Senior Couple in the Gym

A healthy lifestyle can help you thrive throughout your life. Making healthy choices isn’t always easy, however. It can be hard to find the time and energy to exercise regularly or prepare healthy meals. However, your efforts will pay off in many ways, and for the rest of your life.

Steps you can take:

Be physically active for 30 minutes most days of the week. Break this up into three 10-minute sessions when pressed for time. Healthy movement may include walking, sports, dancing, yoga, running or other activities you enjoy.

Eat a well-balanced, low-fat diet with lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Choose a diet that’s low in saturated fat and cholesterol, and moderate in sugar, salt and total fat.

Avoid injury by wearing seatbelts and bike helmets, using smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in the home, and using street smarts when walking alone. If you own a gun, recognize the dangers of having a gun in your home. Use safety precautions at all times.

Don’t smoke, or quit if you do. Ask your health care provider for help. UCSF’s Tobacco Education Center offers smoking cessation and relapse prevention classes as well as doctor consultations for smokers trying to quit.

Drink in moderation if you drink alcohol. Never drink before or while driving, or when pregnant.

Ask someone you trust for help if you think you might be addicted to drugs or alcohol.

Brush your teeth after meals with a soft or medium bristled toothbrush. Also brush after drinking and before going to bed. Use dental floss daily.

Stay out of the sun, especially between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., when the sun’s harmful rays are strongest. You are not protected if it is cloudy or if you are in the water – harmful rays pass through both. Use a broad spectrum sunscreen that guards against both UVA and UVB rays, with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 15 or higher. Select sunglasses that block 99 to 100 percent of the sun’s rays.

Maintaining a Healthy Outlook

Women today have busy, demanding lives. You may feel pulled in different directions and experience stress from dealing with work, family and other matters, leaving little time for yourself.

Steps you can take:

Stay in touch with family and friends.

Be involved in your community.

Maintain a positive attitude and do things that make you happy.

Keep your curiosity alive. Lifelong learning is beneficial to your health.

Healthy intimacy takes all forms but is always free of coercion.

Learn to recognize and manage stress in your life. Signs of stress include trouble sleeping, frequent headaches and stomach problems; being angry a lot; and turning to food, drugs and alcohol to relieve stress.

Good ways to deal with stress include regular exercise, healthy eating habits and relaxation exercises, such as deep breathing or meditation. Talking to trusted family members and friends can help a lot. Some women find that interacting with their faith community is helpful in times of stress.

Get enough sleep and rest. Adults need around eight hours of sleep a night.

Talk to your health care provider if you feel depressed for more than a few days; depression is a treatable illness. Signs of depression include feeling empty and sad, crying a lot, loss of interest in life, and thoughts of death or suicide. If you or someone you know has thoughts of suicide, get help right away. Call 911, a local crisis center or (800) SUICIDE.

UCSF Health medical specialists have reviewed this information. It is for educational purposes only and is not intended to replace the advice of your doctor or other health care provider. We encourage you to discuss any questions or concerns you may have with your provider.

The National Institute on Aging reports that individuals who are 65 or older are more likely than younger people to have cardiovascular-related issues like heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, or heart failure.

The American Heart Association states that eating a heart-healthy diet is one of the best ways (along with exercise) to help reduce the risk of heart disease and promote heart health. However, although you may know the right foods to eat, it’s often hard to change long term eating habits.

Fortunately, there are many healthy and tasty foods that can be easily worked into your diet. We’ve singled out six healthy foods for older adults that can help reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as highlighted a few ways you can easily incorporate them into your daily diet for a healthier heart.

Eat More of These

1. Leafy green vegetables

Leafy green vegetables like chard, kale, spinach, romaine lettuce, and bok choy are packed with vitamins and minerals and are low in calories. Get more high-fiber greens in your diet by tossing a handful into your morning smoothie, adding a side salad to a sandwich at lunch, sautéeing for a side dish, or adding into homemade soups.

Recipe to try: Garden-Fresh Rainbow Chard

2. Fat-free or low-fat dairy products

The vitamin D and calcium found in dairy products help improve mood, strengthen bones, and preserve muscle strength. An easy way to add more dairy is to use Greek yogurt in place of mayonnaise or cream in dishes.

Recipe to try: Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole

3. Fresh fruits (especially berries)

Many fresh fruits are filled with vitamins and fiber. Berries, in particular, are chock-full of heart-healthy antioxidants, calcium, potassium, magnesium and fiber. Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries are all little bursts of superfood that are low in sugar and calories. Add a handful to salads, throw them in smoothies, or use them to create a heart-healthy dessert.

Recipe to try: Warm Berry Crisp

4. Whole grains

Three daily servings of whole grains like oats, brown rice, wild rice, quinoa, and popcorn can keep your heart healthy and your cholesterol managed. It’s easy to replace refined grain options (like bread) with whole grain options without sacrificing taste. Whole grain side dishes are a great way to jazz up your mealtime routine.

Recipe to try: Cherry-Quinoa Salad

5. Healthy fats

Omega-3s are a type of good fat that can help keep arteries from hardening, lower triglycerides, and help regulate heartbeat. They’re also really good for your skin. Fish like salmon, tuna, and sardines are full of omega-3s, making them an excellent protein option. Healthy fats can also be found in nuts like almonds and walnuts and fruits like avocados. Swapping canola oil for olive oil whenever possible is a great way to get more healthy fat in your diet.

Recipe to try: Green Bean Salad With Roasted Almonds and Feta

6. Nuts and seeds

We already mentioned that almonds and walnuts have value for their healthy fats. They’re also loaded with protein and fiber, making them the perfect snack, salad topping, or ingredient for just about anything. They’ll help keep you fuller longer, which means you’ll eat less while remaining satisfied. Branch out and choose options like cashews, Macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, and even coconuts to tantalize your palate while getting a healthy-heart boost.

Recipe to try: Sweet and Spicy Heart-Healthy Walnuts

Other Heart-Healthy Tips

While eating the right types of food will help you age well, feel good and stay healthy, there are other easy ways to keep your heart in tip-top shape, including:

• Stay physically active – shoot for approximately 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Even a brisk walk around the neighborhood after dinner will improve cardiovascular health, reduce stress, and boost mood. Talk to your doctor before starting any new exercise routine.
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Limit foods such as saturated fats, high-fat foods, fried foods, refined sugars, and alcohol
• If you smoke, quit smoking
• Manage any medical conditions by regularly visiting your doctor and staying on top of prescribed medication

A little help from a good coach can make a big difference in your health and happiness.

(NAPS)—If you’ve ever tried to make a healthy lifestyle change, you may have found that your initial excitement fades quickly, and you return to your old habits. Well, you’re not alone. 

In fact, going into this new year, more and more health plans are including a helpful program benefit that helps members transform their own health and stick to new behaviors—health coaching.

Health coaching is a dynamic and impactful approach to health care. It has the potential to change lives in numerous positive ways. The collaborative partnership between a trained health coach and a health plan member is rooted in several key principles and strategies including personalized guidance, behavior change, and empowerment. Some of the key aspects of coaching include enhancing well-being, learning, social support, instruction, and the development of improved habits. 

“The reason I love coaching so much—and why I say it’s transformative—is because it is so rare for someone to come into a space where the focus is completely on them, where a coach wants to know about their hopes, empathizes with their struggles, and knows how to help them find their way,” said Emily Adams, a national board-certified health and wellness coach, who manages coach performance at American Specialty Health (ASH).

While promoting health through lifestyle changes is nothing new, it was only in the past 30 years that health coaching has become a widely accepted activity, one that’s designed to help people convert their wellness goals into effective actions.

Today, with refined coaching processes and behavior-change techniques, an entire industry has evolved to empower a lot more individuals to live healthier. And in this post-pandemic era, virtual health coaching and well-being programs are burgeoning in modern health care. 

Physical health is not the only thing that health coaches address. They recognize the connection between fitness, mental health, and emotional well-being.

“Some people start working with a coach thinking they want help with their diet but realize that the reason they are eating poorly is because they don’t have tools to cope with stress,” Adams said. “Many are surprised when they start to recognize their own strengths, improve their confidence, and start to take ownership of their thoughts—recognizing how they are working for and against their goals.”

Adams works with well-being coaches in the Silver&Fit® Healthy Aging & Exercise program to ensure quality member support through coach training and oversight. Silver&Fit members can be paired with certified health coaches to work on their fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle goals during scheduled phone or video sessions. 

“We’ve had members come into the program completely defeated and unsure if they will ever be able to improve their health,” Adams said. “We’ve also had members who are very close to reaching their health goals and just need a little extra support to get there.”

Health coaching holds immense potential for health plan members. According to Adams, the benefits a member might gain from working with a health coach could include: 

• Clarity about their hopes, values, and goals 

• Confidence in themselves, their strengths, and their abilities and how to advocate for themselves and their health 

• Tools for self-accountability, positive habit forming, and proactively managing stress 

• Knowing how to break big changes into small, manageable steps 

• Awareness of thought barriers and how to overcome them 

• Learning how to find what they need and use their resources

“As coaches, we get to walk alongside people as they grow, learn, discover, and utilize their strengths to be the healthiest versions of themselves,” said Adams. 

It’s important that your health plan supports your long-term health and well-being. If you want to make healthy lifestyle changes in the coming year, check with your health plan on coaching program benefits. And if you find you have this benefit, make the most of it. The transformative power of working with a coach can have a lasting impact and help you take control of your health and maintain your well-being.

Keep an eye on your sight. Blurry vision, faded colors and double images can all be symptoms of cataracts—which can be cured.

(NAPSI)—By age 80, most people either have cataracts or have had cataract surgery. That’s because most cataracts are the result of natural aging. You may not notice that you have a cataract at first. But over time, they can make your vision blurry or hazy, colors fade, you can’t see well at night, or you may see double images. The good news is that cataract surgery can restore your sight. With a high success rate of more than 90 percent, cataract surgery enables people to see better after their cataract is removed.

Here are the top six things ophthalmologists – physicians who specialize in medical and surgical eye care – want you to know about cataracts:

1. Cataracts can be removed with surgery. Surgery is the only way to cure cataracts. Early on, you may be able to cope with reduced vision from cataracts by using brighter lights, wearing anti-glare sunglasses, or using magnifying lenses for reading. But if cataracts start getting in the way of everyday activities such as reading, driving, or watching TV, an ophthalmologist will need to remove the clouded natural lens and replace it with an artificial lens, also called an intraocular lens (or IOL), to correct blurry vision.

2. You can slow development of early cataracts. You can take steps to protect your eyes from cataracts. Using 100 percent UV blocking sunglasses, quitting smoking, maintaining control over high blood sugar, and eating a healthy diet can help prevent cataracts.

3. People with diabetes are more likely to get cataracts. Natural aging is the most common cause of cataracts, but some people are at higher risk for cataracts than others. People who have diabetes with high blood sugar levels can get cataracts quicker and at a younger age than those with normal blood sugar levels. Improving glucose levels may help delay cataracts.

4. Eye color affects your risk of developing cataracts. Studies show that people with dark brown eyes have a higher risk of developing cataracts than people with lighter eyes. However, UV light is a known contributor to cataract development no matter what color your eyes are. Wearing sunglasses whenever outdoors is recommended for everyone.

5. Treating cataracts may decrease your risk of dementia. Though the link between eye health and dementia is unclear, recent studies suggest people who had cataract surgery were 30 percent less likely to develop dementia.

6. You may eventually need a follow-up procedure. Some people will again develop hazy vision years after cataract surgery. This is usually because the lens capsule has become cloudy. The capsule is the part of your eye that holds the IOL in place. Your ophthalmologist can use a laser to open the cloudy capsule and restore clear vision, a procedure called a capsulotomy.

Regular eye exams are important to maintaining your best vision, even after cataract surgery. The American Academy of Ophthalmology recommends scheduling a visit to the ophthalmologist every year after cataract surgery if you’re older than 65, or every two years if under 65.

Can’t Afford an Eye Exam? EyeCare America® Can Help.

For individuals age 65 or older who are concerned about their risk of eye disease and/or the cost of an eye exam, you may be eligible for a medical eye exam, often at no out-of-pocket cost, through the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s EyeCare America® program. This public service program matches volunteer ophthalmologists with eligible patients in need of eye care across the United States. To see if you or a loved one qualifies, visit www.aaoinfo.com/ECApatient to determine your eligibility.

The holidays are supposed to be a time of joy, celebration, and togetherness. But for most people, the holiday season is definitely not the jolliest time of the year. Young people in particular find the holidays stressful: A Healthline survey found that 65 percent of Gen Z were stressed out by the holiday season, a higher number than either millennials or Boomers.

What makes this season so difficult? “Family drama” was one of the top reasons cited in the survey, along with finances and struggles with eating and exercise. Grief and loss can also feel particularly intense during the holidays. For young people who are dealing with trauma, anxiety, depression, substance use disorder, or another mental health issue, the challenges of the holidays can make symptoms worse. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, two-thirds of those with mental health concerns report that the holidays make their condition worse.

Real life is a lot messier and more complicated than a Hallmark holiday movie. In addition, mental health during the holidays often takes a nosedive because we’re thrown off our usual self-care schedules. However, committing to simple yet effective holiday stress-management strategies can help young adults navigate the season without falling prey to the holiday blues.

Because family is traditionally at the center of holiday activities, family relationships—or the lack of these relationships—are one of the biggest factors contributing to the holiday blues.

This season can be especially hard for those who have troubled relationships with other family members. The same is true for those who are no longer in contact with family due to childhood trauma or other issues, such as a parent’s mental health or substance abuse struggles. The imagery of loving families that is everywhere at this time of year can bring up feelings of loneliness, grief, anger, and disappointment.

But even families who have strong and caring relationships can hit snags at this time of year. Spending lots of time together in close quarters often brings up old conflicts and disagreements. It can even trigger age regression, when young adults who are returning home after living on their own can fall back into the rebellious behaviors they had as teens. That’s particularly true if their parents haven’t adjusted yet to treating them as fellow adults rather than children.

Seven Tips to Reduce Holiday Stress

1. Create healthy boundaries

Boundaries can apply to relationships as well as self-care. For example, you may need to create boundaries around how much time you will spend with certain family members who can be emotionally triggering. Or you may need to set limits on your alcohol consumption if you’ll be going to lots of holiday parties with friends and family.

2. Get enough sleep

A recent study found that sleep is one of the top three pillars of mental health and well-being for young adults.

3. Remember that you’re not the only one feeling the holiday blues

You are not alone – struggles with mental health during the holidays are very common. The recognition that “it’s okay to not be okay” is just as true during the holiday season. Practice mindfulness and self-compassion, and reach out to loved ones who will understand and empathize with the emotions you’re experiencing.

4. Maintain your regular exercise schedule

Exercise is proven to increase stress resilience and reduce stress hormones.

5. Do something for others

Research shows that volunteering offers mental and physical health benefits, and there are lots of opportunities to do so during the holiday season.

6. Set realistic expectations

If the holidays tend to be a challenging time for you and your family, don’t expect that everything will change this year – even if you’ve changed and grown. Rather than striving for a picture-perfect holiday season, recognize and prepare for the moments that might be hard.

7. Focus on what’s meaningful for you about the holiday season

Whether or not you relate to the religious significance of the winter holidays, you can find a sense of meaning and authentic connection during this season – connection with yourself, others, and your greater community.

As we’ve seen, it’s not unusual to experience stress and holiday blues during this time of year. But if depressive symptoms are severe, or if they last longer than a week or two, the next step is to get a comprehensive mental health assessment and explore treatment options.