Staying Healthy Archive

Simple tips and a driving evaluation may help keep you and other motorists safer on the road.

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Being able to drive a car is a ticket to freedom, no matter what your age. You don't have to rely on anyone else to get to a supermarket, do errands, meet with friends, or go to a doctor's appointment.

But sometimes, physical changes in older age jeopardize your ability to drive, and you may not realize it. "I hear it a lot — older drivers think they're fine, but their children, doctors, or even co-workers suggest that they get an evaluation," says Amy Donabedian, an occupational therapist and certified driving rehab specialist with the driving assessment program at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.

Ask the doctor

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Q. I'm confused about vitamin D. How much should I take?

A. There's considerable controversy as to whether most people should take a vitamin D supplement at all. Most of the vitamin D in our bodies is made by our skin, when it is exposed to sunlight. In contrast to most other vitamins, we don't get much vitamin D in our diet. Authorities recommend, however, that children from age 1, and adults through age 70, take 600 international units (IU) daily, and that adults 71 years and older take 800 IU daily. People with, or at risk for, certain bone diseases need to take more than this amount. There's general agreement that doses above 4,000 IU daily can be toxic to adults, with lower doses toxic to kids.

Watch out for unpasteurized products, and ask vendors about food safety.

There's something magical about strolling through a farmers' market on a crisp autumn morning. The fruit and vegetables seem fresher there than they do in a store — apples taste tarter, tomatoes seem redder and riper. It's a farm-to-table connection that puts you in touch with nature and the harvest.

Maybe that's partly behind the explosion of farmers' markets across the country, climbing from about 2,000 markets in 1994 to more than 8,600 today, according to the Farmers Market Coalition. "It's a great way to get fresh produce and try different foods you may not have come across before. But it should be enjoyed with caution," urges Dr. Simi Padival, an infectious disease specialist with Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Exercising, maintaining good health, socializing, and learning new information may help keep you sharper, longer.

Everyone wants to live an active, vibrant life for as long as possible. And that goal depends on robust brain health. While we don't have a guaranteed way to prevent dementia, we do have increasing evidence that engaging in healthy lifestyle habits may help.

For example, a 2015 randomized controlled trial from Finland suggested that older adults with a number of healthy habits — such as eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and socializing — improved or maintained thinking skills and reduced the risk of cognitive decline.

News briefs

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Many studies have suggested that drinking alcohol in moderation — one drink per day for women, one or two drinks per day for men — may offer some protection against heart disease. But a study published June 6, 2017, in The BMJ suggests that moderate alcohol drinking may not protect the brain. Researchers studied over 500 men and women, average age 43, who reported the number and size of alcoholic drinks they had each day. Participants underwent tests of their thinking skills periodically and had MRI scans of their brains at the end of the study. A typical drink was considered to be a 12-ounce beer or a 5-ounce glass of wine. The results after 30 years: drinking just over seven typical drinks or less each week did not appear to either hurt or protect brain health. But drinking eight drinks or more per week was associated with shrinkage in the hippocampus (important to memory) and deterioration of white matter (part of the brain's internal wiring), both of which are associated with decline in thinking skills. The study was observational and did not prove that drinking alcohol caused mental decline. The jury is still out, but this study suggests that it would be wise to avoid averaging more than one alcoholic drink per day.

News briefs

Here's an idea to make vegetables more enticing: give them names that make them seem indulgent. An observational study published online June 12, 2017, by JAMA Internal Medicine found that diners in a large university cafeteria were more likely to put vegetables on their plates when the foods had less health-conscious names. Each weekday during the fall academic quarter, researchers took a batch of cooked vegetables and labeled them in one of four ways: basic (such as simply "green beans"); healthy restrictive (such as "light 'n' low-carb green beans and shallots"); healthy positive (such as "healthy energy-boosting green beans and shallots"); or indulgent (such as "sweet sizzlin' green beans and crispy shallots"). During the study period, diners usually went for vegetables with less healthy labels: 25% more people chose the indulgent option over basic labeling, 35% more people selected indulgent instead of healthy positive labeling, and 41% more people chose indulgent over healthy restrictive labeling. The indulgent label also led to people piling up to 33% more vegetables on their plates. The study didn't prove that the labels triggered the vegetable selections, and didn't prove that people actually ate their veggies. But the authors say using enticing food names appears to be a simple strategy to promote healthy eating.

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Need a little motivation to get more active? Owning a dog may help, suggest authors of a small observational study published June 9, 2017, in BMC Public Health. Researchers looked at the self-reported activities of 43 pairs of dog owners and non-owners, all of them ages 65 or older. Three times during the yearlong study, participants wore fitness monitors for a week and noted their activities. Compared with non-owners, dog owners took an extra 2,760 steps per day and got an extra 22 minutes of moderate-intensity walking per day. Scientists didn't notice a difference between the groups when it came to the total amount of time spent sitting. But 22 minutes of daily walking meets the public health guidelines of a minimum 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity. If you have trouble with balance or walking, however, owning a dog that can potentially get in your way could be a fall hazard.

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Scientists used to think that brain connections developed at a rapid pace in the first few years of life, until you reached your mental peak in your early 20s. Your cognitive abilities would level off at around middle age, and then start to gradually decline. We now know this is not true. Instead, scientists now see the brain as continuously changing and developing across the entire life span. There is no period in life when the brain and its functions just hold steady. Some cognitive functions become weaker with age, while others actually improve.

Some brain areas, including the hippocampus, shrink in size. The myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve fibers wears down, which can slow the speed of communication between neurons. Some of the receptors on the surface of neurons that enable them to communicate with one another may not function as well as they once did. These changes can affect your ability to encode new information into your memory and retrieve information that's already in storage.