I received a call in a late evening few days ago from an elderly family friend. She told me that she just got a bottle of “colon health” from pharmacy for prolonged constipation and asking if this drug would work well? After I said that this product is a supplement, not a drug, and she may not expect a quick resolution for her current situation, she was in a disbelieve. Then, she asked “what is a supplement?”
Dietary supplements include vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals, enzymes, amino acids, or other dietary ingredients. You take these products by mouth in pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid form to supplement your diet. Most people don't need to take vitamin supplements and are able to get all the vitamins and minerals they need by eating a healthy, balanced diet. Dietary supplements are not drugs. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Dietary supplements are intended to supplement the diets of special needs or deficits, but not to replace the balance of the variety of foods important to a healthy diet. Quality food intake is the best source for nutrition and well-being.
Go to qualitylifeforum.net to learn more about regulatory background, differences between OTC drugs and supplements, and considerations for supplement use. Feel free to contact RN@QualityLifeForum.net for your health coaching needs.
Cognitive health is the ability to clearly think, learn, and remember. Cognitive change as a normal process of aging has been well documented in the scientific literature. Some cognitive abilities, such as vocabulary, are resilient to brain aging and may even improve with age. Other abilities, such as conceptual reasoning, memory, and processing speed, decline gradually over time.
Concepts of crystallized and fluid intelligence are used to describe patterns of cognitive change over the lifespan. Crystallized intelligence refers to skills, ability, and knowledge that is overlearned, well-practiced, and familiar. Vocabulary and general knowledge are examples of crystallized abilities. Crystallized abilities remain stable or gradually improve through the sixth and seventh decades of life. Because crystallized intelligence is due to accumulation of information based on one’s life experiences, older adults tend to perform better at tasks requiring this type of intelligence when compared to younger adults. In contrast, fluid intelligence refers to abilities involving problem-solving and reasoning about things that are less familiar and are independent of what one has learned. Fluid cognition includes a person’s innate ability to process and learn new information, solve problems, and attend to and manipulate one’s environment. Executive function, processing speed, memory, and psychomotor ability are considered fluid cognitive domains. Many fluid cognitive abilities, especially psychomotor ability and processing speed, peak in the third decade of life and then decline per year.
Certain activities may prevent age-associated cognitive decline is the theory of cognitive reserve. Passive reserve refers to genetically determined characteristics such as brain volume and the number of neurons and synapses present. Active reserve refers to the brain’s potential for plasticity and reorganization in neural processing, allowing it to compensate for neuropathologic changes.
The good news is that a meta-analysis of speed of processing training studies supports the idea that cognitive training can have real effects on cognitively normal subjects’ ability to perform activities of daily living. These promising findings suggest that it may be possible to use cognitive training to minimize functional decline with advancing age.
Your brain has the ability to learn and grow as you age — a process called brain plasticity — but for it to do so, you have to train it on a regular basis. Practicing a new and challenging activity in daily life is a good bet for building and maintaining cognitive skills.
Normal age-related cognitive change does not impair a person’s ability to perform daily activities. It will become increasingly important to understand the cognitive changes that accompany aging, both normal and pathologic. Dementia and mild cognitive impairment are common. There is significant variability in age-related cognitive changes from person to person. The good news is that your brain has the ability to learn and grow as you age under active training on a regular basis. Practicing a new and challenging activity in daily life is a good bet for building and maintaining cognitive skills.
Visit www.qualitylifeforum.net to read more and learn what can you do for your cognitive health. Contact RN@qualitylifeforum.net for your health coaching needs.
