Worth Noting

Research shows that women are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than men by a 3-to-2 margin. Some scientists believe this is because when women reach menopause, their bodies cease to produce estrogen, and the pituitary gland begins over-producing another hormone, luteinizing hormone (LH), to try to jump-start the ovaries.

 Gemma Casadesus Smith, an associate professor of Biological Sciences in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, plans to test those beliefs in mice using a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health.

 “So if the hypothesis is that LH receptor signaling goes down, and that receptor is what facilitates cognitive function, then by removing this in normal mice, we should see cognitive deficits,” she said. 

See the complete Press Release

Independence, OH, January 13, 2017 – Options For Senior America – Cleveland-Independence, OH is proud to announce that they have been selected as one of the 2017 Best of In-Home Care Award winners on SeniorAdvisor.com, the largest ratings and reviews site for senior care and services in North America.
SeniorAdvisor.com’s Best of 2017 Award winners represent the best of the best of in-home care, assisted living, and other senior living providers, based on the online reviews written by seniors and their families. This exclusive designation honors the top one percent of senior care providers across the country.
The annual SeniorAdvisor.com Best of Awards tabulates over 130,000 family created reviews to find the best quality care providers for this honor. Of the nearly 200,000 communities currently listed on SeniorAdvisor.com, just over 1,400 were recognized with this prestigious award.
Options For Senior America – Cleveland – Independence, OH is the only in-home care winner in Independence, OH, and regularly receives highly positive reviews from their families like this one: “Options has been with us during Mom’s calling hours and we are especially grateful that our mother was treated with dignity and respect while being cared for in her own home. The service provided by Options helped to ease our concerns about her living alone and gave us children more quality time to spend with our mother in her last months. Thank you for being there for mother and for us.”
“We are humbled and grateful to be recognized with this award for the 2nd year in a row. It is recognition like this that keeps us trying to continuously improve our service to the community. We thank SeniorAdvisor.com and A Place For Mom for their continuous effort to provide a medium for feedback on this very important service that we offer our seniors” said Ramzi Rihani, President and CEO of Options For Senior America.

When we were kids, many of us owned (or tried to sneak a peek at) one of those cloth-covered diaries that  opened with a tiny, gold key.

So full of promise, of secrets, of — dare we admit — guilt.

We may have started our diary keeping with a sharp pencil and high hopes. We pledged to write our deepest secrets each day, the clean pages stacked with crisp potential.

Then we skipped a day, or two. And the diary became a tangible reminder of our failure to follow through. Who could plan for the future when we didn’t have the discipline to scribble a few thoughts on a diary page?

Diary keepers, you can skip this part. You’ve already made the transition to journaling with your stacks of leather-bound volumes detailing a life of reflection.

Bullet journaling is for the rest of us. Colored pens, gridded pages, tabs. This inspired list making/sketchbook/diary/calendar/to-do list is a mindful reflection of plans and dreams: no guilt required. If you write notes on a calendar, you’re already partway there.

Check out bullet journaling on Pinterest or go to bullet journal.com to get started. Toss the gold key and guilt and get a fresh start in the New Year.

February is American Heart Month. We all want to live longer. Thanks to heart health guidelines for preventing heart disease and stroke — the leading causes of death in the world — we now have a better understanding of how to do it.

“It doesn’t matter if you are 9, 29 or 79 — there is always a way to get your health on track,” says Sharon Minjares, director of the Wellness Institute at Lake  Health and an advocate for the American Heart Association. “Whether you want to lose weight, quit smoking, lower your stress or just feel better in general, when you make your health a priority, you can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke.”

Prevention begins with an assessment by your healthcare provider that considers your race, gender, age, heart, stroke risk and high blood pressure. Personalized treatment focuses on four critical areas: obesity, cholesterol, lifestyle, and assessing risk for heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases based on family history.

The AHA still promotes diet and exercise as key for keeping your weight in check, but now suggests a team-based weight-loss treatment plan and strategies for slimming down work better for most people.

Remember hearing about that “bad cholesterol number”? It is not a main factor in guiding treatment these days. Instead, your overall health status and risks are the guide.

Exercise and diet works. As a guideline, 40 minutes of exercise three to four days a week should become part of your lifestyle. Eating lots of fruits and vegetables daily promotes good overall health, too. Reducing salt intake helps reduce your blood pressure in most circumstances.

The AHA recommends at least 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous exercise (or a combination of moderate and vigorous activity). You can divide that time into three or four segments of 10 minutes per day.