Zoomer Report

Here’s more evidence that walking is good for the brain. Specifically the hippocampus — a part of the brain important to the formation of memories — It usually begins to atrophy around 55 or 60. Now psychologists are suggesting that the hippocampus can be modestly expanded, and memory improved, by nothing more than regular walking. Researchers randomly assigned 120 healthy but sedentary men and wo...

Do you worry a lot? That’s usually considered a bad thing. According to Dr. Martin Rossman, a pioneer of mind/body healing, that's because most of us don't know how to worry well. He says we can learn to use worry to manage stress instead of causing it. Good worry is an adaptive survival function: we use our imaginations to anticipate potential dangers, then develop ways to avoid them. If our prim...

Have you ever lost a friendship after your friend found a new love interest? Now research confirms it happens all the time. A study out of Oxford University found that on average, people shed one friend and one family member from their inner circles when they start a new romantic relationship. An anthropologist surveyed people aged 18 to 69 online about their friends and lovers. Participants were...

Do you ever feel like you need a coffee and a sweet to get through your work? Well, it turns out there’s a reason for that. The combination of caffeine and glucose can improve the efficiency of brain activity, according to a recent study that used MRI to identify the effects of these two substances. Participants were tested after drinking a study beverage containing either caffeine, glucose or the...

Here’s another reason being bilingual is a good thing. It can delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and its symptoms for between years. This is the surprise finding from researchers at Toronto's Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest. In a study of more than 100 bilingual patients and 100 monolingual patients, they found that the bilinguals experienced the onset of symptoms and were diagnosed with...

We know that good nutrition has a role in staving off mental decline. Now it seems there’s an even easier way to boost your short term memory: drink more water. Or at least make sure you’re drinking enough. This, according to a new study from Britain, which tested how volunteers reacted to 30 degree temparatures for four hours. Half were allowed to drink 300 millilitres of water and half were not....

Here’s some news for guilt-stricken working parents. A surprising new study finds that mothers and fathers are doing a better job than they think, spending far more time with their families than did parents of earlier generations. The research from the University of California, San Diego, analyzed a dozen surveys of how Americans say they use their time, taken from 1965 to 2007. It found the amoun...

Here's a sobering finding that underscores the importance of getting enough sleep. A report, from the US "AAA" Foundation for Traffic Safety, finds that missing just an hour or two of shut-eye nearly doubles your chances of a car crash the next day. And getting behind the wheel after getting only four to five hours of sleep quadruples that risk. That's comparable to driving with a blood alcohol le...

Do you like to talk about the good old days? Do you take time to listen when elders do it? It turns out that speaking about important events in the past can go a long way to improve wellbeing for people in nursing homes. It’s called reminiscence therapy and an Australian gerontologist compared it to other types of interventions for people in long term care. She found that it was more effective tha...

Here’s another reason to hate excessive noise. According to Swedish researchers. Exposure to noise from traffic, trains, planes and maybe even deafening restaurants could be linked to a burgeoning belly. The study in Occupational & Environmental Medicine followed 5000 people around Stockholm for four years. It found that women had a 0.08-inch increase in waist size for every additional 5 decibels...

Do you like the people you work with? Your health may depend on it. A study published by the American Psychological Association found workers who have a good peer support system in the workplace live longer than those who don't. Researchers at Tel Aviv University followed 820 healthy adults for 20 years -- 1988 to 2008. The workers came from Israel's largest companies in finance, insurance, public...

Do you feel colder as you get older? I certainly do. Now there’s research that explains why. Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in California analyzed data from more than 18,000 patients, aged 20 through 98. This is the largest sample used in a body temperature study since the 1860s, when researchers determined that normal temperature is 98.6 degrees — though in fact, according to this w...

When you're in a public restroom, do you go for the paper towels or the air dryer after you wash your hands? To get your hands cleanest, choose the towels. A study in the Journal of Applied Microbiology put each drying method to the test and revealed that rubbing hands thoroughly dry with paper towels may give people the best chance of walking out of the restroom with germ-free mitts. The research...

Do you eat yogurt every day? Some research out of Ireland shows that it’s a good idea, especially if you are a Zoomer. Researchers tracked the diet and lifestyle of more than 4000 people over 60. They then measured bone density and joint deterioration, and tested participants’ physical ability. After adjusting for age and factors like exercise and smoking, they found that people who ate yogurt dai...

Which is healthier - whole wheat bread or white? Most people think the answer is whole wheat. But researchers at the Weizmann institute were surprised when they did a study comparing specially baked fresh artisanal sourdough with processed, packaged white bread. They found different people reacted differently - about half the people had a better response to the white, and the other half had a bett...

We already know that there’s a connection between slowed walking and mental decline, but now a study suggests why. And it also may hold clues about easier and cheaper ways to test. Researchers followed a group aged 70 to 79 for 14 years. Those who developed slowed walking during the follow-up also showed shrinkage of their right hippocampus, according to the study. That brain region that governs m...

One of the keys to a better night’s sleep is connected to our reasons for getting out of bed in the morning. According to a study from Northwestern Medicine and Rush University Medical Center Having a purpose in life makes people more likely to sleep better at night with less sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome. The study is based on more than 800 older people aged 60 to 100 years old with an av...

Do you have gum disease? It could be a warning sign of an increased risk of cancer. A study in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention links periodontal disease with increased risk of several types of cancer in older women, even in those who never smoked. Researchers followed more than 65,000 women, average age 68, for about eight years and found more than 7,000 cancers. Periodontal disease...

Here’s an important finding about the importance of social contact and interacting with the outside world. Researchers at the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem found that for older people, getting out of the house regularly may contribute to a longer life. They asked people in their 70s, 80s and 90s, how often they left the house and found that those who ventured out frequentl...

If you want to trim down, a live-in buddy helps a lot. And so does setting up your home to make the healthy choice the easy choice. A study out of the University of Connecticut divided 200 overweight and obese people into two groups. Participants in one group got a six-month behavioral weight-loss program that emphasized a low-fat, low-calorie diet and moderate-intensity physical activity. They me...

It’s often a wrenching decision for Zoomers and their loved ones. When should an older driver stop getting behind the wheel? Now a study out of Columbia university finds that when that happens, people are more likely to feel depressed and to develop other health problems than their peers who remain on the road. The work analyzed 16 different studies and found giving up the car keys was linked to a...

It’s our most basic function and we have to do it to live. But according to Health.com you can use the way you breathe to fight anxiety, sleep better, and focus your attention. For instance, you may not notice, but in a stressful situation, the natural reaction is to take quick and shallow breaths, which actually increases your body's stress response. Experts say the fastest way to relieve anxiety...

Here’s some work that underscores the importance of the grandparent/grandchild relationship. A study published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry finds teens who form close, loving relationships with a grandparent have fewer behavioural and emotional problems than less-attached teens. The benefits to the young people were even greater when they were also close to the parent who was the gra...

Do you ever complain that your job killing you? Turns out, it could be. According to a study from researchers at Harvard and Stanford, workplace stress could shorten your life by up to three years depending on your race, gender and educational level. The data show that people with less education are much more likely to end up in jobs with more unhealthy workplace practices that cut life span, and...

It’s something I worried about every time I had surgery. What if the doctor was on call the night before and was fatigued by the time I had my operation? Now research that followed the outcomes in nearly 39,000 cases here in Ontario found that patients having elective surgery during the day fare no better or worse if the doctor operating has worked the night before. The work tracked similar patien...