“How is life?” is a question raised by the Office for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to compare countries’ overall standard of living. The answer is found in the
OECD’s Better Life Index, created in 2011 and updated biennially, which compares thirty-seven developed nations’ standards of living. The current results are summarized in “How’s Life? 2020,”
2.5 minute informative video.
2 min read
Embracing Dementia Prevention with Six Healthy Behaviors
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Adopting healthy lifestyle behaviors may reduce dementia risk in those with family history” is the catchy title motivating six healthy behaviors that statistically lower one’s chances of dementia.
Not in any order of efficacy, the six behaviors are:
- Eating a healthy diet of more fruits and vegetables with less processed meats and refined grains
- Not smoking
- Consuming alcohol moderately at most (less than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women)
- Sleeping six to nine hours per day
- Engaging in physical activity of at least 150 minutes per week
- Maintaining a BMI less than 30 (the cut off for obesity)
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Addressing Inequity is Key for Healthy Societies
Effectively addressing inequity is quintessential for a healthy and productive society.
Health and wellness have been defining issues in the United States. The added stress of COVID-19 has highlighted and exacerbated these imbalances not only for healthcare access and quality, but also for social injustice and civil unrest within communities.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Healthy Multipliers for Our Society
Improving communities’ environments to make the healthy choice the easy choice is the single best intervention to help everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status, live a longer, happier and healthier life.
The “Social Determinants of Health” (SDoH) is a neutral, all-encompassing term that now commonly refers to the metrics that measure health and well-being. Diagnosing and describing the etiology of a disease or condition, in the current example — SDoH, is only the first step to addressing 80% of preventable illnesses.
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Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
How a Global Pandemic Has Impacted Birth Rates
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U.S. Births Hit 35-year low” is the title of a summary article published in June 2020.
COVID-19 pandemic could cause U.S. births to drop by half a million next year,” a follow-up article, currently predicts the birth rate drop will be exacerbated by economic hardship caused by the pandemic.
Interestingly, the COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting effects in ways not usually considered during the initial acute stress. School populations will dip while this smaller cohort journeys though the educational system. Looking further into the future, the workforce population will shrink exactly when older folks will be needing more assistance and care.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Stress and Life Expectancy
Stress has increased markedly since the 1950s according to a paper entitled, “
The Changing (Dis-)Unity of Work.” Even as modern conveniences have seemingly made life easier and perhaps safer, overall life expectancy has not increased as much as one would have desired or expected. Perhaps the negative effect of increased stress has counterbalanced the positive influences.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Like-minded individuals congregate, reinforcing healthy or unhealthy habits
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Birds of a feather flock together” has been attributed to Plato as far back as 360 BC, when he is quoted as saying: “
Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as the old proverb says.” This thought probably exists because people who are similar seek out others like themselves in a variety of ways, recently affirmed by people’s food choices in a cafeteria.
Topics: Bulletin
2 min read
Morbidity and mortality rates worsening among gens x and y
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Are Recent Cohorts Getting Worse? Trends in U.S. Adult Physiological Status, Mental Health, and Health Behaviors across a Century of Birth Cohorts” is the title of a recent
Journal of Epidemiology article showing worsening health among middle-aged and slightly younger Americans since 2000.
The disquieting news is based on over seven hundred thousand adults surveyed from 1988 to 2018. Notably, all the data were obtained pre-COVID. The academic researchers tried to define whether the deteriorated health was due to physiological factors, environmental effects, and/or behavioral mechanisms.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Prevention: The Cure for Rising Health Care Costs
For both better and worse, COVID-19 has accelerated change, subsequently disrupting the current healthcare ecosystem.
Starting with a picture of the ideal future and working backwards is a productive way to facilitate change while creating hope. Placing the person whose goal is staying well at the center of the model displaces others whose economic interests overwhelmingly motivate the status quo.
Topics: Bulletin
5 min read
Turn Up the Volume: How to Hand Over the Mic to Marginalized Communities for Greater Impact
There is a difference between having an opinion and being asked to share it. We all have the former which is shaped by our experiences, relationships, values, culture, needs and beliefs. The latter, the actual expression of an opinion, only tends to emerge in a safe space where trust has been established and one’s voice feels valued. Conversely, as is often seen in disparate communities, typically quiet voices are raised when that safe space is lacking, and the pain of an experience becomes too much to bear in silence.
