Category Archives: Seniors

March is National Nutrition Month®

National Nutrition Month® is a nutrition education and information campaign created annually in March by the American Dietetic Association. The campaign focuses attention on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. This year’s theme is “Eat Right with Color”. National Nutrition Week was first observed in 1973 [...]

November is National Family Caregivers Month

Watching a family member struggle pains us all, especially when there is little we can do personally to alleviate their ailment. Unfortunately one of the most common issues facing the aging population is being diagnosed with dementia, cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. Alzheimer’s causes a person [...]

Seniors Should Maintain an Active Lifestyle

My colleague Dr. Jeffery Cummings gave a very informative interview to the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week (entitled Alzheimer’s studies urge active retirement). In the article, Dr. Cummings highlights the growing body of research that leading an active life, especially after retirement, appears to be one of the most important things one can do in [...]

Is Your State Ready for the “Silver Tsunami”?

This week the Alzheimer’s Association reminded us that as the baby boomer population continues to grow in the United States, so will the number of Alzheimer’s cases. They are referring to this phenomenon as the “Silver Tsunami”. Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth leading cause of death in America. At any given time this disease affects [...]

Vitamin D and Cognitive Health

This week Dr. Katherine Tucker of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging published a report in the Journals of Gerontology which makes the claim that elderly individuals may be able to help sustain their cognitive function by maintaining sufficient levels of vitamin D. The study (Vitamin D Is Associated with Cognitive [...]

Cognitive Ability is More Important than Age

In neuroscience news this week, a newly published study by Scott Huettel, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Duke Center for Neuroeconomic Studies) attempts to help disprove the myth that simply aging makes us inferior at financial decision making compared to our younger counterparts. Dr. Huettel’s study was published earlier [...]

Our Best Years Are Yet To Come

You’ve probably heard that your brain starts to shrink as you get older, and that it gets harder to learn new skills and absorb new information. It is true that certain human brain parts stop developing in our mid 20s. However, (as discussed in a previous blog entry) medical scientists are now saying that in [...]

Hypertension and Cognitive Decline

Can Reducing Hypertension Also Reduce the Risk of cognitive decline? The ill effects of hypertension (high blood pressure) have been well documented by the medical community. If you suffer from high blood pressure, there is a good chance you might also suffer from: Pulsating headaches Retinopathy or related eye damage and vision impairments Nausea and [...]

Living Life Purposefully Might Ward Off Alzheimer’s

A new study published in this month’s issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry uncovers that people who say their lives have a purpose are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or its precursor, mild cognitive impairment. The study was designed to test whether a positive attitude and purposeful life has a positive effect on [...]

Alzheimer’s Disease 2010 Facts & Figures

This week the Alzheimer’s Association issued its 2010 Fact and Figures and the numbers show no surprises. That is, we were all expecting the numbers to be on a continual increase year over year and that was pretty evident in the reading. Let’s review the basic numbers: As the 7th leading cause of death in [...]