JustCare

Category: Your Health & Wellness

  • How to care for your aging skin

    How to care for your aging skin

    Your skin is the largest organ in your body. As you age, though you might not become thin-skinned, your skin will inevitably thin. How should you care for your agin skin this summer?

    Why your skin is so important: You need your skin for all sorts of reasons. It protects all your organs so that harmful microbes don’t infect you. It lets you know when something you touch is hot or cold. It keeps your temperature stable.

    Your skin also ensures your body’s electrolytes are in balance. The electrolytes, such as magnesium, potassium, sodium and calcium are minerals in your blood. They help ensure your body has the water it needs and your muscles work.

    And, when exposed to the sun, your skin makes vitamin D.

    What happens to your skin as you age: But as you age, your skin loses its oils and fat. It becomes less elastic. Your skin does not rejuvenate at the same rate it once did.

    What you can do for your skin:

    • Make sure you drink a lot of fluids after sweating to replace electrolytes.
    • Don’t expose your skin to too much sun.
    • Use a broad-spectrum sunscreen with a sun protection factor of 15 or more to protect your skin against the sun’s UVA and UVB rays.
    • Moisturize your skin daily. Try using retinol, an antioxidant, to keep free radicals in your skin from breaking down skin cells. Creams with alpha, beta and poly hydroxy acids can also help remove dead skin cells and cause better skin to grow.
    • Use a humidifier to keep your skin from drying out at night.

    Beware of the products you use on your skin. Some are far better than others.

    Check moles, birthmarks and other skin parts. Do you have marks that are:

    • Asymmetric–have different or irregular borders?
    • Changing color or multiple colors?
    • Bigger than a pencil eraser?
    • Changing size or shape over time?

    If so, it could be skin cancer, which comes from too much exposure to the sun, as well as tanning booths. Talk to your doctor.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Watch your feet!

    Watch your feet!

    Do your feet hurt? For eight in ten Americans, the answer is yes. Don’t let foot aches stop you from your daily activities. Check your feet every day.

    Jancee Dunn reports for the New York Times that your feet can alert you to issues with your overall health. For example, if your feet are swollen, it could mean you have high blood pressure, gout or kidney problems. If your feet are tingling, you might have diabetes.

    Foot pain is especially common for older adults because your skin becomes thinner and less elastic as you age.  There are a wide array of  treatments targeting different types of foot pain, depending when you feel pain and its location. No matter what’s wrong, you can ease foot pain and feel better.

    Treating foot issues is particularly important because it can decrease your risk of falling. As it is, one in three older adults fall each year. And, more than 1.5 million older adults are hospitalized each year as a result of a fall.

    What to do? Study both the tips and bottoms of your feet as well as the space between your toes. If your skin is cracked, red or you have sores that won’t heal, talk to your doctor.

    Where’s the pain? And, when do you feel it?

    • Fungal infections between the toes causing redness, blisters or itching: This is typically called athlete’s foot because the infection develops from sweat and moisture build-up in your feet as a result of exercise. Make sure you wash your feet, including the area between the toes, after exercise and then dry then to prevent infections. Use an over-the- counter fungal spray or cream to treat the infection. And, talk to your doctor.
    • Toenail fungus is very common among older adults. It results from brittle and dry nails and reduced circulation to the feet as you age. Your toenail becomes discolored and thick. If it doesn’t hurt, you don’t really have to worry about it. But, it could spread to other toes.
    • Ingrown toenails: To prevent them, cut toenails straight across. Do not round them at the edges.
    • Blisters: You can pop a blister with a clean tool. But don’t take the top off. Simply put an antiseptic cream on with a bandaid until it heals.
    • Bunions, hammertoes, corns or calluses. More than one in three older adults have bunions. They appear on the inside of your feet at the base of the big toe. Hammertoes are protrusions on the top of your toe that keep your toe from sitting straight and flat. With calluses and corns, there’s a thickening of your skin. Corns might also have some fluid.
    • Plantar fasciitis: One in ten adults over 50 suffer from plantar fasciitis. It causes a pain on the bottom of your feet, which can be debilitating. It is an inflammation of the tissue on the bottom of your feet and across its full length. It might not be possible to prevent plantar fasciitis. It often results from exercise, when the muscles in your legs and feet are tight. And, you don’t want to stop exercising!!!!! But, you should be sure to take time to stretch your muscles, particularly your calves, before and after exercising.

    Good foot hygiene:

    • Do not wear shoes that are tight. But, avoid wearing flip flops, which can aggravate foot issues, including arch pain and plantar fasciitis.
    • Do not polish your toenails if they are discolored. Do not get callus shavers or foot peels. Avoid high heels!!!
    • Do exercise your feet. You can roll a tennis ball underneath them. Get a foot massage and do legs up the wall exercises. Soak your feet in water with vinegar. Wash and moisturize your feet every day.
    • Do use suntan lotion on your feet to avoid sunburn and skin cancer on the tops and soles of your feet.

    Warding off bunions, hammertoes, corns and calluses and easing pain:

    • Keep your toenails clipped.
    • Wear shoes that support your feet and do not pinch your feet
    • Do foot exercises to develop the muscles in your feet.
    • Wear padded bandaids or moleskins over the affected areas of your feet
    • Soak your feet regularly and then moisturize them with a lotion containing urea.
    • If the pain is preventing you from doing what you want to do, talk to a doctor about the costs and benefits of surgery. Use a pumice stone on calluses.

    Treating plantar fasciitis and osteoarthritis:

    • Ice your foot where it hurts early and often!
    • Wear shoes that do not bend.
    • Walk a little, even if it hurts.
    • Stick to bicycling, swimming and other exercises that are not high-impact; take a break from activity that’s hard on your feet.
    • See a physical therapist.
    • Get a shoe insert tailored to your feet

    Here’s more from Just Care:

    • Five ways to ease your fear of falling
    • Five exercises to improve balance for safety and health
    • Caregiving: Keeping Parents Healthy – Water, Walking, Watch out for Delirium
    • Aerobic exercise may be best medicine for your brain and body
    • New study finds no benefits to Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements
  • Five ways to stay fit, mentally active and purposeful

    Five ways to stay fit, mentally active and purposeful

    If you focus on birthdays, we are all getting older.  But, many of us who may be “getting up there” in age find ways to stay young at heart–fit, mentally active, and purposeful.  Here are five ways to feel at your best:

    1. Be active: Walk, run, jump rope. Get your heart rate up.  Countless studies show the value of aerobic exercise for your gut, your memory, your immune system, your cardiovascular health, your strength, your stress level, your mood, your cholesterol levels. It may be the best medicine for your body and brain. Also, do balancing exercises and use weights to strengthen your muscles. That is key to good health, including bone health, lowering risk of stroke and even spousal health
    2. Eat well and keep a healthy weight: Sense of smell and taste can change as you age; it’s still important to eat healthy foods. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, lean meats and fish. Avoid, fats, pasta and sugared drinks. And if you need help losing weight or eating better, talk to your doctor; in some cases, Medicare covers weight-loss counseling and nutrition counseling.
    3. Get the sleep you need. Here are seven tips for getting a good night’s sleep.
    4. Keep in touch with family and friends you enjoy. And make one of them your health care buddy, someone to go with you to the doctor, take notes and be a second set of eyes and ears.
    5. Perhaps, take up bowling or another new sport: Watch this video from the Atlantic on how one older adult has stayed young and met his life partner bowling.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Consume olive oil, stave off dementia

    Consume olive oil, stave off dementia

    The latest research on the benefits of olive oil finds that women who consume as little as a half tablespoon of olive oil each day have a significantly lower risk of dementia, reports Judy George for MedPage Today. Specifically, the large study reveals a reduction in dementia-related deaths for women who consume olive oil.

    This study is the first of its kind. Additional findings include that people who ate a teaspoon of olive oil instead of margarine or mayonnaise had an eight to 14 percent lower chance of dementia mortality. If they substituted anything other than olive oil for margarine or mayonnaise, it had no meaningful effect on their likelihood of dementia mortality. Dementia is a disease that comes on and progresses slowly, so it can be hard to study.

    This study further found that the lower risk of dementia-related death from consuming olive oil was not related to people having healthier diets overall. Olive oil, no matter your diet, appears to improve brain-related health.

    Other studies have shown that a Mediterranean diet is good for your health, and olive oil consumption is part of that diet. Still others have shown no relation between diet and dementia.

    Why is olive oil good for brain health? Some experts posit that its monounsaturated fatty acids and antioxidants, including Vitamin E and polyphenals, have anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects on the brain. Consuming olive oil also improves vascular health and that may lower the risk of dementia-related death.

    More than 90,000 health care professionals participated in this study, two-thirds of whom were women, reports JAMA Network.. Earlier studies had shown that consuming olive oil results in lower risk of heart disease.

    The study lasted 28 years. By the end, 4,751 participants had suffered dementia-related deaths.

    Note: Some margarine and mayonnaise are particularly bad for your health because they contain high levels of partially hydrogenated oils.

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  • New guidelines on alcohol consumption is likely to expose its many risks

    New guidelines on alcohol consumption is likely to expose its many risks

    I’ve written about the risks of consuming alcohol several times now. Despite the fact that we have been told for decades that a little bit of alcohol can lower the risk of heart disease, there is mounting evidence that you’re better off staying away from alcohol altogether. Isabelle Cueto reports for StatNews on past government alcohol consumption guidelines tainted by the influence of the alcohol industry and new independent guidelines to be released next year.

    Bottom line, the people preparing the research findings on alcohol consumption in the 1990’s were allowed to design the studies, collect the evidence and disseminate the results, allowing for alcohol-industry bias. Now, the guidelines are being updated. And, notwithstanding claims of fewer heart attacks among French people than Americans because they drank wine every day—broadcast on 60 Minutes in the 1990’s—it appears that the research was flawed; the alcohol industry was involved.

    The earlier research did not take account of the people who did not drink because of an illness and other considerations. There was no reason to connect alcohol consumption with better health.

    Cueto explains the tight link between politics and money, which affected the guidelines on alcohol consumption. Congress had created an independent advisory committee in the 1990’s as a result of questions about the alcohol guidelines in the 1980’s. But, it appears that the committee was far from independent. Members had ties to different food industries.

    As recently as 2020, a scientific panel tried to recommend limiting sugar and alcohol intake and federal officials wouldn’t allow it. The US Department of Health and Human Services and the US Department of Agriculture share responsibility for overseeing the recommendations on an alternating basis.

    This time, a new set of committees are overseeing the process, doing independent reviews. Their results will be released in 2025. The belief among independent experts is that the committee members looking at the evidence will recognize the risk of certain cancers and other chronic diseases from any amount of alcohol consumption and likely recommend against consuming any alcohol.

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  • Live longer, avoid ultraprocessed foods

    Live longer, avoid ultraprocessed foods

    A few weeks ago, I took a New York Times quiz on ultraprocessed foods, sure I could identify them and complete the quiz with flying colors. I didn’t flunk, but my score was equivalent to a D+, which was unsettling. To live longer, we should avoid ultraprocessed foods.

    To help recall which answers I got wrong, I just retook the New York Times quiz; and, I got a similar score! I suppose I am struggling to accept the fact that seltzer water with “natural flavors” is an ultraprocessed food. Bottom line, once a food has natural flavors or artificial sweeteners it is ultraprocessed.

    Similarly, plant milks with artificial sweeteners or emulsifiers are ultraprocessed. I also did not appreciate that there are some frozen foods that do not have additives and are not ultraprocessed.

    What’s the trick to knowing whether something is ultraprocessed? If it contains ingredients that you don’t have in your kitchen.

    What’s the nutritional value of ultraprocessed foods? Little. They tend to have extra sugars or salt or contain saturated fats and transfats. They can have additives and usually do not have fiber.

    Why avoid ultraprocessed foods? Avoiding ultraprocessed foods reduces your risk of an early death, according to a new study published in the BMJ, reports Lauren Irwin for The Hill. The study, which took place over 32 years, looked at what 115,000 ate. Avoiding ultraprocessed foods also reduces your risk of heart disease and depression. In the study, people with different diets had different life expectancies.

    How much more likely is it you’ll die as a result of consuming ultraprocessed foods? The study found that people who ate the most ultraprocessed food had a four percent higher risk of dying.

    What are the ultraprocessed foods with strong links to greater risk of death? Consuming “ready to eat” meats and fish were tightly linked to death. Breakfast cereals, soda and ice cream also posed greater risk. Foods that have fiber, vitamins and minerals have a lower risk of death.

    Some good news: At least some experts believe that having a healthy diet should override the negative consequences of eating ultraprocessed foods.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Hospitals delay care for older adults in ERs, causing them needless harm

    Hospitals delay care for older adults in ERs, causing them needless harm

    Judith Graham reports for KFF Health News on the plight of older adults in hospital emergency rooms. Hospitals often keep older adults in their ERs for extended periods before getting them admitted to the hospital. Hospitals could benefit financially from these delays, but patients can suffer.

    The evidence shows that older adults often can wait more than a day to be admitted to the hospital, although their doctors have recommended a hospital admission long before. In the ER, patients often are not getting their care needs met. They are prevented from moving much, and they are usually not well fed or hydrated.

    The problem is only getting worse, according to ER physicians. And, older adults appear to be kept in ERs longer than most other people. But, there’s little data to understand how common ER boarding is and which hospitals are the worse offenders. Hospitals do not need to report this data. It’s also not clear which hospitals do not have adequate space for patients.

    Why are some people spending so much time in ERs? In some cases, hospitals are short-staffed. In other cases, people needing care that is highly profitable get preferential treatment and are moved out more quickly than those who need less profitable care. In still other cases, hospitals don’t have enough beds because they are unable to discharge patients for home health care or to a nursing facility as quickly as they should be able to.

    In an ER, older adults can quickly see their conditions worsen. They lose muscle from sitting or lying all day. They may not be taking their medicines. They may become delirious.

    Unnecessary stays in the ER can mean longer hospital stays and more health issues for older adults. Patients generally don’t get proper care in the ER, except to address an immediate crisis. They can fall, get hospital-acquired infections, bedsores and worse. They are more likely to die in the hospital if they spend the night in the ER needlessly.

    What to do if you’re admitted to the ER? Don’t go alone. Make sure you have a family member or friend or caregiver with you to speak out on your behalf, ensure you are fed properly, and otherwise well cared for. Bring a list of your medicines and bring a bag with the medicines you take, if possible.

    Also, protect yourself against delirium. Bring your hearing aids and glasses to avoid being disoriented and some food and drink. If you can get up and move around, do so.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Eat less intermittently, live longer?

    Eat less intermittently, live longer?

    Experiments with lab mice show that if you reduce their caloric intake by 30 to 40 percent, the mice typically live 30 percent longer. The goal is to reduce caloric intake enough to cause biological changes without malnourishing the mice. Experiments with worms and monkeys show similar results, reports Dana G. Smith for The New York Times. If we eat less, will we live longer?

    The jury’s out on the value of eating less for humans, but it’s fascinating to learn about the consequences of eating less for mice and monkeys. Beyond often living longer, it appears that limiting calories in lab mice and other animals also reduced their risk of developing cancer and other serious health conditions that tend to appear as we grow old.

    What is not known? It’s not clear the principal cause of longer life expectancy from animals consuming fewer calories. Is it the number of calories consumed or when the calories are consumed that is most important? And, there’s no meaningful data to indicate that eating less helps human beings live longer.

    Why would eating less extend an animal’s or a person’s life? It’s not well understood. Some believe that consuming fewer calories enables animals to be more resilient to outside stressors. Researchers have found that lab mice that consume fewer calories are better able to resist toxins and heal more quickly after being hurt.

    Some believe that people who consume fewer calories have slower metabolisms. Perhaps requiring your body to metabolize less allows it to live longer. “You know, just slow the wheels down and the tires will last longer,” said Dr. Kim Huffman, an associate professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine who has studied calorie restriction in people.

    Also, if you take in fewer calories, your body will need to rely on sources of energy other than glucose. It could eat up cells that are not functioning as a source of energy. As a result, cells work better, reducing the likelihood of age-related disease and potentially extending life.

    Of note, the research finding eating less leads mice to live longer is not dispositive. A few researchers found that mice and monkeys sometimes lived shorter lives when they ate less. Other researchers dismiss these findings because of the abundance of evidence to the contrary.

    Some believe that intermittent fasting could play a principal role in longevity. In a monkey trial in which the monkeys only received one calorie-restricted meal every sixteen hours, the monkeys lived longer. In another monkey trial in which the monkeys received two calorie-restricted meals a day and could eat them whenever they pleased, the monkeys lived less long.

    Intermittent fasting and a low-calorie diet led mice to live 35 percent longer. Mice that had a low-calorie diet but could eat at any time of the day lived 10 percent longer than those with a full-calorie diet.

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  • How to keep your teeth strong

    How to keep your teeth strong

    Our teeth need our attention, and the mainstream media is letting us know! Knvul Sheikh and Lindsey Bever report for the New York Times and the Washington Post, respectively, on how to brush your teeth and how to strength them. In short, avoid snacking multiple times a day, use toothpaste with fluoride, and don’t rinse after brushing.

    Experts urge you brush your teeth a minimum of two times each day. And, to prevent cavities, use toothpaste with fluoride. If you don’t rinse after brushing, the fluoride remains on your teeth, further protecting them.

    If you can, wait at least 30 minutes after eating to brush your teeth. That allows the saliva in your mouth to remove the acid buildup on your teeth that comes from eating. After brushing, if you must rinse, use as little water as possible and wait as long as possible to do so.  You might also consider using a mouthwash with fluoride.

    Why avoid rinsing? You want the fluoride to strengthen your tooth enamel. Minimizing the rinse after brushing has been found to lower the risk of tooth decay. When you rinse, you wash away a lot of the fluoride. Not rinsing is ideal, particularly for people who eat a lot of sugar or who have a lot of cavities. If there’s little sugar in your diet, rinsing does less harm.

    Why brush your teeth? The reason to brush is to remove dental plaque that contains bacteria that is acidic. When fluoride coats your teeth, it adds minerals to the teeth enamel. But, use fluoride in moderation. Too much fluoride could lead to fluoride toxicity. Especially in children when teeth are growing, too much fluoride can cause white spots.

    How else to protect your teeth? To keep your teeth from weakening and ensure strong teeth, do what you can to protect the enamel on the outside of your teeth. Drinking a lot of water after you eat is helpful, not only in washing away some of the acid buildup but in stimulating the production of saliva in your mouth. Saliva helps keep your teeth strong.

    Why are some people more at risk of tooth decay than others? Some people have genetic predispositions to poor tooth enamel. Others eat foods that eat away at their tooth enamel. Sugary drinks and vinegary foods, as well as fruit juices erode tooth enamel. So, does sparkling water.

    Tip: If you eat sweets, do so in one fell swoop to better protect your teeth. All at once, your teeth have a single exposure to acid. In small bits over time, your teeth have multiple exposures to acid. For the sake of your teeth, it’s best not to snack throughout the day.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Diet soda: Bad for your health and your weight

    Diet soda: Bad for your health and your weight

    According to the experts, diet soda is bad for your health and your weight, Peri Ormont Blumberg reports for Time Magazine. Notwithstanding, many Americans live on diet sodas. By so doing, they often mistakenly think they are keeping their weight down and promoting good health.

    According to recent research, however, diet drinks lead to all kinds of diseases, including cancer, mood disorders, fatty liver development and diabetes. There’s only observational studies to support these findings, which means the researchers can’t link cause and effect for sure. But, there’s mountains of long-term studies showing a correlation between drinking diet soda and poor health outcomes.

    • Type 2 diabetes strongly linked to consumption of diet soda: Many researchers find this connection. Here’s a recent study of 106,000 people.
    • Diet soda strongly linked to obesity. This meta-analysis of 11 studies found a significant association between artificially sweetened soda consumption and obesity.
    • Diet soda linked to heart conditions: People who drink more than two quarts of diet soda a week have a 20 percent higher likelihood of poor heart health, including heart attacks, heart disease and stroke. Here’s a recent study.
    • Diet soda linked to cancer. Here’s a meta-analysis. Other research has found potential links from diet soda to cancers including colon, uterine, kidney, and pancreatic, though it’s not clear whether obesity or diet soda is causing the cancer.

    No one can pinpoint why the link between diet soda and poor heart health. It could be most pronounced in people who don’t exercise, smoke, drink alcohol, and otherwise don’t take care of themselves.

    Diet soda is linked to cancer: The World Health Organization believes that aspartame, a key ingredient in some diet sodas, could be  carcinogenic. Some research has shown links between diet soda and colon, pancreatic, and kidney cancer. But, the World Health Organization somehow also found that it’s safe for people who weigh around 150 pounds to drink eight cans of diet soda with aspartame a day!!!! You wonder whether it is being sincere or is worried about a lawsuit from the diet soda manufacturers.

    Diet soda is linked to weight gain: Some researchers suggest that, because diet soda tends to be sweeter than sugar, it could change the way people experience tastes. As a result, it could make people feel hungrier, causing them to consume more calories and to gain weight. People should not think that drinking diet soda helps with weight loss.

    Should you drink diet soda? No. It is far better to drink water than diet soda. And, if you need your soda to be sweet, drink soda water with a bit of honey or juice in it. That said, some researchers believe that if you must drink prepackaged soda, diet soda could be preferable to sugary soda and alcohol for your health and your teeth. We know how harmful sugar can be; but, for some reason, we are not as clear about the harms of artificial sweeteners.

    Tricks to limit your diet soda intake:

    • Take a sip and pour the rest down the drain.
    • Think of it like candy, not like an alternative to water when you sit down to a meal.
    • Drink seltzer water with some fruit juice or honey added.

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