Tao Porchon-Lynch, a 98-year-old yoga teacher, inspires. Having taught yoga for 75 years, she explains that nothing is impossible. She has spent almost a century living mindfully. She teaches the power of positivity. In her words, “The joy of living is right inside of you. . . believe in it.” Focusing on health and wellness certainly works for her. Watch her in action below in a brief two-minute video and giving a TedX talk.
Tag: Health and wellness
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Foods with added sugar are not so sweet for your health
Americans consume a lot of sugar. Natural sugars from fruit are generally good for you. But anything you consume with added sugar is not so sweet for your health. These added sugars contain calories but no other nutrients.
Researchers have found that sugar added to products during manufacturing—e.g. cereal, soda, candy—contributes not only to obesity and tooth decay but to a range of chronic conditions such as diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The best diet is a balanced diet, one in which you eat a range of foods and keep to unprocessed foods without added sugar. While our bodies need sugar–it’s good for the brain–our bodies make glucose, a type of sugar, when they break down proteins, fats and carbohydrates.
According to a just-released report from the Centers for Disease Control, between 2011 and 2014, adults drank about 145 calories worth of sugar every day, to their detriment. The CDC found that more than 111 million adults in the U.S. (49.3 percent) drink at least one sugary drink a day. (Curiously, the CDC research also found that Asian-Americans drink about half the calories from sugary drinks as Whites, Blacks and Hispanic Americans.) The CDC recommends people drink water rather than sugary drinks.
In case you wondered, 300 calories, 15 percent of daily calorie consumption, is the equivalent of 22 teaspoons of sugar. And, the data show that if you consume 2000 calories daily, drinking a 20 ounce soda such as Mountain Dew, you increase the likelihood of hurting your health. In fact, the researchers have found that if a third or more of your daily calorie intake is from added sugar, about 670 calories, then you quadruple your risk of cardiovascular disease.
USDA guidelines recommend no more than 10 percent of a person’s daily calorie intake come from food and drinks with added sugars. But, drinks alone represent 6.5 percent of a person’s caloric intake. So, if possible, avoid soda, energy drinks and sports drinks. They tend to contain a lot of sugar. And, if you’re wondering about the amount of sugar in what you’re eating or drinking, check the nutrition label. The amount of sugar will be listed under “carbohydrates.”
The United States does not provide a dietary limit for added sugar, as it does for salt and transfats, even though added sugar can be dangerous to your health. In fact, sugar is on the US Food and Drug Administration’s “generally regarded as safe” list. As a result, manufacturers can add as much sugar as they please to their processed foods. But, researchers are showing that the risk of cardiovascular disease increases when added sugar represents more than 15 percent of your caloric intake.
Some cities are using financial incentives–taxes on drinks with added sugar–to dissuade people from buying them. Time will tell whether the people in San Francisco, Oakland, Boulder, Philadelphia and Chicago fare better than others in cities and towns without this tax. According to Stat News, at least one research paper shows a 20 percent reduction in consumption of sugary drinks for every penny per ounce tax.
To learn more about sugar and the antics of the $5 billion sugar industry, watch this John Oliver video.
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Insurers limiting drug coverage to keep people with costly conditions from enrolling
When was the last time you heard of a health insurer advertising its first class cancer care, its impressive slew of specialists or its low costs to people with complex conditions? In fact, you’ve likely only heard them promoting their health and wellness programs, encouraging healthy people to enroll and discouraging people with complex conditions from enrolling. Kaiser Health News reports on the latest scandal: insurers limiting drug coverage to keep people with HIV from signing up with them.
As we all know, first and foremost, commercial health insurers are in the business of making money and delivering returns to their shareholders. Unfortunately, this can translate into health insurers discriminating against people with costly and complex conditions to keep their costs down and profits up. That’s why most people with Medicare opt for traditional Medicare over a commercial health insurer that offers Medicare benefits.
To be clear, it is illegal for health insurers to turn people away because they are in poor health or to design their benefits in ways that discriminate against people with serious health conditions. Yet, HHS has never defined discrimination, so discrimination can be hard to prove.
As a result, some insurers innovate with their marketing, their benefit designs, and their cost structures to attract as healthy members as possible and discourage others from enrolling. They market to people who can travel independently. They keep their networks narrow, without the array of specialists people who are sick may need. They make out-of-pocket costs particularly high for people needing a lot of care. And, they limit their drug coverage.
Harvard Law School’s Center on Health Law and Policy Innovation is now taking to task seven insurers in eight states for their failure to make necessary HIV drugs affordable or available for patients. It has filed complaints with the HHS Office for Civil Rights against Humana, Cigna, Independence Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield and UPMC health plan, Community Health Choice and Highmark. We can only hope that the Trump Administration will acknowledge this discrimination and address it.
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More proof aspirin helps prevent heart attacks and stroke
More people use aspirin than any other medicine. It relieves fever, pain, swelling, and keeps blood clots from forming in your arteries. It can also help prevent cardiovascular disease and colorectal cancer, lower your risk of stroke or heart attack; and, it costs about a penny a day. In April, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended daily use of aspirin to help prevent heart attacks and stroke in 50-59 year olds at high risk of cardiovascular disease and at low risk of bleeding complications.
In short the USPSTF found moderate evidence that starting daily use of low-dose aspirin (81mg) for this population of 50-59 year olds lowers their risk of colorectal cancer and cardiovascular disease. It found less evidence of 60-69 year olds at high risk of heart disease benefiting from beginning the use of aspirin.The USPSTF did not recommend beginning use of aspirin in people under 50 or over 59 because of lack of evidence.
The benefits for initiating aspirin use for 50-59 year olds at high risk of cardiovascular disease and at low risk of bleeding complications outweigh the harms. But, for some people, aspirin can cause severe harm, including gastrointestinal ulcers and hemorrhagic stroke. Other side effects include stomach pain, skin rash, nausea, diarrhea and itching.
Talk to your doctor about whether you should be taking aspirin daily. Note that the USPSTF recommendation applies to the age range for which there may be benefits in initiating aspirin use. If you are taking aspirin, you should talk to your doctor about whether to continue or stop taking it as you age. There may be benefits to continuing aspirin use into your later years. Also, keep in mind that if you are taking aspirin you should talk to your doctor before taking ibuprofen, Advil or Motrin, to treat pain or fever.
Here’s more from Just Care:
- Supplements: John Oliver v. Dr. Oz
- Eat more plants, reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s
- Five ways to avoid heartburn without drugs
- What is a silent heart attack?
- Herbal remedies may not be what you think they are
- Why you should likely avoid B6 supplements, Vitamin D supplements and calcium, fish oil supplements
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Who are the happiest people in the world?
Many believe that happiness is the appropriate measure for social progress and that public policy should be dedicated to promoting happiness. According to the 2016 World Happiness Report, the greatest happiness comes when we can inspire and unite people from all backgrounds and cultures. So, who are the happiest people in the world and what are the global trends?
If we want to be among the happiest people in the world, we might want to consider moving to Scandinavia. The Danes rank at the very top of the happiness chart, the Swiss rank 2nd and the Icelanders 3rd. Norway, Finland and Canada rank right behind them. The United States ranks 13th. At the bottom of the pack are Burundi, Syria and Togo.
To promote happiness, it does not appear you need a minister of happiness, since you won’t find one in any of the top-most ranked countries. Bhutan (ranks 84th), Ecuador (ranks 51st), Venezuela (ranks 44th) and the United Arab Emirates (ranks 28th) are the only four countries with ministers of happiness who coordinate national initiatives. (That said, Bhutan places 1st on the equality of happiness scale.) Many more local efforts at the states, county and regional levels are now committed to policies that promote happy lives.
So, how do we promote greater happiness worldwide? How do we foster greater well-being within and among countries? People in countries in which well-being is more equally distributed tend to have higher life evaluations on average. Unfortunately, the report finds a general increase in the inequality of happiness and well-being, with more than half of countries seeing a significant increase and only ten percent seeing a significant decrease.
We also want sustainable development if we are to promote happiness. Societies need to look at economic, social and environmental goals holistically. If a country aims only to promote economic objectives, it can be extremely harmful to human well-being, including leading to income inequality and social inequality and damage to the environment.
Using life evaluations as the key measure to capture the overall quality of life, the authors looked at the distribution of happiness for 1,000 people in more than 150 countries and compared the data. As the authors see it, happiness subsumes income, health status, the quality of life. Among other questions, they asked “Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with your freedom to choose what you do with your life?” and “If you were in trouble, do you have relatives or friends you can count on to help you whenever you need them, or not?”
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Millions of Americans spend billions on alternative treatments or “complementary medicine”
There’s endless talk about the $2.8 trillion dollars Americans spend each year on health care. Believe it or not, that’s not all we spend on care. Millions of Americans, about a third of all adults, spend billions on alternative treatments or “complementary medicine.” What kind of care are we buying, what are we spending and what are the risks and benefits?
A June 2016 National Health Statistics Reports paper finds that 59 million people spent over $30 billion dollars out of pocket on complementary medicine in 2012. Complementary medicine comes in many flavors, including chelation therapy, acupuncture, Ayurveda, biofeedback, chiropractic manipulation, hypnosis, energy healing therapy, meditation, yoga and massage therapy. Supplements are another form of complementary medicine, with fish oil, which has no proven benefits, the most often used product.
Complementary medicine only represents about 1.1 percent of total health care spending. But, it constitutes a healthy portion of our out-of-pocket costs (9.2 percent) relative to what we spend for conventional physician treatments and prescription drugs.
We spent $12.8 billion out of pocket on natural product supplements, about one fourth (24 percent) of what we spend on prescription drugs. And, there’s no compelling evidence these products provide benefits. Moreover, herbal supplements may not be what you think they are.
We spent $14.7 billion out of pocket on complementary practitioners, almost 30 percent of what we spend out of pocket on traditional physicians.The average out-of-pocket expense per person for visiting a complementary practitioner was $433. That’s more than the average out-of-pocket expense for purchases of natural product supplements, $368, or for self-care, $257. Of note, adults spent about as much as children on natural product supplements and self-care but far more on visits to complementary practitioners.
If you have a chronic condition and are using complementary alternative medicines, be sure to let your doctor know. According to a study in the British Journal of Cancer, the use of alternative medicines, particularly herbal remedies and supplements, may cause serious problems. Some, such as St. John’s Wort, garlic and cod liver oil, can have adverse interactions with conventional treatments.
If you want an alternative health care treatment, check with your insurer to see what kinds of treatments are covered. Ask about which practitioners or products you can use, whether pre-authorization is required, whether there is a limit to the number of treatments you can get, as well as your out-of-pocket costs.
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Can you see clearly now?
Medicare does not cover vision care, and most studies of people with chronic conditions overlook the burden of not being able to see clearly. A 2015 JAMA report looks at the handicap of visual impairment relative to other chronic diseases. The researchers find that vision is important to quality of life, and vision impairment is a public health burden that warrants more consideration in public health policies.
To assess the burden of vision impairment the researchers surveyed individuals to get a measure of quality-adjusted life years rather than mortality or disability. Survey results showed that after osteoarthritis/rheumatoid arthritis and stroke, vision impairment presented the greatest burden to people. Vision impairment affects people’s health-related quality of life a lot more than other chronic diseases. Its burden is substantial.
If we are to prioritize the expenditure of health care resources, we need to understand which chronic diseases impose the greatest burdens. Today, there are about one million blind people and another 3.2 million people with visual impairments.
With the population aging, the National Eye Institute (NEI), a division of the National Institutes of Health, projects that about seven million people will be visually impaired by 2030. People 80 and older are most likely to be affected by visual impairment or blindness.
“Early detection and intervention — possibly as simple as prescribing corrective lenses — could go a long way toward preventing a significant proportion of avoidable vision loss,” according to NEI Director Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D.
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To save money, calories and your teeth, stay away from sports drinks
Given all the ads promoting Gatorade and other sports drinks, it’s easy to believe sports drinks deliver special benefits. Based on the research, it appears you can save money, calories and your teeth if you stay away from sports drinks. Sports drinks can lead to obesity and dental erosion.
In a 2012 BMJ report, Carl Heneghen and colleagues at the Center for Evidence-Based Research at Oxford, find that 40 years of sports drinks research delivers no compelling evidence of its value. For one thing, the sample size for most of the research is too small.
Over a long period of time, serious athletes–people who exercise for 90 minutes or more–can improve exercise performance through carbohydrates. However, there is no compelling evidence that drinking carbohydrates is any better than eating carbohydrates.
“The truth about sports drinks,” another 2012 Feature in the BMJ, reveals the unholy alliance between the sports drink industry and the scientists that companies hire to promote their products. Despite huge amounts of money the industry has invested in research, conflicts among the scientists performing the research minimize its value; bottom line, the evidence is weak that people who exercise benefit from sports drinks.
Interestingly, marathon runners in the 1970’s were told that drinking water and other beverages would actually slow them down. Hydration was not deemed valuable. It was only when corporations saw a marketing opportunity with runners that these corporations began hiring academics to focus on the value of hydration. These academics, with a financial interest in the outcome of the research, then taught organizations devoted to sports medicine that hydration was important.
Gatorade was first out of the gate. Today, its sales are at more than $1.6 billion in the U.S. alone. And, no surprise, it is a sponsor of many sports organizations, including the U.S. National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the Australian Institute of Sports. In short, industry has led athletes to believe that hydration is as important to their performance as training.
Yet, according to the most reliable data, for better performance, you should drink when you’re thirsty. Common sense.
More from Just Care:
- If you haven’t yet watched John Oliver explain when you should believe “the science,” now might be a good time. He explains the bias and weak evidence behind many studies.
- John Oliver also does an excellent job explaining the risks of too much sugar.
- For older adults, water can be really important, especially in hot weather.
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Five tips to relieve caregiver strain
If you’re a family caregiver, you need to take care of yourself. Most importantly, you need to accept your own feelings as natural and normal. And you need to find a way to cope; coping is an individual journey and may require some trial and error. Below are five tips to relieve caregiver strain and help you care for yourself.
- Identify someone who supports you. It should be someone with whom you can talk openly–a spouse, friend or therapist.
- Change your daily habits as little as possible. You take care of yourself by building self-care into your routines. Continue to eat, sleep and exercise as you always have to the extent possible. Major changes to your routines can have big effects on your mental health. Make meeting all of your needs a priority.
- Build healthy routines. Stay connected on a daily basis to your friends, family and neighbors so that you are not socially isolated. Stay active and exercise. Avoid unhealthy coping habits such as drinking excessively.
- Find a community. Seek out others with similar experiences. It can feel good to share experiences, learn from other caregivers and know that you are not alone.
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are a wide variety of community services for individuals of differing abilities. This includes transportation and food services, along with professional mental and physical care that may be affordable.
This is the third in a three-part series on caregiver strain. You can read the other two parts here: Part 1: What it means to be a caregiver today: The data and Part 2: To help relieve stress, understand and recognize caregiver strain
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Older adults traveling solo
Today, more older Americans are traveling solo — and that doesn’t mean they’re looking for a mate. Solo travelers say they love their own company, want to make their own itineraries and prefer to travel at their own pace. Traveling alone also makes it more likely that you’ll interact with the locals.
Still, for many women especially, the thought of venturing out all alone can be intimidating. We worry we’ll feel lonely or unsafe. We dread sitting by ourselves at a café or restaurant.
It doesn’t have to feel that way.
Here are four interesting international choices for solo travelers who want the option to connect with others — or even to be a part of something bigger. They’re not beach vacations; they are adventures.
1. Voluntourism
“That 2-week package tour of Peru would cost far more than you are paying to spend two weeks making some toddlers’ lives happy in a Peruvian orphanage. And what you bring home from your volunteer experience is priceless.” Global volunteer Dorothy Conlon.
Merging overseas travel with volunteer service, voluntourism is a way to learn while you’re traveling, immerse yourself in another culture and give back in a tangible, significant way.
The opportunities to help are endless. You could provide care for orphaned children, teach English, build schools or assist in field research on coral reefs or among nesting sea turtles. Whichever you choose, you’ll be part of a specific project, allowing for both together time and opportunities to go it alone.
Because you’re older, you’ll probably find that the skills and patience you’ve developed will prove extremely useful all over the globe. And many voluntourists create lasting friendships with fellow project volunteers and the locals they serve.
The Basics
How long? Trips can last anywhere from a few days to months.
How much? As a voluntourist, you pay your own expenses, including a built-in donation to the project. If the voluntourism organization is a nonprofit, your costs — including airfare — may be deductible. Costs vary, depending on destination and trip length. Program fees in Peru or Costa Rica through the Global Volunteer Network: $250 application fee; $495 per week up to the first four weeks, then $200 per week. This includes housing, meals, airport transfers, supervision, training and coordination. Flights, travel insurance, Visa (if required) are not included.
Single supplement? Varies, but in most cases there is no single supplement. (Some organizations pair single travelers with other singles in a double room.)We recommend picking an organization that is a member of VolunteerInternational.org.
This post is exerpted from SeniorPlanet.org. For three other travel options, click here.
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