Healthy aging and longevity Archive

What do the new government guidelines for exercise and physical activity mean for you? It depends on your age and ability, but overall: move more, sit less.

Everyone knows some people who can eat ice cream, cake, and whatever else they want and still not gain weight. At the other extreme are people who seem to gain weight no matter how little they eat. Why? What are the causes of obesity? What allows one person to remain thin without effort but demands that another struggle to avoid gaining weight or regaining the pounds he or she has lost previously?

On a very simple level, your weight depends on the number of calories you consume, how many of those calories you store, and how many you burn up. But each of these factors is influenced by a combination of genes and environment. Both can affect your physiology (such as how fast you burn calories) as well as your behavior (the types of foods you choose to eat, for instance). The interplay between all these factors begins at the moment of your conception and continues throughout your life.

Exercising may be the last thing you want to do when your joints are stiff and achy. But exercise is a crucial part of osteoarthritis treatment in order to  ease pain and stay active.

Osteoarthritis is a chronic and progressive disease characterized by loss of the cartilage that covers and protects the ends of the bones where they meet at a joint. Without this protective coating, bone rubs against bone, causing irritation and inflammation. The result is pain and stiffness in the joint and often pain in the muscles and ligaments that surround it.

Most people experience some degree of decreased memory as they get older, but memory performance is also affected by mood and sleep quality, and these are factors that can be controlled and improved.

Q. I take ibuprofen p.m. on occasion — maybe once a month or so — to help me get to sleep. It seems to work. Is that okay?

A. Ibuprofen p.m. is a combination medication that contains ibuprofen and diphenhydramine, which is the active ingredient in Benadryl, an antihistamine taken for allergies.

Q. I have always had my blood tests taken the first thing in the morning, before I've had breakfast. We've just moved to a new home and I'll have a long commute to the hospital, so I'd like to eat before I start out. My cholesterol has always been great, so my doctor said a light breakfast won't interfere with cholesterol tests. But he didn't know if eating would change my PSA result. What do you think?

A. At last — a PSA question with a simple, un-equivocal answer: Breakfast will not affect your PSA result, nor will lunch or dinner. In June 2005, doctors proved the point by measuring PSA levels three times over the course of a single day in 80 patients with an average age of 62 years. The samples were obtained before breakfast, after breakfast, and after lunch — and there were no changes in the PSA results.

Most people experience some degree of decreased memory as they get older, but memory performance is also affected by mood and sleep quality, and these are factors that can be controlled and improved.

Q. How often should a healthy 55-year-old woman have a colonoscopy? Do the benefits outweigh the risk of complications, such as bowel perforation?

A. Colonoscopy is one of several tests used to screen for colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer and cause of cancer mortality (after breast and lung cancer) in American women. In 2018, some 140,000 Americans were diagnosed with the disease, and 50,000 died of it. Experts believe that adequate screening could have prevented perhaps 60% of those deaths.

Q. I belch a lot and get a feeling of fullness in the upper abdomen. Is excessive belching  a common condition? What are the causes and cures? I would prefer natural remedies.

A. Belching and feeling full are normal, everyday experiences. So, what makes them "excessive"? There's no precise definition. But if you start belching or feeling full more often than you have in the past, or if belching and fullness are causing you distress and discomfort, then I'd consider that excessive belching and a problem that you should try to solve.

Q. I'm 63, and I've begun to notice a decline in the quality of my fingernails. They have numerous up-and-down ridges, and at the tips, they're always splitting. I've heard you can tell a lot about a person's health from the condition of her nails. What does my split nails say about mine?

A. Some changes in nails can be a sign of an underlying health problem, but the lengthwise nail ridging you describe is usually not one. It's simply a common sign of normal aging. The growth of fingernails and toenails slows as we get older, and their appearance may change. Some nails become yellowed or dull and brittle, and some or all may develop tiny longitudinal ridges. Fingernails tend to become thinner and more fragile, while toenails usually become thicker and harder.