Staying Healthy Archive

Getting the right amount is really about just listening to your body.

Many experts these days are advising women to drink lots of water to stay in good health, and women seem to be listening. It's common to see people toting around voluminous bottles of water and swigging from them all day long. And there's no question that water is necessary for optimal health: it keeps your urinary tract healthy, keeps food moving along your digestive tract, helps regulate your blood pressure and body temperature, and works to cushion and protect joints, organs, and other tissues.

One recent study suggested that not drinking enough water could also affect women's cognition. The study, published online in November 2019 by the European Journal of Nutrition, found that women with lower scores on a test that measured how hydrated they were (called serum osmolarity) also scored lower on cognitive tests that measured recall, attention, mental processing speed, and verbal fluency.

News briefs

In the old days, doctors would make house calls; that rarely happens today. However, a new kind of "house call" is in the works: in many cities it's now possible to receive hospital care at home for certain conditions. Such "home hospital care" programs are gaining in popularity. A randomized controlled Harvard study published online Dec. 17, 2019, by Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that the home hospital model of care is less expensive and leads to fewer readmissions than in-hospital care.

Researchers studied about 90 people who'd been diagnosed in the emergency room with infections or flares of heart failure or breathing problems. Half of the people were admitted to hospitals, and the other half were enrolled in home hospital care. The home hospital care group received visits from doctors and nurses, intravenous medications, and video monitoring. People in the home group had 38% lower hospital costs than those in the hospital group, they were more active during care, and they were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after their care less frequently (7% vs. 23%) than those in the hospital group. Home hospital care is not appropriate for everyone. "If someone is too sick or is in need of advanced procedures, their care may be better delivered in a traditional hospital," says Dr. David M. Levine, the study's lead author and an internal medicine specialist with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. However, if you have an illness that needs constant monitoring and treatment for several days — in other words, it can't be done in a doctor's office — yet it also doesn't require advanced procedures or constant and intensive nursing care, the home hospital care model may make sense. "If the home hospital model were offered to a member of my family, I'd encourage them to do it," says Dr. Levine.

Here's how to maintain your current active lifestyle.

Older adults want to enjoy their independent living as long as possible. Yet this can become a challenge as people face more health issues.

"Most life changes that cause older adults to lose some or all of their independence occur either gradually or suddenly," says Dr. Jennifer Rhodes-Kropf, a primary care geriatrician at Harvard-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife's Center Communities of Brookline, Mass. "You need to stay on top of critical areas that can jeopardize your health and lifestyle."

Research we're watching

Sticking to certain healthy lifestyle habits at midlife could add disease-free years to your life, according to a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Study authors found that 50-year-old women who maintained five healthy habits — exercising at least 30 minutes a day, following a healthy diet, maintaining a body mass index in the normal range, having no more than one serving of alcohol a day, and not smoking — lived on average 10.7 more years free of diseases, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer, compared with initially healthy women who practiced none of those habits at age 50. Their findings, published online January 8 by BMJ, were based on 34 years of data from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which involved more than 73,000 women and some 38,000 men.

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On call

Q. More and more nutrition advice seems to be anti-sugar these days. So are artificial sweeteners a good alternative, especially when it comes to weight loss?

A. Many people consume artificial sweeteners, which include acesulfame, aspartame, neotame, saccharin, stevia plant extract, and sucralose, because they want to lose weight, avoid the "empty" (non-nutritious) calories of sugar, or avoid weight gain. Replacing concentrated sugar with products that have few, if any, calories should tilt energy balance in favor of weight loss. Some short-term studies suggest that artificial sweeteners may have that effect.

Research we're watching

The number of alcohol-related deaths in the United States doubled between 1999 and 2017, a change that included an 85% increase in alcohol-related medical emergencies and deaths specifically among women. The analysis of U.S. death certificate data, published online in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that the number of death certificates mentioning alcohol rose from 35,914 to 72,558 over that time span. Deaths from alcohol included everything from liver disease to overdoses (of alcohol alone, or in combination with other drugs). The biggest increases occurred among people ages 25 to 34, but affected people of all ages. Women are more likely than men who drink the same amount to develop alcohol-use disorder, as well as cardiovascular disease, and liver disease. Drinking alcohol regularly also may elevate breast -cancer risk.

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Sharing your life experiences and wisdom with the younger generation can benefit both them and you.

Did you have someone in your life you looked up to? A role model who offered guidance and advice during your formative childhood years or early in your career? These mentors helped shape the person you became. Now is an ideal time to return the favor and become a mentor for a younger person.

"Many older adults have valuable insight and experience that can benefit the next generation as well as improve their own well-being in the process," says Dr. Shannon Scott-Vernaglia, director of pediatric residency training with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital, who leads the hospital's mentorship program. "Mentorship can be a wonderful gift for everyone involved."

The sit-and-rise test helps assess your physical function.

Try this without touching your hands or knees to the floor: from a standing position, sit on the floor with your legs crossed or straight out. Now stand up again. (This is not an easy movement for many people, so for safety do it with someone next to you.)

How did you do? Did you struggle? Did you need to put your hand or a knee on the ground? Could you not get up?

The right kind of inflammation is essential to your body's healing system. But chronic inflammation can be a problem.

The saying "too much of a good thing" applies to much of life, but especially to inflammation.

"People think inflammation needs to be stomped out at all times, but it plays an essential role in healing and injury repair to keep your body safe and healthy," says Dr. Robert H. Shmerling, medical editor of Understanding Inflammation from Harvard Health Publishing and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Some inflammation is good. Too much is often bad. The goal is to recognize when inflammation is simply doing its job, and when it can potentially cause problems."

Learn the risks before diving into this experimental eating style.

Intermittent fasting is a popular eating strategy being studied in labs and practiced in kitchens across America. And it's more than a fad. Restricting your calories or mealtimes may have the potential for many benefits, such as weight loss and reduced risk of various diseases. We don't have much evidence, however, about intermittent fasting's effect on the health of older adults.

What is intermittent fasting?

Intermittent fasting restricts when or how much you eat — and sometimes both. There are several approaches.