Contrary to popular belief, you need as much sleep at your age as you ever did — but there’s a good chance you’re not getting it.
Older Americans often have difficulty getting a good night’s rest, but this is “not an inherent part of aging,” says Dr. Harrison G. Bloom, a New York geriatrician and senior associate at the International Longevity Center — USA.
More than half of older Americans have sleep problems and sleep disorders, according to a study published in The American Journal of Medicine, but most don’t get the help they need. This, says psychiatrist Michael V. Vitiello, of the National Sleep Foundation board of directors, is because “the average physician receives very little training about sleep disorders and typically does not routinely screen for them.”
To combat this trend, a national coalition of aging, geriatric medicine and sleep organizations is developing guidelines to promote prevention, diagnosis and treatment of sleep problems in older adults. The National Coalition for Sleep Disorders in Older People expects to publish its recommendations by the middle of the year.
Just because you’re over 65, you needn’t necessarily reduce your alcohol intake.
English researchers have concluded that regular moderate drinking poses no more risks to the elderly than to younger adults. In some cases, they suggest, it may even bring health benefits.
“We are not advocating… get[ting] ridiculously drunk,” cautioned Dr. Iain Lang, lead author of the two Peninsula Medical School studies, only that in most cases, “a couple of drinks a day will do no harm and will in fact have a more beneficial effect on cognitive and general health than abstinence.”
Caregivers: New resources are available to you — websites that focus on your needs.
A forum for connecting caregivers with expert information, products
and each other is available at www.agingcare.com. It was launched last November, National Family Caregiver Month, by MediaBrains Inc., of Naples, Fla., to provide an empathetic community for exchanging ideas, advice and emotional support.
The site editors bring together relevant information on the critical issues associated with caregiving.
Another website, www.caring.com, targets adults providing personal aid, financial assistance or both to an older relative. Among topics covered by the site are what to ask when a parent receives a cancer or Alzheimer’s diagnosis, how to assess driving skills, and information on financial, housing and end-of-life issues.
It’s been long established that
walking is an appropriate exercise to improve the health of older people, but recent findings indicate that how briskly you walk may help determine your longevity.
A study presented at a conference
of The Gerontological Society of America, and a related study reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, suggest that gait speed may be a good predictor of long term survival, even in those who otherwise appear to be healthy.
Of nearly 500 older people tracked over a decade, 77 percent of the slower walkers, and only 27 percent of those who walked fast, had died.
“We don’t know why,” admitted one of the authors, Dr. Stephanie A. Studenski of The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; but the findings also indicated that those whose walking speed improved reduced the risk of death.
Although most of the 21 million Americans with arthritis are older, the belief that joint pain is a natural part of aging is a myth, according to The Arthritis Handbook: Improve Your Health and Manage the Pain of Osteoarthritis by Dr. Grant Cooper, published by DiaMedica.
True, there is no cure for arthritis, but Cooper, a New York physical medicine and rehabilitation physician, points out, it can be managed, often without medication or surgery, by basic lifestyle adjustments.
He prescribes proper nutrition, exercise, a few specific supplements — and common sense.
The book is available in bookstores and at www.amazon.com.
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