Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/221031
4A Daily News – Tuesday, December 3, 2013 Vitality health & fitness Could this be the secret to living to 100? "Believe you can reach 100; then everything else will follow," says Stanford geriatrician Dr. Walter Bortz II. Q: My father is 85 years old and until recently has been positive, outgoing and never complained. Because of a sore back and knee, he paid his doctor a visit. After being diagnosed, my father asked, "With these aches and pains, how will I be when I'm 100 years old?" The doctor replied, "Don't worry, you are not going to live to be 100." At least that's how my father heard the remark. Since that conversation, my father's outlook on life has changed. Now he is talking about his age, complains and questions whether he will be able to continue taking cruises. Could the doctor's remark have affected him so profoundly? - M.B. A: You are on to something. Research has shown that older people who believe in negative stereotypes tend to fulfill them. Dr. Walter Bortz II, a noted Stanford geriatrician, writes about aging as a selffulfilling prophecy. As part of an initial assessment of his older patients, he asks, "Who do you think you are going to be when you are 80, 90 or 100?" He reports that patients often reply that they do not believe they will be around at those ages or they may be living in a "forlorn nursing home with an oxygen tube up my nostril, while endlessly contemplating the Styrofoam squares in the ceiling." Bortz typically replies, "If you say you're going to be dead or in a nursing home when you are old, you will be." He adds, "Every day, in every way you're acting or reacting or not acting in such ways" that will guarantee "the accuracy of your prediction." He continues that our "new reality depends on two prerequisites – guts and smarts. Smart enough to recognize that 100 is really our birthright and the guts and courage to get out of bed every morning and say yes to life." In an interview with Bortz several years ago, I asked about the book he wrote, "Dare to Be 100," which identified 99 steps to reach 100 years. "Which of the 99 steps was most important?" I asked. Instead of giving the usual answer of exercise, nutrition, relationships or stress management, he referred to step No. 19, which he considers the most important one: attitude. Bortz said, "Believe you can reach 100; then everything else will follow." But there is more. In a paper published in the journal Social Cognition, a relationship was found between a negative self-prophecy and memory. Men and women in late middle age were given a standard mem- ory test. They underperformed when they were told they were part of a study that included "older" people over age 70. That message was an indirect reminder of the connection between age and memory loss. The authors concluded that link was strong enough to affect their test scores, especially for those most concerned about getting older. Younger people also are affected by negative beliefs. A study reported in the journal Psychological Science suggests a link between ageism in healthy young people and poor heart health in later life. Hundreds of men and women were studied for almost four decades as part of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. Young people who viewed old age in negative terms were more likely to experience some kind of cardiovascular disorder over the next four decades. Risk factors such as smoking, depression, family history, cholesterol or other risk factors could not explain the episodes of heart disease. When we deal with young children as parents or teachers, we are reminded that children rise to the expectations set for them. Just move that way of thinking to later life. If the expectations are low – that's where we will be. In contrast, if we remove those negative thoughts, images and stereotypes, imagine what we could be or do. Bortz is an example. When I met him about two years ago at age 80, he was training for his 40th marathon. M.B., thank you for your important question. Indeed the physician's statement that your father would not live to be 100 sent him a strong message. He may not have thought about his age until the doctor mentioned it. What to do? Remind your father of his strengths. And remember that if we believe we will live to 100, we'll likely to do everything possible to make that happen. Send email to Helen Dennis at helendenn@aol.com, or go to www.facebook.com/SuccessfulAgingCommunity. FREE ENROLLMENT HELP Covered California Affordable Care 530-840-6611 805 Walnut Street Red Bluff Corner of Walnut & Jackson Lic# 0573654 Hydro-spinning could be the latest fitness fad The French allegedly gave us the word cellulite, and they also claim to have created one of its greatest cures: hydrospinning. While pedaling in a pool has been popular in France since 2011, the craze is catching on in other parts of the globe — and it's only expected to grow. Since the launch of aqua spinning in New York City this April with Aqua Studio, founded by French expat Esther Gauthier, similar classes have been popping up all over the Big Apple — all promising the benefits of pressure therapy and lymphatic drainage for lighter legs, without risking injury. Also Europe has seen its fair share of classes, both in gyms and in dedicated studios, as well as aqua spinning in individual or duo cabins that simultaneously blast your legs with water while you cycle (for even more cellulite reduction). In France, Alain Lellouche's franchise Waterbike has more than 80 spas and gyms across the country that let users pedal in a private aqua cabin. This summer the UK's first Hydrofit center opened, offering 45 minutes for £40 for a discreet "cellulite destroying" workout experience complete with ambient-lit water and a flatscreen television. HydroFit is planning to open 10 more locations in London, with an eye toward expanding in other UK cities. Still the French are ahead of the curve with new models of aqua group exercise bikes coming out every year, new elliptical aquatic trainers, underwater treadmills, and a resistance underwater trainer for kids called Waterkid. Is your teen is 'sexting?' A new study of 498 U.S. adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years, found that most teens sext for attention. When it comes to sexting, social pressures from friends and romantic partners outweigh a teen's own attitudes, a new study finds. The study surveyed 498 U.S. adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years, finding that most teens sext for attention, to lower the chances of catching STDs and to find a romantic partner. Twenty-six percent of the teens surveyed had engaged in sexting in the two months preceding the survey. Risks of sexting, such as a gaining a bad reputation or being blackmailed, didn't appear to influence a teen's rationale for sexting or not sexting. "Remarkably, only the behavioral beliefs that expected positive outcomes of sexting were significant in predicting adolescents' willingness to engage in it," the authors wrote. The study, announced this week, is published in the journal Behavior & Information Technology. Adolescents were most likely to sext if they had complete trust in the recipient, while a lack of trust would have a significantly adverse effect. In addition, the more positive social pressure they had from romantic partners, the more they were inclined to sext, findings showed. A separate study, announced last year and published in the journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, found that nearly one in five teens have sent sexually explicit photos on their mobile phone — many of them with little or no awareness of the possible psychological, social and sometimes legal consequences of doing so. In Britain, officials recently issued a report stating that teenage girls are experiencing increasing pressure to text and email sexually explicit pictures of themselves, with many accepting it "as a fact of life." In the report, sexting was said to affect more than a third of adolescents under the age of 18.