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The information here is in no way a medical/clinical advisory or teleconsultant. The information discussed here is an informal sharing of chronic health matters! Please consult your doctors for any healthcare matters!

Seven hours’ sleep is ideal amount in middle to old age, study finds Too much and too little sleep linked with worse cognitive performance and mental health A good night’s sleep is as important as exercise for people as they get older, one researcher said. Photograph: Getty Images Hannah Devlin Science correspondent @hannahdev Thu 28 Apr 2022 16.00 BST Seven hours of sleep each night is the ideal amount in middle to old age, research suggests. The study of nearly 500,000 adults aged between 38 and 73 found that both too much and too little sleep were linked with worse cognitive performance and mental health, including anxiety and depression. A consistent amount of sleep also appeared to be beneficial. Prof Barbara Sahakian, from Cambridge University’s department of psychiatry, said: “For every hour that you moved away from seven hours you got worse. It’s very clear that the processes that go on in our brain during sleep are very important for maintaining our physical and mental health.” Getting a good night’s sleep, she added, was important at all stages of life, but particularly as people aged. “I think it is as important as getting exercise.” A possible reason for the link between insufficient sleep and cognitive decline may be the disruption of slow-wave, or deep, sleep, which has been shown to be important for memory consolidation. A lack of deep sleep could also prevent the brain from clearing toxins effectively. The study, which used data from the UK Biobank, included brain imaging and genetic data for almost 40,000 of the study participants. It found that the brain area most affected by sleep was the region containing the hippocampus, the brain’s memory centre, with too much or too little sleep linked to a smaller brain volume. The analysis found that people who slept seven hours a night performed best on average on cognitive tests for processing speed, visual attention, memory and problem-solving skills. However, the work could not prove a causal relationship, and the link between sleep and some brain disorders is complex. For instance, unusual sleep patterns and insomnia are a common symptom in people with dementia. The scientists are less clear about why spending eight or more hours in bed could cause problems. One explanation is that people who have poor quality, disturbed sleep, tend to spend longer sleeping – or trying to sleep – because they feel tired. “We don’t really understand why sleeping longer would be a problem,” Sahakian said. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/apr/28/seven-hours-sleep-is-ideal-amount-in-middle-to-old-age-study-finds

JUst saw this movie. Seen some of my relatives & caregivers both suffer from the love one having dementia! Damn sad and the caregiver suffers a lot too! I fear i will also be abandon too!

Heads Up for Those with Allergy & Heart Conditions Hot & Hazy weather has been going on for more then a week liao.Started before CNY! Sorry i busy lah! Crop Fires prevalling from the Northern Countries with wind carrying Ultra Fine dust particles down south. We are getting NNE-NNW winds now! The smaller the dust the higher & further it spreads! Top pic- shows you where teh source of dust and fires are. Center pic- show the Temp and Humidity! Bottom pic - shows you amount of ultra fine dust particles in my room (@9pm). The Red circle highlights the Ultra fine particles size (+-50) and amount of dust in 1L of air! Although the instrument i use is not professional grade but i'm use it as a gauge! Our NEA is (reflective of our leaders) so must rely on myself! The surgical mask we use filters up to 0.3um (As we now know virus are smaller then 0.3um)! This tool i am using measures up to 0.3um & you can see the high volume of ultra fine dust in our air.. These 0.3 & smaller dust particles gets into our lungs and blood stream and will cause long term chronic sickness & heart failure! The cause air pollutants are found in Health Matters https://mugentech.net/index.php?/topic/7354-health-matters/&do=findComment&comment=57479

How would u handle this........? As posted some time ago, about a middle age neighbor has Stage 4 cancer & going through family issues (divorce) as well! He was pouring out his sorrows....... I just was lost for words. How/what would u handle this situation?

Can Intermittent Fasting Reset Your Immune System? https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2020/01/06/can-intermittent-fasting-reset-your-immune-system/?sh=bd2829027ac2 Fasting also helps with weight loss, for obvious reasons. Cutting out all snacks in the evening, which is the biggest change imposed by time-restricted fasting, means not only a reduction in calories consumed, but also a reduction in the amount of highly processed ("junk") foods in one's diet as well. Furthermore, because intermittent fasting reduces inflammation, it may also improve symptoms of arthritis and even rheumatoid arthritis. Why does fasting work? It's all about getting your body to switch over from glucose metabolism to ketone metabolism. Our usual 3-meal-a-day diet provides our body with a constant source of fuel in the form of glucose. Once that glucose is used up, though, our body switches to using fatty acids and ketone bodies. Ketone bodies provide more than fuel: as de Cabo and Mattson explain, "Ketone bodies regulate the expression and activity of many proteins and molecules that are known to influence health and aging." Ketone metabolism seems to bring a host of health benefits. The trick is getting our bodies to switch over to it, now and then. If we eat constantly, then our bodies happily subsist on glucose and never make the switch. Does fasting truly reset your immune system? Six years ago, I concluded that a 3-day fast does the trick, at least partially. The science suggests that, if you can do it, a prolonged fast for 2-3 days will induce your body to clean out some old immune cells and switch on production of new ones. Now we're learning that intermittent fasting, which is easier to do, may work in much the same way, with multiple health benefits. [Note: one of the authors of the NEJM study, Mark Mattson, is a Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, making him a colleague of mine. However, we are in different departments and we have never met.]

Just thought of starting a thread for people interested in finding out more about the LCHF - low carb, high fats - lifestyle Regulars can report in to share experiences and advice For those who are interested, I would post resources to help understand what LCHF is all aboutFor a start, please read the following 1. Diet Doctor http://www.dietdoctor.com/lchf2. Tips and Tricks for Starting or Restarting Low Carbhttp://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/k...-low-carb-pt-i3. Tips and Tricks for Starting or Restarting Low Carb IIhttp://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/s...low-carb-pt-ii4. “How Do I Know When It’s Working?” A Quick Troubleshooting Guide to Paleo | The Paleo Momhttp://www.thepaleomom.com/2013/04/h...-to-paleo.html5. Why Low-Carb Diets Must Be High-Fathttp://www.second-opinions.co.uk/fat...l#.UYGsbqKmhWI6. PALEOFORPOWER.COM: A Deeper look at Nutritional Ketosis.http://blog.paleoforpower.com/2013/0...l-ketosis.aspx7. PALEOFORPOWER.COM: The Foods List: Eat, Don't Eathttp://blog.paleoforpower.com/2013/0...-dont-eat.aspx8. A Guide to Ketosis | Live Free From Obesityhttp://www.livefreefromobesity.co.uk/a-guide-to-ketosis9. Authority Nutrition - An Evidence-Based Approachhttp://authoritynutrition.com/10. The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D. The Eating Academy | Peter Attia, M.D.http://eatingacademy.com/11. Zoë Harcombe; Obesity Researcher, Author The Harcombe Diethttp://www.zoeharcombe.com/12. Dr Jason Fung, Author of The Obesity Codehttps://www.youtube.com/user/drjasonfung13. Mark Sisson, Author of The Primal Diet & Lifestylewww.MarksDailyApple.com14. Ivor Cummins, Physist who knows more about nutrition than dietitians www.theFatEmperor.com15. Dr Steven Lin, Dentist and paleo enthusiast www.drstevenlin.com