Alzheimer's Disease Archive

Mindfulness is the practice of purposely focusing your attention on the present moment, such as how the air smells and feels as you walk your dog, or how a bite of bread tastes with dinner. The ultimate goal is to help shift your thoughts away from your usual preoccupations toward an appreciation of the moment and a larger perspective on life.

Scientific examination of mindfulness shows that it can improve both physical and psychological symptoms and create positive changes in health attitudes and behaviors.

Strengths are built-in capacities for certain thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Everyone has these capacities to one degree or another. Your particular pattern of strengths is part of what makes you unique.

When you play from your strengths, you are likely to feel more energetic and perform better than when you are trying to use a capacity that comes less naturally. For example, one person trying to influence a local school board to ban soft drink sales might have the strength to speak up forcefully and clearly at a general meeting (despite the almost-universal fear of public speaking). Another person strong in team-building might feel uncomfortable speaking out in a meeting but could successfully build consensus among parents, nutritionists, and others to weigh the issue and come to a decision.

Mind-body medicine is providing new models for wellness and therapy by combining conventional and complementary approaches to treatment. At this seminar, a panel of Harvard Medical School faculty will discuss this quickly developing approach that may help shape the future of medicine.

Each spring, Harvard Medical School's Office of Communications and External Relations organizes a series of four free "mini-med school" classes for the general public in the heart of Boston's Longwood Medical Area. At the end of the seminar series, participants who attend three out of the four sessions receive a certificate of completion. Topics are selected for their appeal to a lay audience and have included the human genome, nutrition, sleep dynamics and health care access. Faculty from Harvard Medical School and its affiliate hospitals volunteer their time to present these lectures to the community.

Be proactive by learning about and tracking your conditions and medications, and by speaking up when you have concerns.

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We don't want our golden years to be spent juggling a long list of health issues. But that's the reality for most older adults in the United States.

The CDC reports that 75% of Americans ages 65 or older have several chronic health problems. And a 2013 analysis of Medicare claims published online by Preventing Chronic Disease found that 68% of beneficiaries had two or more chronic conditions and 36% had at least four.

Ask the doctor

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Q. Home remedies aren't stopping my hiccups. Is there something my doctor can prescribe to help?

A. In the May 2018 issue, I answered a question about hiccups, saying they are common but typically short-lived, and that simple home remedies often can end them. However, I ran out of space to say something about treatments for the very unusual cases of hiccups that don't respond to simple treatments.

News briefs

Baby boomers are falling short in getting hepatitis C screenings. In 2012, the CDC urged the entire generation of people born from 1945 to 1965 to get this simple blood test, noting that baby boomers are five times more likely to have the virus than other adults. But a study published online March 27, 2018, by the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention found that only about 13% of baby boomers had been tested by 2015, up just one percentage point from 2013. The information came from national government health surveys. Hepatitis C can lead to cirrhosis, liver damage, liver cancer, and liver failure. Treatments are now available that can cure hepatitis C, if it's caught early enough. Baby boomers are believed typically to have become infected in the 1960s through the 1980s, when transmission of hepatitis C was highest. People at highest risk are those who have used intravenous drugs, had more than one sex partner, or received a blood transfusion before 1992, when the blood test for hepatitis C was first available.

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On call

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Q. I have recently been hearing a lot about getting tested for hepatitis C. I don't think I have any risk factors, but is this something I should consider?

A. Hepatitis C is a viral disease that causes inflammation of the liver. The CDC reports that 75% of all current cases of hepatitis C are in the baby boomer generation and many more are undiagnosed. The reason is that a vast majority of people have no symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain, abdominal pain, and nausea.

These strategies may offer greater protection.

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While there's no cure for Alzheimer's disease, ongoing research has suggested there may be ways to lower your risk.

"Much of the existing science supports how certain behavioral changes made in middle age can protect people as they grow older," says Dr. Kirk Daffner, director for the Center for Brain/Mind Medicine at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "However, there is evidence that adopting certain healthy lifestyle habits can benefit older adults too."

One of the most dangerous and distressing symptoms of Alzheimer's is wandering. It may seem unfathomable that a person might suddenly get up at night to go to the post office or leave home at any hour for no apparent reason. But wandering may be prompted by deep-seated memories of work, chores, or hobbies, or a longing to return to a former home.

The inability to control wandering is what often drives families to decide to place a loved one in a nursing home. However, there are some simple measures to prevent wandering that often work well for a time and can even help postpone that difficult decision.

Q: I have strong hand cramps that curl my fingers into a claw shape. I can only straighten them by using my other hand. What can I do to keep this from happening? 

A: What you describe sounds like carpal spasm. Spasms, or cramps, are involuntary muscle contractions. The most common causes of spasms are overused muscles (in the hands that might be due to writing or typing) and dehydration. Other causes of muscle cramping include low levels of calcium and magnesium.