By Tara Parker-Pope

Is it better to walk a human or to walk a dog?

New research from the University of Missouri has found that people who walk dogs are more consistent about regular exercise and show more improvement in fitness than people who walk with a human companion. In a 12-week study of 54 older adults at an assisted living home, 35 people were assigned to a walking program for five days a week, while the remaining 19 served as a control group. Among the walkers, 23 selected a friend or spouse to serve as a regular walking partner along a trail laid out near the home. Another 12 participants took a bus daily to a local animal shelter where they were assigned a dog to walk.

To the surprise of the researchers, the dog walkers showed a big improvement in fitness, while the human walkers began making excuses to skip the workout. Walking speed among the dog walkers increased by 28 percent, compared with just a 4 percent increase among the human walkers.

“What happened was nothing short of remarkable,” said Rebecca A. Johnson, a nursing professor and director of the Research Center for Human Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “The improvement in walking speed means their confidence in their walking ability had increased and their balance had increased. To have a 28 percent improvement in walking speed is mind boggling.”

Ms. Johnson said that because some people are afraid of dogs, the participants were given the choice of walking with a human or a dog as the companion. Ms. Johnson said the dog walkers were far more consistent in sticking with the program than those who were walking with humans.

“In the human walking group, they were regularly discouraging each other from walking,” she said. “Missouri is a hot state. We would hear them saying: ‘It’s hot today. I don’t want to walk, do you?’ ”

The response from participants in the dog-walking group — and their dog companions — was very different.

“When the people came to the animal shelter, they bounced off the bus and said, ‘Where’s my dog?”’ Ms. Johnson said. “And the dogs never gave any discouragement from walking.”

Ms. Johnson said she suspects differences will show up in other areas, like depression and anxiety, although that data are still under review and the final study has not yet been published.

But there were also other subtle indicators of improvement among the dog-walking group. Many people in the dog-walking group stopped using canes and walkers. “They would say, ‘Now I’m physically fit enough to take my dog for a walk,”’ Ms. Johnson said.

Foodily, A New Nutrition Information Site

Nutrition just got easier! A new startup recipe search engine called Foodily will determine the nutrition information for almost any recipe on the internet. You can also search for specific types of food you want (i.e. “low fat,” “low carb,” “high fiber,” etc.)

All of the data comes from USDA’s nutritional database . Making smart food choices will be way easier!

https://www.foodily.com/
________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reasons to Get an Eye Exam After 40

Are you approaching 40 with perfect vision? It is still not a bad idea to get your eyes checked by an ophthalmologist.

While the most common degeneration of the eyes around middle-age is near vision, doctors can detect early signs of other diseases like glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, as well as conditions involving the cornea. Risk factors for these eye problems include smoking, diabetes, and family history, which may all lead to developing a condition after 40 years of age.

Protect your vision and get checked out before any of these diseases sneak up on you!

Well, sort of. Green foods are still great for your health, but black foods have super-high levels of antioxidants because of their dark pigment color. The black color of these foods comes from anthocyanins, plant pigments that may help lower the risks of diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.

Here are five great foods that can help boost your health:

Black Rice
Full of vitamin E, which bolsters the immune system and protects cells from free radical damage. Black rice actually contains more anthocyanin antioxidants than blueberries, according to a study.

Black Lentils
Loaded with iron, which is great for women who need more iron than men (in general). They are also high in fiber, which is good for your digestive system.

Blackberries
They contain polyphenols, which may help reduce cognitive decline in older age by “cleaning up cells that impair brain function.” Blueberries are also high in fiber.

Black Beans
The dark skins of these beans are packed with bioflavonoids — potent plant-based nutrients that may protect against cancer, research out of Cornell University reveals.

Black Soy Beans
Black soybeans can help reduce the risk of thrombosis — a type of blood clot that’s potentially fatal. They also contain alpha-linolenic acid — an omega-3 fatty acid that will reduce the risk of heart disease.

Black Tea
Black tea contains theaflavins — antioxidants that may help your muscles recover fast after an intense workout. It may also lower your risk of having a heart attack.

With our nation becoming increasingly focused on enriching our bodies every possible way we can, organic food has become a staple in American food culture.

However, organic sometimes means more expensive, so here are a 6 foods that DON’T need to be organic and are very unlikely to be affected by those dangerous chemicals we’re so afraid of.

Avocados: Thick skinned fruits and vegetables like avacados are pretty safe from being affected by any chemicals. To be safe, just wash the skin before cutting to get rid of any residue.

Eggs: Research has shown that factory eggs don’t have higher quantities of contaminants than organic eggs.

Frozen Food: The chance of ingesting harmful chemicals from frozen food in plastic bags is pretty low since the risk of exposure to dangerous chemicals is heightened by heat.

Spices: According to experts, when using spices we consume such small amounts of the actual root vegetable, that the risk of any chemical exposure is very small.

Clothing: Organic cotton is great for the enviroment, but the benefits to your personal health are unclear because it is unlikely that pesticides remain in clothing in quantities large enough to seep into our bodies.

For more information, visit https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/22/shopping-organic-_n_838675.html#s256197&title=Avocados_

Maybe you don’t have any “wonder.”

Memory is crucial to every aspect of our lives, but all of us experience times when memory fails us, often embarrassingly. And some people claim they can never remember a name or a face.

Although researchers are gaining knowledge of the psychological and physiological bases of memory formation and retrieval – it’s really only beginning to be understood. Still, scientists are discovering fascinating information that can help all of us remember better. For example, wonder.

Common sense tells us we remember best what we’re interested in. Now research is confirming the power of curiosity. In several studies where subjects were shown faces and asked to frame questions – “Would I buy a used car from this man?” “Is she an actress?” “Is that person shy?” – they remembered faces better later than when they used standard memory techniques such as noting a person’s hair color or head shape.

The opposite side of the coin is stress. Just as children often don’t learn well when they’re frightened, habitually stressed people can be too distracted to form clear impressions in the same way. It’s hard when under stress, to get in touch with the deep parts of the brain where memory is stored, which is why relaxation techniques such as meditation and hypnosis are great aids to memory.

When you’re nervous and upset, the last thing you want to hear is someone telling you to relax. However, you can learn techniques that will improve your memory. Some are used by those memory entertainers who show off their fantastic feats of memory.

~~When meeting a stranger, in addition to noting facial features and asking yourself questions such as whether you’d buy a used car form that person, make name-picture associations. If you meet a man named Green, try to visualize his face as green. If it’s a harder name, ask for the spelling and see the letters in your mind. Repeat the name in conversation (with the images in your head), and especially as you say good-bye.

~If you have a number of errands to run, rehearse the sequence of them mentally. See yourself getting into the car, stopping at the bank, etc. That way, even if you forget to take your list, you may not forget what’s on it. And make your lists in categories of things or events; no more than seven categories or seven items per category. Seven is what psychologists say is the maximum cluster we can retain.

~~Create your own mnemonic devices (from Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory). They can be rhymes (“Thirty days has September…”; sentences from initials, “Every good boy does fine”; the EDGDF treble notes of the G clef taught musical students; or pun associations “we “spring forward” or “fall back” when setting clocks for standard or daylight-saving time).

~~If you’re memorizing a speech, do it in the evening. It’s been found that long-term memory works better as the day goes on, and sleep will block interference from other memories. In addition, study your speech in time chunks of twenty minutes, if possible, or no more than two hours, if you’re really pressed, before stopping to refresh, rest, and review.

Brains, like bodies, need exercise. Memory may slow up a bit with age – doesn’t everything? But unless you’ve been diagnosed with clinical dementia (a rare condition) or Alzheimer’s – it is not lost.

There is a new body of research that suggests that certain foods rich in the chemical choline, such as eggs, soybeans, and liver, may help the brain chemistry of memory. Whether or not this is so, there is no question that proper diet and exercise are essential to all good brain and body functions. You can remember that!

Courtesy of ThirdAge.com