What Happens If You Drink Out of the Same Water Glass for a Week, According to Doctors

Even if you do wash your water glass regularly, leaving water sitting out can be problematic, according to all of the doctors we spoke with. "A glass left out in open air may be exposed to airborne bacteria from dust particles or other sources," Trinh explains. 

For that reason alone, keeping a water bottle with a lid on your nightstand might be the best idea. (It will also prevent spills, for the accident-prone among us.)

Whatever container you use for your water, don't forget to replenish it with fresh H2O every day. "Bacteria can also grow in the water if it is not changed often in as little as a few days, so don't leave water uncovered next to your nightstand,"

Stone warns.Drinking plenty of water is great for your body: A recent study linked good hydration habits with living longer and developing fewer chronic health problems. 

Sure, you've got lots of beverage options when you're thirsty (although you may want to skip the diet soda), but water is the best choice you can make for your health. Going even one day without drinking water can result in dizziness, fatigue, digestive problems, and more.

Still, it's important to take precautions when it comes to the way you drink water. One of those, doctors say, is making sure you're not exposing yourself to harmful bacteria and inadvertently raising your risk of illness by drinking out of a dirty glass.

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Previously Unknown Driver of Aging Discovered – Simple Supplement May Reverse It

According to a brand new clinical study, the decline withinside the hypothalamic Menin can also additionally play a key function in ageing. The findings display a formerly unknown driving force of physiological ageing and advocate that supplementation with a easy amino acid can also additionally mitigate a few age-associated modifications. The research, with the aid of using Lige Leng of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China, and associates, become posted on March sixteenth withinside the open get right of entry to magazine PLOS Biology.

The hypothalamus has been identified as a key mediator of physiological ageing, thru an growth withinside the manner of neuroinflammatory signaling over time. In flip, irritation promotes a couple of age-associated tactics, each withinside the mind and the periphery.

Recently, Leng and associates confirmed that Menin, a hypothalamic protein, is a key inhibitor of hypothalamic neuroinflammation, main them to invite what function Menin can also additionally play in ageing. Here, they found that the extent of Menin withinside the hypothalamus, however now no longer astrocytes or microglia, declines with age. To discover this decline, they created conditional knockout mice, wherein Menin interest may be inhibited. They observed that discount of Menin in more youthful mice brought about an growth in hypothalamic neuroinflammation, ageing-associated phenotypes consisting of discounts in bone mass and pores and skin thickness, cognitive decline, and modestly decreased lifespan.

Another extrade precipitated with the aid of using lack of Menin become a decline in ranges of the amino acid D-serine, recognised to be a neurotransmitter and on occasion used as a nutritional complement observed in soybeans, eggs, fish, and nuts. The authors confirmed this decline become because of lack of interest of an enzyme concerned in its synthesis (which become in flip regulated with the aid of using Menin).

Could reversing age-associated Menin loss opposite symptoms and symptoms of physiological ageing? To check that, the authors brought the gene for Menin into the hypothalamus of elderly (20-month-old) mice. Thirty days later, they observed stepped forward pores and skin thickness and bone mass, together with higher studying, cognition, and balance, which correlated with an growth in D-serine withinside the hippocampus, a significant mind area crucial for studying and memory. Remarkably, comparable advantages on cognition, aleven though now no longer at the peripheral symptoms and symptoms of ageing, may be precipitated with the aid of using 3 weeks of nutritional supplementation with D-serine.

There is plenty left to be discovered approximately Menin`s function in ageing, consisting of the upstream tactics that result in its decline, and there may be plenty to find out about the capacity for exploiting this pathway, consisting of how plenty phenotypic ageing may be slowed, and for the way long, and whether or not supplementation with D-serine can also additionally cause different modifications, but to be discovered.

Nonetheless, Leng said, “We speculate that the decline of Menin expression withinside the hypothalamus with age can be one of the using elements of ageing, and Menin can be the important thing protein connecting the genetic, inflammatory, and metabolic elements of ageing. D-serine is a doubtlessly promising healing for cognitive decline.”

Leng adds, “Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) Menin signaling faded in elderly mice, which contributes to systemic ageing phenotypes and cognitive deficits. The results of Menin on ageing are mediated with the aid of using neuroinflammatory modifications and metabolic pathway signaling, followed with the aid of using serine deficiency in VMH, whilst healing of Menin in VMH reversed ageing-associated phenotypes.”

Hypothalamic Menin regulates systemic ageing and cognitive decline” with the aid of using Lige Leng, Ziqi Yuan, Xiao Su, Zhenlei Chen, Shangchen Yang, Meiqin Chen, Kai Zhuang, Hui Lin, Hao Sun, Huifang Li, Maoqiang Xue, Jun Xu, Jingqi Yan, Zhenyi Chen, Tifei Yuan and Jie Zhang, sixteen March 2023, PLoS Biology.

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Study: These foods raise your risk of dementia — a lot

Butter. Hamburgers. Sausages. Store-bought pastries, cakes and cookies. Oh, and soda—sugary or diet.They’re all bad and they all raise our risk of getting dementia—by a lot.

So reports one of the biggest and scariest studies ever, involving around 60,000 people in their 40s, 50s and 60s. The study, involving a massive number of people in a long-running British health survey known as the U.K. Biobank, tracked what people typically ate and who ended up with dementia.

The subjects who scored in the bottom third on the diet schedule were 30% more likely to develop dementia within nine years than those in the top third.

Technically, the study was about the effects of the so-called “Mediterranean Diet,” which is usually described in the media as a TV movie version of an Italian family dinner: Fresh fish, vegetables and fruit, nuts and olive oil — and wine.

But the way the study worked, the researchers measured two things: How often participants ate these Mediterranean” type foods, but also how often they ate…well, the stuff we see all around us, especially in the USA. Unmediterranean foods.

For example one of the key questionnaires used in the study was the so-called “Mediterranean Diet Adherence Screener,” which has become a standard tool for researchers in this field. (Yet another study recently confirmed its validity.)

This screener is a simple questionnaire. You can get it here, and printing it out and sticking it on the fridge may be the simplest family health hack anyone can do.

There are 14 questions: You get a point for each one you can check off at the end of the week.Do you cook with olive oil instead of butter? Give yourself a pointDo you consume more than 4 tablespoons of olive oil per day? Give yourself another point.

Do you eat more than 400g of fresh vegetables a day or more than three pieces of fruit? Give yourself a point for eachYou also get points if you hit the targets on eating enough fish, nuts, pulses, and dishes with the famous Italian red sauce, complete with onions and garlic. (No mention of basil, alas.)

So these are the “good” foodsBut…you also get points for avoiding the bad foods: Namely those things mentioned above, like cookies, red meat and sodas.The latest study was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal BMC Medicine.

Several previous studies have found a correlation between those following a healthy Mediterranean diet, lower rates of cognitive decline with age, and lower risk of dementia. While no diet is perfect, the Mediterranean one comes out the winner, or a winner, in study after study. The Cleveland Clinic reports that this diet lowers our risk of heart disease, cancer and many other ailments, and helps us live longer.

Meanwhile, the Alzheimer’s Society reports that about 2% of Americans age 65 to 69 have dementia, with the rate then roughly doubling with every five years you age. About a third of those over 90 have dementia, it reports.

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Physical Exercise Helps to Improve Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease

 The review looked at 156 randomized controlled trials comparing physical exercise with no physical exercise or with different types of exercise, and it included a total of 7,939 people from around the world, making it the largest and most comprehensive systematic review to study the effects of physical exercise in people with Parkinson’s Disease.

The review from Cochrane, a collaboration of independent, international experts, was led by Dr Elke Kalbe, Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Cologne, Germany.

It found that physical exercise ranging from dance, water-based exercise, strength and resistance exercise and endurance exercise, to tai chi, yoga and physiotherapy, made mild to large improvements to the severity of movement-related (‘motor’) symptoms and quality of life.

arkinson’s Disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system that mostly affects people over 60,” said Professor Kalbe. “Symptoms begin gradually and include movement problems such as trembling, stiffness, slowness of movement and balance, and lack of coordination. People can also have emotional and mood problems, fatigue, sleep problems and cognitive difficulties.

Parkinson’s Disease cannot be cured, but the symptoms can be relieved, and physiotherapy or other forms of exercise may help too. Until now it has been unclear whether some types of exercise work better than others. We wanted to find out what exercise works best to improve movement and quality of life.”

The average age of the participants in the studies included in the review was between 60 and 74 years. Mot had mild to moderate disease and no major impairment of their thinking processes. The review found that most types of exercise worked well for the participants compared to no physical exercise.

The first author of the review, Mr Moritz Ernst, is a member of Cochrane Haematology and deputy head of the working group on Evidence-based Medicine, which is led by co-author of the study, Professor Nicole Skoetz, at University Hospital Cologne

He said: “We observed clinically meaningful improvements in the severity of motor symptoms for most types of exercise. These included dancing, training to improve gait, balance and movement, multi-exercise training, and mind-body training. 

We saw similar benefits in the severity of motor symptoms for water-based training, strength and resistance training, and endurance training, but the estimates of improvement were rather imprecise, meaning that we are not as confident in saying that these improvements are clinically meaningful.

For the effects on quality of life, we observed clinically meaningful beneficial effects for water-based training, and effects that are probably clinically meaningful for several types of exercise, such as endurance training, mind-body training, training to improve gait, balance and movement and multi-exercise training. Again, these estimates were rather imprecise.”

The certainty in the estimates for the effects on symptoms from different forms of exercise varied because some studies were very small, and not all provided information on the severity of motor symptoms and quality of life for all the participants. However, the authors say that their review highlights that most types of exercise produced meaningful improvements, and they found little evidence of much difference between different exercises.

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Study Finds This Low-Impact Workout Helps Seniors Regain Their Strength

Staying active is important for overall health, but it can become more of a challenge as you age. With that, it’s important to find exercise routines that can support your health while also enhancing other areas of your life.

Now, a new scientific analysis from researchers at Harvard University suggests that yoga is a great option for helping seniors regain their strength and improve mobility. The study, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at 33 studies of 2,384 participants over the age of 65. 

The researchers found that yoga—typically Hatha yoga that included Iyengar or chair-based methods—increased the walking speed and ability to rise from a chair. Both of these metrics are linked with less frailty and increased longevity.

While yoga for seniors isn’t a new concept, this is the first time the effects of the practice have been measured against a slew of different metrics doctors use to define frailty in older patients. The researchers found that yoga was the most closely linked with improved walking speed (slow walking speed is associated with a higher risk of death in older adults), along with improved leg strength to help with things like being able to rise from a chair or bed.

Worth noting: Yoga didn’t seem to have as much of an impact on balance, and it also didn’t seem to impact handgrip strength (another marker of frailty).

Up to 50% of adults aged 80 years or older are estimated to be frail and the global prevalence is expected to rise given aging of our population. We need more interventions to help with frailty,” says lead study author Julia Loewenthal, M.D., a geriatrician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

There are limited options to improve or prevent frailty,” points out study co-author Ariela Orkaby, M.D., M.P.H., director of frailty research in the Division of Aging at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We are hoping to identify strategies that can improve the health of older adults.”

So, why might yoga be helpful for seniors, and what other low-impact exercises should older Americans consider? Here’s the deal.

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The truth about alcohol

The emerging medical consensus around alcohol is likely to come as a downer for drinkers. Here's everything you need to know:

Is moderate drinking harmless

For decades, doctors advised that consuming a daily alcoholic beverage or two is fine for one's health, or perhaps even beneficial. A growing body of research, however, indicates that toasting "To your health!" is an oxymoron. Studies have found that even modest drinking can have negative consequences, including raising the risk of cancer and heart attacks. "Risk starts to go up well below levels where people would think, '

Oh, that person has an alcohol problem,'" said Dr. Tim Naimi, director of the University of Victoria's Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research. This emerging consensus comes amid a rise in alcohol consumption during the pandemic, as Americans sought an escape from despair and boredom. Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Stanley Hazen said that, in light of new research, he will advise his patients that even the current U.S. guidelines for moderation — two drinks a night for men and one a night for women — might be risky. "I am going to be recommending cutting back on alcohol," Hazen said.

How high is the risk of cancer

Alcohol contributes to more than 75,000 new cancer cases per year in the U.S. and nearly 19,000 annual cancer deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. When humans consume alcohol, they metabolize it into acetaldehyde. This toxic chemical can damage DNA, enabling the out-of-control cell growth that creates cancerous tumors. Alcohol is known to be a direct cause of seven types of cancer: oral cavity, pharynx (throat), larynx (voice box), liver, breast, and colorectal. 

According to the National Cancer Institute, moderate drinkers are 1.8 times more at risk of oral cavity and pharynx cancers, while heavy drinkers are five times more at risk. For liver cancer, increased risk comes only from excessive drinking. Studies indicate that for postmenopausal women, just one drink a day raises their risk of breast cancer by up to 9 percent compared with nondrinkers.

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Harvard diet’ may be the standard for living a long and healthy life—here’s what to know

You’ve definitely heard of the Mediterranean diet and the MyPlate method, but what about Harvard University’s Healthy Eating Plate?

Back in 2011, nutrition experts at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health worked alongside researchers at Harvard Health Publications to compile an eating plan for optimal health.

In terms of major chronic diseases like prevention of cardiovascular disease, different types of cancers [and] Type 2 diabetes, this way of eating is going to be helpful to prevent those diseases that are common in America, and the world,” says Lilian Cheung, lecturer of nutrition at Harvard’s school of public health.

Now that the topics of longevity and healthy aging are more popular than ever, people are looking for more ways to live longer, and the Harvard diet has found its way back into the news cycle.

What is the ‘Harvard diet’?

The Harvard diet is actually Harvard’s Healthy Eating Plate, and it can be used as a guide for “creating healthy, balanced meals,” according to “The Nutrition Source,” a section of Harvard’s site that provides nutritional information.

For the diet, you should prioritize vegetables and fruits for half of each meal and supplement the other half with whole grains and healthy proteins.Here’s a thorough breakdown of how to set your plate.

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