Displaying items by tag: healthy aging

This Valentine’s Day we want to remind you of a special relationship between physical health and level of risk for cognitive decline. You may already be aware that, when you engage in physical activity you are building both physical and mental fitness. What you may not know is there is a “brain-heart-health connection” that influences your risk of cognitive decline: The healthier your heart, the lower your level of risk is for dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). 

What Does a Healthy Brain Require?

The brain-heart-health connection isn’t particularly complex. In a nutshell, a healthy brain requires 3 things:  

1. glucose (the chemical name for sugar) for energy
2. a strong blood supply to carry glucose and oxygen into the brain
3. a healthy diet to provide essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, healthy fats) that serve as building blocks for brain chemicals such as serotonin and dopamine. 

Look over those items once more time. Numbers 1 and 3 on the list are directly related to your diet---what, how often, and how much you eat. Number 2 – a strong blood supply--is related to heart health. So how does heart health relate to brain health?

How a Fit, Healthy Heart Fuels a Fit, Healthy Brain

Your brain relies on a strong heart to pump oxygenated blood into all regions. Scientists now believe that the disease process that leads to Alzheimer’s Disease begins when brain tissue degrades and nerve tissue becomes damaged. Poor circulation to the brain is a key factor in causing such damage to brain tissue.

If you have a history of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, have diabetes, or other cardiovascular risk factors, it’s not only your heart that is at risk for disease, your brain is as well. For example, a type of dementia called vascular dementia can happen as a result of a series of small, “silent” strokes, sometimes called “mini-strokes.” Also, repeated or prolonged stress on the heart (such as from lack of physical activity, smoking, and stress) can lead to blockages and high blood pressure, which in turn affects circulation to the brain.

The good news is, many of the same things that strengthen the heart also help keep your brain fit and healthy. 

Exercise Daily. Exercise helps to strengthen the heart making it more efficient with each contraction; it improves the elasticity and strength of blood vessels; helps to lower blood pressure and improve circulation. When you exercise to build a healthy heart you are also supporting the health of your brain. 

Manage Stress. Stress elevates hormones in the body that increase inflammation which, over time, contributes to illness. Meditation, yoga, and mindful walking are stress management activities that put a damper on stress hormones and support the health of the heart, brain and body.

Smart Food. As we age, our bodies can become less efficient at digesting food and absorbing nutrients. Exercising and choosing nutrient-rich foods helps maintain healthy digestive processes, and provides the fuel the brain, heart and body need to maintain vital health. 

There are many other heart-healthy strategies you can use to support brain health. These include maintaining a sleep routine for adequate rest; reducing your intake of caffeine, processed foods, sugars, and alcohol; and of course, not smoking. 

Remember, the disease process that leads to Alzheimer’s evolves slowly, over as many as ten to twenty years! But the onset of dementia and AD can feel sudden because of the way it robs people of their vitality, memories, and quality of life. You have so many years ahead of you to take care of your heart and your brain...why not start today so that you can have a fitter, healthier future in your Golden Years!

Supporting Healthy Minds and Bodies at Everbrook Senior Living

From delicious, nutritious food to wellness and fitness activities to meet a wide variety of interests and needs, Everbrook Senior Living boasts a wide array of health and wellness solutions for every stage of life. Our cutting-edge wellness activities help participants achieve improvements in cardiovascular fitness, strength, and balance. These outcomes help residence reduce risk of injury from falls and risk for cardiovascular disease. 

The Wellness 4 Later Life program embodies the seven dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, social, intellectual, vocational, spiritual and environmental. Our highly experienced team of professional nurses, physiologists, therapists, and instructors delivers a customized, safe, and fun exercise program for each of our older adults. Enrichment activities help round out the needs of each resident, through activities that build community, strengthen cognitive skills, and support emotional wellbeing. 

Sources

CDC.com “Brain Health is Connected to Heart Health” Accessed 18 Jan 2022:https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/brain_health.htm

Natural Healing: Prevent Illness and Improve Your Life. The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (2017). (print)

TED Radio Hour. "Lisa Genova: Can Alzheimer's Disease be Prevented?" Accessed 10 Apr 2018:https://www.npr.org/2017/07/21/537016132/lisa-genova-can-alzheimers-disease-be-prevented 

NIA.NIH.gov "What Causes Alzheimer's Disease?" Accessed 10 Apr 2018:https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-causes-alzheimers-disease

Smith G.E., "Healthy Cognitive Function and Dementia Prevention." Am Psychol. (2016, May-June). 71:4, 268-275. Accessed 9 Apr  2018:http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/amp/71/4/268/ 

Healthy Aging and Prevention: Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Emory University.http://alzheimers.emory.edu/healthy_aging/index.html 

Fears of being placed in a nursing home preoccupy a supermajority of older adults as in surveys about their course of aging they consistently ranked memory loss, financial insecurity and losing independence as their top three concerns.¹ Yet, after age 80, the risk of being placed in a nursing home increases significantly. Seniors of advanced age experience what is termed “functional aging”, that is an inevitable, progressively declining continuum in functional ability from having a stable capacity to perform daily activities through a state of physical vulnerability (influenced by cognitive loss) in which the person is losing independence.² At advanced ages, some caregiver support becomes necessary for many, and for some, a nursing home admission. 

Although most seniors accept that the aging process accelerates physical and cognitive decline after age 80, they want to know whether they have any means to control the degree or pace of their functional losses. This article discusses the evidence-base showing that changes in lifestyle, particularly engaging in exercise targeted to improving functional fitness even in seniors who were mostly sedentary, can slow and in some cases reverse functional impairment, which in turn reduces the risk of being placed in a nursing home. In fact, there is strong evidence that long-term habitual exercise is linked to a slowing of the biological aging process, which certainly enhances independence.³: but, studies also show that even sedentary older adults who begin to exercise in later life can see significant improvements in physical and cognitive health.⁴

Functional impairment is caused by not only age, cognitive decline, multiple chronic medical conditions or following an acute medical event, but also from lifestyle choices- a sedentary lifestyle is shown to decrease functional fitness levels which in turn increases functional impairment while engaging in a physically active lifestyle appears to derive a polar opposite effect.⁵ Functional impairment reduces ability to perform activities of daily living, “ADL’s”:⁶ and, consequently, the most common reason that very old adults are placed in a nursing home is loss of ability to perform ADL’s.⁷ (Over 80% of nursing home residents need assistance with 3 or more ADL’s). Thus, when functional fitness is improved through exercise, that is, when an older adult experiences an enhanced ability to the summon strength, energy and executive function needed to carry out basic ADL’s, independence is retained for longer which reduces the risk of being placed in a nursing home.⁸

Hello! It’s National Healthy Aging Month in the month of September! What is healthy aging you ask? Healthy aging is defined as the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age. 

As we age, a lot of things about our body change both physically and mentally. It’s very important to be open to adapt healthy habits and behaviors as we grow. Physically, getting involved in an exercise program with friends or within your community. You can use preventative services and manage your health conditions regularly by seeing your physician once/twice a year with follow-ups to make sure you’re in the best possible health. Going over medications with your MD and knowing, as well as understanding, risk factors as you age is also important. Maybe that blood pressure medication you were put on before is not needed now due to improved health! Making changes in nutrition is important as well, such as less sodium intake in the foods you eat. Make a goal to stop smoking or smoke less than you used to before. Get your balance and vision checked to prevent falls. These are all great things you can do to maintain a strong healthy body.