My Mom is getting a little hard of hearing. She doesn't want to hear that. Apparently, this is not uncommon among the elderly who are 70 and older. Nearly two thirds of elderly Americans have mild to severe hearing loss, men more often than women.

“There’s a general perception that hearing loss in older adults is not very important,” says Dr. Frank R. Lin, an assistant professor of otology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Maybe that's why my mother is dragging her feet about getting a hearing aid.

What's more important, elderly are going about their daily business with a handicap. Imagine driving -- much of what we do behind the wheel of the car is automatic, based upon subconscious information coming in through all of our senses. Knock out one of those sources of input, couple it with slower reaction times, and you have a recipe for hazard.

This didn't occur to me until I saw a documentary in PT school about a fellow who had a traumatic brain injury (TBI). He discussed his journey through recovery, the strain on his family and relationships, and getting his master's degree despite his disability. The most poignant moment of the film came at the end, when he and his father were going fishing. It symbolized moving on and rebuilding a relationship and life post-injury. His elderly father was hard of hearing, handicapped according to the author, but unaware of it in the terms that most of us think of it -- an invisible disability, much like TBI.

What side of the bed you sleep on may be dictated by marital status, but what side of your body you sleep on may give clues about heart and digestive health. According to a 2003 study in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, people with congestive heart failure may tend to sleep on their right side.

The findings were in keeping with the concept that a left-hand position “may exert deleterious effects” on heart pressure, cardiac output or the functioning of cardiac nerves and thus “may be a protective strategy,” researchers said, adding that the position choice might arise from discomfort from perceiving a stronger heartbeat.

A 1994 study from The Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, found that sleeping on the right may increase GERD.

Now, I'm a left-sided sleeper, but for a different reason. It's a little weird, but if I sleep on my right side, I tend to have vivid, nightmarrish dreams. Dreams on my left side tend to be happy dreams. I always figured it had to do with blood supply to the brain.

Now I've heard that eating spicy foods can elicit nightmares in some. Maybe, because I like spicy food, it digests better when I lay on my left. Maybe laying on the left helps to prevent GERD which may be perceived by the subconscious as fear and anger which could get morphed into bad dreams. But that's just me, maybe it is just the opposite for people with congestive heart failure.

Posted by linda http://massage.largeheartedboy.com/

According to research in the The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, exercise can reduce and even stop common characteristics of aging from graying hair to muscle atrophy and shrinking brains. The key seems to be cell's mitochondria. If you'll recall from your high school biology, mitochondria are the power house of the cell, creating energy by converting oxygen and glucose to ATP.

In a really sad experiment with mice who are genetically pre-programmed to age rapidly, unexercised mice began show signs of age by three months and were old and decrepit by 6 to 9 months and dead by one year old. In a second group, mice who exercised vigorously (the equivalent of an hour three times per week), showed no signs of aging.

The researchers were surprised by the magnitude of the impact that exercise had on the animals’ aging process, Dr. Tarnopolsky said. They had not expected that it would affect every tissue and bodily system studied.

It is still not clear how much exercise will yield such beneficial effects, but we have a pretty good idea. The guidelines from the American College of Sports Medicine stress at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity exercise 5 days per week for healthy adults to maintain their health a reduce the risk for chronic disease.

The good news about exercise and the human body is that it's never too late to start. Get out and walk 5 minutes and day and increase your activity level from there.
Posted by linda | http://massage.largeheartedboy.com/