Managing Your Health

Aging is more a winding path than a downhill slalom. Changes in brain function as well as our outlook on life can influence the journey ahead. If you forget a name or two, take longer to finish the crossword, or find it hard to manage two tasks at once, don't assume you're on the road to dementia. What you're experiencing is age-related changes in the way your brain works. And in many ways it's actually working better. Studies have shown that older people have better judgment, are better at making rational decisions, and are better able to screen out negativity than their juniors. The brain compensates for a slower processing speed by using more of itself. MRIs taken of a teenager working through a problem show a lot of activity on one side of the prefrontal cortex, the region we use for conscious reasoning. In middle age, the other side of the brain begins to pitch in a little. In seniors, both sides of the brain are sharing the task equally. A host of studies in the l...

The cell phone blares out reveille. Your eyes open reluctantly and you realize it's morning, having only gone to bed four hours out of bed to ready yourself for work, arthritic joints hurting much more than usual. A painful day lies ahead even after taking ibuprofen. Does this sound familiar? If it does, you are not alone. Nearly 70% of Americans report getting insufficient sleep on a regular basis, and approximately 20% of Americans suffer from chronic pain. Recently, the intersection between these two conditions has become more apparent. The association between sleep deficiency or poor quality sleep and increased perception of pain from various medical conditions is well known; poor sleep quality predicts greater intensity of pain from conditions such as back strain, arthritis, and fibromyalgia. In many cases, the relationship is bi-directional. For example, my colleagues and I have documented that heartburn is worse after a poor night's sleep, and conversely heartburn can re...