ADVANCE Perspective: LTC : Wellness

Sunshine on Your Mind

Maureen Salera — Fri, 29 May 2009 15:45:00 GMT

Vitamin D, which the body produces when exposed to sunlight, can decrease mental decline in seniors, according to a study published last week in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Reuters reports.

While other research has shown Vitamin D may impact mental ability, the findings haven't been consistent, David Lee and colleagues at the University of Manchester reported.

By comparing the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 European men aged 40 to 79, the researchers found those with low vitamin D levels didn't perform as well on a task to test mental agility.

The size of the study and the fact that the researchers adjusted for several lifestyle factors make the findings some of the strongest evidence yet of a link between Vitamin D and mental health, Lee said in an MSNBC.com article.

While the researchers aren't sure how vitamin D and mental agility are linked, they said the vitamin's role in increasing certain hormonal activity or the protection of neurons in the brain could be possible explanations.

They also stressed that people shouldn't get too much sunlight because of the risk of skin cancer.

Is Swine Flu a Real Threat?

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:41:00 GMT

Swine flu is primarily affecting people between the ages of 18 and 50 and is markedly absent from the senior population. Do you consider it a threat to your residents? Are you taking any additional precautions to protect your population? Finally, do you think it is a real threat or a lot of hype?

Brain Awareness Week

Liz Rosto — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:59:00 GMT

Did you know it's brain awareness week? We place so much emphasis on physical wellness, but it's important not to forget cognitive health too. Researchers believe mental exercise can ward off the brain's functional decline.

If you're not already doing so, why not try incorporating some of these activities into your wellness program? As suggested by the Dana Foundation:

Coordinate a lecture or series of lectures about the brain. Find a speaker(s) who can address the specific interests of your organization and its constituents and the importance of brain research.

Organize a health fair. Invite local nonprofit organizations to participate by staffing exhibit booths, disseminating educational materials, offering free health screenings, and much more.

Team up with local businesses to sponsor classes and workshops for employees to raise awareness about brain function and fitness, brain diseases and disorders.

Use the crossword puzzles, brain quizzes, anagrams and word scrambles as fun activities for your audiences at the start of your program or during a break in your activities.

For more information, see the Dana Foundation's Web site.

Multivitamins don’t protect against cancer, heart disease

Maureen McAndrews — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:20:00 GMT

Using multivitamins does not protect against cancers or heart disease, according to an eight-year study of 161,808 postmenopausal women, which appears in the Feb. 9th issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

The study analyzed data on women in their 50s and up who participated in long-running government studies on postmenopausal women. Almost 42 percent of the women said they used multivitamins regularly. After about eight years, roughly equal numbers of vitamin users and nonusers developed common cancers, heart attacks and other cardiovascular problems. Overall, there were 9,619 cases of cancer, including cancers of the breast, lung, ovary, colon and stomach; and 8,751 cardiovascular ailments including heart attacks and strokes. In addition, 9,865 women died, also at similar rates in multivitamin users and nonusers, according to an MSNBC article.

Despite these results, study co-author Dr. JoAnn Manson said this research doesn't necessarily mean that multivitamins are useless. The data are observational, and it's unclear if taking vitamins could help prevent cancers that take several years to develop, said Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham & Women's Hospital.

She said multivitamins may still be useful "as a form of insurance" for people with poor eating habits, the article reports.

Active Aging Week 2008

Liz Rosto — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:10:00 GMT

The International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) is sponsoring Active Aging Week September 22 - 28. The theme is "Choose an Active Life!" This annual health promotion event is dedicated to introducing older adults to a healthy and active lifestyle.

Get in on the fun by planning some events in your community that encourage physical, intellectual and social well-being. Some of the plans other facilities have in the works include:

Dances
Wii tournaments
Games for physical and mental agility
Open houses, free classes and demonstrations
Fitness classes, yoga, tai chi, bicycling, walks and hikes
Bowling, billiards and paddle ball
Treasure hunts, tournaments
Health fairs, seminars on health topics, screenings

For more resources, see the Active Aging Week site.

Earth Day 2008 - Encouraging Greener Living

Liz Rosto — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Happy Earth Day 2008! As people all over the world are paying more attention to environmental issues, there are many things individuals can do close to home--even in long-term care facilities.

In our March-April issue, contributor Mike LePostollec wrote about incorporating elements of sustainable design into long-term care. Some of the most common sustainable features include:

improved insulation
solar hot water heating systems
daylighting (using natural light to illuminate building spaces, rather than relying solely on electric lighting during the day)
geothermal heating, which distributes natural heat from the earth throughout a building
green roofs, which reduce solar gain on buildings and lower cooling costs
heat recovery systems, which provide a counter-flow temperature exchange between inbound and outbound air. Warm air leaving the building heats the inbound air, and vice versa.

For more ideas on how we can conserve resources, read the New York Times' Green Issue.

Connecting With Residents Who Have Dementia

Maureen McAndrews — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:27:00 GMT

A recent article in the Washington Post explores how certain games and other activities can help family members form more meaningful connections with loved ones who have dementia.

Researchers conducted a study on 33 families, and found that satisfaction was higher after playing one of the new board games with a relative with dementia than after a visit that involved no game-playing.

The article also indicates that memory books and scrapbooks can be helpful for those who live in nursing homes and similar settings, providing a method for staff and volunteers to get to know residents.

Look for more on this in the future: The National Institute on Aging supported the study and the researchers have submitted it for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Study Shows Exercise Can Extend Lifespan

Liz Rosto — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:03:00 GMT

We all know that exercise is the cornerstone of losing weight and maintaining good health, and a new study proves that regular exercise can extend your lifespan.

The government-sponsored analysis -- the largest such study ever -- found that a regimen of brisk walking 30 minutes a day at least four to six days a week was enough to halve the risk of premature death from all causes.

The study's only caveat: only men were examined. The 15,660 patients were treated in VA medical centers and ranged in age from 47 to 71. One can only hope that a similar study is being conducted on women, and one can only assume that the results would be similar.

"The point is, it takes relatively little exercise to achieve the benefit we found," said Peter Kokkinos, director of the exercise testing and research lab in the cardiology department of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

"What's really important to understand is that you don't need special clothes, special memberships, special equipment," added Alice H. Lichtenstein, director of the Cardiovascular Nutrition Lab at Tufts University's USDA Human Nutrition Research Center in in Boston and former chairwoman of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee.

Like the experts said, you don't need expensive equipment to help your residents live healthy lives. Encourage residents to get moving, even just walking up to 30 minutes a day.

Information Online

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:46:00 GMT

The University of Nebraska Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Geriatrics offers a collection of GERI Pearls, downloadable pocket cards that concisely review geriatric topics including aging pharmacology, constipation, delirium, dementia, depression, falls, insomnia, hospital admission, pain management, palliative care, pre-op assessment, pressure ulcers, syncope, incontinence and weight loss. You can find them here.

You can find many useful links at the Brown University Resources for Geriatric Education Web page, including an assessment toolkit, depression scale, dementia screening tests and much more.

Predicting Osteoarthritis in People with Knee Injuries

Adkins-Ali Carrie — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:50:00 GMT

Being of short stature, I often jump onto counter tops to reach the items in my cabinets. I learned the hard way that it’s best not to do that after washing the floor: Seventeen years ago, I slipped when jumping back down and broke my kneecap. It’s hurt ever since.

While I don’t yet know if I’ll be one of the 50 percent of people with knee injuries to develop osteoarthritis, there’s some interesting new research to give me a clue.

“A new clinical trial seeks to predict who is most likely to experience osteoarthritis, and to test whether an experimental treatment can prevent it altogether. Physicians are setting their sights on people who sustain a knee injury, seeking to understand why nearly half of them will later go on to develop osteoarthritis,” reports SeniorJournal.com.

The article explains that enzymes called Smad Ubiquitination Regulatory Factors or smurfs control the response of cells to growth factors. “A particular form of these regulatory enzymes, smurf2, might in fact be responsible for America’s leading cause of disability.”

“Further experiments showed that smurf2 was present in the joints of patients in early-stage arthritis, when patients might begin to experience mild discomfort, but long before other well-known molecular markers of osteoarthritis began to emerge.”

The goal of the research “is to create a simple diagnostic test to determine whether a person with a knee injury has a high level of smurf2s in their cartilage,” says Randy Rosier, MD, PhD, professor of Orthopaedics and director of Research Translation in Orthopaedics at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

“In these cases, physicians can advise the patient to stop high-intensity, wear-and-tear activity, slowing the onset of arthritis and lessening its severity. Eventually, we hope to create an injection that will stop smurf2s’ ability to turn on the calcification and degeneration process in cartilage that leads to osteoarthritis.”

Read the full article here.

The Mind-Body Connection

Maureen McAndrews — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:06:00 GMT

Exercise powers the brain as much as it powers the body. This and other interesting ideas came to the forefront when physicians met recently to discuss theories on aging brains.

In discussing the most promising ways that healthy brains guard against the normal wear and tear of aging, brain specialists pointed to research on physical exercise's effect on the brain.

They agreed that "physical exercise is the best-proven prescription so far." In fact, "memory improved when 72-year-olds started a walking program three days a week, and sophisticated scans showed their brains' activity patterns started resembling those of younger people."

It's long been known that exercise has a positive effect on the brain. Any marathon runner will tell you about the effect of those endorphins. And many people say they just "feel better" when they exercise.

But the idea of exercising to specifically improve memory is powerful and attention-getting. I think many people have become anesthetized to hearing about the physical effects of exercise because they're so widely discussed and written about. But, perhaps if LTCFs trumpeted the cognitive benefits of exercise just as much as the physical benefits, they'd get more active participants in their exercise and wellness programs.

-Maureen McAndrews, managing editor