Healthy aging and longevity Archive

Weight loss can be challenging, but there are some strategies for success.

 Image: © Wand_Prapan/Getty Images

If you're struggling to lose weight, you probably feel like the odds are stacked against you. You're not necessarily wrong.

"There is so much great-tasting food, and it's abundant and in your face all the time. To me it's kind of a miracle that people aren't even heavier than they are," says Dr. Meir Stampfer, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In addition to an abundance of food, most people today also have a far more sedentary lifestyle than past generations. "Even active people who exercise a lot aren't expending the calories their ancestors did," says Dr. Stampfer.

On call

Q. I have just recovered from the flu. How soon can I resume exercise again and can I go straight back to my previous routine?

A. The recommendations about when to return to exercise after respiratory infections, such as the flu, colds, or bronchitis, are vague. One major reason is that each person's response to illness is so variable. But here is my general advice.

The yoga routine "ten churnings" can be done on its own to help you get moving in the morning or to counteract stiffness after sitting for too long. In about six minutes, the routine can loosen up your joints and serve as a warm-up to a longer exercise session. To learn additional intermediate yoga exercises, visit: www.health.harvard.edu/iy

Falls can lead to pneumonia, brain injuries, or muscle breakdown. Learn the risks so you can avoid them.

It's easy to see why falls are a top cause of injury and death among older adults. Crashing to the ground with force obviously can break a bone, or worse. But are you familiar with that "worse" part? Learn about fall risks now, so you can do as much as possible to avoid injuries in the future and maintain your mobility and independence.

Fractures

In older adults, about 90% of broken bones (fractures) happen because of a fall. Breaks commonly occur in the ribs, spine, wrist, arm, ankle, or hip.

Ask the doctor

Q. What are mRNA vaccines, and could they prevent other diseases besides infections?

A. The very first vaccines approved in the United States to prevent COVID-19 are a new type: mRNA vaccines. The way any type of vaccine works is to train a person's immune system to recognize and attack a target, like a virus, when it enters the body. A vaccine does that by "showing" the immune system either a harmless (dead or weakened) virus or a critical piece of the virus' protein coat. With the COVID-19 virus, that critical piece is called the spike protein.

Here's what to ask when email and phone calls are the main way to help loved ones in a long-term care facility.

Managing a loved one's care in a nursing home or an assisted living facility has always been challenging. And it's harder now that visitation is extremely limited to protect residents from COVID-19. So how can you check on your loved ones, make sure they're being cared for properly, and let them know you're there for them?

Direct communication

If your loved one is able to communicate well, a daily phone or video call is crucial. But remember that when you ask basic questions — "How are you feeling?" "Are you eating and drinking enough?" "Are you getting enough sleep?" — you may not get an honest answer. "They may just tell you what you want to hear," says Dr. Suzanne Salamon, associate chief of gerontology at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

How much weight, how many reps and sets, and how often? Here's what new guidelines suggest.

Old-fashioned resistance training — lifting heavy weights multiple times — is the best way for men to slow and even reverse age-related muscle loss, known as sarcopenia. It can also increase your strength, protect against falls, and help you live a more independent life.

Resistance training (also known as strength training) consists of doing upper- and lower-body exercises using free weights (like dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells), weight machines, resistance bands, or just your own body weight.

Research we're watching

Your surgeon's birthday might be a bad day to get surgery. A study published Dec. 19, 2020, by The BMJ found that among Medicare beneficiaries 65 to 99 years old, those who had one of 17 common surgical procedures on their surgeon's birthday were more likely to die within 30 days of surgery than those who had surgery on other days during the year. To come to this conclusion, researchers looked at all fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries who underwent emergency procedures from 2011 to 2014. They tracked patient outcomes, making adjustments based on how severe the patient's illness was. Even after factoring in these differences, they still found that patients who underwent surgery on their surgeon's birthday had a higher death rate (6.9%) compared with those who did not (5.6%). The study authors suggested that this might have happened because surgeons were distracted by life events and were not as focused on work.