Healthy aging and longevity Archive

While Lyme disease is the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in the United States, a report from the CDC shows that ticks that cause babesiosis are appearing in more parts of the Northeast and Midwest.

A 2023 study involving 300 people suggested that people who kept a garden for one year ate about two more grams of fiber per day, had less stress and anxiety, and did more moderate-to-vigorous exercise per day than people who didn't do any gardening.

Daily brisk walking is great for health, and adding a few simple moves or tools can make it even better. To boost balance, it helps to occasionally walk heel-to-toe during the walk or turn sideways and take 10 side steps. To promote healthy bones and muscles, it helps to wear a weighted vest on a walk. To boost heart health, it helps to add arm raises during the walk or periodically jog for 30 seconds to a minute.

The options for places to have blood drawn are increasing. Options include hospital outpatient labs, freestanding labs, drugstore clinics, and urgent care centers. Mobile blood collection services will go to someone's home or office to do the blood draw. Before choosing a place to have blood drawn, it's important to ask where the results will be sent, whether the person collecting the sample will be a trained and certified phlebotomist, and how much the service will cost. Insurance companies usually require a doctor's order to cover costs.

Summertime activities often trigger foot pain from overuse or the lack of support in shoes. To prepare feet for summer, it helps to get shoes or sandals with good support and seek physical therapy to strengthen foot muscles. People who expect to be walking on a beach barefoot can give their feet a little practice and time to adapt by wearing slightly less supportive shoes at home, and then shoes with even less support. It's also a good idea to learn about ways to relieve foot pain if it strikes, such as foot baths, topical medications, and foot massage.

Caregivers may benefit from substitute caregivers who can give them a break. This "respite care" might come from a family member or friend who volunteers to help out. Or it can come from outside services such as adult or child day care centers, short-term stays (seven to 30 days) in a skilled nursing or memory care facility, professional child care or nanny services, or private duty care (which can send someone to be with a loved one up to 24 hours per day).

High-tech tools can help people with vision impairment. Examples include accessibility features (such as speech-to-text or text-to-speech) on a smartphone or computer; apps for navigation, magnification, or describing a scene; wearable devices that use video cameras to capture images and then project them onto tiny screens inside a headset; peripheral prism glasses, which shift light from one side of the eye to the other to make up for losses in field of vision; and household gadgets such as "talking" thermometers, scales, and calculators that audibly read out results.

Increasingly, hospitalist doctors (who are present in the hospital 24 hours a day) take care of hospitalized patients, with advice from the patients' primary care doctors. This helps solve the dilemma of primary care doctors needing to be in two places at once—in a hospital with some patients and in an office with others. It's not a perfect solution: hospitalists often don't know the patients they're caring for, and they are unfamiliar with patients' extensive medical records. But ultimately, the increasing number of hospitalists is probably improving the quality and efficiency of hospital care.

The risk of experiencing sudden cardiac arrest while exercising or participating in sports is quite low among active older adults, according to a 2023 study.

Foam rolling is a simple technique to help relieve soreness and tightness in muscle areas like the calves, thighs, buttocks, and back.