Author: Rob Jutze

Age Related Exercising

The Wall Street Journal had a great article on how to change your exercise routine as you age (you may need a subscription to view the entire article). Basically, people need to adjust their routine as they age – the way you exercised at 20 should not be the way you exercise at 50 (and as someone right in the middle of the 50’s I can certainly vouch for it). Likewise, we need to let go of our competitive urges as we age – the desire to train harder in the quest to improve our fitness level needs to be tempered. You can read the entire article at the following link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204047504574384973660445730.html

How healthy is the county in which I live?

Ever wondered if your place of residence is a “healthy” place to live? Well, even if you haven’t, you can now find out if your residence promotes healthy lifestyles for seniors. The University of Wisconsin recently completed a study in which they ranked every county in all 50 states. Numerous factors were researched, including mortality and health factors such as smoking, obesity, alcohol consumption pollution. Check out your county’s rankings at www.countyhealthrankings.org.

What are the best foods for your heart?

Most of this is common sense, of course, but it never hurts to read articles like the one below to help reming us what foods we should emphasize in our diets.  It’s also important to remind ourselves of portion control, although I can never remember anyone telling me I’ve eaten too many green beans.  For more information on which foods are best for a healthy heart, click here.

Myths About Healthy Aging

The following comes courtesy of www.helpguide.org

MYTH: Old age means poor health and disability.

Fact: There are some diseases that are more common in older adults. However, getting old does not automatically mean poor health or that you will be confined to a walker or wheelchair. Plenty of older adults enjoy vigorous health. Preventive measures like healthy eating, exercising and managing stress can help reduce the risk of chronic disease and fall risk later in life.

MYTH: Memory loss is an inevitable part of aging.

Fact: You may eventually notice you don’t remember experiences as easily as in the past, and memories may take longer to retrieve. However, significant memory loss is not an inevitable result of aging. Brain training and new learning can occur at any age. And there are many things you can do to keep your memory sharp.

MYTH: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Fact: One of the more damaging myths of aging is that after a certain age, you just won’t be able to try anything new or contribute things anymore. Quite the contrary. Older adults are just as capable of learning new things, thriving in new environments, and sharing their wisdom and experience with many generations.  If you believe in yourself and have confidence in yourself, you are setting up a positive environment for change no matter what your age.

Can a Diabetes Drug be the Cure for Alzheimer’s Disease?

It sounds too good to be true, but researchers at Lancaster University in England may have stumbled upon a cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. The findings were published in Brain Research, and were also explained in an article published by the University.

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of Dementia, and it affects nearly 44 million people – 5.3 million of whom reside in the U.S. – according to Alzheimer’s Disease International.

Lead researcher Professor Christian Holscher said the treatment “holds clear promise of being developed into a new treatment for chronic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.”

In exploring drugs that treat other maladies, researchers decided to test the growth factors GLP-1, GIP and glucagon, also referred to as “triple agonist” drugs. The reasoning behind the approach is that growth factor signaling is impaired in the brains of people who suffer from Alzheimer’s, according to a statement from the university.

Researchers applied the drugs to mice that had the same mutated genes that cause Alzheimer’s in humans. Mice that underwent the treatment were tested in a maze. The findings indicated that the drug increased memory and learning function, reduced the amount of Amyloid plaque in the brain that is associated with Alzheimer’s, slowed down the rate of nerve cell loss in the brain, and reduced inflammation.

Although other drugs used to treat diabetes have shown limited success in reducing Amyloid plaque – you may have seen commercials for the drug Victoza – none has shown a difference in cognitive levels. And this new treatment is yet to be tested in humans.

Still, this new “triple receptor” treatment shows promise “as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s but further dose-response tests and direct comparisons with other drugs have to be conducted in order to evaluate if this new drugs is superior to previous ones,” according to Professor Holscher. It is certainly hoped that the promise this treatment has shown in mice will carry over to humans.