Sea Crest Health Care Center

By L. Gordon

The nose knows – if you’re developing Parkinsons. If you’re male, anyway.

A study carried out in California on a pool of well over 2,000 men of Japanese descent and over the age of 80 found that those who scored poorly on a sniff test had a higher risk of developing Parkinsons down the line.

The study consisted of 2,264 men approaching 80 years old as of the mid-1990s. They were asked to smell and identify 12 odors: banana, chocolate, cinnamon, gasoline, lemon, onion, paint thinner, pineapple, rose, soap, smoke, and turpentine.

Within the next eight years, 35 of the men developed Parkinsons, and all performed poorly on the sniff test.

But if you’re having difficulty waking up and smelling the coffee, fear not. The study doesn’t provide any data regarding women, nor any explanation for what the correlation between smell and Parkinson’s might be. Nor does it provide any suggestion on how this interesting connection could be used. If stopping to smell the roses is becoming less satisfying, it could be part of normal aging. Then again, it might not be.

By Ruth Folger Weiss

We attempt to tackle each day in optimistic and measured tones, weighing the risk ratios and costs benefits of a myriad of choices. We’ve finally gotten the Food Pyramid straight, can almost discern the differences between wild and not-so-wild salmon, know where to get our Omega 3s, and recognize that pomegranate juice isn’t just relegated to The Jewish New Year – and that brain exercises coupled with the physical version may ward off the horrors of Alzheimer’s disease.

So I was unprepared for the latest bit of scientific harassment that brazenly confronted me this morning:
“Study Shows Getting a Big Belly in Midlife Ups Risk of Dementia Later in Life”
Having a fat belly at midlife, which is already associated with an increased risk of diabetes, heart problems, and stroke, also increases the risk of getting dementia in your later years, according to a new study.
“This is the first time research has linked central obesity in midlife with dementia later in life,” says Rachel Whitmer, PhD, research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., who led the study. “If you are overweight and carry it in your belly, you are at greater risk of health problems than someone overweight who doesn’t carry it in their belly.
“Where you carry your weight is an important risk factor,” she tells WebMD. “If you are overweight and carry it in your belly, you are at greater risk [of health problems] than someone overweight who doesn’t carry it in their belly.”

Our efforts, heretofore, mainly relegated to using glass dishes instead of aluminum pans, and trying our hand at learning a foreign language after completing a Sudoku grid, must be compounded by a serious multi-pronged effort at the gym. Hitting the gym and staying fit is a healthy “must”- and working at it is no longer a matter of vanity. Now the mid-life crisis, is a mid-body attack. There it is again: middle age leaves no room for slack.

Good news for boomers – those knee pains may not be the death knell to afternoons on the court.

Baby boomers are among the most active of aging cohorts, and this manifests in a high rate of sports related injuries. For many, months of rehabilitation followed by reduced activity is the only healthy response. But for those with injuries to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), there is excellent reason to hope for better.

A recent study by orthopedic surgeons in California was performed on a study pool of people aged 50 and older (average age 57), who injured their ACL within the last two years, generally while playing sports. They received ACL reconstructive surgery and were followed for four years after. In an impressive show of success, 84% returned to their regular level of activity within two years, and their ACL returned to ordinary function.

This may be at least in part due to advances in ACL rehabilitation. In the past, rehab procedures focused predominantly on protecting the new ligament and the surgical fixation. This was discovered to cause stiffness and a limited range of motion, reducing the possibility that the injured person would return to full activity. More recently, rehabilitation post-ACL surgery has switched to a multi-phase program focused on restoring the maximum range of use to the muscle, using a wide variety of exercises.

The first phase, which begins the day of the surgery and continues for around two weeks, emphasizes minimizing post-op swelling, regaining full knee flexion and passive hyperextension, and walking unassisted. In the second phase, emphasis shifts to increasing strength and advanced flexion. At this point, the patient can return to an unrestricted daily routine. This phase lasts about a week. The third phase begins after a month and continues until the patient can return to their exercise regimen. It emphasizes progressive strength training and agility.

With good rehab, the patient can expect to return to a reduced level of sports activity within three months, and to regular sports activity within a year.

Bedsores are the bane of a good health care facility.

When a patient lies or sits, they put persistent pressure on body tissue. Pressure exerted for an extended period of time cuts off the oxygen supply to the tissue, slowly killing it. The result is a pressure ulcer, more commonly known as a bedsore. Ranging from superficial sores to bone-deep wounds, pressure ulcers are painful and dangerous. The long-term care industry is especially susceptible to bedsores, since so many of our clients spend extended periods lying in bed, sitting in wheelchairs, or otherwise immobile. Our perpetual crusade against bedsores is being picked up by hospitals now, as they realize how debilitating and painful the ulcers can be. A recent New York Times article highlighted some of the techniques hospitals are using in their attempt to upgrade their pressure ulcer care and prevent bedsores. Pressure ulcers are caused by immobility, poor nutrition, dehydration, and incontinence, alone and in combination. Therefore, reducing pressure ulcers is a group effort, requiring the participation of doctors, nurses, and nutritionists. The article followed a group of facilities that banded together to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of bedsores among their constituents. The facility decided that less waiting would mean less sitting and lying. So they sped up service at their beauty salon and dining room, so residents would spend less time immobile, and more time moving. They even instituted buffet dining, to force residents to keep moving. Nutrition was another problem innovatively addressed. Those with a higher risk for bedsores were moved into wheelchairs for transport to meals later and brought back earlier, so they wouldn’t be sitting and waiting for as long. Protein powers were added to food to boost nutrition, and patients suffering weight loss received color coded plates so nurses would know to encourage them to eat. Interestingly, these measures were found effective mostly against the deepest pressure wounds, which begin deep down by the bone, and open up on the skin fully formed.~ L. Gordon