“Humans are social creatures by nature. Perhaps this is why our minds and bodies are rewarded when we give to others.”
“Our results show that volunteerism among older adults doesn’t just strengthen communities, but enriches our own lives by strengthening our bonds to others, helping us feel a sense of purpose and well-being, and protecting us from feelings of loneliness, depression, and hopelessness. Regular altruistic activity reduces our risk of death even though our study didn’t show any direct impact on a wide array of chronic conditions.”
https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(20)30138-0/pdf
“Growing evidence documents strong associations between volunteering and favorable health and well-being outcomes.”
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“Kindness is much older than religion. It does seem to be universal,” said University of Oxford anthropologist Oliver Curry. “The basic reason why people are kind is that we are social animals.”
“We’re kind because under the right circumstances we all benefit from kindness,” Oxford’s Curry said.
“Doing kindness makes you happier and being happier makes you do kind acts,” said labor economist Richard Layard
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The fountain of youth may simply be a healthy diet, exercise, reduced stress, and socializing. This new study, co-authored by a Nobel prize winning doctor, adds to the growing body of evidence that human aging can be reversed. Between social competitiveness, jealousy and anger, much of aging may be just a self-fulfilling curse. The study shows the reversal of human aging at the cellular level. Cell replacement is continuous, but is limited by the telomeres, which shorten each time the cell is replaced, thus limiting the number of times a cell can regenerate itself. "Our genes, and our telomeres, are a predisposition, but they are not necessarily our fate." "The more you change your lifestyle, the more you improve– at any age.” Positive Lifestyle changes prevent the chromosomes in our cells from unraveling. "The more people changed their lifestyle, the more their telomeres got longer." Lifestyle changes can "even reverse heart disease, early-stage prostate cancer, type 2 diabetes, etc." "Our bodies often have a remarkable capacity to begin healing themselves, and much more quickly than we did once realize." Three months of changes produced measurable results. "That is a very empowering finding."
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"In some situations, 70-year-olds may have response times similar to those of 25-year olds." Researchers found that older people take longer to make sure they respond accurately. These older people even could be trained to respond quicker in some decision-making tasks without hurting their accuracy. "Older people don't want to make any errors at all, and that causes them to slow down. We found that it is difficult to get them out of the habit, but they can with practice."
Aging Brains Match Youth in Some Mental Tasks: Scientific American
Older people slow down to avoid making errors, but there may not be a uniform decline in all cognitive processes
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Today's elderly are showing significantly higher IQs. "The improvement can partly be explained by better pre- and neonatal care, better nutrition, higher quality of education, better treatment of high blood pressure and other vascular diseases, and not least the higher intellectual requirements of today's society." Memory problems are now the only predictor of developing dementia. “That’s why it’s important for people with memory problems to receive a thorough examination.”
70 Years Old and Smarter Than Ever
neurosciencenews.com
A large study of 70-year-olds born in either 1901-1902, or 1930, provides evidence that the population of 70-year-olds in 2000 did much better on intelligence tests than the 70-year-olds of 1971-72.
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Dr. Lester Breslow showed that people can live longer and healthier by changing habits like smoking, diet and sleep, and add more than a decade to their lives. He proved that a 60 year old with good practices can be as healthy as a 30 year old with poor habits. Seeing the great need to improve people’s lives, he said: “In the long run, housing may be more important than hospitals to health.” Dr. Breslow walked regularly, practiced moderation and enjoyed tending his vegetable garden.
Lester Breslow, Who Tied Good Habits to Longevity, Dies at 97
Dr. Breslow was a public health leader whose research gave mathematical proof to the notion that people can live longer and healthier by changing habits like smoking, diet and sleep.
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Mentally stimulating group activities - such as discussion groups, games, and gardening - boost cognition in mild to moderate dementia. Patients' self-reported quality of life, well-being, communication, and social interaction improved as well. " 'Mental exercise' may be helpful in slowing down the decline in memory and thinking," the researchers said.
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Low to moderate alcohol use may reduce women's risk of stroke by 17% to 21%. Light drinkers - 1/2 glass to 1 1/2 glasses per day - had the lowest risk of stroke. 2 or more glasses also reduced risk, but the risk was higher than the low and moderate consumption groups. Heavy drinking- 2 to 3 glasses a day - increased stroke risk. Results were similar between different alcohol types.
Medical News:Glass of Wine Eases Stroke Risk in Women - in Cardiovascular, Strokes from MedPage Toda
A study of more than 80,000 women found that low to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with a 17% to 21% reduction in risk of stroke.
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Keeping mentally active reduces the beta-amyloid plaques thought to cause Alzheimer's. The most cognitively active older adults had the amyloid levels of someone a quarter of their age. Those with highest levels of mental activity also exercised the most. This finding adds direct evidence to the use-it-or-lose-it theory of aging and points to the multiple health benefits of both physical exercise and continuing education.
Active Minds Dodge Alzheimer's Plaques
Keeping the brain in gear throughout life with reading, games, and other mental activities cuts down on beta-amyloid plaques thought to cause Alzheimer's disease, researchers found.
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“Education can bring us a healthy body and mind and even a longer life.” Education can slow the brain’s aging process by at least a decade. “People with college degrees performed on complex tasks like less-educated individuals who were 10 years younger.” All who challenged their brains did better on intelligence tests. Mental exercise alters the brain’s circuits and causes the growth of young, new neurons. Cognitive exercise also improves decision making. Some senior citizens do as well as younger adults in intelligence tests. They continued to learn and shared four characteristics: they exercised more frequently; they were socially active: they remained calm in the face of stress; and they felt more in control of their lives. “The effects of education are dramatic and long term.”
A National Study of Health and Well-Being
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Training that included puzzles and inductive reasoning made elders more open to new experiences. It's often said that a good key to the benefits of successful aging is: "Use it or Lose it." "The current results suggest that 'using it' also can lead people to view themselves as more open ... openness to experience is linked to better health and decreased mortality risk." This study shows that personality traits can be altered and improved for the better without drug interventions.
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Men who were physically fit in their 40s and maintained that fitness level for a decade reduced their risk of all-cause death by 30% compared with men who were flabby. Those who gained fitness over the course of time had a greater reduction in mortality risk (40%). "[M]aintaining or improving fitness is associated with a lower risk of premature deaths from all-causes and CVD in men," wrote the authors. "Preventing fitness loss with age is important for mortality risk reduction."
Men who were physically fit in their 40s and maintained that fitness level for a decade reduced their risk of all-cause death by 30% compared with men who were flabby at 40, according to the results o
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Eating baked or broiled, but not fried, fish on a weekly basis may improve brain health and reduce risks of developing mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's. Gray matter volume is crucial to brain health. When it remains high, brain health is being maintained. "Consuming baked or broiled fish promotes stronger neurons in the brain's gray matter by making them larger and healthier," Dr. Raji said. "This simple lifestyle choice increases the brain's resistance to Alzheimer's disease and lowers risk for the disorder." The results also demonstrated increased levels of cognition.
Eating fish reduces risk of Alzheimer's disease | e! Science News
esciencenews.com
People who eat baked or broiled fish on a weekly basis may be improving their brain health and reducing their risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease, according to a study presented November 30 at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSN...
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What matters most in producing a healthy, long life is the nature of "caring and sharing" relationships in society. Caring and sharing are closely linked to the economic gap between rich and poor. Caring and sharing matter more than exercising, not smoking, and eating well. "Inequality is divisive and socially corrosive." Inequality creates stress, "the tobacco of the 21st Century". Stress kills. Over 200 studies demonstrate that the greater the income gap, the worse health becomes.
TEDxRainier - Stephen Bezruchka
Dr. Stephen Bezruchka seeks to expose why health disparities among nations around the globe are at record highs and empowers people to address the socioecono...
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Passing through doorways may be a cause of memory lapses. “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” “Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.” Environmental factors affect memory and information learned in one environment is retrieved better when the retrieval occurs in the same context.
Walking through doorways causes forgetting, new research shows
medicalxpress.com
(Medical Xpress) -- Weve all experienced it: The frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were going to do. Or get. Or find
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More than half of people over 60 experience hand osteoarthritis (OA). Chondroitin treatment led to significant improvements in pain and function. The advantage of anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) is quick relief, with the drawback of long-term safety concerns. "In contrast, the benefits of [chondroitin] appear to take several months to develop, but with hardly any side effects." Chondroitin also reduced the duration of morning stiffness.
Medical News: Chondroitin Eases Pain, Boosts Function in Arthritic Hands - in Rheumatology, Arthriti
Six months of treatment with chondroitin led to significant improvements in pain and function among patients with osteoarthritis in their hands, a single-center randomized trial found.
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Women who enjoy an alcoholic drink in the evening tend to be healthier as they move into old age. Women who drank on 5-7 days of the week had almost double the chance of good overall health in old age compared with complete abstainers, "but it's very important not to go overboard."
PLoS Medicine: Alcohol Consumption at Midlife and Successful Ageing in Women: A Prospective Cohort A
PLoS Medicine is an open-access, peer-reviewed medical journal that publishes outstanding human studies that substantially enhance the understanding of human health and disease.
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Nearly one in seven elderly nursing home residents, mostly with dementia, are given powerful atypical antipsychotic drugs (which include Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon) even though the medicines increase the risks of death and are not approved. Manufacturers have illegally marketed medicines for these uses “putting profits before safety.” "Doctors continue the practice because they have few other good choices."
Antipsychotic Drugs Called Hazardous for the Elderly
A report found that dementia patients in nursing homes were often given prescriptions improperly.
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People who practiced four low-risk behaviors -- not smoking, eating healthy, getting enough exercise, and drinking alcohol moderately -- were 63% less likely to die within a 18-year study period. These 4 practices could increase life span by 11.1 years.
Medical News: Healthy Living Really Does Postpone Mortality - in Public Health & Policy, Public Heal
A low-risk lifestyle, with an emphasis on healthy eating and being active, has a powerful and beneficial effect on mortality, CDC researchers found.
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An average of three months is being added to life expectancy every year. "I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so," de Grey said. "The whole point of maintenance is that it works indefinitely."
Who wants to live forever? Scientist sees aging cured
LONDON (Reuters) - If Aubrey de Grey's predictions are right, the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less
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First there was smallpox, eradicated after a long global campaign. Now there's rinderpest, the second disease to be wiped off the face of the planet. Historically, the death of cattle was often followed by the death of their owners – quickly because of lack of meat and milk or more slowly because plowing and other farm work dependent on cattle could not be done.
Thanks goes to our Health Care Professionals and scientists. Thanks goes to those who give generously to support research. Thanks goes to those who vote for and pay the taxes that make progress possible.
Medical News: Lab Notes: Cattle Scourge Eradicated - in Lab Notes, Lab Notes from MedPage Todaywww.medpagetoday.com
The UN claimed that the rinderpest cattle virus had been eliminated worldwide, joining smallpox as the only diseases to have been entirely eradicated. Also in this week's Lab Notes, novel approaches t
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This works! This groundbreaking study shows that hearts contain cells that can turn into new heart cells that might repair a damaged heart. Scientists had thought that the ability to transform is lost when the human becomes an adult. The authors explain that they have managed to reactivate this potential.
Damaged Hearts Could Be Encouraged To Self-Repair
A new type of stem-like heart cell has been transformed into heart muscle, proving that dormant cells exist in the heart that have the capacity to carry out repairs, researchers from University Co
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Up to 84% of Medical Professionals now recommend non-conventional therapies.