3 Simple Steps to Reducing Your Risk of Congnitive Decline

 

There are lots of scary health issues for us to worry about as we get older. Cancer, heart disease, stroke, joint replacements, hearing and vision loss are probably on everybody's list. But for me, the #1 fear is cognitive decline. I have a family history of Alzheimer's so every time I misplace my car keys it is grist for a minor panic. Some memory issues are just a part of growing older. But what can we do to at least reduce our risk of something much more serious?

As it turns out there are several things we can do. Unfortunately none of them are the pill that most people seem to want.

 

Here are three really simple lifestyle factors that researchers agree will reduce your personal risk of Alzheimer's and other age related cognitive problems. None of them are complicated, you don't have to buy anything. But they will take some effort on your part. (Sorry.) And the sooner you start the better.

Aging Well at Any Age

 

The seeds of a happy, healthy, successful old age are sown long before that threshold is reached. And, as the immutable "law of the farm" states, you will reap what you sow. Only about 30% of how you age can be attributed to your genetic heritage, according to Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at Columbia Mailman School of Public Health Dr. John Rowe, MD. The other 70% is the harvest of what you have sown.

But it is also true that it is never too late to adopt changes and new habits that can improve your personal aging process.

Click here to learn the steps you can take, decade by decade, to have the best senior years possible.

Aging Will Have a Huge Impact on Societies

 

Since 1900, the percentage of Americans age 65 and older nearly quadrupled (from 4.1% in 1900 to 16% in 2019), and the number increased more than 17 times (from 3.1 million to 54.1 million). At the same time, the older population itself became increasingly older. The population is projected to reach 80.8 million by 2040 and 94.7 million by 2060. All but a tiny percentage of them will live in non-institutional settings. Older Americans are one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country. Is this a huge problem or a great opportunity? The answer will depend upon how societies choose to respond to this changing reality.

The increasing burden of providing healthcare to older people, who consume on average far more of it that younger people, will strain personal and government finances. National health spending will climb to 19.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2027, reaching $6 trillion, according to new estimates from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. That is up from about $4 trillion in 2020. Most older Americans will receive Social Security payments that rise with inflation, driving up the cost of providing benefits at the same time that fewer young people will be working and paying into the system. Housing will continue to strain personal and government budgets.

But it is not all bad news. Baby boomers in the US are projected to have 70% of all disposable income over the next five years and to control over $15 trillion of wealth. Reimagining housing, social safety networks, travel and producing products targeted at an older population represents a vast economic opportunity. Yet today less than 10 cents of every marketing dollar is targeted at seniors (and nearly all of that is selling pharmaceuticals and insurance). Rethinking stereotypical beliefs about ageing and changing the discourse around older adults could positively transform society into one where everyone can age with purpose and contribute well into their later years.

Click here to read more about the profound effect of an aging population.

Know Your Numbers

 

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is often called the silent killer. And for good reason. Most people with high blood pressure have no symptoms, even if blood pressure readings reach dangerously high levels and even though high blood pressure increases the risk of heart attack, stroke and other serious health problems. If you have high blood pressure, the force of the blood pushing against the artery walls is consistently too high. The heart has to work harder to pump blood.

If there is any upside to this, it would be that hypertension is easily treated once it is diagnosed. Lifestyle changes such as adopting a low-sodium diet and regular exercise can help control high blood pressure. When lifestyle modifications aren't enough doctors may also prescribe effective medications like diuretics or ACE inhibitors.

But before anything can address the problem, a person must realize that they have it. Things that increase the risk of having high blood pressure include: older age, genetics, being overweight or obese, not being physically active, a high-salt diet and drinking too much alcohol. In the US, nearly half of adults already have hypertension but only 1 in 4 of them have it under control. A great many of them do not even realize that they already have the condition.

Finding out where you stand is as simple as having your blood pressure taken. Your doctor can do it at your annual checkup (and probably already is), although the "white coat factor" can make the readings a little higher than normal. Or (better) you can check it yourself at home.

Go ahead and read this to learn about how to properly take your blood pressure and what the readings mean for you. Then do it. It pays to know your numbers.

CLINICALLY PROVEN!!!

Between Bill Gates' microchips in our vaccines and climate change being "just a theory", the credibility of science has taken a real hit over the last decade. And few  have contributed more to the public skepticism toward science than nutritional supplement producers. It seems as though the Marketing Department is slapping Clinically Proven claims on just about everything they sell. The problem? Most of the claims are, while carefully worded to be legal, scientific BS.

A clinical trial sets a high bar, one many of the clinical trials cited by supplement sellers fail to clear. They often involve too few study subjects to provide any significant results, lack a control group or are observational studies (not clinical trials at all). And if by some chance the results do not turn out they way the sponsor wants the data is manipulated until they do (or the whole thing is just buried).

This sort of scientific dishonesty is good for no one but the seller. For someone like me, who sells supplement products, this creates a pervasive atmosphere of distrust that negatively impacts the many companies that deal honestly with the public, makes my job harder and discourages people from using products that might actually do them some good.

Do yourself a favor and regard claims of scientific proof with a skeptical eyes, especially of you encounter them on social media. Here are 9 questions that you can ask to help separate the facts from the fiction.

 

More Bad News About Vaping

 

 

Vaping is often touted as a "safer" way to smoke and the available evidence certainly suggests that it is less bad than cigarettes. But less bad is a very far cry from good. 

According to Dr. Michael Blaha, MD, at Johns Hopkins University, vaping is damaging to your heart and lungs, is just as addictive as cigarettes, is more or less useless for "trying to quit" and is addicting a whole new generation of young people. Less bad indeed.

A recent study done at Tuft's University that followed 13,000 people turned up yet more bad news about vaping.

Vaping liquids are sticky and contain sugary sweeteners that, when inhaled as an aerosol, stick the to teeth and create a hospitable environment for oral bacteria. In other words, it increases the odds of developing dental cavities. It was also observed that vaping seems to encourage decay in areas where it usually doesn’t occur—such as the bottom edges of front teeth. 

So better, maybe. But not much.

Really, It's Okay to Eat Fruit

 

Sugar has gotten a bad name, and deservedly so. Among the many little gifts that a sugar heavy diet bestows are obesity, Type-2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. As the following graphic shows, per capita sugar consumption in the USA rose by about 1,400% between 1822 and 2005.

 

For comparison, the next graphic overlays sugar consumption between 1960 and 2009 with rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. The correlation is obvious.

 

It seems pretty clear that Americans eat way too much sugar. But like most things nutritional, it's not quite that simple.

Sugar production has a dark past as well. The development of sugar plantations in the Caribbean had far more to do with the institutionalization of slavery than did cotton.

The dietary guidelines published by the USDA and Department of Health and Human Services recommends that Americans limit added sugars to less than 10% of total calories per day (or 50 grams based on a 2000-calorie diet), with the average adult actually consuming about 126 grams.

On the basis of all this, many popular diets recommend limiting the amount of fruits consumed, or even eliminating them altogether. (Some even refer to fruit as "toxic".) Berries, melons, stone fruit (like peaches), apples, cherries, pineapples, bananas and oranges all contain sugar, from about 5 to about 30 grams per serving. Here is a list of the sugar content of many common fruits.

So is avoiding fruits a good way to reduce your sugar consumption? Not really.

Notice that the guidelines referenced above refer to grams of added sugar, not sugar naturally occurring in foods. Added sugars include any sugars or caloric sweeteners that are added to foods or beverages during processing or preparation (such as putting sugar in your coffee or adding sugar to your cereal). Added sugars  can include natural sugars such as white sugar, brown sugar and honey, as well as other caloric sweeteners that are chemically manufactured (such as high fructose corn syrup). 

Fruits and dairy contain fructose and lactose, natural sugars that are digested slower than the sucrose of most added sugar. Sugars found naturally in food are more than enough to sustain your body. Natural sugars are processed more slowly, meaning your blood glucose level stays elevated for a longer period. (That is, rises and falls more slowly, avoiding the blood sugar "spikes" caused by added sugars.) In addition, the sugars in fruit are accompanied by fiber and other nutrients

Of course anything can be overdone. But adding the recommended 2 cups per day of (fresh, not processed or sweetened) fruit to you diet provides far more benefit that risk. Read more here.