Tag Archives: technology

March 17, 2020 · 12:57 am

Using technology during mealtime may cut food intake – Study

Being distracted by technology during mealtime may decrease the amount of food a person eats, nutrition scientists suggest in a new study.

When 119 young adults consumed a meal while playing a simple computer game for 15 minutes, they ate significantly less than when they ate the same meal without distractions, said lead author Carli A. Liguori.

person holding black samsung android smartphone

Photo by Ready Made on Pexels.com

Liguori conducted the research while earning a master’s degree in food science and human nutrition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Nutrition.

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Filed under distracted eating, food consumption, food intake, high tech gadgets, technology

Tagged as distracted eating, food consumption, food intake, high tech gadgets, technology

December 9, 2018 · 12:06 am

Mayo Clinic – Gene Therapy – potential and pitfalls

I put gene therapy up there with the technology that makes the GPS in my car work. It reminds me of the wonderful quote from Arthur C. Clarke, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Research is advancing gene therapy as a possible treatment or eventual cure for genetic diseases that bedevil modern science. Gene therapy was conceived over 20 years ago, and until recently, remained largely in the research lab. But gene therapy products are now beginning to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for clinical care. Physician-scientists are intrigued with exploring its possibilities for transforming medical practice.

Gene therapy seeks to target faulty genes that are driving disease and either correct or replace them. Imagine your entire genome as an electric master board that controls physical characteristics and bodily functions. A genomic variant would be the burned out fuse causing disease. Gene therapy would target the defective fuse and either replace it or add a new fuse to get the body functioning correctly.

Mayo’s research

As an example of the potential, David Deyle, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic Department of Clinical Genomics and Center for Individualized Medicine Clinomics Program, is using gene therapy in his research into possible treatments for osteogenesis imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease. People with this devastating rare genetic disorder suffer with bones that break easily and often. Caused by a defect in the protein known as collagen, brittle bone disease has no cure. Continue reading →

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April 6, 2018 · 12:07 am

Surprising side effects from using technology – Harvard

Besides the possibility of your personal information being sent to the dark web by unscrupulous hackers and sold to the highest bidder, it turns out that there are other, more mundane, risks to using social media, according to the Harvard Health Letter.

You’ve mastered the art of texting, emailing, and web surfing on your smartphone and computer. But along with that digital prowess, you’ve picked up an unexpected side effect.

“We get a number of patients who develop injuries from these activities,” says Dr. Tamara Rozental, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in hand, wrist, and elbow disorders at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Hand pain

The repetitive motions of texting and typing can lead to general hand pain from underlying osteoarthritis (the wearing away of cartilage in the joints). “Using these gadgets doesn’t cause osteoarthritis, but if you’re prone to it, it can increase your symptoms,” Dr. Rozental says. Continue reading →

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Tagged as back pain, cell phones, hand numbness, neck pain, repetitive stress, technology

February 6, 2018 · 12:12 am

Aerobic exercise may ease some Alzheimer’s symptoms

Regular readers how focused I am on the connection between exercise and the brain. I lost three family members to Alzheimer’s Disease or another form of dementia. And, I just turned 78 two weeks ago. So, I was most interested in this report on the benefits of aerobic exercise on Alzheimer’s symptoms. When you finish reading, please check out my Page – Important facts about your brain (and exercise benefits.)

Alzheimer’s Disease is a brain disorder that destroys memory and thinking skills over time. It is the most common form of dementia in older adults. There is presently no cure for the condition, though treatment options are available. Today, some 5.3 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s Disease, and it is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. The number of older adults who will develop AD is expected to more than triple by 2050.

Geriatrics experts have suggested that exercising can improve brain health in older adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommendations for how much older adults should exercise. They suggest that older adults perform 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise (such as brisk walking), 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic training, or a combination of the two types. The WHO also recommends older adults perform muscle-strengthening exercises on at least two or more days a week. Continue reading →

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Filed under aging, aging brain, Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's disease, brain, brain function, brain health, dementia, successful aging

Tagged as aging, aging brain, Alzheimer's Disease, brain, brain function, brain health, dementia, successful aging, technology

February 4, 2018 · 4:27 am

14 Reasons to disconnect on the weekend – Infographic

As an old retired guy, I have to look backwards to remember the intensity of the engagement I felt when I was in the working world. I remember that I considered going to sleep an intrusion on my productive day. I often failed to get a good night’s sleep. Ditto on weekends, you could usually find me in the office on Saturdays. Turns out that neither of those actions was wise.

I am now in my 18th year of retirement. I have been writing this blog for nearly eight years. I think one of the best posts I have done is my Page – How important is a good night’s sleep? I hope you will check it out. Recharging is one of the best and healthiest activities there is for our brain and body. A kind of corollary of not enough sleep is that prolonged sitting hurts us. You can check out my Page – Do you know the dangers of too much sitting? for more details.

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October 25, 2017 · 8:11 am

Kids Are Spending More Time On Mobile Devices Than Ever Before

The times they are a’changin’ according to Bob Dylan. And, not always for the better, it seems. I must confess that, as an old man whose eyes ain’t what they used to be, I like the idea of making the print bigger on my screen when reading. I read my Wall Street Journal on a tablet and any books I can, so I like my screens.

Tony

Our Better Health

Almost half of young children now have their own tablet, a new report says.

According to the report, which comes from Common Sense Media, those tablets are seeing plenty of use. Kids younger than eight are reportedly spending an average of two hours and 19 minutes per day glued to screens. Roughly 30 percent of that time is spent on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Forty-two percent of youngsters have a personal tablet.

While screen use has held fairly steady over time—kids in 2011 spent two hours and 16 minutes per day looking at screens, for example—the medium of choice has changed dramatically, according to the Common Sense Census. Television is still the most popular screen, but daily time spent watching the tube has dropped by 11 minutes since 2011. During the same time period, meanwhile, mobile device use has exploded from five minutes per day to its…

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October 25, 2016 · 5:06 am

Fitness trackers aren’t making us healthier – Time

This week’s Time magazine has an article on why fitness trackers aren’t making us healthier. This is even as the U.S. market for wearables hits $7 billion this year.

Duh, what a shocker! The piece quotes Eric Finkelstein, a professor at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, who led the effort, “There’s confusion among people about a measurement tool and an intervention,” Finkelstein says. A scale counts pounds, for example, but won’t teach you how to eat less.

I have quoted the statistic in lots of posts that more than 60 percent of us are overweight and 30 percent outright obese. Time offers the following, “The U.S. has an exercise problem, with 28 percent of Americans ages 50 and over considered wholly inactive. That means 31 million adults move no more than is necessary to perform the most basic functions of daily life.”

Wow. No wonder we have a healthcare crisis. We are killing ourselves with overeating and underexercising, maybe under-moving would be more accurate.

I think this whole thing with the fitness trackers goes back to our hunger for a ‘quick fix.’ How can I drop those extra pounds in a week or two, and with minimum effort? You can’t, at least not in any healthy way.

I know that during the many years I struggled with a weight problem my mind reasoned similarly. I would work at losing the extra pounds so that I could hurry back and indulge in all my bad eating habits. Not surprisingly, my weight yo yo-ed all the time. It wasn’t until I started writing this blog that I came to understand that losing weight is a stop gap measure not a way of life. The idea is to live healthy. If you do that you don’t have to worry about extra pounds. The ones you had will have melted off and you won’t be putting on new ones.

I didn’t create this post to condemn fitness trackers. There is nothing wrong with them. I have an Apple Watch. Got it just after they came out. I love it. I can track my bike rides, stair climbing, dog walks,etc., and get a little report on how many calories I burned, how far I went, my heart rate, how long it took and more. But, the Watch is just a tool. I was doing these things before I got the Watch, I just didn’t have all the information it provides. So, I consider this fitness wearable a positive addition to my way of life. You can read How my Apple Watch promotes my good health if interested.

I have never owned or used a Fitbit or any of those other trackers, but I would imagine that they could fit into your healthy lifestyle in the same way. Just remember, as Professor Finkelstein pointed out, these fitness trackers are measurement tools not an intervention. We still have to make the decision and carry out the actions on our own. Until we adjust our mindset, no amount of neat new gadgets are going to solve our health problems.

Tony

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Tagged as Exercise, fitness, fitness trackers, technology, weight, weight-loss

September 28, 2012 · 7:50 pm

Siri For Seniors

I am sure by now that you have seen Martin Scorcese in the Apple ad on TV using Siri in the back seat of a taxi checking his schedule, rejigging it and asking how’s the traffic, then telling the driver to change course. I don’t know if that is literally accurate or there is some poetic license there as it appears to be a light-hearted take.

I have been impressed with Siri since its introduction, but haven’t been able to experience it till this past week when my iPhone 5 was delivered. As soon as I got it set up I said to Siri, “What is the betting line on the Ravens game this Thursday?”

After a momentary wait, she answered, “The odds are in favor of the Ravens by 12 points.” It was love at first byte.

What a magnificent tool to have at your fingertips. All manner of information is just a Siri-query away. Apple says on its website, “Siri makes everyday tasks less tasking. It figures out which apps to use for which requests, and it finds answers to queries through sources like Yelp and WolframAlpha. It plays the songs you want to hear, gives you directions, wakes you up, even tells you the score of last night’s game. All you have to do is ask.”
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