Some Features about Physical Exercise for those 60 years and older:
- Most 60+ year-old adults don’t get enough physical activity by engaging in their day-to-day routine. At 60, you still need to set aside some focused time for physical exercise.
- When you are 60+, you need more time to warm-up your muscles. So, stretching is essential.
- Data is clear inactivity and poor eating habits combined are the one of the largest underlying causes of death in the United States. Of course, cigarette smoking is the all-time feature of early death at nearly every age.
- Exercise can not only help you feel physically better and enjoy life more at 60+, but even those who think they’re too old or out of shape because of pain or soreness. Exercise will decrease pain and soreness too.
- Regular exercise can improve some diseases and disabilities even at 60 or older who already have a disease. It can improve mood and relieve pain associated with chronic disease.
- Staying physically active can help prevent or delay certain degenerative spinal disorders and may even be protective of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Virtually everyone (even the bed-ridden) can create an exercise regimen to improve health.
Memory and the Aging Brain
Even in your 50′s memory failures can get in the way of every day life routines. Are memory issues a sign of the times? Are they the first manifestation that just living longer won’t make life better? What to do about memory problems in your 50′s, 50′s and 70′s? This blog discusses this challenging concern.
A brief/interesting New York Times Article: How to Train the Aging Brain
The central question this article addresses is:
Can an old brain learn and remember what it learns?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?scp=3&sq=aging&st=cse
Are you aware of any medications that you can take that will help you with memory problems in old age?
Debra, there are a number of drugs that have been tried over the centuries to either enhance memory or offset its loss. The oldest drugs fall into the category of Central Nervous Stimulants (CNS). Caffeine in coffee or other drinks, epinephrine which is a hormone that creates a CNS response and focuses attention (derivatives of the that are manufactured or occur naturally are ephedra-based products). Then, there are more specific drugs like AdAdderall that is a brand-name for psychostimulant medication composed of amphetamine and dextroamphetamine and that works to increase the amount of dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain (these are both neurotransmitters that can facilitate cognition). The bad news about all of the CNS stimulants is that they can cause high blood pressure, vasoconstriction of the blood vessels (making you vulnerable to stroke) and some people report that once stopped, these can cause depressive symptoms…I’ve actually noticed some of these effects when I’ve stopped drinking coffee for a prolonged time….which makes coffee a troublesome product for me even through everyone seems to like to use it in spite of its terribly bitte taste.
Watch for my future blog information about drugs and memory when I get into a more in-depth discussion about strategies of diet for enhancing (or maintaining) memory function in later life.
Here is an innovative idea from the NY-Times:
January 26, 2010, 12:37 pm
Schooling the Aging Brain
By PAULA SPAN
What if older people who volunteered to work in elementary schools…could…reduce their own risk of cognitive decline?
In The Journal of Gerontology, a team led by the Johns Hopkins neuropsychologist Michelle Carlson used cognitive tests and brain imaging scans to measure the effects that working in Baltimore public schools had on eight female volunteers.
The volunteers completed 32 hours of training in the program, called Experience Corps, then worked 15 hours a week assisting classroom teachers and librarians, reading to students, shelving and recommending books and leading conflict resolution lessons.
After six months in the schools, the women underwent another round of cognitive testing. “Their performance improved by over 40 percent,” Dr. Carlson said in an interview. The gains also were seen in M.R.I. scans showing the women’s brain activity. “They showed immediate and measurable positive changes,” she said.