Mind Matters
Brain Games
What is the word? The first two letters and the last two letters are the same. Try solving them without looking at the letter pairs below. If you need to take a peek, go ahead, but do not fill in the letters right away. Come back to it several hours later. How many did you remember?
EXAMPLE _ _ u c a t _ _ ANSWER (ed): educated
OPTIONS he te sh er ke re on to ch
ANSWERS
1 o n i o n
2 t o m a t o
3 t e r m i t e
4 c h u r c h
5 s h e l l f i s h
6 e r a s e r
7 r e t i r e
8 h e a d a c h e
9 k e e p s a k e
KEEP YOUR BRAIN SHARP
Improving your focus is important for enhancing your remembering skills. Distractions are not your friend. Practice periodically just being in the present moment. Give something your full attention. Eat a meal and do not do anything else. When driving in your car alone, do not listen to any audio.
This puzzle and memory tip is provided by Kathryn Kilpatrick, a speech-language pathologist. She is available for Memory Fitness and Keep Your Brain Sharp programs and private consultations.
Book Shelf
Renewal, rejuvenation, gardening, hiking and baseball. Sure sounds like spring, doesn’t it? Here are book suggestions that suit the season, provided by Carol Tuttle, collection services librarian for the Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library.
“Spring Fever” by Mary Kay Andrews
Love, deception and second chances are wrapped in this plot-twisting novel set in the Deep South. Advertising executive Annajane Hudgens finds that leaving her rural North Carolina hometown and traveling to Atlanta for a new job and a promising life is complicated. This is an enjoyable escape for spring.
“Room with a View” by E.M. Forster
In this classic book (that became a movie) sheltered Englishwoman Lucy Honeychurch and her older cousin, Miss Bartlett, tour Italy in the springtime. Lucy meets interesting characters who call into question her dull, repressed Edwardian life. Spring, Tuscany and enlightenment all in one luscious novel.
“How It All Began” by Penelope Lively
In this novel of new beginnings, one random event (the mugging of the very independent 77-year-old Charlotte) cascades into multiple outcomes: marriages disrupted, lovers united and lives changed. This is Penelope Lively at her best in an ingenious and absorbing story about human nature.
“Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kinsella
Mysterious words inspire the construction of a cornfield baseball diamond. This classic novel, the basis for the film “Field of Dreams,” speaks a story about fathers and sons, family, and our cherished American pastime. Written in lovely prose, it evokes the nostalgia of family life and features a lovable hero.
“One Shot at Forever: A Small town, an Unlikely Coach, and a Magical Baseball Season” by Chris Ballard
Sportswriter Chris Ballard captures an Illinois high school baseball team’s improbable run at the state finals as poor farm boys from a small, rural town take on the privileged kids in this true-story account.
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QUESTION
I suffer from constant, dull lower back pain. Is surgery my only option for relief?
ANSWER
Back and neck pain are, unfortunately, one of the most common reasons patients visit our office. There are many causes of neck and back pain, and about 95 percent of patients can manage conservatively with physical therapy, cortisone injections, massage, osteopathic or chiropractic manipulation, medications and time.
When these treatments have failed to alleviate the pain, conventional treatment may turn to surgery to take away the pain. In many cases, however, surgery is not the best answer and sometimes may not even help a patient.
Advanced Stem Cell Treatments Can Help
Early research has shown that treatment with non-surgical regenerative therapies such as bone marrow concentrate (stem cell) injections and prolotherapy have been helpful for treating a number of conditions for the spine. Regenerative medicine treatments activate your body’s own adult stem cells and blood platelets to stimulate healing and speed repair for bone, muscle, joint, soft tissue and nerve injuries.
We all have healing stem cells in our bodies. Primarily found in bone marrow and fatty tissue, these cells act as repairmen and can regenerate into the type of cell that is needed when injected into an injured area. There are several kinds of stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are the type that we use in orthopedic treatments.
MSCs have the strongest potential to repair muscle, bone, joint and soft tissue injuries.
These cells have the ability to self-replicate, reduce inflammation and differentiate into cartilage, bone, muscle and fat cells to help the body regenerate the lost tissue in the injured area.
They can activate your body’s ability to heal itself.
Healing Back Pain
For example, when these cells are placed in an injured environment, such as a degenerated disc of the back, the cells will recognize that the disc cells have started to break down and will help to regenerate them to give the discs more water content and volume.
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