“Wellness shouldn’t feel like a series of deprivations.” — Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, from Eat Your Ice Cream This month and next, I’d like to spend some time exploring how we can thoughtfully modify our daily activities to support overall wellness. One of the simplest and most accessible ways to begin is through physical activity. According to experts at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), older adults benefit from three main types of movement: aerobic activity, muscle strengthening, and...

My note last month brought us into the world of “living well” studies around modifiable lifestyle activities. This month, I want to move into what I call the first pillar of activity: sleep. The question often comes up, “What does sleep have to do with my brain as I age?” Sometimes we also hear, “I don’t need as much sleep as I did when I was younger.” First, let’s understand that during sleep, we move in and out of four stages: light sleep, non-REM stage two sleep, deep or slow-wave sleep,...

What do we mean when we say, “Living well”? Much has been written in the media and discussed in interviews on the news recently about living well as we age. The details often come from well-defined research that isn’t always clearly identified. Two studies have opened a flood of information, from network TV to AARP, and into far too many internet sites trying to sell us on “things” that promote living well. Here is a basic entry into the discussion. The FINGER study (Finnish Geriatric...