If you aren’t already convinced that exercise is the best way to improve health outcomes as you age, there is now even more evidence to bolster that case. [Read more…]
Yoga Combats Frailty in Older Adults
More than half of adults in the U.S. over age 80 experience frailty, an increased health vulnerability that hampers their ability to cope with everyday life.
Frailty is a complex condition that involves a variety of physical and mental factors including walking, balance, cognitive impairment, and other chronic health problems. Frailty can reduce endurance levels, make it more difficult to live independently, reduce quality of life, and increase the risk of dying sooner. [Read more…]
Can Hearing Aids Prevent Dementia?
Dementia is a serious health concern among older adults. Approximately 22% of Americans ages 85 to 89 have dementia, and that number increases to 33% for people older than 90. As baby boomers reach their senior years, that number is expected to grow substantially.
Health researchers are looking for ways to prevent or slow the development of dementia among older adults. One potential solution has been around for decades: hearing aids. [Read more…]
Does Hydration Impact Aging?
The human body is roughly 60 percent water. This vital nutrient is a building block of every cell in the body. It helps to regulate our body temperature, transport nutrients and energy through the bloodstream, flush out waste products, act as a shock absorber for our brain and spinal cord, and lubricate our joints. [Read more…]
Do Brain Games Help Prevent Dementia?
More than six million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, and that number continues to grow significantly as the U.S. population ages.
Researchers across the globe are trying to find ways to protect aging brains from dementia. Over the past decade, they have zeroed in on “brain training” — puzzles and games designed to improve cognitive skills — as one possible solution. [Read more…]
What We Know About Financial Decisions and the Aging Brain
As people age, some of their cognitive abilities naturally decline. In fact, some skills, such as working memory, peak at age 30 and then begin a gradual waning that is considered a normal part aging. In addition, about 10 percent of people 65 and older develop specific medical conditions that lead to cognitive impairment. [Read more…]
How You Think About Aging Can Affect How Long You Live
When you imagine an older person, what sort of picture pops into your head? Do you see someone walking stooped over a cane? Do you imagine them in a long-term care facility sitting in a wheelchair? Or do you imagine someone competing in a track meet, like the athletes who participated in last month’s National Senior Games track and field competition? [Read more…]
How the Most Exceptional 100-Year-Olds Keep Their Minds Sharp
Nearly 15 percent of people age 70 and older experience some form of dementia; that number jumps to nearly 35 percent for people over age 90. And yet other people live more than 100 years with sharp minds.
What helps some people protect their brain health well into the later years of life? That’s the question researchers from the Netherlands asked in a new, longitudinal study published in JAMA Network Open that examines mentally sharp 100-year-olds. [Read more…]
What We Know About Exercise for Older Adults
People around the world are living longer than ever before, which has led to an increase in the overall age of the global population. Over the past 50 years, the number of people over age 65 has tripled. If this trend continues, older adults will make up more than 25 percent of the global population by 2050. [Read more…]
Evidence-Based Suggestions to Help Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
One in ten Americans older than 65 develop Alzheimer’s disease. While there are medications available to treat the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, there are no treatments to cure the disease or slow its progression.
But a new systematic review from researchers at the University of Shanghai Medical College outlines steps that everyone can take to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. [Read more…]