Don't live in silence, when a hearing aid can restore the sounds you're missing.

Getting older comes with several new challenges. Sight isn't as clear as it used to be. Joints don't move as effortlessly, or as painlessly, as they once did. And hearing everything from conversations to concerts can become more difficult. By age 65, one in three of us will have more trouble hearing the sounds around us. By age 75, that percentage will jump to nearly half.

Here's a little incentive to start strengthening your muscles: a Harvard study published Jan. 14, 2014, in PLOS Medicine found that women who strengthen or condition their muscles more than 150 minutes per week have a 40% lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women who don't do muscle work. How does this happen? "Muscle-strengthening and conditioning activities may help to improve insulin sensitivity and glucose uptake by muscle," says Dr. JoAnn Manson, coauthor of the study and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In other words, the more muscle you have, the more glucose (sugar) it will use. Otherwise, too much glucose in your blood can lead to diabetes. And if you really want to cut your risk of diabetes, add aerobic exercise. When study subjects did at least 150 minutes per week of aerobics as well as at least 60 minutes per week of muscle strengthening, they were about 70% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes as inactive women. You can get the benefits of strength training by doing any activity that places resistance on your muscles, such as yoga, stretching, toning exercises, and working with free weights, weight machines, or resistance bands. Strong muscles can also help improve your cholesterol levels, decrease body fat, strengthen your bones, maintain a healthy weight, reduce joint pain, and fight mild depression.

To learn more about a foot condition, click on one of the four images below.

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The lower-is-better rule doesn't just apply to cholesterol.

Once upon a time, in a land not far away at all, a healthy blood pressure was thought to be 100 plus your age. That simple rule of thumb has gone the way of hats for men, cordiality in politics, and affordable health insurance. It was replaced in 1977 by a cutoff of 160/95 separating "normal" from high blood pressure. That cutoff continues to drift downward, steadily eroding what we think of as normal or healthy blood pressure.

Take quick action and you could save the tooth. A root canal may be unavoidable, but (honest!) it shouldn't be that painful.

Most dental trauma happens to younger people. But we adults damage our teeth plenty, too. Some of us don't put away childish things. Errant basketballs and baseballs, mountain bike spills — they've landed more than a few in the dentist's chair. Age in general takes a toll on our sense of balance, so stumbles become more common. Pitch forward, and your teeth may get the worst of it.

Water's good. Sugar-free gum helps. But Listerine may give you a dry mouth.

Saliva is like a health drink for your teeth and mouth. The three pints produced by the salivary glands each day contain antibacterial substances that protect teeth from cavities. Saliva contains calcium and phosphorus that teeth absorb. It also functions as an overall lubricant for the mouth, preventing food from sticking to your teeth and gums. By neutralizing gastric acid and keeping the flow of food and drink through the mouth and esophagus on the right course, saliva may help check gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), a leading cause of heartburn.

Research we're watching

Obesity paradox? Just a myth

It's bad news for the people who have clung to the idea that obesity may protect certain people with diabetes (such as the very old or ill) against dying from a serious heart condition—the so-called obesity paradox. A major study in The New England Journal of Medicine found that in people with type 2 diabetes, excess body weight does not lower the risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other causes.

The researchers looked at 11,000 people with type 2 diabetes who were part of two long-term studies. None had cancer or heart disease. Over the 15-year follow-up, researchers tracked participants' body mass index (BMI). BMI is a measure defined by both your weight and height; the range from 18.5 to 24.9 is considered normal.

A Mediterranean diet rich in extra-virgin olive oil cuts the chance of developing diabetes by almost a third, according to the latest data from the PREDIMED study in The Annals of Internal Medicine. PREDIMED was a large study in Spain that tested the ability of Mediterranean-style eating to prevent cardiovascular disease.

In the study, 7,500 people, ages 55 to 80, were divided up and put on one of three diets: a reduced-fat diet, a Mediterranean diet supplemented with nuts, or a Mediterranean diet supplemented with minimally processed (extra-virgin) olive oil. Roughly half of the participants did not have diabetes when the study started.

The long-term risk of painful complications from the disease process known as diverticulosis may be lower than we thought, according to a study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

In diverticulosis, a person develops pockets (diverticula) in the wall of the colon. The pockets are usually harmless, but they sometimes get infected and inflamed (diverticulitis), causing pain and extreme discomfort.