One of the gals I play bridge with decided to have a few facial proceduresbecause her grandchildren kept asking her if she were angry.

“I would tell them I’m not angry, this is just the way I look. The last time they asked this I thought I had better take care of this.”

Carolyn is 63 and works part time as a conference organizer for large organizations. This fall she had three facial procedures: blepharoplasty (an eyelid lift), full-face laser resurfacing, and fat injections.

“Now my grandchildren say I look happy all the time.”

Carolyn is among the growing trend across the county of patients 55 and older who now make up one-quarter of the more than 12 million cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, ASPS). Despite the poor economy that number is up slightly from last year and patients ages 40 to 54 accounted for 47 percent of all procedures done.

Obviously today’s seniors are more health conscious and like many of us, they look in the mirror and even though they feel younger, they still look older. When senior men and women feel good physically it makes sense that they focus cosmetic procedures on their face. Look at these figures for 2008: those 55 and older had 48% of all blepharoplasties, 43% of all laser skin resurfacing, and 66% of all facelifts performed in the U.S. last year.

The eyelift removes excess skin and fatty tissue and reduces bags and wrinkles. The CO2 laser skin resurfacing, using a computer generated laser to vaporize skin layers and cause thermal damage is the next most popular procedure. The laser process results in tighter skin and has a positive effect on lines and wrinkles and pigmentation.  Both treatments are performed in a hospital under general anesthetic and recovery takes a couple of weeks. The eye lift costs around $6000 and the laser procedure close to $7000 including hospital costs.

I haven’t seen the results yet because she is now babysitting her grandchildren in another state. But I did talk to her and she sounds so very happy.

Do you have any plans for any facial procedures? Will you share your reason why you made that choice? I think we all need to be better informed and not make such hasty judgments.

To your success at healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky

Sometimes, no matter what you do, a season doesn’t pass without you getting a least one blister. It may be the new pair of shoes you bought for an Alaskan cruise. Or maybe the cause was the cushioned socks that bunched up in your
running or tennis shoes. Whatever the reason, and so often it happens because we get lazy or to busy to take a minute and check the problem,  so that now we have a full blown blister.

If you have a red, sore area where you think a blister might be developing, cover it with a bandage immediately and keep the bandage on as you wear shoes over the next several days. If you develop an actual blister, treat it as soon as you can before a fluid builds up inside. The good news is that you can treat the blister yourself with a few simple steps. (If, however, you are diabetic or have circulation problems, it is always a good idea to see your physician first. )

Take these steps to treat your blister.
1.    Wash your hands well.
2.    Clean the blister are with iodine or alcohol.
3.    Puncture the blister with a needle that you have sterilized by soaking it in alcohol.
4.    Leave the top on the blister. Do not pull off that layer because that will open the raw area to infection.
5.    Apply a topical antiseptic to the blister and the surrounding skin.
6.    Cover the blister with a bandage or piece of sterile gauze taped into place and keep it covered for several days.
7.    If your blister does not heal or is painful make an appointment with a doctor.

To prevent blisters keep your feet dry and powdered and consider inserting a pad in your shoe where the rub took place or giving your shoes away.

If you have any tricks for preventing blisters when you travel, please share them with us. On trips outside the US I always take a package of moleskin. It came in very handy on one trip when my husband’s new walking shoes rubbed the back of his feet raw!

To your success at healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky

I am always thinking about ways in which I can lead a healthier lifestyle in the most natural way possible. Although having a positive attitude about life in general was always important to me, and I worked at it, as I get older it is even more important.  So many bad things can happen to good people who get older!
I am delighted to report that I may be able to achieve my goals far more efficiently this year. It could be as simple as knowing what foods to eat and when to eat them. Read the rest of this entry

My dad use to say that you have to be a warrior to make it to old age. Just writing about all the changes that take place with your feet and how you must accommodate and protect your feet make his words ring loud and clear.

One of the most common, and painful, causes of painful arches is plantar fasciitis, inflammation of the plantar fascia. The plantar fascia is a band of fibrous connective tissue that runs along the bottom of the foot and helps secure the arch.  Athletes who run and jump and do marathons often develop this condition.

As you get older you can also get it from being too overweight, by wearing shoes that are too narrow, or even by standing on a ladder or step stool for a long time. The inflammation may be aggravated by shoes that lack the right support, especially for the arches. The point is when you keep stretching that fibrous tissue it starts tearing at different points all the way to the heel bone.

If you don’t pay attention to what’s happening, it gets worse. Then you develop bone spurs, which are calcium deposits that are visible on x-rays. They can measure up to half an inch long and they form on the heel when the small muscles associated with fascia begin tugging hard on the heel bone.

The good news is that these spurs don’t have nerve endings, so they’re not painful by themselves. However, if they stress the plantar fascia, they can worsen the pain. What makes this really bad is the plantar fasciitis places more stress on your Achilles tendon. In other words now you are more at risk for developing Achilles tendinitis.

I do want to recommend that you consider reading this book that will help you treat your condition without surgery. I do receive a commission if you should purchase the book, but I bought it and as you know I only recommend items that are worth while. To find out more about this book and receive a special report on how to find the right shoe, click on Plantar Fasciitis Treatment Guide.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

One of the more obvious changes that take place with your feet as you get older is that the fat pads under the balls and heels of your feet tend to then out. On some people they disappear completely.  The result is increased pressure on the ball of the foot and on the heel bone.

This increased pressure often leads to inflammation, pain, a greater risk for blisters and sores, and a burning sensation when you walk. The problem is that fat helps reduce friction, and the less fat you have under the balls of your feet, the hotter your feet get with each step.  The pain from this can become intense because the nerve endings on the bottoms of your feet are close to the surface of the skin. Making matters worse are when you stand or walk for a long time, particularly on hard surfaces, and if you are over weight,

Once the fat at the bottom of the foot pad goes away it does not come back. You can relieve the pain with aspirin or ibuprofen or find spongy insoles and flexible plastic cups that fit around the heels.  If that doesn’t work, a foot care specialist may prescribe orthotics.

Actually, some foot care specialists do try to restore the fat by injecting the area with collagen. The problem is that the collagen usually breaks down in a year so it must be injected regularly. It does get costly but it does work for some people.

If you have problems with your heel pads, what kinds of remedies have you tried? Share your story and tell us what to look for and what not to buy.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan

Together with all the common foot problems you may have, such as corns and calluses or bunions or toenail infections, as you get older you also have a number of special foot problems. Conditions that you may not pay much attention to when you were a teen or in your twenties become more serious as you get older.

According to the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA), 4 out of 5 people over age 50 suffer from at least one significant foot problem and require medical treatment for these problems by the time they reach 65.

Many of these problems are due to the physical, the physiological process of aging. Just like the rest of the body, the feet go through the normal wear and tear of age. You change, literally from head to toe and that includes your feet. For instance, as you get older your skin becomes more sensitive and more vulnerable to irritations and inflammations. You’re more likely to develop problems such as plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinitis. This most often happens to men.

Other foot problems are the result of years of abuse and neglect. If you’re one of those women who wore high-heeled shoes during your working life, you may be having problems with bunions.  Still other problems arise because so many of us, even though we’re suppose to get wiser as we get older, wear shoes that don’t fit properly or don’t give us adequate support. And finally there are all those other medical conditions, such as diabetes and arthritis and poor foot circulation.

Do you have any foot problems? Did they start when you were young? Share your story and if you found a way to treat the condition.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

It’s not just your head at work when you’re under stress; it is actually a full-body event. It may be caused by the dog that won’t go outside when it’s cold, shopping a big box store on Sunday or cleaning your car that never gets done.

Stress causes the body to increase its production of hormones such as epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol. The problem is high levels of these hormones are linked to a variety of health problems such as weight gain and disruptions in the body’s blood sugar levels. More importantly it is how we assess a situation that often determines our stress level. For example, if your adult daughter snaps at you, it’s fair to say she is either unhappy with you or she’s just having a bad day.  If she’s just having a bad day that shouldn’t make you upset. You need to be in the right frame of mind to figure it out.

Cognitive behavioral therapy as well as muscle relaxation can decrease the levels of these stress hormones. Here is one way to stay cool.
First, tense your muscles and then relax them. There are variations but the idea behind progressive muscle relaxation is to consciously tense one group of muscles, such as your feet or thigh muscles, for about 10 seconds then let them fall limp.  Work your way up from your feet to your head and neck and notice how the complete relaxation feels.

Start practicing this muscle relaxation once or twice a day, for 30 seconds, when you feel your muscles tensing, your heart racing or your palms sweating. You can work up to 30 of these daily mini practices. Soon it will transform from an exercise to a habit that helps you stay upbeat and productive during your day.

If there are offers of mindfulness-based stress reduction classes in your area, you may want to consider taking them.  At least check them out.

To your success at healthy aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

The evidence says it all. You are never too old to exercise.

In my last post I wrote about a recent study out of Israel that demonstrated you’re less likely to die if you exercise. Titled the Jerusalem Longitudinal Cohort Study, the researchers also followed 2000 people for 18 years who were studied from age 70 to age 88. What was learned from this age cohort was that seniors who started physical activity between ages 70 and 78 and even between 78 and 85 improved their odds of survival.

The test results also showed that seniors who exercised were more likely to maintain an independent lifestyle than those who didn’t exercise. The researchers also claim that because exercise helps to maintain cardiovascular health, it also improves immunity, and suppresses chronic inflammation.

The Israeli investigators concluded that the difference between physically active and sedentary participants actually increased the older the seniors. Walking appears to me the favorite of physical activities especially because of its low risk of injury.

Walking works even if you’re trying to lose weight. If your weight held fairly steady for some time, but when you hit 55 you started to gain weight, you can gradually increase your physical activity level or eat less and take in less calories. Or you can do both restricting calories and increasing exercise.

You may want to think of taking the stairs rather than the elevator or adding short periods of walking during the day. Once you make your mind up you probably can come up with a few ideas of your own to burn a few more calories.

If you do have some ideas for burning calories, let the rest of us know.  We all could use help when it comes to losing weight especially if exercising is helping us to live longer.

To your successful aging.

Ruthan Brodsky

Fitness to me is being physically and mentally able to work through life’s challenges. It takes work to make it through this life and it doesn’t get easier as you age.  I don’t recall who said it but growing old is not for sissies.
There are definitely lots of challenges.

What it means to be physically fit, and I’ll focus on physical fitness for the next few posts, is different at different stages of life. Let’s face it. No matter what we do it is evident that fitness declines with age. You’re not as speedy and you lose some aerobic capacity. You can’t open the olive jars you once did because your muscular strength decreases. What’s more bones are less dense and metabolism slows.

The good news is that exercise can minimize most of these losses. However, and it’s the same old story, you have to work at it.

There is even new proof that you’re never too old to exercise. A recent Israeli study found that people over age 70 live longer and better if they’re physically active at least four hours a week. Active senior were 31 percent to 58 percent less likely to die during the study than their sedentary peers. The other good news was that if you were among those who didn’t die and you exercised, you were 72 percent to 92 percent more likely to retain your independent lifestyle.

Recommendations encouraging physical activity set no upper age limit, says Jochanan Stessman, MD, of Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center writing in Archives of Internal Medicine.

The battle to lower you LDL or your bad cholesterol continues. Having too much bad cholesterol not only means you’ll have too much plaque in your arteries. It also means that the LDL cholesterol will get into the middle layer of artery. More gunk piles up faster and the inside of your arteries become inflamed. Blood can’t get through the artery and you have a heart attack.

A small research project, focusing on the lowly niacin, a B vitamin, was reported this past November. The report said that niacin did a better job of shrinking artery plaque than the active ingredient in the cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin which are produced by Merck.

It was a small trial sponsored by Abbot Labs with only 208 people involved but it was carefully designed and followed. Allen Taylor of the Medstar Research Institute and John Kastelein, of the University of Amsterdam presented their findings at a meeting of the American Heart Association and the results were published in the The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study pitted ezetimibe against slow release Niaspan, made by Abbot. The result showed that Niaspan reduced artery plaque by 2 percent and Zetia did not. Two people in the Niaspan group had heart attacks while nine did in the Zetia group.

The result was so pronounced that the study stopped in 14 months. Even so there is nothing simple about science. Many people who use niacin report flushing and itching. Most doctors discourage over-the-counter niacin because there’s no evidence that it works and whether its safe.

Merck still stands by its drug. The company says it has enrolled 15,000 patients in a trail designed to show whether ezetimibe works. The trial will probably last for some time because they’re not weighing in the data unless at least 5000 heart attacks are recorded.  That could take years. In the mean time, stay alert and find out as much as you can about the prescription drugs you are taking.
If cholesterol is an issue for you, talk to your doctor and do some research on your own about the different medications that try to lower your LDL and your total cholesterol.

To your healthy aging and the best of holidays.
Ruthan Brodsky