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The Monthly eMagazine of Lakeview Terrace, Altoona, Florida
www.LakeviewTerrace.com
December, 2014 Volume 1, Number 7
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Happy Holidays to you
and your loved ones
The holidays are upon us. Here we are with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads
while we sing jingle bells. It’s been a great year and we’re looking forward to an even bet-
ter one in 2015. To help us celebrate we have some very interesting articles from some
very talented people this month.
We begin with Stacey Kennelly giving us the run down on how actually taking time out
from our busy lives can help us with mind body and spirit. She goes into some depth
about how being appreciative is not only the right thing to do from the perspective of
courtesy, but can actually have a positive influence on our health.
Next we learn a little about Tai Chi. I have always enjoyed watching a local group prac-
tice the art on Saturday mornings in a park near my home. Now I know why those folks
look so happy and healthy. Speaking of healthy, my wife introduced me to a warm glass
of lemon juice a few years back. I started because I wanted to replace coffee with some-
thing else as my first warm morning beverage. I knew it had a number of positive effects,
but Krissy Brady spells a whole bunch of them out starting on page 13.
On page 16, we borrow Laureen Silverman from National Public Radio. She shares the
text version of a recent article she did on the risks associated with broken hips. Not only
is there concern over the actual injury, but the great danger it will begin a downward spi-
ral with dire consequences. A really good read to help us identify post injury actions we
and our families should take.
We hope you have had a great year and look forward to sharing many more great things
with you in the year to come.
Happy Holidays
John
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This Month In
Celebrate Family
A Scientific Reason
To Stop And Smell
The Roses pg 6
Campus Chronicles
For December pg 8
The Health Benefits
Of Tai Chi pg 10
11 Benefits of
Lemon Water
You Didn’t Know
About pg 13
Protecting You
From Yourself pg 14
In Th Spotlight pg 15
Broken Hips: Preventing A
Fall Can Save Your
Life pg 16
Celebrate Family is published monthly by Caring Stream,
Inc. as a service to client facilities . No content in this
publication may be reproduced in any manner without the
written consent of the Publisher. Copyright 2014 Caring
Stream, Inc. www.caringstream.com
Happy
Holidays
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Celebrate
Family
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Pg.
6
Pg.
13
Pg.
10
4
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in
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tto
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Terrace is a
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community.
Please help us
to continue to
improve the
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visiting our
GivingButton
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www.LakeviewTerrace.com
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Your Own GiftShop!
Floral Arrangements from our award winning designers!
Feel Great! Give a One Hour in-home
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Kerry
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Dave
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We must find time to stop and
THANK The people
who made a difference in
our lives.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy
A Scientific Reason to Stop and Smell the Roses
By Stacey Kennelly A new study suggests people are happier when they take time to appreciate the good things in life. “Stop and smell the roses” may be a cliché, but new research suggests it’s sound advice for finding satisfaction in life. A forthcoming study in the Journal of Personality and Indi-vidual Differences suggests that appreciating the meaningful things and people in our lives may play an even larger role in our overall happiness than previously thought. In the study, Rutgers University psychology professor Nancy Fagley had nearly 250 un-dergraduates take a survey measuring their levels of appreciation, which Fagley de-fines as, “acknowledging the value and mean-ing of something—an event, a behavior, an object—and feeling positive emotional con-nection to it.” This is distinct from gratitude, Fagley says, which is a positive emotion directed toward a benefactor in response to receiving a gift of some sort, and is just one of several aspects of appreciation, according to Fagley. Indeed, in his book Thanks!, Robert Emmons, perhaps the leading scientific expert on gratitude, writes that gratitude isn’t just about acknowl-edging the goodness in one’s life but also “recognizing that the source(s) of this good-ness lie at least partially outside the self.” Fagley’s survey of appreciation zeroed in on eight aspects of it, including awe—or feeling a
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sense of connection to nature or life itself—and living in the present moment. The students in Fagley’s study also took sur-veys to evaluate their levels of gratitude and overall life satisfaction, and completed a standard questionnaire measuring what re-searchers call the Big 5 personality traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
Fagley wanted to see whether appreciation carries distinct benefits on its own, regardless of one’s personality or level of gratitude. Though Fagley found that appreciation and gratitude both seem to be strongly connected to happiness, her results suggest that appreci-ation is twice as significant as gratitude in de-termining overall satisfaction with life. Students’ personality traits were also im-portant to predicting life satisfaction—in fact, they seemed to be more important than their age, gender or ethnicity. Some aspects of per-sonality—like being less neurotic and more outgoing—were linked to greater life satisfac-tion, Fagley says. However, being high in ap-preciation was significantly related to high life satisfaction regardless of one’s personali-ty. Past research has considered appreciation to be a byproduct of gratitude and one’s person-ality. This study shows that appreciation plays a significant role in one’s quality of life, independent of one’s personality or gratitude level—a role even more significant than previ-ously thought. Fagley is still researching how best to practice appreciation on a day-to-day-basis, she says. But for starters, she suggests that people fo-cus on and value what they have, spend time outdoors, and reflect on their blessings and relationships with others. “The challenge in fostering appreciation,” she says, “is that we want to periodically reflect on the positive aspects of our lives, value our friends and family, relish and savor the good times—without the practice of reflection be-coming a rote habit or something that is tak-en for granted.”
Reprinted with permission from The Greater
Good Science Center
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The health benefits of tai chi
This gentle form of exercise can prevent or ease many ills of aging and could be the perfect activity for the rest of your life.
Tai chi is often described as "meditation in mo-tion," but it might well be called "medication in motion." There is growing evidence that this mind-body practice, which originated in China as a martial art, has value in treating or preventing many health problems. And you can get started even if you aren't in top shape or the best of health. In this low-impact, slow-motion exercise, you go without pausing through a series of motions named for animal actions — for example, "white crane spreads its wings" — or martial arts moves, such as "box both ears." As you move, you breathe deeply and naturally, focusing your at-tention — as in some kinds of meditation — on your bodily sensations. Tai chi differs from other types of exercise in several respects. The move-ments are usually circular and never forced, the muscles are relaxed rather than tensed, the joints are not fully extended or bent, and connective tis-
sues are not stretched. Tai chi can be easily adapted for anyone, from the most fit to people confined to wheelchairs or recovering from sur-gery. "A growing body of carefully conducted research is building a compelling case for tai chi as an ad-junct to standard medical treatment for the pre-vention and rehabilitation of many conditions commonly associated with age," says Peter M. Wayne, assistant professor of medicine at Har-vard Medical School and director of the Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Program at Harvard Medical School's Osher Research Center. An ad-junct therapy is one that's used together with pri-mary medical treatments, either to address a dis-ease itself or its primary symptoms, or, more gen-erally, to improve a patient's functioning and quality of life.
Belief systems You don't need to subscribe to or learn much about tai chi's roots in Chinese philosophy to enjoy its health benefits, but these concepts can help make sense of its approach:
Qi — an energy force thought to flow through the body; tai chi is said to unblock and encourage the proper flow of qi. Yin and yang — opposing elements thought to make up the universe that need to be kept in harmony. Tai chi is said to promote this balance. Tai chi in motion A tai chi class might include these parts: Warm-up. Easy motions, such as shoulder cir-cles, turning the head from side to side, or rock-ing back and forth, help you to loosen your mus-cles and joints and focus on your breath and body. Instruction and practice of tai chi forms. Short forms — forms are sets of move-ments — may include a dozen or fewer move-ments; long forms may include hundreds. Differ-ent styles require smaller or larger movements. A short form with smaller, slower movements is usually recommended at the beginning, especial-ly if you're older or not in good condition. Qigong (or chi kung). Translated as "breath work" or "energy work," this consists of a few minutes of gentle breathing sometimes combined
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with movement. The idea is to help relax the mind and mobilize the body's energy. Qigong may be practiced standing, sitting, or lying down. No pain, big gains Although tai chi is slow and gentle and doesn't leave you breathless, it addresses the key compo-nents of fitness — muscle strength, flexibility, bal-ance, and, to a lesser degree, aerobic condition-ing. Here's some of the evidence: Muscle strength. In a 2006 study published in Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Stanford University researchers reported benefits of tai chi in 39 women and men, average age 66, with below-average fitness and at least one cardi-ovascular risk factor. After taking 36 tai chi clas-ses in 12 weeks, they showed improvement in both lower-body strength (measured by the num-ber of times they could rise from a chair in 30 sec-onds) and upper-body strength (measured by their ability to do arm curls). In a Japanese study using the same strength measures, 113 older adults were assigned to dif-ferent 12-week exercise programs, including tai chi, brisk walking, and resistance training. People who did tai chi improved more than 30% in lower-body strength and 25% in arm strength — almost as much as those who participated in resistance training, and more than those assigned to brisk walking. "Although you aren't working with weights or re-sistance bands, the unsupported arm exercise in-volved in tai chi strengthens your upper body," says internist Dr. Gloria Yeh, an assistant profes-sor at Harvard Medical School. "Tai chi strength-ens both the lower and upper extremities and also the core muscles of the back and abdomen." Flexibility. Women in the 2006 Stanford study significantly boosted upper- and lower-body flexi-bility as well as strength. Balance. Tai chi improves balance and, accord-ing to some studies, reduces falls. Proprioception — the ability to sense the position of one's body in space — declines with age. Tai chi helps train this sense, which is a function of sensory neurons in the inner ear and stretch receptors in the muscles and ligaments. Tai chi also improves muscle strength and flexibility, which makes it easier to recover from a stumble. Fear of falling can make
you more likely to fall; some studies have found that tai chi training helps reduce that fear. Aerobic conditioning. Depending on the speed and size of the movements, tai chi can pro-vide some aerobic benefits. But in the Japanese study, only participants assigned to brisk walking gained much aerobic fitness. If your clinician ad-vises a more intense cardio workout with a higher heart rate than tai chi can offer, you may need something more aerobic as well.
Tai chi for medical conditions When combined with standard treatment, tai chi appears to be helpful for several medical condi-tions. For example: Arthritis. In a 40-person study at Tufts Univer-sity, presented in October 2008 at a meeting of the American College of Rheumatology, an hour of tai chi twice a week for 12 weeks reduced pain and improved mood and physical functioning more than standard stretching exercises in people with severe knee osteoarthritis. According to a Korean study published in December 2008
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in Evidence-based Complementary and Alterna-tive Medicine, eight weeks of tai chi classes fol-lowed by eight weeks of home practice signifi-cantly improved flexibility and slowed the dis-ease process in patients with ankylosing spondy-litis, a painful and debilitating inflammatory form of arthritis that affects the spine. Low bone density. A review of six controlled studies by Dr. Wayne and other Harvard re-searchers indicates that tai chi may be a safe and effective way to maintain bone density in post-menopausal women. A controlled study of tai chi in women with osteopenia (diminished bone density not as severe as osteoporosis) is under way at the Osher Research Center and Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Breast cancer. Tai chi has shown potential for improving quality of life and functional capacity (the physical ability to carry out normal daily ac-tivities, such as work or exercise) in women suf-fering from breast cancer or the side effects of breast cancer treatment. For example, a 2008 study at the University of Rochester, published in Medicine and Sport Science, found that quali-ty of life and functional capacity (including aero-bic capacity, muscular strength, and flexibility) improved in women with breast cancer who did 12 weeks of tai chi, while declining in a control group that received only supportive therapy. Heart disease. A 53-person study at National Taiwan University found that a year of tai chi sig-nificantly boosted exercise capacity, lowered blood pressure, and improved levels of cholester-
ol, triglycerides, insulin, and C-reactive protein in people at high risk for heart disease. The study, which was published in the September 2008 Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, found no improvement in a control group that did not practice tai chi. Heart failure. In a 30-person pilot study at Harvard Medical School, 12 weeks of tai chi im-proved participants' ability to walk and quality of life. It also reduced blood levels of B-type natriu-retic protein, an indicator of heart failure. A 150-patient controlled trial is under way. Hypertension. In a review of 26 studies in English or Chinese published in Preventive Car-diology (Spring 2008), Dr. Yeh reported that in 85% of trials, tai chi lowered blood pressure — with improvements ranging from 3 to 32 mm Hg in systolic pressure and from 2 to 18 mm Hg in diastolic pressure. Parkinson's disease. A 33-person pilot study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, published in Gait and Pos-ture (October 2008), found that people with mild to moderately severe Parkinson's disease showed improved balance, walking ability, and overall well-being after 20 tai chi sessions. Sleep problems. In a University of California, Los Angeles, study of 112 healthy older adults with moderate sleep complaints, 16 weeks of tai chi improved the quality and duration of sleep significantly more than standard sleep education. The study was published in the July 2008 issue of the journal Sleep. Stroke. In 136 patients who'd had a stroke at least six months earlier, 12 weeks of tai chi im-proved standing balance more than a general ex-ercise program that entailed breathing, stretch-ing, and mobilizing muscles and joints involved in sitting and walking. Findings were published in the January 2009 issue of Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.
“Original content of this article provided by the Society of Certified Senior Advisors. Used with permission, all rights
reserved”
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11 Benefits of
Lemon Water
You Didn’t
Know About
BY KRISSY BRADY
I was first introduced to the concept of lemon water when I started doing yoga. An avid drinker (of water!), it was refreshing to learn a new spin on an old favorite. When I started having a glass of lemon water every morning, it was after learning only two of the benefits of lemon water. Little did I know just how many there are!
Why lemons?
Lemons are packed like a clown car with nu-trients, including vitamin C, B-complex vita-mins, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and fiber. (Fun fact: they contain more potas-sium than apples or grapes!)
Because of how hard lemon juice can be on
the enamel of your teeth, it’s important to di-lute it with water of any temperature (though lukewarm is recommended). Drink it first thing in the morning, and wait 15 to 30 minutes to have breakfast. This will help you fully receive the benefits of lemon water, which are listed below.
11 Benefits of Lemon Water
1. Gives your immune system a boost.
Vitamin C is like our immune system’s jump-er cables, and lemon juice is full of it. The lev-el of vitamin C in your system is one of the first things to plummet when you’re stressed, which is why experts recommended popping extra vitamin C during especially stressful days.
2. Excellent source of potassium.
As already mentioned, lemons are high in po-tassium, which is good for heart health, as well as brain and nerve function.
3. Aids digestion.
Lemon juice not only encourages healthy di-gestion by loosening toxins in your digestive tract, it helps to relieve symptoms of indiges-tion such as heartburn, burping, and bloating
4. Cleanses your system.
It helps flush out the toxins in your body by enhancing enzyme function, stimulating your liver.
5. Freshens your breath.
It also helps relieve toothaches and gingivitis (say what?). Because the citric acid can erode tooth enamel, either hold off on brushing your teeth after drinking lemon water or brush your teeth before drinking it.
6. Keeps your skin blemish-free.
The antioxidants in lemon juice help to not
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only decrease blemishes, but wrinkles too! It can also be applied to scars and age spots to reduce their appearance, and because it’s de-toxifying your blood, it will maintain your skin’s radiance.
7. Helps you lose weight.
Lemons contain pectin fiber, which assists in fighting hunger cravings.
8. Reduces inflammation.
If you drink lemon water on a regular basis, it will decrease the acidity in your body, which is where disease states occur. It removes uric acid in your joints, which is one of the main causes of inflammation.
9. Gives you an energy boost.
Lemon juice provides your body with energy when it enters your digestive tract, and it also helps reduce anxiety and depression. (Even the scent of lemons has a calming effect on your nervous system!)
10. Helps to cut out caffeine.
I didn’t believe this until I tried it, but replac-ing my morning coffee with a cup of hot lem-on water has really done wonders! I feel re-freshed, and no longer have to deal with that pesky afternoon crash. Plus, my nerves are thankful.
11. Helps fight viral infections.
Warm lemon water is the most effective way to diminish viral infections and their subse-quent sore throats. Plus, with the lemon juice also boosting your immune system, you’ll simultaneously fight off the infection com-pletely.
How much?
For those who weigh less than 150 pounds, squeeze half a lemon’s worth of juice into a glass of water. If over 150 pounds, use an en-tire lemon’s juice. You can of course dilute the lemon juice more, depending on your person-al taste.
Not only are the benefits of lemon water end-less, it’s one of the most substantial yet sim-ple changes you can make for your health.
Reprinted with Permission.
Krissy Brady is a freelance
writer and blogger. She
writes on a number of
subjects of interest to
women of all ages. Her
work has been featured
in Women’s Health, on
shape.com and many oth-
er prominent national
publications. She can be
found at:
www.writtenbykrissy.com
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Broken Hips: Preventing A
Fall Can Save Your Life
LAUREN SILVERMAN
Last October, Jeanette Mariani was an independent 87-year-old, living alone in Dallas and getting around with a walker. Then one night she switched off the light and tried to make her way into bed. A chair was in the way. And she fell.
"There I was, lying on the floor," she recalled. "I pulled down one of my pillows. I didn't reach very high, just pulled it down, put my head down on it and thought: 'Well, I'll wait until morning.' "
The next day, she called for help.
i Jeanette Mariani landed in a Dallas rehabilitation facility after she fell and broke her hip last October. She died a month after leaving the hospital.
A fall from a chair or a bed may not seem like a death sentence — but for an older person it can be. Falls are the leading causeof death from an injury for older Americans. For wom-en, it's especially bad: Three quar-ters of those with hip fractures are women. For many, the broken hip starts a chain reaction — usually be-cause older people also suffer from underlying conditions such as diabe-tes, arthritis, hypertension or demen-tia.
Every moment counts after a fall, says Dr. Amy Moss, an assistant pro-fessor of geriatrics at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth. When you're bedridden or hospitalized, your odds of devel-oping everything from bed sores to pneumonia increase dramatically. Studies show that delaying surgery after a fracture for just 24 hours in-creases the chance of complications and death. "The most common sce-nario is they die of pneumonia after a hip fracture," Moss says.
After spending the night on the floor, Jeannette Mariani called her daugh-ter Janet, who took her to the hospi-tal.
"After her fall, I knew that she was going to decline," Janet said. "You had that sixth sense, you know."
That sixth sense is backed up by re-al numbers. Almost 1 out of 10 peo-ple over the age of 50 will die within a month of surgery for a broken hip. That rises to 1 in 5 if the patient al-ready has an acute medical prob-lem. Jeanette worked hard in rehab to become stronger, but underlying health problems caught up with her. Previous lung problems got worse, and her lymphoma returned.
"After she left the hospital, she died within a month," Janet said.
“The greatest predictor of a future fall is a previous fall. - Chris Ray More than 90 percent of hip frac-tures are caused by falls. But falls can be prevented. Common-sense steps like removing rugs, installing better lighting, and getting an updat-ed prescription for your glasses are a good start. So is addressing the physical and psychological side to falls. It might sound silly, but it turns out that people who are afraid of fall-
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ing are actually more likely to fall. Nine years ago, Joyce Powell was in hospital, on her way to the bath-room, when she fell and broke her hip. She recovered, but she hasn't gotten over the fear of falling.
"It stays with you," says Powell, who is 80 and lives in Arlington, Texas. "You're aware that you can't function like you once did."
That's why Powell attends a fall-prevention class at the University of Texas, Arlington — not just to get stronger but also to face her de-mons. Participants are in their 70s, 80s and 90s, and their workouts in-volve everything from balancing on exercise balls to playing Wii games.
"The greatest predictor of a future fall is a previous fall," says Chris Ray, director of the Cen-ter for Healthy Living and Longevity at UT-Arlington. The greatest risk for older people who've fallen is that they'll simply stop exercising, Ray says.
One of the keys to preventing a fall is improving balance. As we age, Ray says, natural changes make it hard to stay upright: changes in hearing, vision and proprioception — the awareness of where one's body is in space. If seniors can learn to use these senses better, they will be less likely to fall.
To help them learn, Ray tests them using something that looks like a photo booth at an amusement park. The machine assesses how well someone can use the senses to maintain balance. The walls shift, the screen changes, and the floor tilts.
"In daily life, when we see seniors who fall, it's usually during multitask-
ing," Ray explains. "We pipe in loud noises, city sound or music, pipe in visual distractors on the screen or a test on the screen, as they're trying to maintain their postural control while the walls are moving in con-cert."
The goal, Ray explains, is to identify the best intervention for each individ-ual. For some, a regimen of tai chi might be enough. For others, it might be weightlifting or even practicing walking with their eyes closed.
For Joyce Powell, the exercise clas-ses have made her more confident in getting around and traveling. Still, she's cautious. "When I walk, I look to see where I am, particularly if I'm on uneven ground," she says.
Freedom from falls is never guaran-teed. But dedication to an exercise program can help seniors keep their balance without giving up the activi-ties they love.
"It's one of the things I've learned you just have to do in order to pro-tect yourself to remain upright," Pow-ell says. "I guess I could use a walk-er to do it, but I don't want to. I want to be free."
Reprinted with Permission from WKRE, Dallas.
It is not Happy
people who are
Thankful.
It is Thankful
people who are
Happy.
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Next Month in Celebrate Family
Holy cow!! We’ve arrived at a whole new year!!
Next month we’re going to talk about New Year’s resolutions.
The kinds you want to make, and the kind that you want to keep.
We’ll talk about strategies to help us be healthier.
You’ll certainly want to see what we say about how to have more fun out of life.
So, tune in next month.
We hope to see you then.
Lakeview Terrace
331 Raintree Drive
Altoona, Florida 32702-9609
352-669-3148
800-343-1588
Lic # 88029
www.LakeviewTerrace.com
Caring Stream, Inc.
Post Office Box 1212
Winter Park, Florida 32790
www.caringstream.com
1-888-793-4454
407 268-6660
