Ways to avoid "old-timers" disease

john8verse32 · 01-25-09 12:16 am

Vitamin D 'is mental health aid' from the BBC News: Sunlight is one source of vitamin D Vitamin D, found in fish and produced by sun exposure, can help stave off the mental decline that can affect people in old age, a study has suggested. UK and US researchers looked at 2,000 people aged 65 and over. They found that compared to those with the highest vitamin D levels, those with the lowest were more than twice as likely to have impaired understanding. Alzheimer's charities said the research was interesting, but more work was needed to understand vitamin D's role. It would be interesting if a low level of vitamin D was found to be a risk factor for cognitive problems as it is cheap and easy to remedy Dr Susanne Sorensen Alzheimer's Society Vitamin D is important in maintaining bone health, in the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, and in helping the immune system. The body makes vitamin D when it is exposed to the sun, or it can be obtained from foods such as oily fish, and those fortified with vitamin D, such as milk, cereals, and soya drinks. But older people's skin is less able to absorb vitamin D from sunlight so they are more reliant on obtaining it from other sources. Supplements Animal and lab studies have previously suggested that the vitamin can have a beneficial effect on cognitive function. The team from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, assessed people's cognition, or comprehension skills. People who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia. The researchers looked at people who had taken part in the Health Survey for England in 2000. Just over 200 had significant cognitive impairment, assessed by looking at people's attention, orientation in time and space and memory. The study found that as levels of vitamin D went down, levels of cognitive impairment went up. The paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology. Dr Iain Lang from the Peninsula Medical School, who worked on the study, said: "For those of us who live in countries where there are dark winters without much sunlight, like the UK, getting enough vitamin D can be a real problem - particularly for older people, who absorb less vitamin D from sunlight. "One way to address this might be to provide older adults with vitamin D supplements. "This has been proposed in the past as a way of improving bone health in older people, but our results suggest it might also have other benefits. "We need to investigate whether vitamin D supplementation is a cost-effective and low-risk way of reducing older people's risks of developing cognitive impairment and dementia." Risk factor? Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said: "Many foods that contain vitamin D, such as oily fish, eggs and breakfast cereals, are also good sources of vitamin B12, which, as previous studies have shown, can help protect the brain. "Diet is known to influence dementia risk. The best way of reducing your risk of developing dementia is to maintain a balanced diet with regular exercise and frequent social interactions." She added: "These findings may be significant, but much more research is needed." Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, added: "One in three people over 65 will die with dementia so research into how we can reduce risk is to be encouraged. "There was some previous evidence to suggest that people with dementia may have a lower level of vitamin D in their blood but it was not clear if this happened after the onset of disease. "It would be interesting if a low level of vitamin D was found to be a risk factor for cognitive problems as it is cheap and easy to remedy. "We look forward to seeing the published results of this new research to help us better understand the potential role of vitamin D in reducing risk

john8verse32 · 01-31-09 2:03 pm

Drink coffee!!!!! Swedish and Danish scientists studied 1,409 men and women for an average of 21 years, and 61 of the subjects were diagnosed with dementia. Those who said they drank from three to five cups of coffee a day were 65 percent less likely to have dementia than people who drank two cups or less, the study found. <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/messages/89/337.jpg" alt=""> People who drank more than five cups also had a reduced risk, but that group was too small to produce any solid conclusions. But that doesn't mean that people should start gulping coffee in hopes of warding off diseases like Alzheimer's, said Dr. Miia Kivipelto, the study's lead author. "We have no evidence that for people who are not drinking coffee, taking up drinking will have a protective effect," she told the Times. from <a href="http://news.aol.com/health/article/coffee-may-lower-risk-of-dementia/319476" target=_top>http://news.aol.com/health/article/coffee-may-lower-risk-of-dementia/319476</a> do NOT drink coffee...it is a sin...and all your activity of the brain is permanently lessened. from: <a href="http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates" target=_top>http://egwdatabase.whiteestate.org/nxt/gateway.dll?f=templates</a>$fn=default.htm$vid=default Coffee is a hurtful indulgence. It temporarily excites the mind to unwonted action, but the after-effect is exhaustion, prostration, paralysis of the mental, moral, and physical powers. The mind becomes enervated, and unless through determined effort the habit is overcome, the activity of the brain is permanently lessened. All these nerve irritants are wearing away the life-forces, and the restlessness caused by shattered nerves, the impatience, the mental feebleness, become a warring element, antagonizing to spiritual progress. Then should not those who advocate temperance and reform be awake to counteract the evils of these injurious drinks? In some cases it is as difficult to break up the tea-and-coffee habit as it is for the inebriate to discontinue the use of liquor. The money expended for tea and coffee is worse than wasted. They do the user only harm, and that continually. Those who use tea, coffee, opium, and alcohol, may sometimes live to old age, but this fact is no argument in favor of the use of these stimulants. What these persons might have accomplished, but failed to do because of their intemperate habits, the great day of God alone will reveal. TSDF 145.4 Those who resort to tea and coffee for stimulation to labor, will feel the evil effects of this course in trembling nerves and lack of self-control. Tired nerves need rest and quiet. Nature needs time to recuperate her exhausted energies. But if her forces are goaded on by the use of stimulants, there is, whenever this process is repeated, a lessening of real force. For a time more may be accomplished under the unnatural stimulus, but gradually it becomes more difficult to rouse the energies to the desired point, and at last exhausted nature can no longer respond. TSDF 145.5 The habit of drinking tea and coffee is a greater evil than is often suspected. Many who have accustomed themselves to the use of stimulating drinks, suffer from headache and nervous prostration, and lose much time on account of sickness. They imagine they can not live without the stimulus, and are ignorant of its effect upon health. What makes it the more dangerous is, that its evil effects are so often attributed to other causes. TSDF 145.6 Through the use of stimulants, the whole system suffers. The nerves are unbalanced, the liver is morbid in its action, the quality and circulation of the blood are affected, and the skin becomes inactive and sallow. The mind, too, is injured. The immediate influence of these stimulants is to excite the brain to undue activity, only to leave it weaker and less capable of exertion. The after-effect is prostration, not only mental and physical, but moral. As a result we see nervous men and women, of unsound judgment and unbalanced mind. They often manifest a hasty, impatient, accusing spirit, viewing the faults of others as through a magnifying glass, and utterly unable to discern their own defects. TSDF 145.7 When these tea and coffee users meet together for special entertainment, the effects of their pernicious habit are manifest. All partake freely of the favorite beverages, and as the stimulating influence is felt, their tongues are loosened, and they begin the wicked work of talking against others. Their words are not few or well chosen. The tid-bits of gossip are passed around, too often the poison of scandal as well. <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/messages/89/338.jpg" alt=""> These thoughtless gossipers forget that they have a witness. An unseen Watcher is writing their words in the books of heaven. All these unkind criticisms, these exaggerated reports, these envious feelings, expressed under the excitement of the cup of tea, Jesus registers as against Himself. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." TSDF 145.8 We are already suffering because of the wrong habits of our fathers, and yet how many take a course in every way worse than theirs! Opium, tea, coffee, tobacco, and liquor are rapidly extinguishing the spark of vitality still left in the race. Every year millions of gallons of intoxicating liquors are drank, and millions of dollars are spent for tobacco. And the slaves of appetite, while constantly spending their earnings in sensual indulgence, rob their children of food and clothing and the advantages of education. There can never be a right state of society while these evils exist. TSDF 146.1 <img src="http://www.atomorrow.net/discus/messages/89/339.jpg" alt="">

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#1 01-25-09 12:16 am