Alzheimer's Disease Archive

Ask the doctor

Q. I've taken blood pressure medicines every morning for many years, and they keep my pressure under control. Recently, my doctor recommended taking them at bedtime, instead. Does that make sense?

A. It actually does make sense — based on recent research. For many years, there have been at least three theoretical reasons for taking blood pressure medicines before bedtime. First, a body system that strongly affects blood pressure, called the renin-angiotensin system, has its peak activity during sleep. Second, circadian rhythms cause differences in the body chemistry at night compared with daytime. Third, most heart attacks occur in the morning, before medicines taken in the morning have a chance to "kick in."

In the journals

If you want to make fewer mental mistakes, try meditation, suggests a study in the September 2019 issue of Brain Sciences.

Researchers recruited 200 people who had never meditated and led them through a guided 20-minute meditation called open monitoring. While many styles of meditation have you focus on a single object, like your breathing or a visual image, the goal of open monitoring meditation is to pay more attention to your feelings and body sensations.

Ask the doctors

Q. I recently started experiencing a lot of pain in my hand from osteoarthritis. Can I reverse this condition?

A. You can't reverse osteoarthritis, but there are things you can do to manage your pain and improve your symptoms. Osteoarthritis occurs when the protective cartilage that acts as cushioning between your bones starts to fray and wear down over time. Eventually this enables the bones to rub together, which causes the pain you are experiencing as well as swelling and stiffness that makes it difficult to move your hand freely. Typically, when you have arthritis, the pain and symptoms will be worse at some times than at others. You may experience a flare-up one day and feel better the next. To help reduce the discomfort of a flare-up, talk to your doctor about medication to relieve pain. She or he may recommend an over-the-counter pain reliever. Some people also get symptom relief using a topical pain reliever that is rubbed into the skin. Other strategies that can ease pain are splints or braces, heat or cold therapy, activity modification, and exercises or physical therapy to increase flexibility and strengthen your hand muscles.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in the body’s system for reward and pleasure. A recent trend has people avoiding stimulating activities in the belief that doing so allows the body to reset from being overstimulated, but the original idea has been misunderstood and wrongly applied.

The nicotine in cigarettes stimulates the nervous system, resulting in a mood boost. But does this mean that smokers will reach for a cigarette when they are feeling sad? Researchers found that sad feelings may cause some people to smoke.

Changing your mindset doesn't mean taking a Pollyanna view of the world. The key isn't to deny stress, but to recognize and acknowledge it—and then to find the upside, because a full-throttle fight-or-flight response is not the only possible reaction to stress (at least when the stress does not involve a potentially life-threatening situation).

In people with a more stress-hardy mindset, the stress response is often tempered by the challenge response, which accounts for the so-called excite-and-delight experience that some people have in stressful situations, such as skydiving. Like the typical stress response, the challenge response also affects the cardiovascular system, but instead of constricting blood vessels and ramping up inflammation in anticipation of wounds, it allows for maximum blood flow, much like exercise.

Here's what to do when your mind tends to wander.

Everyone's attention can drift at times, like when you lose your concentration for a moment while doing routine tasks.

Many people shrug off these lapses in focus as "senior moments," but they might be related to a vulnerable brain process called executive function.

Chronic stress is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, heart attacks, and strokes. These strategies can help you manage it.

People often complain about stress, but it's actually a natural reaction with an essential purpose.

When the body senses danger, it starts its fight-or-flight response. Your nervous system releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol, which jolt the body into a protective mode. Your heart pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breathing quickens, and your senses sharpen.

In the journals

People who quit smoking decades ago are still at risk for lung diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a study published online Oct. 9, 2019, by The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Researchers looked at lung capacity — the amount of air in your lungs after taking a deep breath — among more than 25,000 people and analyzed the results based on whether the individuals smoked, had quit smoking, or had never smoked. Previous research has suggested that the decline in lung capacity that occurs with smoking levels off within a few years after people quit.

Ask the doctors

Q. Every winter I experience mood changes. How do I know if it's seasonal affective disorder?

A. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that typically affects individuals during the winter months. Some experts believe it's triggered by a reduction in natural light, which starts in the fall and continues until the spring. Tracking your mood changes can help your doctor determine if you have the condition. People formally diagnosed with SAD experience episodes of major depression that occur in the fall and winter for at least two years. During these episodes, people may feel hopeless or worthless, have sleep problems, or experience changes in appetite or weight. They may also be irritable or anxious and lose interest in favorite activities.