Here are some great reasons to eat right.

A recent study found that seniors who went one week without enough protein began showing signs of muscle deterioration. The answer is to eat a balanced diet which inludes protein (not a high protein diet) along with exercise. Strenght training is the best type of exercise for maintaing muslce development.

Another study found that eating cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower can help reduce your brains aging. Women who ate more vegetables particularly the ones mentioned above had memory scores equial to women a few years younger.

Eat right to help age well. That is the answer.

CareGrade relies on the views of professional geriatric care managers to provide their professional reviews. This allows individuals looking for information about senior service providers  to get a professional’s perspective. We will be providing interviews with the county’s finest care managers to find out what they look for in home health care agencies, assisted living facilities, elder lawyers, hospices, and more. Read our up coming interview with Mark Zilberman.

Summer is a popular travel time for everyone. For seniors, there are both great opportunites as well as potential hazzards. Getting away to the beach or mountains is great in the summer. Spending time with family is another high point of summer travel. Seniors need to take extra precautions due to the heat and poor air qulity. Here are a few tips

• Make sure hotels have good air conditioning
• Have the car’s air conditioning  serviced prior to car travel.
• Seniors often have a need to urinate more frequently and therefore avoid consuming enough fluid while traveling. The combination of high heat and low fluid volume can quickly bring on dehydration. Drink plenty of fluids at all times.
• Don’t be overly active outdoors if the heat is excessive or air quality is poor.

There are some great summer travel sites to check out:

As kids get out of college for the summer, the rooms and classes open up for seniors. Visiting colleges accross the country can be a rewarding and affordable way to travel visit http://www.seniorsummerschool.com/

Elder Hostel provides hostels specifically for seniors. They have fun trips and packages for the over 55 crowd. Visit http://www.elderhostel.org/

The fountain of youth has been one of the most sought after items in the history of man. Even today,  anti-aging medicine and products are a multi-billion dollar industry. While medicine is geting beter at keeping people alive longer and science is getting closer to pills and other products to extend life, there are several things that you can do to age gracefully and get the most out of your golden years. Studies of centurians has shown that there is no single factor that helps people live longer. There are however, many common factors that most long lived people share. These include:

Staying active for your entire life, both mentally and physically
Having a strong social network of family and friends
Eating a healthy diet
Avoiding things that are known to cause pre-mature death, such as smoking.
Controlling stress and being happy
Spirituality

Something more important than just living long is living healthy. Longevity without vitality is sometimes seen as a curse by many seniors. Take control of the factors that are within your power and let mother nature do the rest.

Coenzym q10 (Co Q10) show great promise as a helpful and powerful antioxidant. Studies show that it could be beneficial for people with heart failure. It is also believed to help with individuals with Parkinson’s disease. While some small studies have shown promise with early stage parkinson’s, a recent study shows treatment with the antioxidant coenzyme Q10 does not improve symptoms in patients with mid-stage Parkinson’s disease. Visit the link below for more details.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070516/hl_nm/antioxidant_parkinsons_dc

Alzheimers disease is one of the most devastating illnesses to plague society. It robs a person of not only their memory but often their dignity as well. Recent advances in medicine are finally making headway. Below are a few posts showing the advances.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070521/ap_on_he_me/ireland_elan_wyeth_alzheimer_s

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070521/hl_nm/elan_wyeth_alzheimers_dc

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070517/hl_nm/progression_alzheimers_dc

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070517/hl_afp/healthusresearchalzheimers

The next time you are feeling down about your current physical condition, whether it is a serious illness, being over weight or just feeling sorry for yourself, take a look at a child’s approach. I have recently had the unfortunate experience of watching parents being told their child had cancer. While the parents were totally overwhelmed and upset, the child handled the situation very differently. Instead of dwelling on the potential problems such as the possibility of death, losing his hair, not being able to play with friends, not going to the beach over the summer and having to drop off his sports teams, he simply accepted the situation and moved on. His spirits were never down and he looked forward to getting chemotherapy treatments in order to make him better.

While it could be argued that the child does not understand the true potential of his affliction, I think that the child’s outlook overall is what should be focused on. Staying positive, looking forward to getting better, making the most of each day and enjoying quality time spent with family and friends are qualities that we can all learn from. You really only have two choices, accept your situation and deal with it as positively as possible, or have the “why me” attitude and feel sorry for yourself. Either way, the illness or problem is still going to be there. The choice is up to you. why not take the child’s approach and make the most of whatever your situation is.

CareGrade.com has recently added over five thousand providers of senior care services from Florida and Massachusetts. Included in the list are home health care agencies, adult day care centers, nursing homes, medical equipment providers, scooter dealers, hospices, outpatient and inpatient physical therapy centers and emergency response systems. Elder law attorneys and care managers will also be added shortly.

CareGrade.com has recently added over two thousand providers of senior care services from New York state. Included in the list are home health care agencies, adult day care centers, nursing homes, medical equipment providers, scooter dealers, hospices, outpatient and inpatient physical therapy centers and emergency response systems. Elder law attorneys and care managers will also be added shortly.

Have you heard of the “Displacement Theory for Diets”? Basically, what this theory says is that as you age, your metabolism begins to slow down. Even if you ate a perfect diet in your younger years and kept eating the same foods in the same quantities as you age, you will gain weight. To account for the slowing metabolism, you should increase your exercise, including some for of resistance training (to maintain your muscle mass) and eat fewer calories. A great way to do this is increase fruit consumption while decreasing consumption of fatty, high calorie foods. Seems logical, but most people never think of aging and weight gain this way. If you make a small change gradually, keeping your weight in check should be no problem.