Predictors of Nursing Home Admission

Probably the most common reason for being moved into a nursing home is onset of dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease. But, even though my Mom had dementia, she was able to stay at home with my Dad. What caused my Mom to have to be removed from her home were her falls leading to broken hips (twice).  The falls were due to atrophy of the muscles in her legs leading to virtually no strength. The broken bones were due to typical calcium deficiency and osteoporosis in older women. So the dementia, coupled with broken bones resulting from inability to walk very well required 24/7 care that my father could no longer provide. Listed below are strategies to prevent each of these 3 conditions of insufficient bone strength, muscle loss, and dementia.

How to Prevent Bone Loss

Calcium and Vitamin D need to be maintained at high levels. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, you should take in 1000 mg of Calcium at age 20 and over and 1200 mg of Calcium at age 51 and over for women and 1200 mg of Calcium at age 71 and over for men. Men and women age 20 and over should get 600 IU of Vitamin D and 800 IU of Vitamin D if age 71 or over.  An easy way to insure these levels is to take a supplement daily. I take two tablets daily, for a total of 1260 mg of Calcium and 1000 IU of Vitamin D.

Keep active! And light walking alone is not enough, according to this osteoporosis prevention page on how to avoid bone loss. They recommend aerobic workout classes that involve squats and leg lifts. They do not recommend jumping or running activities due to the stress on joints, but I still get out running my 3.75 miles and will continue to do so as long as I can.  Other sites do recommend jogging. If your body senses that bones need to be maintained, then the bones will be maintained – otherwise the destructive processes will out gain the renewal processes as you age.  And this physical activity will help maintain your muscle mass and strength.

How to Prevent Muscle Loss and Strength

The ticket to preserving muscle mass is pretty simple: Use it or lose it! A 30 year-old with an arm cast will find that the muscles on the casted arm have atrophied after a few months when the cast comes off. No use = lose. When we are young, our existing muscles tend to be naturally rebuilt, but as we age, the losses exceeds the gains if we are not exercising. So exercise daily! In addition, a high protein diet will help you maintain muscle without adding extra fat. What I do is jog every other day and then do some sort of lower impact exercise on the off-days. Just recently I even started doing strength training of the upper body with light weights and pushups on the off-days.

Remember, once your legs lose their muscle and strength, you become a prime candidate for the nursing home! My father made the mistake of giving up his walking when he started getting leg pain in his early 80′s. (which most likely was sciatica related).

Avoiding Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease can be difficult to avoid, but there are several suggested strategies. And these strategies are good in that they have other benefits:

• Mental Activity – keep your mind sharp with a lot of mental activity, as suggested by this medical article. Use it or lose it! This is the time to write your novel – you can have it self-published. Or start a blog like this one!
• Physical Activity – keeping active will promote healthy blood pressure and cholesterol, and this can lower risk and increase brain function, according to studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
• Avoid Obesity – obesity has been linked to increased risk of dementia in a Finnish study. But if you are getting your hour of exercise in daily with 3 or 4 aerobic workouts each week, you will not be obese.
• Diet is theorized to be a possible factor in reducing risk. And good diet is something you will want regardless. A good diet has abundant fruit, vegetables, and whole grains, leaner meats and proteins, skim milk products, and minimum amounts of fat and sugar.

Give yourself a life of dignity and let your kids live their lives. Stay out of the nursing home!

At any rate, I am glad to be back running!

Another thing that may have played a role in my natural knee joint pain relief was my better diet during the summer. I eat fresh picked green beans and other vegetables daily, and get healthy amounts of sunshine. Frankly, I always feel about a few years younger at the end of every summer due to the better diet and sun. Still another thing: Some guys at church prayed for my knee healing – this marked a turning point of such!

I continue to take two Calcium/ Vitamin D supplements and one multi-vitamin daily along with at least 100% of my daily Vitamin C in the form of orange juice.

• Take 2 (or 3) ibuprofen tablets about 1 hour before running. I know this does not sound like much of a solution, but it allows me to run normally without pain since any inflammation is minimized. Normal running allows me to strengthen muscles to work together in a normal balanced manner, and strength conditioning is listed as one of the best ways to combat this problem. In this case I am using the run itself to condition as opposed to special exercises. Truthfully, I don’t like the idea of taking the ibuprofen, but it works, and I find that each “normal” run seems to leave my knee feeling a little better. On occasion, I try my run without the ibuprofen, but I am still not to the point where I can run without irritation – and a run while the knee is inflamed will further aggravate the problem. To minimize the amount of ibuprofen I take, I abstain from using it otherwise for headaches (if I can). Also, I am considering the use of aspirin as an alternative.
• Ice down the knee if it is inflamed. This is very helpful after any inflammation occurs, and helps to prevent further aggravation.

In summary, insuring that I am not using the knee while it is swollen and/or inflamed seems to be the ticket to recovery. Aggravation of the Runner’s Knee condition occurs when I walk or run on an inflamed knee. Abstaining from running alone did not seem to help me at all and in fact almost seemed to make things worse for me. Also, I continue to take the Glucosamine Sulfate, although I very much doubt it is doing much if any good. I have discontinued use of the fish oil pills – my Runner’s Knee problem started when I started taking these and got significantly better when I stopped taking them. I have found no evidence in internet searches that fish oils pills should cause this, but I am still going to abstain from them to be on the safe side. The only way my fish oil pills could possibly be causing problems would be via mercury contamination, a remote possibility I guess.

Runner’s Knee, more formally known as Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome,
is generally is caused by one of the following:

• Over-use – This could occur when one does not take breaks of one or more days between running or suddenly increases the speed or duration of the run. Also, poor shoes could cause this due to the extra pounding against the pavement. over-use of the knee.
• Injury – Falling and bruising the knee could cause this. Also, other injuries may contribute.
• Mis-alignment or Foot Problems – Running on the same side of the road (which slopes toward the outer road edge) causes uneven use by the right vs. left legs. Also, back problems could cause one leg to work harder. Fallen arches or other foot problems could cause extra load on leg and calf muscles.

In my case, I believe a number of things may have led to this  condition. My shoes were in need of replacement. I may have suffered a bruise to the bone shortly before this condition occurred, although it was not severe. I consistently ran on the left side and shoulder of the road, causing uneven strain on my leg muscles.

My knee problems seemed to start when I started taking fish oil, so I stopped taking the fish oil, just as a precaution. But truthfully, I do not believe the fish oil was causing any problems – in fact, it is supposed to help with joint problems. Abstaining from the fish oil had absolutely no effect so I once again am taking 1 capsule a day.

The doctor recommended taking Glucosamine Sulfate, so I am taking it. Truthfully, this seems to have had no effect, positive or negative.

In addition to new running shoes, I am switching sides of the road frequently to even out the stress and strain due to running on the side of a slope. Also, I find that by running on the shoulder (rather than the blacktop) I can lessen the impact on my knees.

I have read that icing down the knee(s) after a run can help. I will try this.

In addition to my left knee experiencing “runners knee”, I managed to moderately strain my medial collateral ligament (MCL) in my right knee! So this has only added to the problem. I have re-injured this knee a few times as well by doing things like kneeling in an awkward position to clean the gutters on my roof. This has only prolonged the problem in the left knee I think.

In conclusion, I will have to find a way to heal up the right knee while doing whatever I can for my left “runner’s knee”. If you have Runner’s Knee, I would recommend new shoes, icing the knee after running, running on a softer surface (rather than blacktop), and trying not to consistently run on the same side of a sloped road. Note that if you switch sides of a road, take all possible safety precautions to avoid being accidentally struck by a vehicle.

The solution is to walk.

Get your coat and boots on and take a stroll. Check out the neighborhood Christmas lights, or perhaps drive to a local mall and check out the stores. A half-hour walk after two of the major meals can cancel out as many as 260 calories taken in and this exercise will also get your metabolism going. And invite your host and/or spouse along. You can combine fitness with celebrating the holidays.

Last summer I posted how I started drinking a low calorie root beer to cut down on my sugar intake.  And indeed, in the process, I cut my sugar. Previously, just about every night, I was drinking about 16 ounces of sugary pop, containing about 10 packets of sugar, or about 130 calories (13 packets in 16 oz). So this new 30 calorie (per 16 oz) root beer was saving me 100 calories per day, every day! In addition, I was replacing 1+ tablespoons of sugar on my morning oatmeal (I like it sweet!) with sweet-n-low. At 45 calories per tablespoon, that amounted to around 45 calories per day, every day except Sunday. On Sunday we have pancakes and I still pour on the syrup! At any rate, I was saving 100×7 + 45×6 = 970 calories per week. Multiply by 52 and that makes 50,440 calories per year! Actually, that would amount to about 14 pounds of fat lost per year!

The key to my secret are the words every day.

You see, I was able to cut calories at a rate of over 50,000 per year without sacrificing a thing in my diet otherwise! What I also do, and have done for years now, is make a points to get 30-60 minutes of some sort of exercise daily. That can be a walk, cleaning the garage, shoveling some snow, or any of the many chores waiting to be done around the house. I get this exercise in after my evening meal. And later I have a small bowl of popcorn (with a little butter and salt) and my root beer – that’s my routine.

So what you need to do is target some foods or snacks that you routinely eat and make a substitution in that food to save calories. Do you have a piece of toast each morning? Perhaps substitute something of lower calories for the spread. Just a switch from whole milk to 1% can save you 100 calories per day (and you will hardly notice). And stick with that substitution daily. Also, make a point to get the after dinner exercise daily.

This plan works, it is easy, it is safe, and it hardly costs a dime. And it will make you healthier, probably saving you a lot in health care costs down the road.

asics running shoes

This has happened a few times now: I get to the point where my running shoes are worn to a frazzle and I find myself getting all sorts of back problems, aches and pains after running. And then, as soon as I get new shoes, the pains and back problems subside or go away completely! How soon I forget that pounding on pavement for nearly 4 miles is not the greatest for an aging back.

So I went to Athlete’s Foot and got another pair of Asics running shoes. Cost about $100, but well worth it. I have tried other shoes in the past like Nikes, New Balance, and Saucony, but Asics work the best for me. I need a fairly wide shoe to prevent tipping and uneven wear and Asics makes one of the wider running shoes.  I am thankful for the Athlete’s Foot store in our area! See The Athletes Foot for stores near you.

So if you are a jogger that is experiencing back problems (or knee problems) and your shoes are a bit worn, start by getting a new pair of quality running shoes. It might go a long way toward helping your situation. And if you have minor foot problems, many athletic shoe stores now have diagnostic machines to diagnose problems like pronation. If you are having severe foot problems, see a podiatrist.  See Foot Problems for more info.

15 ft Above Ground Pool

My wife and kids bugged and bugged me to get an above ground pool. Living in northern Wisconsin, where it routinely freezes 10 out of 12 months, I opposed the idea, but finally relented. We bought a 15 ft above ground pool and after a week or two of preparing a site and setting up (twice!), it was ready to roll. This pool has 42″ deep water and is 15 ft in diameter. There is just enough water for an adult to swim around the perimeter, yet the pool is small enough that the water heats up fairly quickly. In fact, with the solar pool cover I got, the pool is swim-able on days where the temperature only gets up to 70 degrees!

So on the days I don’t jog, I am out in the pool swimming circles for 15 minutes or so doing the breast stroke. It is a nice workout that places no additional wear and tear on my knees or back! So I am the one using this pool, more so than even some of my kids! Unfortunately, about mid September I will have to take this pool down.

• Too much computer work resulting in tightness around the eyes, neck, and shoulders.
• A lot of stress, causing overall muscle tightness.
• Getting chilled while sleeping in my neck and shoulder area, resulting in tightness.

I think you can see the pattern here. Tightness of muscles in the neck and shoulder area causes these headaches.

Treatment of Tension Headaches: Remedies
Here is what I need to do in order to (hopefully) rid myself of these tension headaches:

• Apply an analgesic rub to my neck, head, and shoulders. Icy Hot works but an even better rub is one produced by Arbonne that contains hot garden pepper.
• Get some exercise or go for a jog after applying the rub. This will often loosen everything up nicely.
• Take a few ibuprofens, as a last resort. I try to avoid this if possible as ibuprofen does a number on my stomach and can give my a stomach ache to compliment my headache!

How to Prevent Tension Headaches

• Take breaks when working on a computer to give you eyes a rest.
• Avoid having a fan blow cold air over you when sleeping. Also, cover up your head and shoulder area with a small blanket.
• Avoid excessive amounts of caffeine.