Healthy aging and longevity Archive

Terms like "healthy" or "natural" can be meaningless or misleading.

Image: Dragon Images/iStock

If you're like most nutrition-minded shoppers, the word "healthy" on the front of a package can be a big draw. "When you're stuck in a situation where processed foods are the only thing available to you, it can be helpful to know which foods are healthier than others," says Dr. Walter Willett, chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Yet these days you're on shaky nutritional ground if you rely on front-of-package claims like "healthy" to determine which soup, sauce, cereal—or other canned, bottled, boxed, or bagged food—is the best choice. A food marked "healthy" may be loaded with sugar or refined carbohydrates.

Published: March 1, 2017

Figuring out the exercise style that best suits your needs will help you stick to a plan.

 Image: © iStock

Making a plan to get regular exercise can be challenging. There are many options, and you may not be sure how to narrow them down. "The result may be that you put off exercising," says Madhuri Kale, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

It helps to know the basic categories of activity you can choose from: exercise classes, gym workouts, home workouts, and vigorous work or recreational activity. Here are some pros and cons to consider for each.

Take control by using helpful gadgets and talking to your doctor about reducing your medications.

 Image: © Wavebreakmedia/Thinkstock

There are many reasons why people are unable to stick to a medication regimen prescribed by a doctor, such as high costs or drug side effects. Often, those issues can be resolved by asking your doctor if a switch to another drug will help.

Another reason for what doctors call "non-adherence": too many pills and confusion about taking them. "It is a bigger problem than organization, and not always the patient's fault. Often providers write too many prescriptions without explaining them, or create a complicated schedule," says Dr. Sarah Berry, a geriatrician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

Bleeding

While a minor cut will eventually stop bleeding, a severe injury may require elevation and direct pressure on the wound. The goals of first-aid treatment are to control bleeding and prevent infection. If disposable surgical gloves are readily available, use them.

Butterfly Bandages

Direct Pressure for Bleeding and Pressure Points for Bleeding

How to Stop a Nosebleed

Birth of the Placenta

The placenta, which has provided the fetus with nourishment, is attached to the umbilical cord and is delivered about 20 minutes after the baby. Do not pull on the cord; delivery of the placenta occurs on its own. You can help by gently massaging the woman’s lower abdomen. The uterus will feel like a hard round mass.

Massaging the abdomen helps the uterus contract, which also helps stop bleeding. After the placenta is delivered, place it in a plastic bag to take with the woman and baby to the hospital. It is normal for more bleeding to occur after delivery of the placenta. Continue gently massaging the woman’s lower abdomen.

Butterfly Bandage

Direct Pressure to Stop Bleeding

A wound that is deep, bleeding heavily, or has blood spurting from it (caused by bleeding from an artery), may not clot and may not stop bleeding.

Immediate care
Call out for someone to get help, or call 911 yourself. Elevate the wound and apply direct pressure.

After a Heart Attack

Questions to Discuss with Your Doctor:

• Have you had chest pain or pressure since you were discharged from the hospital?
• How severe is it?
• How long does it last?
• Does it stay in your chest or radiate to other parts of your body?
• Did you have this pain before your heart attack? What brings it on? How frequently do you get it?
• What were you doing just prior to the chest pain?
• Do you ever get chest pain or pressure at rest?
• What relieves the chest pain?
• If you take nitroglycerin, how many doses do you usually need to take before the pain goes away?
• How often do you take nitroglycerin?
• Do you get short of breath when you lie down or exert yourself?
• Do you awaken in the middle of the night short of breath?
• Do your ankles swell?
• Do you ever feel lightheaded?
• Have you fainted?
• Do you get rapid or pounding heartbeat for no reason?
• Do you know what each of the medications you are taking does?
• Do you know the side effects of each medication?
• Are you having any side effects?
• Are you taking an aspirin every day?
• Are you doing everything you can to modify the risk factors that can worsen your coronary artery disease (cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are the most important risk factors)?
• Are you participating in a supervised exercise program?
• Are you resuming your normal activities?
• Are you sexually active?
• Have you returned to work?
• Have you been feeling depressed since your heart attack?
• Have you been able to reduce the stress in your life?
• Have you been fatigued?

Your Doctor Might Examine the Following Body Structures or Functions:

• Heart rate, blood pressure, and weight
• Pulses in your wrist, groin, and feet
• Listen over the major arteries in the neck, groin, and feet (for abnormal noises)
• Look at the veins in the neck to see if there is extra fluid in your body
• Heart and lungs
• Ankles and legs (for swelling)

Your Doctor Might Order the Following Lab Tests or Studies:

• Blood tests for glucose, lipid panel (cholesterol levels) and C-reactive protein (CRP)
• Electrocardiogram
• Echocardiogram
• Exercise stress test

Colonic Polyps

Questions to Discuss with Your Doctor:

• Do you have a family history of colonic polyps?
• Do you have bleeding from the rectum or bloody stools?
• Do you frequently have rectal pain or the sensation of needing to have a bowel movement?
• Do you have anemia (low blood count)?
• Do you have a family history of colon cancer?

Your Doctor Might Examine the Following Body Structures or Functions:

• Abdominal exam
• Rectal exam

Your Doctor Might Order the Following Lab Tests or Studies:

• Stool testing for blood
• Complete blood count
• Sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy, possibly with a biopsy or removal of a polyp (if one is found)