Here are some articles from around the web that caught my attention over the last week.
Alzheimer’s Patients Keep the Spark Alive by Sharing Stories
This heart-warming article reports on an eight-week storytelling workshop at Northwestern University that helps couples coping with Alzheimer’s disease stay connected:
Each couple’s story serves as a reminder of both the good and challenging times they have shared, experiences both poignant and humorous that reveal inner strength, resilience and love and appreciation for one another that can be easily forgotten when confronted by a frightening, progressive neurological disease like Alzheimer’s.
Don’t Throw Out Your Organ Donor Card After 65
I’ve been signed up as an organ donor since early adulthood, but lately I’ve been wondering how useful my organs would be now that I’m approaching 70. This piece explains how age makes those of us over 65 “particularly desirable as donors, living or dead, for older recipients, who represent a growing proportion of transplant patients.”
Diet, exercise reduce proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease, study says
A healthy diet, physical activity and normal body mass index have been connected to overall better health, with a new study at the University of California Los Angeles suggesting the combination of healthful choices may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Just in case we needed yet another reminder of the importance of healthy eating and exercise.
Virtual reality treadmills help prevent falls in elderly
A small study suggests that adding a virtual reality obstacle course to treadmill workouts may help prevent falls among older adults:
“Our idea was to use the virtual reality environment to safely train both the motor or gait aspects that are important to fall risk, while also implicitly teaching the participants to improve the cognitive functions that are important for safe ambulation,” said lead study author Anat Mirelman of Tel Aviv University in Israel.
© 2016 by Mary Daniels Brown
Retreading for Retirement 