Zoomer Report

It turns out that speaking about important events in the past can go a long way to improve wellbeing for people in nursing homes. It’s called reminiscence therapy and an Australian gerontologist compared it to other types of interventions for people in long term care. She found that it was more effective than social activities, indoor gardening, or playing games – as a matter of fact - reminiscence therapy was the only thing that addressed both feelings of isolation and depression, according to the work in the Journal Quality of Life Research.

A measurement of blood sugar called postprandial glycemia, which has been linked with heart disease risk, averaged 12 percent lower when study participants took a walk after eating, compared with those who exercised at other times. The largest drop in postprandial glycemia, 22 percent, was achieved by walking after dinner, the study authors found.

"If you have type 2 diabetes, there is a guideline to be active for at least 150 minutes a week," said study author Andrew Reynolds, a researcher at the University of Otago, in New Zealand.

But, he added, "the benefits we observed due to physical activity after meals suggest that current guidelines should be amended to specify after-meal activity, particularly when meals contain a substantial amount of carbohydrates," he said.

"Consider walking after you eat as part of your daily routine," he added.

It’s a good idea to clean out your medicine cabinet twice a year. After the expiry date, medications start to lose their effectiveness, and so do products like sunscreen - so if you keep taking them you may not be getting the treatment or the protection you need. Some drugs even become toxic. Storing medications in the wrong place can also reduce their efficacy. Many of us keep drugs in the bathroom, but they really should be put in places that are not humid. A poll showed that in addition to prescription drugs, the most common expired products people found at home were Sunscreen, Cough & Cold medicine, Allergy pills and Vitamins.

A study in Nature by Albert Einstein College of Medicine scientists suggests that it may not be possible to extend the human life beyond the ages already attained by the oldest people on record.

Researchers randomly assigned volunteers, with mild cognitive impairment, to either twelve weeks of meditation, and other yoga practices, or twelve weeks of memory enhancement training, which taught strategies for improving forgetfulness. In the end the study found both groups did a little better on tests of verbal memory but the meditation group showed a bigger change in tests of visual spatial memory, which is needed for navigating while walking or driving or trying to recall a location.

Chinese researchers analyzed the diets of nearly 500,000 people for 7 years and found that those who ate spicy foods one or two days a week had a 10% reduced risk of death compared with those who ate such meals less than once a week. The risk was 14% lower for those who opted for hot food between three and seven days a week.

New research out of the U.S. shows that retirees who continue to work in some capacity, even part-time, are less likely to experience physical decline and disease.

Researchers analyzed six years of information on the health, finances and employment status of over 12,000 men and women who were between the ages of 51 and 61 in 1992.

The notion that you cannot refreeze thawed foods is wrong, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and inspection Service. Dietitians there say any raw or cooked food that has been thawed can be refrozen as long as it was thawed the right way and has not spoiled. —That means defrosting meat, poultry, fish and seafood in the refrigerator, not on the counter, at room temperature. The experts also say you should never thaw food by running it under warm tap water, because bacteria multiply rapidly at room temperature.

Robert Emmons, a professor of psychology at the University of California underook the first major study on gratitude.

In his book Thanks! he says it’s a crucial element of happiness. Emmons says it’s about wanting what we have, and he advises that we begin by acknowledging that life is good, and that the source of life’s goodness is outside ourselves – it can be a spouse, a child, a parent or God.

According to Health.com you can use the way you breathe to fight anxiety, sleep better, and focus your attention. For instance, you may not notice, but in a stressful situation, the natural reaction is to take quick and shallow breaths, which actually increases your body’s stress response.