I was in the drugstore this morning to purchase a facial cleansing cream that my dermatologist recommended. I looked at the ingredients and I was dumbfounded. I don’t think I want to put half of those ingredients on my skin. Read the rest of this entry
Tagged with: Additives • botulism • carcinogen • health and aging • Nitrosamines
Filed under: Fitness and Nutrition
Before people develop Type 2 diabetes, a condition called pre-diabetes usually takes place. Interestingly, this condition arrives gradually but usually without warning. There may be no signs of it or the signs are so insignificant that no one pays attention. However, if you are 45 years or older, pay attention, because that is the age when problems with blood sugar control usually begin.
Also known as impaired glucose intolerance by the medical profession, prediabetes is a term that refers to the 41 million people I the U.S. who have blood glucose levels higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes.
Recognizing the importance of diagnosing pre-diabetes because treatment of the condition may prevent type 2 diabetes as well as all those complications associated with type 2 diabetes. Doctors now know that the complications associated with prediabetes, such as heart and blood vessel disease and eye and kidney disease, take place before the diabetes diagnosis is made.
You are at risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes if you fall within one of these categories:
Treatment for pre diabetes
A 5 percent to 10 percent reduction in weight makes a huge difference.
Treat high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
In other words, choose a healthy lifestyle and stay with it.
I’d love to learn about your ways that you deal with your sugar problems especially if they work well for you. I’d like to share them with our readers. Scroll down to the blank window and write your suggestion in the blank window.
Thanks for your participation.
To your success at healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Tagged with: glucose intolerance • healthy aging • high blood pressure • kidney disease • Ruthan Brodsky • type 2 diabetes
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
If you are not exercising, if you are overweight, and if you are eating a diet heavy in starchy, sugary goods, you are setting yourself up for diabetes. Read the rest of this entry
Tagged with: blood sugar levels • blurred vision • diabetes screening • diabetic condition • extreme thirst • glucose intolerance • healthy aging • kidney disease • lifestyle • prevent illness • Ruthan Brodsky • type 1 diabetes • type 2 diabetes
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
As long as I’ve got your attention on hypertension this past week I thought you might want to make sure you know just a little more to dispel the myths and maintain your own health.
First, be aware that some medical conditions can cause or contribute to high blood pressure. These include anemia, an overactive thyroid, kidney disease, a malfunctioning aortic valve or sleep apnea. Blood pressure reflects both the amount of blood the heart pumps out every minute which is called cardiac output. It also reflects the pressure the walls of the arteries exert on the flowing blood. A healthy artery expands as blood surges through it and returns to its normal shape when the blood flow ebbs. The problem is that as we get older our arteries tend to lose their elasticity and we’re not as capable to accommodate the surges of blood.
Another change is that we tend to accumulate more fatty deposits or plaque on the inside of arterial walls and that also contributes to the artery-clogging process known as hardening of the arteries or atherosclerosis. When plaque accumulates it also stimulates other processes that thicken the wall even more. This makes the artery wall less flexible and as artery walls stiffen, the diastolic blood pressure tends to drop while the systolic pressure rises. Not good.
If you are a female about 55 years old you probably have a lower incidence of hypertension than men. However after that your blood pressure tends to rise even more so than men’s. Even so it is not clear how menopause and the resulting decline in estrogen affect blood pressure. Maybe info on that next year.
The point of all this is have your doctor check out your medical conditions like anemia before you start taking medications for high blood pressure. The next step is for you to make a healthier lifestyle for yourself such as losing weight, exercising, cutting out the salt in your diet and, of course, no smoking. If lifestyle by itself doesn’t get your bp down, then meds are your next step.
For more info on your heart and a downloadable blood pressure-tracking chart visit the American Heart Association’s High Blood Pressure Web page.
To your successful healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Tagged with: aerobic exercise • beta blockers • cardiac output • diastolic blood pressure • diuretics • fatty deposits • getting fit • hardening of the arteries • heart • hypertension • research
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
As long as you are going to pay more attention to your blood pressure, take a few minutes and learn more about how your blood pressure works and keeps everything pumping.
The two numbers in a blood pressure reading represent the peak pressure reached in your heart’s pumping cycle. The top number is the systolic pressure and the bottom number is the diastolic pressure which is the lowest pressure you have during the resting phase of the cycle.
The entire result is measured in millimeters of mercury (mm.Hg) and written with the systolic pressure number over the diastolic. For instance, your blood pressure may read 110/80 mm Hg. That would be considered normal. A high blood pressure reading would be 140/80 mm Hg or 120/90 mmHg.
Keep in mind that blood pressure naturally rises and falls throughout the day so a single reading doesn’t tell you much. What does matter is the pattern over time. You are diagnosed with high blood pressure only if your doctor finds a consistently elevated level over several months.
In 2003 the Joint National committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure stated that in people over age 50 an elevated systolic reading (top) such as 140 Hg or higher is a more significant risk of cardiovascular disease than the diastolic reading. Other research indicates that just treating high systolic pressure cuts the risk of stroke in people ages 60 or more.
Again, this is important to keep in mind because by the age of 60, high blood pressure affects about half the population . Fortunately, lifestyle changes and sometimes medication can successfully treat the condition. For instance, if you are heavy, every 2 pounds of weight you lose can reduce your pressure. If you have no complicating health problems, the goal is to reduce blood pressure to under 140-/90 mm Hg.
If you have issues with your bp tell us what you are doing to manage your blood pressure.
To your successful healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Tagged with: anxiety • healthy aging success • high systolic pressure • Ruthan Brodsky • treatment of high blood pressure
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
Your blood pressure tends to get higher as you get older. You may have gone thru life with a normal bp for your first 45 or 55 or even 60 years and then your doctor tells you your bp is up. Read the rest of this entry
Tagged with: arteries • blood pressure • blood pressure monitor • dementia • healthy aging • heart disease • high blood pressure • hypertension • Ruthan Brodsky • stroke
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
The story is told about a patient scheduled for shoulder surgery who receives a letter from the orthopedic surgeon that he is one of the designers of the artificial shoulder the patient is about to receive and that he is paid royalties from the implant manufacturer.
This doctor is unusual because most physicians do not reveal their business connections with equipment or pharmaceutical companies. Read the rest of this entry
Tagged with: business connections • financial connections • royalties • Ruthan Brodsky • second opinion • successful aging
Filed under: Treatment
When your head is pounding, your eyes light-sensitive, every sound is a roar and you feel nauseated, the chances are good you are having a migraine headache.
A headache that comes and goes over the years and long-lasting is most likely a migraine or a vascular headache related to blood vessels. Symptoms include recurrent pain, throbbing, and pressure all of which can last for days.
There are many causes for migraines including stress, insomnia, barometric pressure, altitude changes and some foods. It is no longer unusual these days to find that children and teens also suffer from migraines along with adults.
Recently a new association for migraine has come to light, the patent foramen ovale (PFO) or a hole in the heart. Usually this congenital defect closes on its own, but many people live their whole lives with it open and without negative effects. However, for some it can be the cause for a stroke or migraines.
There is no proof of this yet and research is ongoing, but one out of every four to five patients with migraines have holes in their hearts. Apparently closing the PFO provides relief from the migraines and people who have their PFO closed feel more energetic, and their hands and feet feel warmer.
Preventive therapy usually includes an anti-inflammatory, seizure medication, or an anti-depressant heart medication. A physician may also order a migraine-specific drug that turns off the pain center in the brain.
Whatever the treatment, the advice is to see your physician first.
Tagged with: depression • healthy aging • hole in the heart • migraine headache • more energy • PFO • Ruthan Brodsky • successful aging • vascular headache
Filed under: Mind and Body
Heart failure is a confusing and frightening term for many people.
I bring up this topic because a neighbor’s husband was diagnosed with heart failure. During a conversation about his condition, his wife thought that her husband’s heart had stopped beating when the doctor told her the diagnosis was heart failure.
At that moment I took a deep breath not knowing whether or not it was my place to help her understand the term, but I did explain that heart failure really means that the heart isn’t working as effectively as it should.
In other words the pump is broken. Either the heart isn’t able to fill up with enough blood or pump with enough force, or both. If the heart is not pumping as efficiently as it should, then your need for oxygen and nutrients is also not being met. When the heart does not pump powerfully as it should, fluid backs up into the lungs and builds up in the feet, ankles and legs. That means the organs are also not getting enough blood and oxygen.
On the other hand, heart failure does not mean the situation is hopeless. It is true that heart failure cannot be cured, but patients can take steps to manage their heart failure so it does not get worse.
Medications such as diuretics, ACE inhibitors to lower blood pressure, beta-blockers to slow heart rate, and Digoxin to strengthen the heart beat may be prescribed to help alleviate the symptoms and make the heart function more efficiently. When patients experience severe heart failure they may have a pacemaker, heart pump or even a heart transplant.
There are warning signs that you or someone you know may be experiencing heart failure. They include:
All of the above are possible signs that fluid is building up in your body. Contact your doctor if you are experiencing any of these symptoms. Remember early detection, regardless of the disease or condition, means early treatment, which is likely to equate to a more quality lifestyle.
To your healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Tagged with: healthy aging success • Ruthan • Ruthan Brodsky • successful aging • swelling in the feet
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
According to recent research published in Neurology high blood pressure is linked to memory problems in people over age 45.
We have been told repeatedly that our blood pressure should be at least normal which is something less than 120 (systolic) over 80 (diastolic) – often written as 120/80mm Hg and read as 120 over 80 millimeters of mercury. High blood pressure or hypertension is when your blood pressure is higher than normal for an extended period of time.
We have this general idea that high blood pressure puts us at greater risk for heart attacks and strokes. We also now know that we could have normal blood pressure as young adults and even thru those hectic times of raising kids and creating some kind of life for ourselves and family, but as we age our arteries and veins lose their elasticity and it’s more likely our pressure will raise above normal.
Those of us who are wise enough to realize the serious risks of hypertension will take our meds to control the pressure. For those who haven’t made up their mind just yet, your risk of growing old without a quality life has just increased with this new research. For every 10-point increase in the blood pressure reading, the odds of a person having cognitive problems were 7% higher.
The study involved over 20,000 participants, age 45 and older. Close to 50 percent were already taking medication for high blood pressure but another almost 8 percent of them already had memory and cognitive problems. The thinking is that by preventing or treating high blood pressure, we could potentially prevent cognitive impairment which is a precursor to dementia. Research already shows us that high diastolic blood pressure leads to the weakening of small arteries in the brain which can cause small areas of brain damage.
It seems to me that you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that you need to do what you need to do – diet, exercise, meds – to control your blood pressure.
To your healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Tagged with: brain damage • cognitive impairment • dementia • healthy aging • heart • hypertension • memory • quality life • research
Filed under: Conditions and Diseases
