The Glow of Life; the Energy for Excitement

Getting old doesn't necessarily mean getting old if you know what I mean.  Let's not get old just yet!

M.N.Curry

                                                          

     Retired seniors can maintain an active and fulfilling lifestyle by incorporating various strategies. Here are some expert-backed tips to help them stay motivated and engaged:

1. Establish a Routine: Create a daily exercise regimen to maintain structure and regain control over your schedule. It doesn’t have to be intense—a brisk 30-minute walk, gentle yoga, or swimming laps can work wonders. Consistency is key!.

2. Find a Hobby You Love: Embrace any physical activity or hobby that brings you joy. Whether it’s dancing, golfing, gardening, or Tai Chi, these activities keep you both physically active and mentally engaged. 

   Learning new skills stimulates neural plasticity and reduces the risk of cognitive decline. This is an important suggestion.

3. Join a Team Sport: Participating in team sports keeps you active and provides built-in social connections. Social engagement improves mental health, reduces isolation, and may even lower the risk of dementia.  Working out in a group setting can motivate you to push harder.

4. Break Up Sedentary Time: If you sit for prolonged periods, set regular alarms to remind you to stand up and move around. Incorporate short walks or stretching sessions throughout the day to stay motivated for bigger activities.

5. Volunteer or Attend Local Events: Being part of community activities and events keeps you engaged and socially connected.

6. Pursue Hobbies and Interests: Whether it’s painting, playing a musical instrument, or cooking, engaging in activities you love adds purpose and fulfillment to your days.

7. Take Advantage of Senior Centers: Explore the services offered at senior centers, from fitness classes to social gatherings.

8. Stay Physically Balanced: Mix up your activities to enhance physical balance and strength. Consider walking groups, gym classes, or virtual communities to stay accountable and motivated.

   Remember, retirement is an opportunity to reinvest in your health and wellness without the time constraints of a nine-to-five job. Stay active, explore new interests, and enjoy this next chapter of life!

  In the old days, they used to call a person with low energy and uninteresting, a bump on a log, don't be that person. 

M.N.Curry

You're Never Too Old to Exercise

  Staying active is important for older adults to maintain their health and independence. Here are some tips to help them stay motivated to exercise:

 -Make it fun: Try to find ways to make exercise enjoyable and interesting. Some people like to walk on a treadmill at the gym, while others find that kind of activity boring. Be creative and try new activities to keep your interest alive. Do things you enjoy but pick up the pace. Do all four types of exercise — endurance, strength, balance, and flexibility. The variety helps keep things interesting!

- Find ways to fit exercise into your day: You are more likely to exercise if it’s a convenient part of your day. Try exercising first thing in the morning or combine physical activity with a task that’s already part of your day, such as walking the dog or doing household chores.

- Make exercise a social activity: Many people agree that an “exercise buddy” keeps them going. Take a walk during lunch with coworkers or try a dance class — salsa, tango, square dancing — it’s up to you. Use family gatherings as a time to play team sports or do outdoor activities.

- Keep track of your exercise progress: The best way to stay motivated is to measure and celebrate your successes. Make an exercise and physical activity plan that works for you and track your daily physical activity. Find new ways to increase your physical activity and keep track of your monthly progress to see improvement.  If you need any inspiration, google Dick Van Dyke who as of now is 97 years old and has some good advice for you to stay active.

Stay Healthy

M.N.Curry

Exercise and Type 2 Diabetes

  

  One of the most undemanding and most workable ways to knock over blood sugar amount, eliminate the dangers of “cardiovascular disease,” and perk up health and welfare, in general, is exercise.
Despite that, in today’s inactive world where almost every indispensable job can be carried out online, from the ergonomic chair in front of a computer, or with a streaming line of messages from a fax machine, exercising can be a hard argument to win over.

  The Weight of Exercise

  Everyone should exercise, yet health experts tell us that only 30% of the United States population gets the recommended thirty minutes of daily physical activity, and 25% are not active at all. In fact, inactivity is thought to be one of the key reasons for the surge of type 2 diabetes in the U.S., because inactivity and obesity promote insulin resistance.
  The good news is that it is never too late to get moving, and exercise is one of the easiest ways to start controlling your diabetes. For people with type 2 diabetes in particular, exercise can improve insulin sensitivity, lower the risk of heart disease, and promote weight loss.

Type 2 Diabetes

  Diabetes is on the rise. The number of people diagnosed with diabetes every year increased by 48% between 1980 and 1994. Nearly all the new cases are Type 2 Diabetes, or adult-onset, the kind that moves in around middle age. Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes include increased thirst, appetite, and need to urinate; feeling tired, edgy, or sick to the stomach; blurred vision; tingling or loss of feeling in the hands.

  The causes of type 2 diabetes are complex and not completely understood, although research is uncovering new clues at a rapid pace.
  However, it has already been proven that one of the reasons for the boom in type 2 diabetes is the widening of waistbands and the trend toward a more deskbound and inactive lifestyle in the United States and other developed countries. In America, the shift has been striking; in the 1990s alone, obesity increased by 61% and diagnosed diabetes by 49%.
  For this reason, health experts encourage those who already have type 2 diabetes to start employing the wonders that exercise can do for them. Without exercise, people have the tendency to become obese. Once they are obese, they have a bigger chance of accumulating type 2 diabetes.
Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that over 80% of people with type 2 diabetes are clinically overweight. Therefore, it is high time that people, whether inflicted with type 2 diabetes or not, should start doing those jumping and stretching activities.

Getting Started

  The first order of business with any exercise plan, especially if you are a “dyed-in-the-wool” sluggish, is to consult with your healthcare provider. If you have cardiac risk factors, the healthcare provider may want to perform a stress test to establish a safe level of exercise for you.

  Certain diabetic complications will also dictate what type of exercise program you can take on. Activities like weightlifting, jogging, or high-impact aerobics can possibly pose a risk for people with diabetic retinopathy due to the risk of further blood vessel damage and possible retinal detachment.
  If you are already active in sports or work out regularly, it will still benefit you to discuss your regular routine with your doctor. If you are taking insulin, you may need to take special precautions to prevent hypoglycemia during your workout.

Start Slow

  For those who have type 2 diabetes, your exercise routine can be as simple as a brisk nightly neighborhood walk. If you have not been very active before now, start slowly and work your way up. Walk the dog or get out in the yard and rake. Take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park in the back of the lot and walk. Every little bit does work, in fact, it really helps a lot. As little as 15 to 30 minutes of daily, heart-pumping exercise can make a big difference in your blood glucose control and your risk of developing diabetic complications. One of the easiest and least expensive ways of getting moving is to start a walking program. All you need is a good pair of well-fitting, supportive shoes and a direction to head in.

  Indeed, you do not have to waste too many expenses on costly “health club memberships,” or the most up-to-date health device to start pumping those fats out. What you need is the willingness and the determination to start exercising for a healthier, type 2 diabetes-free life. The results would be the sweetest rewards from the effort that you have exerted.

Stay Healthy
MN Curry

Exercise and Arthritis

  Your bones hang out in a lot of joints. Knee joints. Hip joints. The joints in your fingers and the joints in your toes.

  Wherever bones meet, there is also cartilage, a rubbery, protective layer that ensures your joints bend smoothly and painlessly. But even cartilage cannot do this tremendous job alone. A thin membrane called the “synovium” provides fluid that lubricates the moving parts of the joint. When the cartilage wears out of the synovium and becomes inflamed, the result is generally a case of “osteoarthritis” or “rheumatoid arthritis.”

  In osteoarthritis, the cartilage can be eroded so much that bone does rub on bone. This type of arthritis develops gradually over a lifetime as a simple result of the wear and tear placed on your joints over the years. Very few people escape some degree of osteoarthritis, though the severity varies a great deal.

 
  As a matter of fact, if you are over the age of 50, you are likely to have at least one joint affected by osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis affects men and women equally and is by far the most common type of arthritis, with almost 16 million Americans on the list.
In rheumatoid arthritis, damage to the synovium is the source of trouble. Doctors and researchers are not absolutely sure what causes it, but most think that rheumatoid arthritis is a disease in which the immune system actually attacks certain tissues in the body, including those that connect the joints and the synovium.

  Rheumatoid arthritis begins with swollen, red, stiff, and painful joints, but it may progress until scar tissue forms in the joint or, in extreme cases, until the bones actually fuse together. Almost 75% of the 2 million people with rheumatoid arthritis in the United States are women. The disease can hit as early as the teen years.

Exercising Your Prevention Options

  Investing a little time in developing a good weight-bearing low-impact exercise and stretching plan can add up to great results when it comes to staving off arthritis pain. Strong muscles help protect the joints from wear and tear, and the movement keeps joints flexible.
  That is why the quest for fitness is at hand, even if you are 50 years and over. However, most Americans over 50 are still right where they always were sitting back and watching others jog by. Most of them contend that that is just for people who have been athletic all their life, or some say exercise is for young people and engaging in exercise will do them more harm than good.

  There are still some who insist on excusing their selves in exercise routines because they do not just have time or they have less energy than ever before. These are all lame excuses. Hence, it is time to start to get rid of those pains. Start exercising.

Consequently, preventing arthritis is not an exact science, but physicians have discovered a few ways to lower your risk. Here is how:

  1. Do not weight around
The single most important measure anyone can take to prevent osteoarthritis of the knee is to lose weight if they are overweight. Extra weight puts extra stress on your knees. If you are 10 pounds overweight, for example, you put 60 pounds per square inch of extra pressure on your knees every time you take a step. That extra pressure can slowly but surely erode the cartilage in your knees, leading to arthritis.
   A study has clearly supported the theory that weight loss weighs in on the side of prevention. In the study, overweight women who lost 11 pounds or more over 10 years decreased their risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee by 50%.

  2. Stretch those muscles
Any kind of stretching is good as long as you do not bounce, which can lead to a muscle pull. This is according to some of the professors of clinical medicine in New York City.

  Try to hold a slow, steady stretch for 15 to 20 seconds, then relax and repeat. It is best to flex up by stretching before any exercise, especially running and walking. But it is also a good idea to stretch each day. Ask your doctor to teach you stretches that focus on potential arthritis trouble spots, such as the knees or the lower back.

  3. Walking is always the best exercise
Take a good long walk at least three times a week or participate in a step-aerobics or low-impact exercise routine for maximum results. There is no proof that running is bad for the joints, but remember, it may aggravate an injury if you already have one. Just remember to check with your doctor before starting a new exercise program.

  The bottom line is that of all the healthful habits, exercise is the most important. This is because people are designed to be active. Hence, people need to exercise to stay healthy and keep those joints free from wear and tear.
  Just keep in mind that the unexercised body, even if free from the symptoms of illness or problems like arthritis, is not at its full potential. Hence, start exercising right now!

  Hang around for a while by staying healthy.

Stay Healthy

Mike

Admonition to myself: 11-hour workdays boost heart disease risk.

                                                                                                                by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

  Achtung! I am writing this article for myself... and for the legions of ultra-busy people who work 11 hours a day or more. We are the people who keep the world going... but to be able to do so, we need to stay healthy and alive.

On April 6, 2011, Bloomberg News reported that we were at risk and needed to take immediate action to minimize the problem.

The facts.

  Adults who worked 11 hours a day or more had a 67 percent higher risk of developing coronary heart disease than those who worked eight hours, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine reported (April 5, 2011). The researchers also found that by adding working hours to a standard heart attack risk assessment model, they could increase the accuracy of heart disease predictions by 5 percent.

Heart disease is the nation's leading killer.

  According to the National Institutes of Health, heart disease is the nation's leading killer. More and more people succumb to it because more and more people are working more and more hours, making ours the least leisured generation ever, the one with the greatest challenges and risks.

Remarks by Mike Kivimaki, the project lead researcher.

  Current evidence on coronary heart disease prevention emphasizes the importance of focusing on the total risk rather than single risk factors. "People who work long hours should be particularly careful in following healthy diets, exercising sufficiently, and keeping their blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and blood glucose within healthy limits," said project director Kivimaki.

  Srihari Naidu, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Winthrop University Hospital, Mineola, New York, said these data show that how people live -- their stress levels, sleeping, eating, and exercise habits -- can affect their risks for heart disease. "The choices we make in our lifestyle may have consequences," Naidu said.

Study details

  The research followed 7,095 civil service workers in London who were aged 39 to 62 at the start of the trial. They were screened for heart disease every five years. The study found that 192 people developed heart disease over 12.3 years of follow-up. Those who worked 10 hours a day had a 45 percent higher risk of heart disease than those who worked seven to eight hours.

Self-talk for myself.

  If you're one of those people who work 10 hours plus a day, listen up. I'm one of you.... and like you, I need to take such warnings with more seriousness. So, for me, you, I've created a list that I intend to keep right next to my computer. You should, too...

1) Don't ignore this warning, the way you've ignored previous warnings.

  You're no spring chicken; you're getting older... and if you want to get older still, don't just read these survey results... LIVE THEM!

  The plain fact is, that researchers have known for a long while the risk factors causing heart disease. You've seen, what, a few dozen warnings... and managed to ignore most of them, not the least of which comes from your physician as he urges you for the umpteenth time to stop smoking.

  Personal note: I don't smoke cigarettes, and never have. That's a must for all those who value life over nicotine.

2) Get up and boogie.

  I spend my entire, extended work day at the computer. To force myself to get up, I keep a list of peppy, jump-up music readily at hand. Who doesn't want to get up and boogie when the song is Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".... or any other lively number that gets more than your feet moving.

Music on... jump up... and move that body.

  Okay, so you're not Fred Astaire. So what? Exercise and its benefits are for the do-er, not the watcher... and it's your heart we want to keep in tip-top shape.

3) Walk.

Make it a point to walk, briskly too, at least 40 minutes a day.

  Walk, too, every other chance you can... to the post office, the barber, to the local cinema. You know the advantages of walking; you've known them all your life. Now decide to do something. Leave the car at home... and walk.

4) Eat small portions more often.

  The obesity phenomenon which was once pretty much an American affair has gone universal with a vengeance. Heart disease and excess pounds are, we know, related. But you can start solving this problem... today... by eating more often throughout the day but eating less.

  Here, too, I bet you already know what to do... you just aren't doing it. So, vow to make changes now, exchanging those high-sugar, high-salt, high-fat foods for celery and company.

  Get over the "giving up" mentality. Replace with the "here's what I'm getting" mentality. What you get here is plain: more of the distinctly limited time which is the most important thing you can get. Getting more time is absolutely essential thing, and you have it within your power to get more of it.

Now for strictly work-related observations.

  There are many reasons for working 10 hours a day or more. You might have hefty bills to pay and need the extra bucks. You might like the finer things in life. You might think yourself, and actually be, indispensable to your business. You might even be one of those who works hard to avoid the turbulence of unceasing family problems. Whatever your reason... enough is enough.

1) Review what you do, everything you do. What is essential and what is merely desirable? It's time to find and jettison what you can. Put your daily work life and activities under a microscope and scrutinize them closely.

2) Got people who can help? Learn to delegate. No, these people will NEVER be as good at what you do as you are... but they're there and good enough to assist. Besides, they can learn. Cutting back on one task or another may give them the chance to show what they can do to help you even more.

3) Ask yourself how much good you really do in your 10th or 11th hour on the job, where the principle of diminishing returns applies.

  Can you legitimately postpone a task until tomorrow? Is the physical price you pay, the extra fatigue, not to mention cumulative health risks worth overworking today... when it could easily be done, and freshly so, tomorrow?

You determine your fate.

  The ancient Greeks believed that Clotho spun the thread of life from her distaff onto her spindle;   Lachesis measured the thread of life with her rod, and Athropos cut of the thread of life and chose the manner of a person's death.

  Now you have replaced them all... how much of life, even the matter of your death, is at the very least influenced by you. I want more of it... and I now vow to do everything to lengthen my thread, not curtail it. Will you join me? Lach Haim.

About the Author

  Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is the CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and home-based businesses. Dr. Lant is also the author of 18 best-selling business books. Republished with author's permission by M. N. Curry