Zoomer Report

It’s practically an epidemic and it can really interfere with your life! Insomnia is notoriously difficult to deal with. But after reviewing a total of 20 studies, researchers say Non-drug talk therapy can help adults who lie awake in bed most nights. They came to the conclusion that instead of taking pills, insomniacs could benefit from techniques associated with cognitive behavior therapy. The e...

Do you want to get that healthy glow? The latest research finds that instead of going for a beach vacation, you should just eat more carrots, sweet potatoes and mangoes. A study in the journal Evolution and Human Behaviour showed that eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables gives you a more healthy golden glow than the sun. It’s thanks to substances called carotenoids – the antioxidants respons...

Do you love listening to sad music, or do you hate it? Eminent music professor David Huron has a theory. And he’s using Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings to test it. He says people who enjoy sorrowful music are experiencing the consoling effects of prolactin, a hormone that is usually associated with pregnancy and lactation but that the body also releases when we’re sad or weeping. He figures peo...

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....

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 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...

If you’re trying to lose weight, here’s some advice that may be counterintuitive. There’s research showing that switching to diet pop might actually cause the opposite of the desired effect. Researchers at the University of Texas found that drinking diet soda was associated with an increased waist circumference. In fact, over the course of the study, people who consumed diet soft drinks experience...

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 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 aver...

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...

Do you have lower back pain? Most of us can expect to experience it at some point in our lives. For many people, it’s chronic. Now a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, finds that a yoga class designed specifically for back pain can be as safe and effective as physical therapy in easing pain. The protocol was developed by researchers at Boston Medical Center with input from yoga teachers, do...

Which is healthier whole wheat bread or white? Most people think the answer is whole wheat. But researchers at the Weizmann institutewere 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 better...

Here's important information if you smoke, or even if you used to. According to research presented at the 17th world conference on lung cancer, regular use of ibuprofen may lower the risk of lung cancer among those with a history of cigarette smoking. We know that chronic inflammation appears to increase the risk of lung cancer and medicines that reduce inflammation have been shown to reduce this...

If you like chocolate (and who doesn’t?), here’s some good news: Eating chocolate has been linked to a lower risk of atrial fibrillation, the irregular heartbeat that can lead to stroke, heart failure and other forms of heart disease. A Danish study followed 55,000 people aged 50 to 64 for 14 years and found more than 3000 cases of atrial fibrillation. After accounting for things like smoking and...

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...

Here’s an important finding about sleep as we age. A review from the University of California, Berkeley suggests that some seniors lose the ability to get deep, restorative rest, and this contributes to medical conditions including depression and dementia. People who wake up multiple times during the night can miss out on the deep stages of sleep and that can cause a vicious cycle. Medical conditi...

If you have arthritis, you’re in good company. More than 4 and a half million Canadians are affected. Now a study finds that just a little physical activity seems to go a long way. If you’re a Zoomer with arthritis-related joint pain and stiffness you need to keep moving to remain functionally independent. I have arthritis in my knees and I swear by the healing power of exercise. But a study out o...

Do you have asthma? It is extremely common, about three million Canadians have been diagnosed with the condition. But researchers now say if you are one of them, you should double-check. A study led by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute found that fully a third of adults being treated for asthma don’t actually have the disorder, either because they have been misdiagnosed or have gone into remi...

Most of us probably know at least a few of those uber-Zoomers. Older people you can describe as “sharp as a tack” at the age of 80, 90 and beyond. Well, now researchers have found they have certain brain characteristics that differ from their peers who show more typical age-related memory loss. Scientists from Northwestern University's Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center identified...

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 level that is considered legally drunk.

A study published in the Annals of internal medicine finds that Zoomers who regularly exercise are less likely to suffer a disability -- and if they do, they tend to recover faster.