch, it just made me so sad. I cried about it a lot. Felt like I had zero control. Felt like my life was over.”

Now, Smith tells TheBlaze she is slowly becoming less despondent thanks to Chive Charities’ choice to feature her, among the other “orphaned causes,” the website champions to online donors.

For several months, Smith’s sister, Stephanie, reportedly pitched her sibling’s tragic plight to the non-profit.

The organization claims on its website — chivecharities.org — to have conducted so-called “flash charity campaigns,” for such causes, nationwide, as building a safe room for a girl with the rare genetic disorder, SMS, as well as helping a quadruple amputee Afghanistan veteran achieve his dream of building a log cabin.

This month, the fundraising charity profiled Smith’s case – and it reportedly didn’t take long for the website’s ranks of big-hearted members to respond.

“When the story went live, Chive told me to go to the GoFundMe site . . . and I was thinking to myself, ‘Obviously we just finished reading, no one could have donated yet,’” Smith told TheBlaze. “But it was almost to 10k when we shifted to that page!”

“I cried,” she reportedly added of her emotions in response to the outpouring of empathy. “I was so shocked. I never imagined I could touch so many people.”

As of Saturday, TheBlaze reports nearly $400,000 had been donated to Smith’s cause, money the former nursing school student says she plans to use to settle medical bills, buy a standing frame, a new wheelchair, as well as put towards a down payment on a handicap-friendly home.

“It was like a breath of fresh air knowing my sister has a future that is not in a nursing home and could potentially feel like a human again and get a house where she could have some independence,” Stephanie told TheBlaze.

As for Smith, she reportedly added, “I am so thankful and feel so blessed, so lucky, so loved and so honored that they chose me and believe in me so much. That’s what means so much to me, everyone has so much faith in me and it’s helping me find a little more faith In myself that I lost a little bit the last 18 months or so.

“I don’t really know how to appropriately thank every single person for giving me that faith back and all of their support, it truly has touched my heart so deeply and just want to give back in any way that I can for the rest of all time.”

Source:

What to Do About Aging Parents

If You’re Concerned About Your Parents’ Safety at Home…

Don’t rush to the conclusion that they have to move out. If a parent is physically frail but cognitively intact, you may have to swallow your fears, says Joan Teno, M.D., professor of community health and medicine at the Brown University Medical School. “If they are able to weigh risks and benefits, then let them make the decisions,” she says. For example, how likely is it that your parent will fracture a bone in a fall? How much happier would he be staying in a familiar setting?

There are ways to ensure safety while respecting a person’s autonomy. Inspect for hazards, such as loose rugs, and install handrails on all stairs and reflective nonslip tape on uncarpeted steps. Replace dim bulbs with bright ones, and add night-lights. Rearrange closets to make everything accessible.

If a parent suffers from Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia, you may indeed have to move him or her or arrange for live-in help. Small crises can also be red flags. For instance, if Dad burns the toast and starts a little kitchen fire, that’s the time to reevaluate safety―before disaster strikes.
If You’ve Noticed the House Isn’t as Clean as it Used to Be…

Try to discern if the problem with cleaning is physical, as with arthritis or some other condition that makes reaching, bending, and sweeping hard. Mom and Dad may not even notice the dust or the mustiness as their senses deteriorate, says Charlotte Spiegelman, a clinical social worker in Los Angeles.

You can also pay for household help as a Mother’s Day or birthday present, suggests Lisa Gwyther, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina. Give a gift certificate for a cleaning service and schedule the appointment. If your parents are worried about prying strangers, hire someone you know or get a referral.
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A text message saves life in Sweden

CPR can significantly increase the survival rate for cardiac arrest victims, but finding someone who knows the proper way to do it at a moment’s notice may be difficult.

Now, a new system aims to change that. By using mobile geographic positioning services (GPS), people trained in CPR are alerted via mobile phone and given the location of a suspected cardiac arrest.  It is happening in Sweden, where over 2 million people are trained in the life-saving procedure.

The program is called SMSlifesavers, and it is a unique research project run by Stockholm South General Hospital and Karolinska Institute. The program uses GPS on mobile phones to identify and quickly alert rescuers.

“Lots of people in Sweden, as well as in America I guess, are educated and really skilled in CPR, but the problem is lots of people don’t get to use their skills, and we are trying to figure out a way to contact them… using a text message or SMS, seems like a fairly easy idea,” David Fredman, project manager for SMSlifesavers, who is also a nurse at Stockholm South General Hospital in Sweden told Dr. Manny Alvarez in an interview for FoxNews.com.

When an emergency call is received by the Swedish equivalent of 911, the location of the victim is determined geographically. If a cardiac arrest is suspected, the emergency operator engages a positioning system that locates mobile phone users in the SMSlifesaver network.  If a volunteer is located near the site of the suspected cardiac arrest, the rescuer is alerted through the mobile phone along with ambulance and emergency services.

“We are using GSM technology,” said Fredman. “This is not based on smartphones, so you can use it on any platform, as long as you have a phone … We don’t need your fancy phones, we need your fancy skills.”

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