Recently in Body's Healing System Category

Your immune system is a tremendously sustainable system! But we can exercise it with a dose of... laughter.

John Cleese takes us on a tour of a laughter therapy practice in India.

Laughter promotes stress reduction, community bonding, stronger immune system... and joy. What a simple solution!

CAREGIVING IN AMERICA is a monthly magazine published by Minnesota publisher Kay Sauck, premiered in December 2009 to address the needs and concerns of the 50 million caregivers of family and friends. 

The magazine and website, www.CaregivingInAmerica.com, will draw on a stable of experts in health and aging and two organizations devoted to caregiver support: the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving and the Aging with Dignity organization.

Data from a new Mayo Clinic (http://mayoclinic.edu) study suggest that dietary therapy using flaxseed can decrease hot flashes in postmenopausal women who do not take estrogen.

A hot flash is often described as a flush of intense warmth across much of the body that may be accompanied by sweating, reddening of the skin, or, occasionally, cold shivers. Hot flashes occur in varying frequency and duration, even during sleep, and often cause or accompany sleep deprivation, anxiety and irritability.

Although until recently hormone replacement therapy was the most commonly prescribed treatment for hot flashes, unwanted side effects have led to the search for nonhormonal solutions. Several effective nonhormonal drug therapies have been identified, but they are not always effective, and not all women can use them because of side effects. These limitations have led researchers to explore non-drug agents. They have studied a variety of herbal and dietary supplements in randomized, placebo-controlled trials, including vitamin E, black cohosh and soy, but none has shown to produce any significant reduction in frequency or severity of hot flashes.

Participants were asked questions that the researchers translated into a hot flash score -- a combined measure of frequency and severity. The frequency of hot flashes decreased 50 percent over six weeks, and the overall hot flash score decreased an average 57 percent for the women who completed the trial. Participants also reported improvements in mood, joint or muscle pain, chills and sweating; which significantly improved their health-related quality of life.

"We are quite pleased with the improvements noted by these women in their quality of life," says Dr. Pruthi. "Not only does flaxseed seem to alleviate hot flashes, but it appears to have overall health and psychological benefits as well."

Dr. Pruthi's team chose to research flaxseed because it is a phytoestrogen (plant-based estrogen source). Flaxseed contains lignans and omega-3 fatty acids. Lignans are antioxidants with weak estrogen-emulating characteristics, and have some anti-cancer effects. Flaxseed also appears to have anti-estrogen properties and has been shown in some recent research trials to decrease breast cancer risk. The researchers hypothesized that patients taking flaxseed might gain some relief for hot flashes.

This pilot trial was designed to determine the effectiveness of flaxseed in alleviating hot flashes and identify possible side effects. Dr. Pruthi cautions that the results are preliminary and taking flaxseed may not give relief to every woman suffering hot flashes.

The 29 participants in Mayo's clinical trial were women with bothersome hot flashes who did not want to take estrogen because of a perceived increased risk of breast cancer.

The findings from the pilot study are published in the summer 2007 issue of the Journal of the Society for Integrative Oncology.

Sandhya Pruthi, M.D., (http://mayoresearch.mayo.edu/mayo/research/staff/pruthi_s.cfm) Mayo Clinic breast health (http://cancercenter.mayo.edu/) specialist and the study's primary investigator.

Other Mayo Clinic researchers included Charles Loprinzi, M.D.; Susan Thompson; Paul Novotny; Debra Barton, Ph.D.; Lisa Kottschade; Angelina Tan; and Jeff Sloan, Ph.D. The flaxseed study was supported in part by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

For more information on clinical trials available at Mayo Clinic, please visit http://clinicaltrials.mayo.edu.

Baby boomers may be popularly portrayed as whiners, complainers and narcissists, but a new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst psychology Professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne says the 50-somethings are getting a bad rap.

Connection to Younger Generations...Social Conscience

"It's wrong to say baby boomers are selfish and only care about staying young," says Susan Krauss Whitbourne. "They have a feeling of connection to younger generations and a social conscience."

Whitbourne's findings, based on three decades of data from two groups of baby boomers, were published in the September issue of the journal Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

The study began in 1966 at the University of Rochester in New York, when a group of students participated in a research project on personality development. Similar studies of successive generations of students at Rochester as well as follow-up surveys with participants in the earliest groups have yielded 34 years of information about the life changes experienced by leading edge boomers, who were in their mid- to late 50s, and trailing edge boomers, who were in their mid-40s, at the time of the most recent survey.

Boomers in Midlife

"What's most interesting is seeing what happened to baby boomers in midlife," says Whitbourne. "Some became more fulfilled, others became despairing, and yet others remained relatively stable. My research design allowed me to suggest which changes in their lives were most closely connected with a growth in fulfillment. 

• More fulfilled
• Despairing
• Relatively Stable

According to Whitbourne, the results suggest that personality growth doesn't follow a ladder model where one stage succeeds another, but more closely resembles a matrix, in which issues associated with early stages of life are continuously revisited through life.

Matrix of Early Life's Issues

For Whitbourne, the study illustrates that we are not locked into a narrowly defined life by the time we are of college age. "I've seen people overcome social deficits over the course of the study," she says. "This really shows that you don't have to give up on yourself. People can change through their entire life."

Fulfillment Beyond the Workplace

Since the last study, the boomers have found fulfillment beyond the workplace, says Whitbourne. In the 1980s, the "me generation" was working hard and making a lot of money, but something was missing from their lives. At the time, Whitbourne said the results were shaped by Reagan-era social values.

Volunteerism

By the '90s, however, the volunteerism of the Clinton years seems to have taken root among those unfulfilled boomers, she says. "There is a real concern about social well-being that goes back to the core values they developed in college."

Industriousness

Another change Whitbourne notes concerns "industry," a personality trait associated with the work ethic. The oldest boomers in the study had measured far lower on industry than other age groups in earlier surveys, but the latest data show they've caught up with their peers.

"It would appear from the present analyses that the very lowest industry scores were obtained in college from participants who, in early adulthood, had jobs with extremely low prestige," says the study. "However, they managed to exceed their peers in industry scores throughout the course of the study."

Self-confidence and Determination in Women

For midlife women, the results also support other studies that found gains in self-confidence and determination through the workplace, says Whitbourne. "It is possible that for these leading-edge baby boomer women, feelings of competence were suppressed in college, when it seemed as though their careers would play an important role in their future success," she writes.

Intimacy and Relationships are Not the Only Change Agents

The study also reinforces the idea that individuals can overcome early issues with intimacy and relationships, notes Whitbourne, and "catch up" with their psychologically more fortunate peers.

According to the data, participants who were not in a committed relationship early in adulthood showed continued gains throughout the period of the study and moved toward an increasingly favorable resolution that exceeded those peers who were in a committed relationship in early adulthood.

Later Parenting

"Enhanced development gains" were also noted for boomers who became parents after the age of 31. By waiting until their careers were established, those study participants may have been "best able to enjoy their new parenthood status to the fullest," says Whitbourne.

What Midlife Crisis?

Whitbourne says the study also lays to rest the myth of the midlife crisis. Based on the interviews and surveys, she says, "My study confirms others in the empirical literature that despite its popularity in the pop culture, the majority of adults don't freak out in their 40s or 50s."

That's not to say the study participants haven't had their ups and downs, says Whitbourne, but individuals grapple with their problems in a variety of ways. "People may experience depression in midlife, but it's too glib to write that off as a midlife crisis. Other factors must be considered."

The study is co-authored by Joel R. Sneed of Queens College, City University of New York, Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Aline Sayer, visiting associate professor of psychology at UMass Amherst.

Source: Newswise

We all know that it's pretty common -- men and women become gradually less fit with age, with declines accelerating after age 45

Now, research confirms it, according to a report in the October 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

However, maintaining a healthy body mass index (BMI), not smoking and being physically active are associated with higher fitness levels throughout adult life.

"The U.S. population is aging and is becoming more obese and sedentary," the authors write as background information in the article. "It is well documented that the cardiorespiratory fitness of men and women declines with age and that body composition and habitual physical activity are related to cardiorespiratory fitness."

Low fitness levels increase the risk of diseases and interfere with older adults' ability to function independently.

Andrew S. Jackson, P.E.D., of the University of Houston, and colleagues studied 3,429 women and 16,889 men age 20 to 96. During the study, participants completed between two and 33 health examinations that included counseling about diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors along with a treadmill exercise to assess fitness.

Statistical models showed that while fitness levels declined continuously over time, the decrease was not linear or steady--cardiorespiratory fitness declined more rapidly after age 45. The decline for men was greater than that for women.

The results also "showed that being active, keeping a normal BMI and not smoking were associated with substantially higher levels of cardiorespiratory fitness during the adult life span studied," the authors write.

"Being inactive and having a high BMI were associated with a lower age at which an individual could be expected to reach threshold cardiorespiratory fitness levels associated with substantially higher health risks."

Given the high rates of obesity and low levels of physical activity previously observed in the general population, the results also suggest that more men and women will reach the fitness level designated by the Social Security Administration as representing disability at a younger age, the authors note.

CONCLUSION:

"These data indicate the need for physicians to recommend to their patients the necessity to maintain their weight, engage in regular aerobic exercise and abstain from smoking," they conclude. 

Editor's Note: The ACLS was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
Source: Newswise, Inc.

Ann Hettinger reports that brain experts say it's possible to corral your brainpower, filter out distractions, and master any task by improving your concentration.

Here's what to do about it.

Get organized

If you have several to-dos, decide what to tackle first, and clear all other projects off your desk and computer screen.

Participate

If you daydream during meetings, challenge yourself by thinking of questions and actively joining the discussion.

Change your scenery

When you start to lose concentration, leave your desk and take a walk outside or to the office common space for a mental breather.

For more tips on corraling your brain power, visit Interns Over 40 for a wide variety of Boomer work insights and tips.

The Insight Foot Care Scale  helps people with health problems check the bottoms of their feet for erythema and signs of inflammation.

Especially for older folks with diabetes, the bathroom scale has with built-in mirrors that eliminates the need to twist one's feet to see  the plantar surface.

There are about 82,000 amputations in the US every year among people with diabetes. Doctors agree that over half of these amputations could be prevented if people would just check their feet.

The Insight Foot Care Scale helps you do just that, by reminding you to check your feet every time you weigh yourself and also making it easy to see the bottom of your feet with the illuminated, magnified mirrors.


SOURCE:  Insight

University of Virginia engineers, clinicians, and the school's Institute of Aging, have teamed up with AFrame Digital, a company building mobile sensors and networks, to create a large scale real-time gait monitoring system.

Using wrist worn sensors, the goal is to keep an eye on signs of declining walking ability in senior and geriatric patients. The gait sensors, now about the size of a digital watch face, can measure and transmit data on a wide range of human motion, including

• linear acceleration, or how fast patients move in a straight path, and
• rotational rate, which together provide six degrees of freedom motion capture.

The sensors are now in their third generation of development.

Current gait monitoring systems are costly and limited in application. Monitoring gait-related problems typically requires patients to visit a health care facility, where they walk on a pressure sensitive treadmill and are monitored by video cameras.

AFrame's  wireless monitoring and alerting system is designed to enhance the independence and security of healthcare facility residents and patients as they move about in care facilities as they participate in the activities of daily living. Knowing that they are monitored can provide  greater peace of mind and confidence that leads to a more active lifestyle.

AFrame solutions and services

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services conduct Quality Indicator Surveys of nursing homes.  The same quality factors would be good for families to know about...and ask about before admitting their family member to the facility. 

Here are some of the factors they look for:

• Familiarity of the nursing and licensed staff with individual resident/patient care requirements
• Updated "Care Item" lists
• Diligence with Weight monitoring -- for 30, 60, 90 and 180 days.
• Weekly Weightings.  And alert dietary and the doctor of gains or losses of 3 pounds or more.
• Monitor room Trays.  Weight loss prevention is closely connected to food.  Is the food appealing and easy to chew...are their oral hygiene problems?
• Billing Logs.  Check on "demand billing" and Medicare Denials.  Incomplete forms and information can reduce quality of care available to the patient.
• Audit Medicare Denials.  Check Medicare forms for completeness and professionalism
• Audit the Dining Experience.  Watch the entire dining experience:  room temperatures, lighting, staff  communication, food handling and variety of food choices.  Watch clean up and watch infection control practices.
• Resident Census.  How many residents are away for home visits, or doctors appointments or in the hospital?  Check the list of those admitted and discharged over the last 30 days for trends.
• Specialized Care List.  Check lists of residents who receive ventilators, dialysis, hospice or end of life services.  Compare trends in a number of prospective nursing homes to understand trends and quality of care connectons.

These tips are based on tips provided to nursing home staff to help them cope with Medicare and Medicaid Services inspections.  Some of this information will not be available to individuals, but knowing which care standards are audited can provide you with good questions to ask, and how to observe quality of care before you make important care decisions.

REFERENCE: Ecumen Consulting Services (www.ecumen.org), provides long term care consulting, training, management, development and repositioning services for nursing homes, assisted living, Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs) and home care and community-based services.

How would you like a coffeehouse or snack bar named for you? 

Vitalize! Wellness Centre, is a state‐of‐the‐art development that opened as part of the Ecumen community Parmly LifePointes in Chicago City, called Ruben's, named for a 94‐year‐old resident, and lifetime swimmer.  Being active in a local community brings many rewards...and a great community will use its own facilities to acknowledge achievements and inspiring people to further their mission -- including naming facilities after key residents!

The Vitalize! Wellness Centre,  features a warm‐water pool, juicing classes and rows of high‐tech exercise machines that boost a goal of helping residents to seize personal responsibility for "aging well." Ruben Berg is a prime example of that accomplishment, says Patricia Montgomery, the center's director.

She defines aging well as "live long, die short."

A 1998 book titled "Successful Aging," based on results of the groundbreaking MacArthur Foundation Study, taught us the powerful role each of us has in shaping our health and well‐being as we age.

Our genes determine only 30% of our destiny! 
The other 70 percent is up to us!

A decade after the book was published, other studies have confirmed and advanced those findings.

Most people can recite the wisdom of regular exercise, keeping weight within limits and that smoking is bad for your health, says Robert Kahn, co‐author of "Successful Aging"

He sees progress in Americans' understanding of aging well, he says. But it shows up more in what they know than what they do.  Like obesity -- it's increasing rather than decreasing.

Kahn sees too little about why people are living longer and what longer life means, he adds. "Or what a longer and productive and happy life can be."

He wants to see more information circulated about other findings, too, such as the need to challenge our brains often and in new ways to stay mentally sharp. And he'd like to see more about learning and productivity in older people's lives and less about leisure.

We get the hint :-)  So in this blog ... "Solutions for Senior Health" we're focusing on learning and productivity and healthful living!  Good behavior!

Dr. Roger Landry travels the country to educate audiences about aging well and to promote and train care providers in the how‐to of masterpiece living, a plan for successful living inspired by the MacArthur Foundation Study.

Questions remain about how to make it happen. "One is how to engage older adults. They're smart people with interesting lives." But our broader society tends to push them aside. Changing that, he says, would be a "win‐win" for people of every age.

IDEAS:  crossword puzzles and Sudoko and software such as  [m]Power cognitive fitness technology

Spirituality and Social Connectedness -- Solution for Isolation

Understanding of the value of both spirituality and social connectedness is growing, he says. "If we stay in our homes, almost by definition we stay more and 3
more isolated." Studies show that isolation heightens the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia, falling and fractures.

"Alzheimer's disease still terrifies people," Landry says, and many aren't aware there are ways to ward it off.

Americans need to replace high levels of stress, which he calls "our national sickness," with more serenity and soulfulness.

States Are Developing Senior Communities

Cleveland (Ohio) Foundation Successful Aging Initiative (http://www.successfulaging.org), which is developing a three‐year, $4 million plan to create and maintain elder‐friendly communities in the city. Goals include creating lifelong learning and development centers and promoting employment and volunteer opportunities for older people.

Colorado,  (www.silverprintcolorado.org) is developing an independent coalition of individuals, organizations and businesses with a vision  to establish a culture for positive aging and addressing needs, contributions and opportunities for people age 60‐plus.

6 Dimensions of Wellness

• physical
• emotional
• intellectual
• social
• vocational
• spiritual

The hope is that individuals will hold onto an independent spirit. That can mean living one's passion, whether it's a long‐held one, something they've always wanted to try or a new discovery.

SOURCE:  Ecumen, "Senior Housing and Successful Aging in the 21st Century"