Staying Healthy Archive

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On call

Q. I have trouble seeing clearly at night, especially when I drive. Should I change my glasses, or could it be a more serious eye problem?

A. As people reach age 60 and older, trouble seeing at night becomes a typical issue. The problem could be with your glasses or your eyes. Your eyesight might have changed since you were last fitted with glasses, and the change is noticeable only at night. If so, an updated prescription for new lenses may do the trick. Even if your eyeglass prescription is correct, ask your optometrist to add an antireflective coating to your lens to cut down on the glare of headlights of an oncoming car.

There are ways to keep morning stiffness from being a pain.

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Ever get that "old man" stiffness in the morning? You know the feeling: the dull, achy, and sometimes painful feeling in your joints — along with the customary grunts and groans — when you first stand and slowly move around.

"It's not known why this happens, especially as people age, but the only common thread is that it occurs after long bouts of inactivity," says Dr. William Docken, a rheumatologist with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "That is why you often feel so stiff when you wake up, since sleeping is when you are inactive for the longest continuous time."

Begin the new year by reviewing where you are now and where you want to go.

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This year, don't fall back on the standard resolutions as a way to set goals. Instead, do a health self-assessment. It's a way to measure where you are now, decide what you want to do, and determine how to get there.

"A health self-assessment gathers the vital information you need to begin thinking more about your life and how you want to live," says Susan Flashner-Fineman, Vitalize 360 Coach at Harvard-affiliated Hebrew SeniorLife, a comprehensive wellness program that promotes healthy aging. "It helps identify your life goals, which can vary from something as simple as ensuring you can continue your independent living to something more ambitious, like traveling more."

Facial exercises are being touted as a way to reverse signs of aging. A workout can't hurt and might even help. But there's little evidence of benefit.

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It used to be that women's magazines only gave fitness advice for your body. But today when you open the pages of many publications, you'll see advice on exercising not only your body, but your face, too. Articles tout strengthening exercises for the facial muscles — and even face yoga — as a way to slim and tone facial structures and help fight signs of aging.

Sounds great. But is it true? Should your workouts extend above the neck as well as below? And will those exercises really do anything for those wrinkles, sagging jowls, or double chin?

Research we're watching

Do you know someone who is using a supplement for weight loss, muscle building, or sexual enhancement? You might want to recommend a dose of caution. An analysis published on October 12 by JAMA Network Open found that many of these supplements contain unapproved and potentially dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients. From 2007 to 2016, FDA reviewers detected contaminants in 776 dietary supplements, produced by 146 different companies. Contaminants included sildenafil, which is the generic form of the drug Viagra; sibutramine (Meridia), a weight-loss drug taken off the market in the United States in 2010; and anabolic steroids or steroid-like substances. And 20% of products contained more than one unapproved ingredient.

These supplements could prove harmful for those who take them because their ingredients may interact with other medications or cause problems for people with underlying health conditions.

Research we're watching

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Even so-called nontoxic nail polishes may still contain toxic ingredients, says a study published October 10 in Environmental Science and Technology. In the early 2000s, some nail polish makers decided to start removing three problematic chemicals — dibutyl phthalate, toluene, and formaldehyde — from their products. These new formulations were often labeled as "3-free." Yet subsequent testing showed that some of these polishes still contained these chemicals. This study found that manufacturers replaced these ingredients with new chemicals that may also bring health risks, including triphenyl phosphate and the potentially cancer-causing chemical didiethylhexyl phthalate.

The study authors say that additional action is needed to better protect both consumers and nail salon workers.

On call

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Q. I have lost some of my sense of taste. I take medicine for high blood pressure. Could that be the reason?

A. The ability to enjoy food's flavor requires both your sense of taste and your sense of smell, which are triggered by the stimulation of nerve endings in the mouth and nose. As we age, our senses of smell and taste diminish. We lose taste buds, and those that remain shrink; and our tongue and nose become less discerning.

Exercising in colder temperatures offers many advantages.

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Even though the temperature has dropped, this doesn't mean you have to bring your workouts indoors.

"When it gets into the 40s and 30s, you can still enjoy your regular outside routines, like walking, running, and even cycling," says Dr. Adam Tenforde, an assistant professor of sports medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

In the journals

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A high-protein breakfast may help curb your appetite later in the day, suggests a small study in the October 2018 Journal of Dairy Science.

Researchers assigned 32 healthy adults to eat a breakfast containing two servings of a high-carbohydrate cereal, with either 1 cup of commercial milk that contained 12.4 grams of protein, or 1 cup of milk mixed with a whole-milk protein concentrate or a whey protein powder that boosted protein intake to 28 grams. The participants then had their blood sugar levels measured.

Beans, peas, and peanuts are high in protein but lower in saturated fat than red meat.

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Looking for a quick way to improve your diet? Try swapping some of your regular servings of red meat with legumes.

"People will ask me, is red meat bad for me? And my answer is, compared to what? Compared to sugar, no. Compared to legumes, yes. That's where I think legumes come in. They are especially beneficial if they can replace red meat," says Dr. Meir Stampfer, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.