People have been seeking the fountain of youth since man started walking upright. So far it has remained an elusive myth or a topic for science fiction. Lately, however, we have discovered a way to slow the aging process down. It is called calorie restriction. You might call it starvation. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-12-07 08:48:25. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
We joke about senior moments and failing memory as we age. Society is accepting of senior moments as just one more part of the aging process and people may think little about being forgetful but science has another opinion.
“The very early mild cognitive changes once thought to be normal aging are really the first signs of progressive dementia, in particular Alzheimer’s disease.” Robert S.Wilson, PhD, neuropsychologist at Rush University Medical Center. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-09-28 08:26:02. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
When you are young, your body can run on auto pilot. It is an amazing machine and it can repair and cope with many stresses. When you get to retirement age, it is a different story. Either the neglect and stress of your lifestyle is beginning to produce some health problems or you worry that it is coming. Your doctor wants you to lose weight and lower your cholesterol. You get some stiffness now and again. Is it just aging or can you get control back. Two of the best ways to improve your health are to change your diet and start exercising. Today lets talk diet and consider the Paleolithic Diet – sometimes called the caveman diet. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-08-24 07:53:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Photo by Fractal Ken
We have been all around the topic of health this week. What have we missed? Was there anything new to give you a different insight? Does anything suggest a follow-on topic? Let me know.
Originally posted 2009-07-31 08:24:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Health is a term we use all the time. It’s a component of phrases that we read about daily. Examples are health care, health insurance, health coverage, health club. It works, in that we understand what those things are but it doesn’t work in the sense that we actually understand what health means in these phrases, or in general.
Photo by Roy Blumenthal
Mostly we define health by what it is not. Health is not being ill. It is also not being infirm. It is when we try to say what health is that we get into trouble. One approach is to use averages. We assume that if the average man who is 5’ 8” weighs 150 pounds, then 150 pounds is a healthy weight. We do the same thing for blood pressure, temperature and many other measurements that we use to determine the health of an individual. Some of these are more or less effective – like temperature. Others not – like weight (and the even worse BMI or Body Weight Index). There are so many additional factors relating to the best weight for an individual that average is virtually useless, not to mention that when everybody is fat, the average is not going to represent a healthy weight.
Add to this the fact that Doctors are not trained in nutrition, exercise or any of the characteristics of a person identified as healthy. You don’t go to a Doctor to be healthy. You go because something is wrong and you want it fixed. But if you want to be healthy, you go somewhere else. Nowadays, the medical industry is attempting to co-opt the health agenda. The word is health maintenance and it is built on the same old average model discussed earlier. Weight, blood pressure and cholesterol measurement are key definitions of health status these days. They aren’t causes of illness but they do correlate and the medical profession is all over them with medications to ‘make them normal’ if your body won’t accommodate.
I don’t think we have a good handle on health and I don’t know how we should change things to do a better job. I am suspicious of the medical industry for advising me about health. The current health maintenance focus leaves me cold; as does the use of drugs with serious side-effects to correct any deviations from average. I don’t have a solution. I seek information from independent sources and try to use natural substances to treat issues. I do trust Doctors to treat illness and get my checkups but I hold back from accepting the drugs they recommend when my scores are bad.
I don’t think we really have health care. We are still basically identifying illness and treating them with brute force method. There needs to be a serious rethinking of the medical industry to fix this. Maybe Doctors don’t need to change. Maybe it doesn’t make sense for them to be good at treating illness and creating health at the same time. But if Doctors don’t change we need something else. What it should be, I haven’t figured out. Maybe you have some ideas.
Originally posted 2009-07-28 10:11:33. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
You probably need more! Zinc is found in almost every cell of the human body. It supports a healthy immune system, wound healing and promote the senses of taste and smell. Besides maintaining the immune system, zinc can also reduce an enlarged prostate. Most adults do not get enough zinc from their diets and this is especially true for seniors who may not absorb zinc as efficiently as younger people. Vegetarians are probably zinc deficient because some plant based foods block zinc absorbtion and beef is one of the riches sources of zinc. Oysters are also a good source of zinc. The RDA for zinc is 11 mg per day for males and 8 mg per day for females. Continue reading
Originally posted 2010-08-31 07:23:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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My Lifestyle Design Plan has a fitness dimension. As I reported earlier this year, the deterioration of my physical strength and agility caught me by surprise. Suddenly I couldn’t do things that were easy before, like getting up out of a chair. I had accepted getting old. I just wasn’t prepared for the realities. I wanted an active lifestyle and a walker and one of those push up chairs didn’t fit.
This was a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment for me. I had deluded myself that just making up my mind to live like a 40 year old into my 70′s and beyond would make it happen. I was learning that aging is real and it’s momentum is powerful. Thinking happy thoughts wasn’t going to keep me strong and active. I had to be aggressive.
It is amazing how easy denial can be. The only sign of aging I am forced to face each day is my face. But I’ve learned to cope. I really don’t look at the wrinkled face in the mirror each morning. I am not forced to see the other signs of deterioration and so I can remain blissfully oblivious to what is obvious to others. My wife tells me that I walk with a stoop. Of course I can’t see how I look and after a few attempts to walk straight I just pass off the comment. I don’t feel any different so I conclude that it can’t be so bad. When I observe ‘old people’ I often feel superior because of their stooped posture and clumsy movements, but ignore my own. Continue reading
I’m learning that it means a whole lot more than I expected. When you are young, exercise is optional. Health doesn’t depend on exercise. The human body is amazing and manages to function effectively even when poorly treated. People exercise to look buff or brag about their efforts but health really doesn’t drive the decision. This leads us to form poor health habits than can hurt us later on.
The aging body isn’t so resilient or efficient and the impact is obvious. For me the big blow was discovering that I struggled to get up from a chair. It was disturbing because I wasn’t doing anything different and yet my body was getting weaker. At first I tried to deny the reality. Then I rationalized that I should just accept the aging process. Finally I got mad. I wasn’t going to accept my growing weakness as inevitable or acceptable. I fumed and fussed but I didn’t have the information to know what to do about it. Continue reading
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I want to raise a question today. It’s one I have danced around but never faced head on. I don’t like the idea of segregating ‘plder’ people in ghettos. I abhore the idea of a ‘community’ for seniors, protected from the real world. I don’t want to live in a place where ‘old’ is the norm and everything is designed to put no challenge to people with age related disabilities. It bothers me that people choose to segregate themselves from real life and retreat to a place where they can be taken care of. But at least those communities are self selecting. You are free to retreat from life- or not. It may be what you want but don’t look for me in Sun City. Continue reading
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Recently Men’s Health listed five essential nutrients that man don’t get enough of. One of those was potassium. It is readily available from natural sources but still many men don’t get enough.
Potassium is an essential mineral and electrolyte. Good health requires that there be the correct level of potassium with either too much or too little potassium causing health issues. These days, it is much more likely that diets contain too little potassium than too much.
One of the functions of potassium is to maintain the membrane potential for the cells in the body. Maintaining the correct balance between the higher sodium levels outside the cells and the higher potassium levels indie them. Tight control of these membranes is critical for nerve impulse transmissions, muscle contractions and the proper functioning of the heart.
Potassium is found in many food sources, particularly fruits and vegetables. A normal traditional diet will provide adequate amounts of potassium. Diets high in processed foods may be deficient. Because there are so many foods rich in potassium, it isn’t hard to find enough foods to supply potassium from diet alone.
The dosage for adult males and females is 4,700 mg per day. Checking the list of potassium rich foods and making sure that they are part of your diet will normally ensure that potassium is not a problem. Since both too much (hyperkalemia) and too little (hypokalemia) can have serious health impacts, supplementation should only be considered when recommended by a doctor.
Do medical conditions affect potassium levels?
Alcoholism, excessive use of laxatives, vomiting can contribute to insufficient potassium levels.
In addition there is evidence that insufficient potassium can contribute to the incidence of strokes, kidney stones and osteoporosis and may affect high blood pressure.
Older people should talk to their doctors about potassium levels because of the interaction between many medications and potassium.
