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Alzheimer’s isn’t inevitable. Many experts now believe you can prevent or at least delay dementia — even if you have a genetic predisposition. Reducing Alzheimer’s risk factors like obesity, diabetes,smoking and low physical activity by just 25 percent could prevent up to half a million cases of the disease in the United States, according to a recent analysis from the University of California in San Francisco.

Here are 10 new ways you can boost your brain health now.

1) Get moving

“If you do only one thing to keep your brain young, exercise,” says Art Kramer, professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Illinois. Higher exercise levels can reduce dementia risk by 30 to 40 percent compared with low activity levels, and physically active people tend to maintain better cognition and memory than inactive people. “They also have substantially lower rates of different forms of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease,” Kramer says.

Working out helps your hippocampus, the region of the brain involved in memory formation. As you age, your hippocampus shrinks, leading to memory loss. Exercise can reverse this process, research suggests.

How you work up a sweat is up to you, but most experts recommend 150 minutes a week of moderate activity. Even a little bit can help: “In our research as little as 15 minutes of regular exercise three times per week helped maintain the brain,” says Eric B. Larson, M.D., executive director of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle.

2) Pump some iron

Older women who participated in a yearlong weight-training program at the University of British Columbia at Vancouver did 13 percent better on tests of cognitive function than a group of women who did balance and toning exercises. “Resistance training may increase the levels of growth factors in the brain such as IGF1, which nourish and protect nerve cells,” says Teresa Liu-Ambrose, head of the university’s Aging, Mobility, and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory.

3) Seek out new skills

Learning spurs the growth of new brain cells. “When you challenge the brain, you increase the number of brain cells and the number of connections between those cells,” says Keith L. Black, M.D., chair of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. “But it’s not enough to do the things you routinely do — like the daily crossword. You have to learn new things, like sudoku or a new form of bridge.”

UCLA researchers using MRI scans found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience could trigger brain centers that control decision-making and complex reasoning after a week of surfing the net. “Engaging the mind can help older brains maintain healthy functioning,” says Cynthia R. Green, Ph.D., author of 30 Days to Total Brain Health.

4) Say “Omm”

Chronic stress floods your brain with cortisol, which leads to impaired memory. To better understand if easing tension changes your brain, Harvard researchers studied men and women trained in a technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). This form of meditation — which involves focusing one’s attention on sensations, feelings and state of mind — has been shown to reduce harmful stress hormones. After eight weeks, researchers took MRI scans of participants’ brains that showed the density of gray matter in the hippocampus increased significantly in the MBSR group, compared with a control group.

5) Eat like a Greek

A heart-friendly Mediterranean diet — fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts and beans —  reduced Alzheimer’s risk by 34 to 48 percent in studies conducted by Columbia University.

“We know that omega-3 fatty acids in fish are very important for maintaining heart health,” says Keith Black of Cedars-Sinai. “We suspect these fats may be equally important for maintaining a healthy brain.”

Data from several large studies suggest that older people who eat the most fruits and vegetables, especially the leafy-green variety, may experience a slower rate of cognitive decline and a lower risk for dementia than meat lovers.

And it may not matter if you get your produce from a bottle instead of a bin. A study from Vanderbilt University found that people who downed three or more servings of fruit or vegetable juice a week had a 76 percent lower risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease than those who drank less than a serving weekly.

6) Spice it up

Your brain enjoys spices as much as your taste buds do. Herbs and spices such as black pepper, cinnamon, oregano, basil, parsley, ginger and vanilla are high in antioxidants, which may help build brainpower. Scientists are particularly intrigued by curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, common in Indian curries. “Indians have lower incidence of Alzheimer’s, and one theory is it’s the curcumin,” says Black. “It bonds to amyloid plaques that accumulate in the brains of people with the disease.” Animal research shows curcumin reduces amyloid plaques and lowers inflammation levels. A study in humans also found those who ate curried foods frequently had higher scores on standard cognition tests.

7) Find your purpose

Discovering your mission in life can help you stay sharp, according to a Rush University Medical Center study of more than 950 older adults. Participants who approached life with clear intentions and goals at the start of the study were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease over the following seven years, researchers found.

Get a (social) life

Who needs friends? You do! Having multiple social networks helps lower dementia risk, a 15-year study of older people from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute shows. A rich social life may protect against dementia by providing emotional and mental stimulation, says Laura Fratiglioni, M.D., director of the institute’s Aging Research Center. Other studies yield similar conclusions: Subjects in a University of Michigan study did better on tests of short-term memory after just 10 minutes of conversation with another person.

9) Reduce your risks

Chronic health conditions like diabetes, obesity and hypertension are often associated with dementia. Diabetes, for example, roughly doubles the risk for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Controlling these risk factors can slow the tide.

“We’ve estimated that in people with mild cognitive impairment — an intermediate state between normal cognitive aging and dementia — good control of diabetes can delay the onset of dementia by several years,” says Fratiglioni. That means following doctor’s orders regarding diet and exercise and taking prescribed medications on schedule.

10) Check vitamin deficiencies

Older adults don’t always get all the nutrients they need from foods, because of declines in digestive acids or because their medications interfere with absorption. That vitamin deficit — particularly vitamin B12— can also affect brain vitality, research from Rush University Medical Center shows. Older adults at risk of vitamin B12 deficiencies had smaller brains and scored lowest on tests measuring thinking, reasoning and memory, researchers found.

Source: AARP.org

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Study shows lifting weights just once a week helps keep your brain sharp

For older women, the type of exercise you do may be more important than how often you do it.

That’s the message of a surprising new study by Canadian researchers that found that women who started a once-a-week strength-training program were more likely to stick with it — and reap the physical and mental benefits — than those who started a twice-a-week program.

More importantly, older women who built muscle strength through biceps curls, leg lifts, squats and the like showed much greater improvement in mental focus and ability to make decisions and resolve conflicts than women who did only balance and toning exercises.

Published this month in theArchives of Internal Medicine, the study is a one-year follow-up of 155 women ages 65 to 75 who participated in an earlier strength-training exercise program in 2007-2008.

Weight training and the brain

The women in that program were randomly divided into once-weekly and twice-weekly regimens that used dumbbells, weight machines and free-form exercises like squats and lunges to build muscle strength. A control group performed twice-weekly balancing and toning exercises, but no weight lifting. At the end of the 12-month program, both the weight-training groups showed sharply improved mental focus. In the control group, mental function slightly declined.

A year later, researchers again tested the women to determine who had maintained their physical activity level as well as the mental boost they had gotten from exercising during the original program.

“We were very surprised to discover the group that sustained cognitive benefits was the once-weekly strength-training group rather than the twice-weekly training group,” says lead author Teresa Liu-Ambrose of the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility at Vancouver Coastal Health and the University of British Columbia.

Is once a week enough?

Although the twice-weekly group was exercising less a year later, the once-weekly group was still active and showed a 15 percent improvement on their mental skills test as compared with the balance-and-toning group, the researchers found.

Liu-Ambrose believes it’s because the once-weekly group found it easier than the twice-weekly group to maintain the same level of physical activity of the original study. “Those who start a once-weekly strength-training program are more likely to stick with it,” she says.

In other words, while exercising more often may ideally be better for you, ultimately the best exercise program is one that you actually will keep doing.

Source: AARP.org

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A leading expert talks about the latest research on these drugs

Do antidepressant medications work? The question may seem an odd one to ask these days. More than one in 10 Americans have prescriptions for antidepressants, which rake in sales of almost $10 billion in the United States alone. Yet for years, researchers have questioned whether the intensively advertised drugs are truly effective. One of the first to cast doubt was psychologist Irving Kirsch, professor emeritus at the University of Connecticut and now a professor of psychology at the University of Hull in England. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on psychiatric drugs and the placebo effect, he is the author of The Emperor’s New Drugs, as well as more than 200 research papers.

The AARP Bulletin reached Kirsch at home in England to discuss his findings and the controversy they’ve sparked.

Q. Your studies suggest that antidepressants are no more effective than sugar pills, or placebos. How can that be?

A. Placebo effect is very powerful when you’re treating depression. Placebos offer hope. And one of the chief features of depressions is a sense of hopelessness, the belief that you’re not going to get better. Anything that instills a sense of hope will at least temporarily help treat depression. Our studies show that placebos are about 80 percent effective, which is exactly how effective antidepressants are in the short-term.

Q. But aren’t the newest generation of antidepressants designed to restore normal levels of serotonin in the brain?

A. The theory behind drugs such as Prozac and Paxil, which are selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, is that depression is linked to low levels of serotonin. But most researchers have abandoned that theory. One reason is that the newest drugs are just about as effective as older drugs that don’t affect serotonin levels. In fact, a new antidepressant recently approved in France is a selective serotonin re-uptake enhancer. It has the opposite effect of drugs like Paxil or Prozac. And yet it appears to work just as well. That tells us the serotonin theory is wrong.

Q. Published in January in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a major study also cast doubt on the effectiveness of antidepressants. Does it add anything to the debate?

A. Yes. The conclusions of that study, led by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, are almost exactly what we found. But the JAMA study is based on a completely different set of data. The fact that it came to the same conclusion shows that the findings are robust. All in all, this new study confirms and updates our conclusions.

Q. Obviously, these findings are controversial. Many doctors who prescribe antidepressants insist that they see benefits in their patients. Are they wrong?

A. Their perception is entirely right. People do get better on antidepressants. And they get better on placebos. But doctors don’t prescribe sugar pills. They prescribe medications. And when they see patients getting better, they naturally attribute that to the drug. They can’t compare antidepressants to placebos in their practices. They have no way of knowing how much of the benefit is placebo effect and how much is a chemical effect. For that, you do research.

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Are My Mother’s Meds Making Her Fall?

And if so, which drug — or combination — is at fault?

Q. My 81-year-old mother has been falling at home, and recently fractured her arm from a fall, which has me worried. Her doctors have been doing lots of tests, and now they’ve ordered a CT scan.

I’m concerned that the medications she’s taking could be causing the falls or at least contributing to them.

She takes Lopressor for her high blood pressure, Lasix for edema, calcium for her bones and Tylenol PM, which she gets at the drugstore, to help her sleep. Could these medications be making her unsteady?

A. Your concerns are on target. Two of the drugs that your mother is taking could well be causing her to fall. Her health care providers should have reviewed her medications before ordering the CT scan and other expensive tests.

The first concern is the use of metoprolol (Lopressor), which is in a class of drugs called beta-blockers and typically isn’t the best choice for treating cardiovascular problems in older adults. That’s because nearly half of all people 60 and older don’t produce the liver enzyme (CYP 2D6) that’s needed to properly metabolize the drug. As the drug builds up in a patient’s system, all the adverse effects commonly associated with its use are exacerbated. Chief among the problems: insomnia, dizziness,vertigo and falls.

The second concern: Tylenol PM. I’m guessing that your mother has been taking this non-prescription pain reliever and sleep aid, probably without her doctor’s knowledge, because the beta-blocker makes it difficult for her to sleep.

The problem is the PM part of the Tylenol PM. This over-the-counter product (Excedrin PM is another) combines acetaminophen withdiphenhydramine, which is an antihistamine with very strong sedative effects. Such medications are contraindicated for use in older adults.

Diphenhydramine, which many of us know by the brand name Benadryl, affects all involuntary muscle activity by depressing the central nervous system and can cause constipation, confusion, vertigo, glaucoma, falls and many other problems.

Source: AARP.org

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It’s easy to take medicines for granted. When we’re sick, we may take a drug a few times a day to relieve our symptoms. Then, when we’re feeling better, we go back to our daily routine.

But some medicines, such as blood thinner pills, require lifestyle changes. You need to take them at the same time each day, for example, and you need to avoid injuries. These changes are important for you to stay safe and healthy.

Each year, nearly 2 million Americans start taking a blood thinner pill to prevent blood clots from forming in their bloodstream. Blood clots can lead to strokes, heart attacks or other serious health conditions.

If your doctor thinks you are at risk for a blood clot because you can’t move around easily or you’ve had recent surgery or an injury, he may put you on a blood thinner.

How blood thinners work

When taken correctly, blood thinners, also called anticoagulants, help your blood flow more easily to lower your risk of developing dangerous blood clots.

But blood thinners also increase your chance of bleeding. When taking a blood thinner, you need to be careful when going about your daily routine. For example, you should take extra care to avoid getting cuts from sharp instruments, such as knives, tools or other sharp objects. You must also carefully follow your doctor’s instructions about your diet and how much of and how often to take your blood thinner.

A consumer guide

Like learning to drive a car, taking blood thinners will require you to learn and practice several important steps until they become habits. To help patients remember these steps, my agency, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, recently made a video and produced a consumer guide. These tools will help you get the best results from your blood thinner.

The video describes the “BEST” way for you to remember important tips about blood thinners. BEST stands for:

Be careful. Use caution during activities that put you at risk for getting a cut or bruise. Even a small cut can bleed more than usual. Wear work gloves when working with tools, for example. Avoid high-risk sports or other dangerous activities. And if you do injure yourself, from a fall or hard bump to the head, call your doctor immediately.

Eat right. Your diet can affect how your blood thinner works. Do not eat or drink anything your doctor has told you to avoid. For example, your doctor may advise against foods or drinks high in vitamin K (including leafy green vegetables, vitamins and herbal supplements) because they can interfere with some blood thinners. Most important, keep your diet consistent, both in the type and amount of foods you eat.

Stick to a routine. Take your blood thinner pills at the same time every day. You can have family members remind you, use a pill box or set the alarm on your watch. It’s also important to talk to all of your doctors about all other medicines or supplements you take and to tell your doctors about any changes in your medicines. Remember to talk to your doctor before taking aspirin because it also acts like a blood thinner.

Test regularly. Blood tests let your doctor know if you are getting too much or too little medicine. Your doctor may order an INR blood test. That stands for International Normalized Ratio, which measures the amount of time it takes for your blood to clot. Based on the results, your doctor may need to adjust your dose. It is very important that you have your blood checked regularly if your doctor tells you it’s necessary. Home testing kits are available and covered by Medicare.

Taking a blood thinner does require you to make adjustments in your lifestyle. But just a few changes, followed each day, will ensure you’re getting the benefits you need from this medicine. By following the BEST way and talking with your doctor, you’ll help your blood thinner work well and safely for you.

Source: AARP.org

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9 Types of Medication Older Adults Should Use With Caution

If you’re over 65, think twice before taking these drugs

As you grow older, you’re more likely to develop long-term health conditions that require taking multiple medications. You’re also more sensitive to many common medications, including over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

As a result, it’s not uncommon for older adults to be overmedicated and to experience adverse reactions to the ever-lengthening list of medications they take.

Ask Questions

When taking a new medication, ask your doctor or pharmacist these important questions:

1. When and how should I use this new drug?

2. What is the purpose of the medication?

3. What should I do if I miss a dose?

4. Will the drug interact with other medications, vitamins or supplements I’m taking?

5. Is a generic or lower-cost brand name medication available?

6. What side effects, reactions or warning signs should I watch for?

To lower the chances of overmedication and dangerous drug reactions, the American Geriatrics Society Foundation for Health in Aging recommends that people age 65 and over be cautious about using the following types of drugs:

Important: If you are taking any of these medications, talk to your doctor or health care provider before stopping their use.

1. Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs)

Be cautious of: long-lastingNSAIDS such as piroxicam(sold under the brand-name Feldene) and indomethacin(Indocin).

The concern: NSAIDs are used to reduce pain and inflammation, but in older adults these medications can increase the risk ofindigestion, ulcers and bleeding in the stomach or colon; they can also increaseblood pressure, affect your kidneys and make heart failure worse. If NSAIDS are needed, better choices include the shorter-acting ibuprofen (Motrin) and salsalate (Disalcid).

Because of the increased risk of bleeding, don’t use NSAIDs together with aspirin, clopidogrel (Plavix), dabigatran (Pradaxa), dipyridamole(Persantine), prasugrel (Effient), ticlopidine (Ticlid) or warfarin(Coumadin).

If you take NSAIDs regularly and have a history of ulcers, or are 75 years of age or older, you may need to protect your stomach against bleeding with a prescription medication such as misoprostol (Cytotec) or a proton pump inhibitor such as omeprazole (Prilosec).

Source: AARP.org

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10 Warning Signs

Your Older Family Member May Need Help

For many Americans, the Holiday season is one of the few times during the year that adults and their older loved ones spend quality time together. The Holidays may be a time when families face and discuss the difficult decisions about finding care for their older relative. The Eldercare Locator has produced a guide of “10 warning signs” to help families and older Americans determine if help is needed. Any one of the behaviors listed may or may not indicate that an action should be taken and your family member’s physician should be kept informed of physical or psychological behavior changes.

Has your family member:

1. Changed eating habits within the last year resulting in weight loss, having no appetite, or missed meals?
2. Neglected personal hygiene resulting in wearing dirty clothes, body odor, bad breath, neglected nails and teeth, sores on the skin?
3. Neglected their home so it is not as clean or sanitary as you remember growing up?
4. Exhibited inappropriate behavior by being unusually loud or quiet, paranoid, agitated, making phone calls at all hours?
5. Changed relationship patterns such that friends and neighbors have expressed concerns?
6. Had physical problems such as burns or injury marks resulting from general weakness, forgetfulness, or possible misuse of alcohol or prescribed medications?
7. Decreased or stopped participating in activities that were previously important to them such as bridge or a book club, dining with friends, or attending religious services?
8. Exhibited forgetfulness resulting in unopened mail, piling newspapers, not filling their prescriptions, or missed appointments?
9. Mishandled finances such as not paying bills, losing money, paying bills twice or more, or hiding money?
10. Made unusual purchases such as buying more than one magazine subscription of the same magazine, entered an unusual amount of contests, increased usage of purchasing from television advertisements?

Source: Eldercare.gov

Contact Pure Home Care Services at (586) 293-2457 today!  If you live in Macomb County or the surrounding area, we can help you care for your loved ones.