High blood pressure doesn’t have to be your battle alone. With the updated definition—130/80 mmHg or more—it’s a reality for half of American adults. But don’t let that number intimidate you. Blood pressure naturally swings throughout the day, but a constant high can spell trouble, leading to heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure. Sure, medications are a go-to for many, but you’ve got power too! Simple lifestyle tweaks can tame those numbers, or even stop hypertension before it starts. Trim Down, Starting with Your Waistline Your waistline isn’t just about fitting into jeans—it’s a blood pressure barometer. Guys, if you’re over 40 inches and ladies, over 35 inches, you’re in the hypertension zone. Need a nudge to shed pounds? Remember, weight loss is your best bet to dodge high blood pressure and cut down on meds. Get Moving Shedding weight…
Birth Trauma Can Have Surprising Effects on Your Mental *and* Physical Health
Read More at Well+Good [[{“value”:” I hated being pregnant. With endless food aversions, a heightened sense of smell that made everything and everyone stink, an unremitting metallic taste in my mouth, 24/7 nausea, and relentless acid reflux (just to name a few symptoms), I was living in a perpetual hell for close to nine months. While my pregnancy journey wasn’t what I’d hoped for, I set my sights on the birth, hoping it would be a redemptive experience. Don’t get me wrong, I knew birth could be unpredictable—I’d taken childbirth education classes and researched birth outcomes ad nauseam (I’m a health journalist, after all)—but still, I was optimistic. I’d assembled an amazing medical team—a caring, affirming midwife practice and a compassionate doula—so I felt confident that my birth preferences would be honored and respected. My ideal scenario was an unmedicated…
5 Essential Self Care Tips for Better Muscle and Joint Health
Read More at The Betty Rocker [[{“value”:” Think about how you are sitting or standing right now – and the posture you are in. Is this a posture you are frequently in? What muscles are activating in this posture? Over time the muscles that work more than others can exert pulling forces across our joints, causing imbalances we’re not aware of – and that show up when we’re training as well if we’re not aware of them. Learn more about caring for your muscles and joints in today’s episode, and how common movements create patterns so you can bring your awareness to your own daily postures and stay safe and strong while you’re training. In this episode I’m exploring… Why stretching and mobility works benefits you around your workout sessions – especially in menopause The difference between mobility and flexibility…
A Stem Cell Secretome Treatment Improves Measures of Health in Old Mice
Read More at Fight Aging! The stem cell therapy industry is evolving. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, cells remain hard to work with as a basis for therapy, and the level of standardization expected by regulators is very challenging to achieve, even for companies with very deep pockets. In the wilder world of stem cell therapies obtained via medical tourism, outcomes vary broadly from clinic to clinic and patient to patient for reasons that remain unclear. Secondly, stem cell transplantation produces benefits to aged patients primarily via the signaling produced by transplanted cells in a short time prior their destruction, rather than through any other activity of those cells. Given these points, there is a slow shift away from using cells and towards the use of cell products such as harvested extracellular vesicles or, as in today’s…
Increased Expression of Lysosomal Enzyme NAGLU Improves Health in Flies
Read More at Fight Aging! Lysosomes are the destination for excess and damaged proteins and structures in the cell. A lysosome is a membrane-wrapped collection of enzymes capable of breaking down near everything it encounters into the raw materials a cell uses to manufacture new molecular machinery. Lysosomal function is known to decline with age, and improved lysosomal function might be expected to improve long-term health prospects. Here, researchers look at one specific lysosomal enzyme that is known to exhibit higher levels in human centenarians, and find that it improves health in flies. There is extension of life, but the effect size is so small, a few percentage points, that it shouldn’t be taken seriously. To identify new factors that promote longevity and healthy aging, we studied Drosophila CG13397, an ortholog of the human NAGLU gene, a lysosomal enzyme overexpressed…
Successful Treatment of Aging is a Goal of Great Importance to Public Health
Read More at Fight Aging! Why has the tone of writing by ethicists on the topic of treating aging as a medical condition, with consequent extension of health human life span, shifted from from hostility to endorsement over the last twenty years? One possibility is that while a technological capability is thought to be a far future possibility, or unattainable, only those with an ax to grind will talk about it. The years since the turn of the century have seen tremendous progress towards implementing therapies capable of addressing mechanisms of aging, and in lockstep with that the scientific community, and a small but sizable fraction of the public at large, have come to understand that rejuvenation and slowing of aging are viable near future goals. Some of those people are ethicists lacking an ax to grind, and some of…
Sit Smarter to Improve Whole Body Health and Longevity
Read More at Sixty and Me Have you ever heard that sitting on the floor is one of the best ways to stay active, live long and be healthy? It may seem silly or even impossible because right now it’s not easy for you to get up and down from the floor. And that points right to the problem for many of us – we’ve lost the muscle strength and range of motion in our joints not because of how long we’ve lived, but from spending way too many of those years sitting in just one shape. It’s the same shape whether we’re sitting on a chair, in the car, on a bike or on the couch. As biomechanist Katy Bowman writes, “The problem isn’t sitting or standing, but the constant and continuous use of a single position.” Floor-Sitting and…
Better Hair, Reduced Hair Loss: Why You Should Care About Your Scalp Health
Read More at Expert Male Grooming Tips For Modern Men In the past, it’s fair to say we’ve viewed our scalp like a self-cleaning oven. Unless your head is really itchy or shedding its flaky distress onto the shoulder region, it’s a hands-off approach. Whether covered with a lustrous thatch or starting to thin, it’s easy to overlook the skin above and behind our ears. Until that day when you discover, like any ‘self-cleaning’ oven, your scalp is actually encrusted with gunk. This was our experience on a recent trip to expert trichologists, Philip Kingsley. As we plonked nonchalantly in front of the mirror, our therapist, Sidney, took one look at our crown and diagnosed eczema. We were oblivious to this state of affairs, but from her bird’s eye view she could see large dry, red patches obscured by the…
A Pet’s Influence on Your Mental Health Knows No Bounds, According to a Neuropsychologist
Read More at Well+Good If you have or have ever had an animal take residence in your home, you might agree that their mere presence is a joy unto itself. They can make a good day better and a bad day good again, and in times of loneliness, stress, or anxiety, pets can also serve as in-house therapy animals. Among people who’ve been lucky to love a nonhuman companion, a pet’s influence on mental health is clear. ‘The pet effect:’ a pet’s influence on mental health In an interview with Well+Good, Karen Sullivan, PsyD, ABBP, a board-certified neuropsychologist and the founder of I Care For Your Brain, confirms the positive link between pets and mental health. She calls it the “pet effect.” Having a pet can increase a person’s self-esteem and mood, says Dr. Sullivan, adding that they can also…
Did you miss one? Check out September’s aging & health tech blog posts
Read More at Aging and Health Technology Watch blogs September brings falling leaves, rising and falling hopes. Turns out that VCs are waking up to the opportunity in the longevity economy. Recognizing that people may live a lot longer, perhaps even to 100. How do you prepare for such a long life? Behold the rise of the active adult lifestyle, now enabled with a boom in 55+ rental communities. Combine that change with the ‘Forgotten Middle Market’ of senior living. Consider the Chicago Tribune article about tech for aging in place. Now add in the shortage of workers in home care, health care, and nursing homes. If there was a time to look at the role of monitoring and engagement technologies that augment and assist the worker in the care of older adults – it would seem that this is…
6 Types of Narcissists—And the One You Really Need To Avoid, According to Mental Health Experts
Read More at Well+Good The term “narcissist” is much like the term “anti-social”—which is to say, it’s often haphazardly misused. While many people associate narcissism with anyone who regularly talks about themself, narcissism goes beyond situational instances of dominating attention, like, say, your friend who monopolizes dinner conversation to talk about their romantic relationship or awful boss or workout goal. These may be narcissistic tendencies, but both narcissism and the clinical condition narcissistic personality disorder are characterized by a constant inflated sense of self-importance—something that can show up differently in different types of narcissists. To be clear, psychologists differentiate between narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder, with the former showing up in varying degrees and frequencies in a person who likely can understand some of the consequences of their self-absorbed actions, and the latter showing up consistently and severely in a…
Why Pregnant People Can’t Trust Catholic Health Care
Read More at Rewire News Group When Shae was pregnant, she wanted to deliver her baby at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, since the pandemic meant she wasn’t allowed a support person. Because she worked at the hospital, her coworkers could come visit her and the baby after the birth even if her family could not. In November 2020, Shae, whose last name is being withheld for privacy reasons, was working as an occupational therapist at the Catholic hospital when she became pregnant with her first child. At her 20-week ultrasound scan, she learned the fetus had three serious health concerns, including myelomeningocele, a particularly severe form of spina bifida that worsens during pregnancy and can sometimes be halted with fetal surgery; however, the procedure is extremely invasive and risky for the pregnant person. Shae’s doctor did not bring up…
What Are The Health Benefits Of Damiana?
Read More at Sexual Post Archive – Ben’s Natural Health There are hundreds of supplements on the alternative medicine market that improve your health or boost your metabolism. How do you know what supplements are suitable for you? One of the supplements that consistently gets positive reviews is damiana. In this blog post, we will explore why people use damiana and the benefits it can offer for sexual health and weight loss. What is damiana? Turnera diffusa, also known as damiana, is a tropical vine native to the American continent. It can be found in Mexico, Brazil, and many countries of Central America. The plant grows in tropical lowland forests up to an elevation of 700 to 1,200 meters (4,600 ft), including tropical rainforests. Damiana is a plant that the Aztecs first used. It is often added to foods, such…
5 Delicious Sea Moss Smoothie Recipes Loaded With Nutrients That Help Boost Heart Health As You Age
Read More at Well+Good Fall is just weeks away, and that means cuddling up on the sofa with spooky movies playing on repeat for hours on end. Needless to say, the excitement gearing up for the Hocus Pocus sequel premiering at the end of September is already through the roof. The best part, you may ask? The iconic steamy cauldron scene as the three sister witches throw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that to make their super secret potion from the magical spell book. Which, I’ll be honest, looks like me first thing in the morning as I throw in a blender a pinch of turmeric powder, a spoonful of yam, and a splash of coconut milk to make one of my favorite gut-healthy smoothies to start the day. Of course, unlike the Sanderson…
‘I’m a Cardiologist, and These Are the 5 Things I Do Every Day for Heart Health and Longevity—Plus What I’ll Never Do’
Read More at Well+Good From the chia water internal shower recipe (steeped in toxic diet culture) to the (extremely dangerous) Benadryl challenge that caused one death, TikTok trends can certainly be something to be wary of. Recently, however, one health-focused TikTok trend has surfaced that does have some solid potential. These videos offer sage advice from experts in various fields sharing what they’d never do given their depth of knowledge they’ve gained from their years of experience. While most have featured folks with specializations in medicine, it’s not uncommon to find useful tips from fire safety experts, chefs, couples therapists, financial advisors, and so on. While every internet trend needs to be considered with a discerning lens—yes, even one with experts—this most recent trend has been a highlight. One such area of advice I have been hoping to stumble across on…