Very Short
By Abby Tallmer
Reigniting Our Brains:
Memory, Loss of Sleep, and 40+ers
This being Thrive’s “Reinvention” issue, all our “Very Shorts” this month stress some “re”’ factor (reinventing, restoring, reevaluating, etc.). From the top, then: Some German researchers have discovered that augmenting the passage of electrical waves through the human brain can increase memory. At the University of Lübeck an experiment in which a weak electrical current was run through the brains of sleeping medical students determined that when they awoke they were able to improve their performance on a word-recall task. The testees had their scalps wired with electrodes and they were zapped five different times during a given night with (presumably) painless electric currents, thereby boosting their brain performance, especially in the memory department. According to Scientific American, “[t]he finding strengthens the case that electrically stimulating the brain can exert a synchronizing effect on individual neurons and produce beneficial effects.”
All this has implications in a number of areas, including the key-to-health factor of sleep. “For reasons that remain unclear” – as SA puts it, “humans begin to lose the ability to sleep deeply [at] around 40 years of age,” which is about the same stage in our aging process that memory starts to slow. Researchers are now considering if and how electrical stimulation to the brain could help 40+ers to sleep more soundly. “Restoring this critical stage of sleep by means of electronic stimulation,” says Rutgers University neuroscientist Gyorgy Buzsáki, “is a truly intriguing possibility for restoring the declining effect of sleep on memory.” For more on this intriguing Lübeck study and its potential applications, see the article “Brain Gain: Brain Wave Boost During Sleep Sharpens Memory” in Scientific American online at www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=BEC346B2-E7F2-99DF-350CC33BA6757700&sc=I100322
Reconsidering Menopause:
Yes, Men Have It Too
It is generally thought that middle-aged women are the only members of the population who undergo the somewhat drastic hormonal changes and symptoms that are known as menopause. But men in their 40s, as MSNBC reports, also undergo s shift in hormonal, physiological, and chemical functions that “can affect many aspects of their lives.” Interestingly, many experts concede that this phenomenon exists but blanch at calling it “male menopause,” preferring to term it, for instance, “ADAM-Androgen Deficiency of the Aging Male.”
Men in their 40s don’t get hot flashes, as many women commonly do, but, like women, they do experience a decrease of hormone levels, typically losing as much as 1 percent of testosterone per year. Some men may notice a decrease in sex drive, a tendency towards sadness or irritability, fatigue, anxiety, or depression. Experts urge all men in their 40s and beyond to get their hormone levels checked routinely and to inquire about treatment if the symptoms interfere with their quality of life.
And what are these hormone-depleted men treated with? Usually with testosterone (in injection, gel, or patch form), though it is by no means agreed by all experts that testosterone treatment is desirable or even effective. Christopher Saigal, an assistant professor of urology at UCLA, is quoted on the MSNBC site as saying: “Not all men with borderline testosterone need treatment, but some experience something akin to having a disease, so the treatment for them has a huge placebo effect.” Researchers have discovered that testosterone treatment has some pros (it strengthens men’s bones, and improves male cardiovascular health) as well as some minuses (possible hair loss, blood clots, liver dysfunction, or even enlargement of the prostate). “If a man doesn’t see a difference in how he feels within a few months, then he should get off of it,” says Saigal. “It will take some time to figure out who are the real men who need to be treated for [lowered testosterone levels].” For more on this, see “Don’t call it male menopause” on MSNBC.com’s Website at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15060803/
Reinventing Medicare — and You
As we all know all too well by now, the Medicare system that many seniors depend on has been revamped into an ultra-complicated jumble of new rules and regulations. If you are one of the millions who are struggling to navigate this convoluted new Medicare system — the “old” one being convoluted enough — don’t panic. There are several resources out there to assist you to understand the new rules surrounding Medicare Part D (the prescription-drug option) and to make informed health- and prescription-coverage decisions.
First among these tools is — surprise! — Medicare’s own Website, which offers some very handy features for recipients. If you go to Medicare’s home page at http://www.medicare.gov you will find three especially useful and user-friendly hyperlinks: “Medicare & You 2007,” a lengthy text which explains in detail the changes and their implications; “Compare Medicare Prescription Drug Plans,” which gives you an overall picture of the features of the various available plans; and the entry I recommend starting with if you are trying to choose a prescription-drug plan, “Formulary Finder.” It links you to an easy-to-use interactive database which allows you to input all of the medications that you are on and then tells you all of the plans that cover these medications, enabling you to compare them in terms of cost, extent of coverage, special limitations or permissions needed, etc. Again, all of these hyperlinks can be found in the center of Medicare’s home page (see above), and anyone who is currently struggling with Medicare and/or Medicare’s Part D would be remiss to overlook this site.
Also of tremendous help is the Medicare Rights Center, an advocacy organization for Medicare consumers. Founded in 1989, MRC -- which lays claim to being “the largest independent source of Medicare information and assistance in the United States” -- helps older adults and people with disabilities to “get high-quality, affordable health care.” This past November the MRC released a report entitled “Part D 2007: Addressing Access Problems for Low-Income People with Medicare.” Although an informational position paper addressed to Medicare administrators, the report is equally educational for Medicare consumers and contains many useful tidbits for low-income Medicare recipients about supplemental subsidies for which they might qualify. It can be found at www.medicarerights.org/policybrief_autoreenrollment.pdf
The Medicare Rights Center will also answer questions from all individuals at (212) 869-3850, and its Website at www.medicarerights.org provides plenty of other Medicare-related information. I can testify that this is a very caring and efficient organization, and its staffers responded to this reporter’s call (I did not identify myself as press) within the hour, nearly a record for a busy advocacy organization.
Reinventing Our Intake:
NO on Trans Fat
As nearly every New Yorker now knows, on December 5, 2006, the New York City Board of Health voted to adopt the nation’s first major municipal ban on all but the smallest amounts of trans fats in restaurant cooking. This edict, which is expected to serve as a model for other U.S. cities, will, according to The New York Times, “radically transform the way food is prepared in thousands of restaurants, from McDonald’s to fashionable bistros to Chinese take-outs.”
The NYC Health Department approved a separate measure on the same day – also the first of its kind in the nation – which would require fast-food outlets and other eating establishments to post on menu boards or near cash registers the calorie content of each available item..
Trans fats, says a Board of Health Q&A, are “chemically modified food ingredients that raise levels of a particularly unhealthy form of cholesterol and have been linked to heart disease.” According to the well-respected Website WebMD, the words “partially hydrogenated” on a food label is a clue that trans fats may be included. Some top items that often contain trans fat are spreads, packaged foods, soups, fast food, frozen food, baked goods, chips and crackers, breakfast food, cookies and candy, toppings and dips.
See WebMD at www.webmd.com/content/article/118/113024.htm?pagenumber=2 for a more complete and specific list of foods and brands containing high trans-fat percentages. And as you read those numbers, keep in mind that researchers recently found that only 2.6 grams of trans fat a day (assuming a 2000- calorie-a-day diet) would be enough to increase the likelihood and extent of heart disease. (See WebMD article at: http://www.webmd.com/content/Article/130/117705.htm ).
The citywide banning of trans fats has set off a great debate amongst New Yorkers, with nutritionists and doctors largely applauding the measure, and many restaurants, professional chefs, and some consumers protesting that it will be hard if not impossible to replicate tasty recipes without using trans fats. Thee are those who even declare the monitoring measure an infringement on their civil liberties. (On December 11, 2006, The Times ran an amusing and illuminating story headlined “In City’s Trans Fat Ban, a Challenge Fit for a Chef” which concluded that foods containing no trans fat are better for you but foods with trans-fat ingredients are generally tastier, more pleasingly textured, and easier for chefs to prepare. For the full story, go to www.nytimes.com/2006/12/11/nyregion/11fat.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion&oref=slogin.)
Although passed in December 2006, the no-trans-fat measure will be phased in gradually and not be fully effective until July 2008. So run and get all of your trans-fat-laden goodies now if you are truly addicted – advice with which most doctors and nutritionists (not to mention members of the NYC Health Department) would no doubt soundly disagree).
Restoring a Reputation:
Red Wine Can Be Good for You
After all that bad news, we need some good news. So here it is: Red wine is seemingly good for us again, at least in moderation. Which is to say that investigators at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, recently made the discovery that resveratrol, found in red wine, significantly extended the lifespan of obese mice who were given it although it did not make them thinner. Huge disclaimer: This experiment has not yet been tried on human subjects, so we can only hope that the same results will occur with actual obese people. For more on this, see www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Health/6-11-02-RedWineElement.htm
Reinvigorating Ourselves:
Sleeping Tips for Seniors
And finally, what can lead to reinvention more than a refreshing good night’s sleep? Yet many older Americans have problems sleeping solidly or staying asleep, and these problems seem to increase with age. Further, according to the Internet’s Senior Journal, “older adults with sleep-related problems are more likely to be depressed, suffer attention and memory problems, experience daytime sleepiness, and are at higher risk of falls than those who have good quality of sleep.”
To this end, Senior Journal supplies some do-and-don’t tips for older adults.
• DO try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time each day; make your bedroom cool, dark, and comfortable; use visualization (picture a relaxing or comforting scene).
• DON’T drink caffeinated beverages like coffee, tea, or soda within 6 hours of your bedtime; fall asleep to the TV; or take lengthy naps during the day. The full article and sleep tips can be found at www.seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Aging/6-12-07-TipsforSeniorCitizens.htm.
