How To Prevent Age-Related Disease
What's one good way to avoid heart disease?
There's one simple way to prevent heart disease, and that is by keeping your teeth in good condition. There's more and more evidence that indicates that periodontal disease, disease around your teeth, can in fact lead to serious heart disease. Flossing and keeping your teeth in good shape is a wonderful way to prevent heart disease.
How important is nutrition in preventing diseases associated with aging?
About 50% to 60% of all the serious diseases with aging can be prevented by good nutrition and exercise. I'm talking about heart disease and diabetes and many, many cancers.
How important is sleep in preventing diseases associated with aging?
Sleep is very, very important in preventing disease associated with aging. Most people don't get a good night's sleep. As you get older you - one, wake up more frequently during the night. Two, have a hard time getting back to sleep, and you have a hard time falling sleep in the first place. So you spend more time in bed and you get less sleep. It's much more fragmented with aging. And you don't get that deep sleep, that deep, deep sleep.
How does sleep affect aging?
With aging, you have a hard time falling asleep. You wake up more frequently, and it's harder getting back to sleep. You spend more time in bed and get less sleeping which can cause devastating problems as you get older. You can be more accident prone, you can get depressed, and it can also affect your immune system.
How can I get a better night's sleep?
The first thing you can do is light proof and sound proof your bedroom. Take out things from your bedroom that spew light into your eyes, for example the LCD display in your clock radio. If you're going to have it in your bedroom, turn it away from your eyes as you go to sleep. Get heavy drapes to help decrease the light and sound coming into your bedroom. The other critical thing is associating your bedroom with sleep. Take out the television set. Don't read in your bedroom. If you can't sleep after thirty minutes, leave the bedroom so that your bedroom is associated in your brain with sleep. Go to bed the same time every night and wake up the same time every morning. If you don't get a good night's sleep one night, don't try to compensate for it. Do the same sleep rhythm the next night. The other thing is to warm your body up before you sleep. Take a hot shower or bath or Jacuzzi, and then go into a cooler room. That drop in temperature from warm to cold is a trigger for sleep. Another thing that you could do is take a warm glass of milk. That will have tryptophan in it, which is a natural sleep aid. Those are a number of things that you could do to help improve your sleep.
How important is weight control in preventing age-related disease?
How can I prevent my skin from aging?
Skin aging is perhaps the easiest thing to prevent. Obviously what causes skin aging is the sun. So you need to cover your skin with skin block. Watch how much time you are out in the sun. The problem you have is the sun is also wonderful for you, but it's wonderful for your sleep. It's wonderful for curing depression. It gives you natural Vitamin D, so you have to balance this. You have to be out in the sun with your sun block but not too long. That's the best way to prevent skin aging.
How effective is alpha hydroxy acid skin cream in keeping skin younger-looking?
What are the best ways to prevent cardiovascular disease?
What can I do to prevent age-related memory loss?
In the MacArthur Foundation study of successful aging, we followed people from age 70 to 80. We followed about a thousand people, successful agers. We looked at what was the one factor that helped prevent memory loss, and cognitive dysfunction. And it was aerobic exercise. So the best way you can avoid losing your memory and your brain is by exercising.
Will staying mentally active help prevent memory loss?
There are very many advertisements right now for games that will help to improve your brain power and maintain your brain power. But we have very little evidence that they work. It's certainly not going to be bad for you. So I recommend this to people to try these brain games - these brain empowerment games, and to do memory exercises. I think there's no harm in it at all, and it may help. But the best thing, again, is aerobic exercise.
How can I prevent hearing loss while aging?
The best thing that you can do to prevent hearing loss is to avoid going to loud rock concerts. At these concerts the volume gets up to 90, 100 or even 110 decibels. It really impacts on your hearing and it causes permanent damage. So I see a lot of people that are in their fifties, president Clinton for example, with hearing aids because of their earlier exposure when they were younger to very loud noises. So the best thing you can do to maintain your hearing is to stay away from loud environments like a rock concert.
Will supplements help me avoid arthritis?
There are probably about forty different supplements that are offered to prevent arthritis on the marketplace. The only ones that may be beneficial are chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine sulphate, but I wouldn't take it if you don't have arthritis. They work most effectively for pain of the knee and knee arthritis, so I would only take glucosamine and chondroitin sulphate for arthritis of the knee.
Which environmental factors contribute to osteoporosis?
Smoking, carbonated beverages, and caffeine are things that increase your risk of osteoporosis.
How can I prevent bone loss while aging?
The best way to prevent bone loss, by far, is a combination of aerobic exercise and weight training. They did a study of teenage girls and looked 60 to 70 years later to see what prevented the loss of bone and fractures, which is even more important. The two factors that came out as most important were aerobic exercise and weight training, and not how much milk they consumed or how much calcium they took. That was very interesting.
