dementia in decline?

A new study has found that dementia rates among people 65 and older in England and Wales have plummeted by 25 percent over the past two decades, to 6.2 percent from 8.3 percent, a trend that researchers say is probably occurring across developed countries and that could have major social and economic implications for families and societies.

Another recent study, conducted in Denmark, found that people in their 90s who were given a standard test of mental ability in 2010 scored substantially better than people who had reached their 90s a decade earlier. Nearly one-quarter of those assessed in 2010 scored at the highest level, a rate twice that of those tested in 1998. The percentage of subjects severely impaired fell to 17 percent from 22 percent.

The British study, published on Tuesday in The Lancet, and the Danish one, which was released last week, also in The Lancet, soften alarms sounded by advocacy groups and some public health officials who have forecast a rapid rise in the number of people with dementia, as well as in the costs of caring for them. The projections assumed the odds of getting dementia would be unchanged.

Yet experts on aging said the studies also confirmed something they had suspected but had had difficulty proving: that dementia rates would fall and mental acuity improve as the population grew healthier and better educated. The incidence of dementia is lower among those better educated, as well as among those who control their blood pressure and cholesterol, possibly because some dementia is caused by ministrokes and other vascular damage. So as populations controlled cardiovascular risk factors better and had more years of schooling, it made sense that the risk of dementia might decrease.

delaying Alzheimers

July 15, 2013 (BOSTON) -- New research boosts the "use it or lose it" theory about brainpower and staying mentally sharp. People who delay retirement have less risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or other types of dementia, a study of nearly half a million people in France found.

It's by far the largest study to look at this, and researchers say the conclusion makes sense. Working tends to keep people physically active, socially connected and mentally challenged - all things known to help prevent mental decline.

"For each additional year of work, the risk of getting dementia is reduced by 3.2 percent," said Carole Dufouil, a scientist at INSERM, the French government's health research agency.

She led the study and gave results Monday at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference in Boston.

About 35 million people worldwide have dementia, and Alzheimer's is the most common type. In the U.S., about 5 million have Alzheimer's - 1 in 9 people aged 65 and over. What causes the mind-robbing disease isn't known and there is no cure or any treatments that slow its progression.

France has had some of the best Alzheimer's research in the world, partly because its former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, made it a priority. The country also has detailed health records on self-employed people who pay into a Medicare-like health system.

Researchers used these records on more than 429,000 workers, most of whom were shopkeepers or craftsmen such as bakers and woodworkers. They were 74 on average and had been retired for an average of 12 years.

Nearly 3 percent had developed dementia but the risk of this was lower for each year of age at retirement. Someone who retired at 65 had about a 15 percent lower risk of developing dementia compared to someone retiring at 60, after other factors that affect those odds were taken into account, Dufouil said.

*** [9/30/14]

What one husband does for his wife with Alzheimer's.

Mormons find doubt on the internet

In the small but cohesive Mormon community where he grew up, Hans Mattsson was a solid believer and a pillar of the church. He followed his father and grandfather into church leadership and finally became an "area authority" overseeing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout Europe.

When fellow believers in Sweden first began coming to him with information from the Internet that contradicted the church's history and teachings, he dismissed it as "anti-Mormon propaganda," the whisperings of Lucifer. He asked his superiors for help in responding to the members' doubts, and when they seemed to only sidestep the questions, Mattsson began his own investigation.

But when he discovered credible evidence that the church's founder and prophet, Joseph Smith, was a polygamist, and that the Book of Mormon and other canonical scriptures were rife with historical anomalies, Mattsson said he felt that the foundation on which he had built his life began to crumble.

Around the world and in the United States, where the faith was founded, the Mormon Church is grappling with a wave of doubt and disillusionment among members who encountered information on the Internet that sabotaged what they were taught about their faith, according to interviews with dozens of Mormons and those who study the church.

habits of happiness

‘Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions.’ ~Dalai Lama

I’m not one who believes you can be happy all the time, but I have learned you can be happy much of the time.

And that’s not something that depends on how your day is going or how others treat you — it depends on what you do on a regular basis.

I remember being unhappy most days, at one point in my life. It wasn’t because I hated the people in my life — I had a lovely wife, great kids, other wonderful family members and friends. It was because I was unhappy with myself, and that caused growing debt problems, unhappiness with my job, health problems and more. I felt like I couldn’t change any of that.

Then one day I sat down and made a list.

I make a lot of lists — it’s one of my favorite habits — but this list seemed to have a magical power. It was a list of the things I was grateful for. Amazingly, there were a lot of things on the list, from things about my wife, kids, relatives, and friends, to things about my job, about nature around me, about my life.

This list was magical because I went from feeling a bit depressed about everything, and hopeless and helpless, to much happier. My mindset shifted from the things I didn’t like or didn’t have, to the things I was really happy I had. And I was in control.

Since then I’ve experimented with a number of habits and have found a couple things to be true:

1. A handful of activities can actually make you happy.
2. If you incorporate them into your life on a regular basis (make them into habits), you’ll be happier regularly.

And those might seem to be small realizations, but actually they’re huge.

The Habits That Make You Happy

So what habits make you happy? Try doing these on a daily basis, and see if you get the same results:

1. List 3 Good Things. Eva & I started a daily evening ritual, at about 7pm each day, where we take a moment to tell each other three good things about our day. We didn’t invent this, but it serves as at least one time in your day when you focus on what you’re grateful for. This can create a mental habit of gratitude that you can use other times in your day, when you’re focused on the things you don’t like or have — when you feel this, think about something you do have, that you love. Find a way to be grateful, and you’re happier.
2. Help Someone. When we focus on ourselves, and the woeful state of our lives, we are self-centered. This shrinks the world to one little place with one little unhappy person. But what if we can expand that worldview, and expand our heart to include at least one other person? Maybe even a few others? Then we see that others are suffering too, even if that just means they’re stressed out. Then we can reach out, and do something to reduce their stress, put a smile on their face, make their lives easier. Help at least one person each day, and you’ll find your entire perspective shifted.
3. Meditate. I’ve called this the Fundamental Habit, because it affects everything else. Meditate for just 2 minutes a day, and you’ll create a habit that will allow you to notice your thoughts throughout the rest of the day, that will help you to be more present (unhappiness comes from not being present), that will help you notice the source of anxiety and distraction. That’s a lot that can be accomplished in 2 minutes! Sit every morning when you wake, and just notice your body, and then your breath. Notice when your mind wanders, and gently return to your breath. You become the watcher of your mind, and you’ll learn some useful things, I promise.
4. Exercise. Everyone knows you should exercise, so I’m not going to belabor this point. But it really does make you happier, both in the moment of exercise (I’m exerting myself, I’m alive!) and throughout the rest of the day. Exercise lightly, if you’re not in the habit yet, and just for a few minutes a day to start out. Who doesn’t have a few minutes a day? If you don’t, you need to loosen up your schedule a bit.

There are a number of other habits that also help: mindful eating, drinking tea, doing yoga, socializing with others. But these incorporate meditation (they’re more active forms of meditation), and exercise and helping others and gratitude (if you’re doing it right). So I wanted to list the most basic habits, and then you can expand to other areas.

How do you form these habits? One at a time, starting as small as possible, with some social accountability.

Set these habits in motion. You’ll notice yourself becoming more present, more grateful, more other-focused. The shift that results is nothing short of a miracle.

-- by Leo Babauta via twitter feed

*** 4/26/14

A similar list of things to maintain happiness was mentioned by quick-talking Shawn Achor in Ted Talks Life Hacks (watched on Netflix, but available on youtube)

comic strips archived online

Cool, I went to visit the Dilbert website since I saw it in my twitter digest and it's improved.

For one thing they have a magnifying glass to increase the size of the strip.  And for another thing, you can use the calendar function and go back and view previous strips all the way back to the beginning!  The first strip debuted back on April 16, 1989.

Some of my other favorite comic strips are at gocomics.com.  They also feature a magnifying glass (on most of the strips) and a calendar function.

Doonesbury goes back to October 26, 1970.

Brewster Rockit debuted July 5, 2004.

Peanuts is also there and goes all the way back to October 2, 1950!

Others:

How can I forget Calvin and Hobbes?  It debuted on November 18, 1985 and ran through December 31, 1995.  I see a strip dated today, so I guess they're showing reruns (Peanuts too I guess).

Pickles began on 1990, but gocomics has it back to January 1, 2003.

For Better or For Worse began in September 1979.  Gocomics has it consecutively back to July 2, 2000, then going back jumps to 1/1/00, then to 8/24/99 through 7/1/99, then to 12/6/97 through 11/23/97, then to 11/23/90, then to 2/5/86 and finally to 11/23/81.

Betty became a stand-along strip in 1991.  Gocomics has it back to 6/1/96, then jumps back to 5/19/96, 4/30/96 and has most of the strips (with a few holes) back to 1/1/96.

I see gocomics has an app.  Methinks I'll install it.

Installed the app, but it's a little hard to navigate from comic to comic.  I think it'll be easier when I create an account and select favorites. They also have Dilbert on there, but the archive doesn't go very far back.  So I installed the Dilbert app too (surprisingly only 0.2 MB).  It's ok, but a little different.  It forces you to hold the ipad vertically.  And the display is panel by panel, which I suppose how the comic strip is meant to be read.  But I'm used to reading it in the newspaper where you see everything at once.

So I tried using gocomics through the ipad browsers, but it's also hard to navigate.  When you click the magnfying glass, the x doesn't show up on the upper left.  The screen is cut off, so you have to back arrow to go back.  It's more cut off on chrome, but the problem is on safari too.

11 habits (to give up)

Oftentimes we unknowingly hold on to little, obsessive habits that cause us a great deal of stress and unhappiness.  Even when we feel that something is wrong, we fail to seek the changes we need to make and instead cling to what’s not working, simply because it’s what we’re accustomed to.

It’s time to make a change.  It’s time to give up the habits that no longer serve your well-being and embrace the positive changes you need to be happy.

1. Worrying
2. People-Pleasing
3. Procrastinating
4. Living in the past
5. Looking past the present
6. Judging others
7. Comparing yourself
8. Shame
9. Laziness
10. Fear
11. Need to be busy

[via Alvin]

I'm worried that I won't be able to get rid of these habits, but I need to do this to make other people happy.  Maybe I'll do it later.  I used to have less of these habits, I'll have to work on it later.  At least I'm not as bad as some people.  But I'll never be as good as others.  I really hate to admit I'm guilty of a lot of these habits.  But I don't feel like working on them right now.  It's kind of scary trying to change things - things don't seem that bad to me.  So I think I'll go out and take my mind off it.

Jim Kelly

SAN DIEGO >> Actor Jim Kelly, who played a glib American martial artist in "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee, has died. He was 67.

Marilyn Dishman, Kelly's ex-wife, said he died Saturday of cancer at his home in San Diego.

Sporting an Afro hairstyle and sideburns, Kelly made a splash with his one-liners and fight scenes in the 1973 martial arts classic. His later films included "Three the Hard Way," ''Black Belt Jones" and "Black Samurai."

During a 2010 interview with salon.com, Kelly said he started studying martial arts in 1964 in Kentucky and later moved to California where he earned a black belt in karate. He said he set his sights on becoming an actor after winning karate tournaments. He also played college football.

The role in the Bruce Lee film was his second. He had about a dozen film roles in the 1970s before his acting work tapered off. In recent years, he drew lines of autograph seekers at comic book conventions.

"It was one of the best experiences in my life," he told salon.com of working on "Enter the Dragon." ''Bruce was just incredible, absolutely fantastic. I learned so much from working with him. I probably enjoyed working with Bruce more than anyone else I'd ever worked with in movies because we were both martial artists. And he was a great, great martial artist. It was very good."