Over 50
Understanding the aging brain
March 1, 2016 —As we age, it can be difficult to determine the difference between normal lapses in memory and expected decline in mental sharpness versus what could be early signs of dementia.
Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital wants to help you understand the aging brain better. On Wednesday, March 16, plan to attend “Your Aging Brain: What is Normal,” from 6 to 8 p.m. at the hospital.
Learn more »Core Opening Yoga: a different way to strengthen your bones
In our busy world of pushing and striving, Core Opening Yoga offers a new way of being in your body and life that invites ease, self-compassion and subtle body awareness.
This yoga practice, which I teach, is unique in that it’s centered more on “beingness” than “doingness.”
Learn more »A heart disease wake up call
Janice Dunn knew she had high cholesterol for years. “When I was 41, I had my cholesterol checked and it was 396, which is very high,” she recalls. “But — I felt young and I was otherwise healthy and very active. My doctor suggested maybe taking a statin to lower it but after we talked for a bit we both agreed not to go that route.”
So, Janice, a financial advisor focused on helping women manage their money, continued living her life and didn’t give her cholesterol much thought, despite a family history of heart disease. “Both my grandmother and my mother have heart disease. That should have been a big red flag, but I just wasn’t worried about it.”
Learn more »What every woman needs to know about AFib
February 24, 2016 —While most people are familiar with heart attacks and the symptoms they bring, very few people understand arrhythmia, a problem in which your heart beats too fast or too slow.
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) — the most common type of arrhythmia — affects more than two and a half million people in the U.S.
Learn more »Easy non-surgical treatment for vein, vascular conditions
Most of the time, it is the heart that receives credit for its seemingly endless effort to pump blood throughout our bodies. However, the intricate vascular system, which carries blood through veins and arteries, is an important partner in the process.
And we often don’t give our veins or arteries much thought – until, that is, they cause pain.
Learn more »Care facility executive pops in each day on a special resident: his mom
For a recent session on the Chinese zodiac, the residents of Birmingham Green, an assisted-living facility, sat in a circle and tried to recall what year they were born.
Some shook their heads sheepishly, others answered easily — Caroline, born in 1927, was a tiger. Herbert, born in 1953, was a dragon.
Learn more »Take steps to identify your risk for heart disease
February 16, 2016 —Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States.
It’s an alarming statistic but one that could be reduced if we each took action to identify and address cardiovascular disease before it becomes life-threatening.
Learn more »Use your voice: future funding priorities for seniors depend on community input
At 10:30 a.m. each weekday, 11 or more volunteers gather at Gold Country Community Services in Grass Valley, ready to load up their cars. Greg Mason reviews his route and checks over his meals — packed up and insulated to stay hot. On Friday, it was turkey tetrazzini, Brussels sprouts, Lebanese fruit salad and a dinner roll. Mason is one of roughly 60 volunteers who participate in the Gold Country Meals on Wheels program, which has been delivering hot, ready-to-eat meals since 1987. Friday’s volunteers delivered 151 meals within the areas of Nevada City, Grass Valley, Lake Wildwood, Cedar Ridge, Penn Valley, Rough and Ready, Lake of the Pines and North San Juan. Annually, the program delivers more than 34,000 to home bound seniors.
“The deliveries are more than a much-needed meal,” said Nicole Grimes, executive assistant at Gold Country Community Services. “It’s also a welfare check for those who live alone. If the door is locked and no one is answering, that’s a concern.”
Learn more »Look around the world to learn to age gracefully
There are certain places in the world where people tend to live longer than the rest of us and where reaching your 100th birthday is not all that unusual.
According to the World Health Organization, top countries for life expectancy are Japan, Australia, France, Sweden and Spain. The United States came in at 18th.
Learn more »Early detection program helps find cancer early
Eunice Wren never expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer, particularly when she felt healthy and well.
“I didn’t have any symptoms. I was just going on my own merry way,” Wren said.
Learn more »Finding support for those affected by Alzheimer's
“As far as I know, I don’t have Alzheimer’s or dementia,” said Kimberly Parker, executive director of Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital Foundation. “However, like so many others, there are days I can’t remember something that should be easy to remember, or I forget to do something, or wonder why I can’t remember the name of the person I know so well. I feel that fear deep inside wondering if it could be the early signs of Alzheimer’s or dementia. I know I am not the only one that has thought that.”
Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in this country and the only cause of death among the top 10 in the U.S. that can’t be prevented, cured or slowed.
Learn more »Prostate screening important for men's health
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death in men in the U.S., second only to lung cancer, and is the most common type of cancer found in American men other than skin cancer. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), one in seven men will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, and the ACS estimates that this year alone will show 220,800 new cases of prostate cancer and 27,540 deaths from the disease.
Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital (SNMH) Community Cancer Center wants to help ensure that the recovery rate for prostate cancer in our area is as high as possible by identifying and treating the disease early. That is why they are partnering in a clinical trial with the Prostate Conditions Education Council (PCEC) to offer prostate screenings from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Sept. 30 at the Cancer Center. The trial is part of a nationwide effort by PCEC during Prostate Cancer Awareness Week to ensure that men are screened for the disease.
Learn more »Bringing specialty care home:A team approach to wound healing
An important relationship exists between home health care providers, patients, and the physicians overseeing a patient’s care.
Home health care brings nurses, medical social workers, home health aides and physical, occupational and speech therapists to a patient’s home when complex health issues make it difficult for the patient to get to frequent doctor’s visits.
Learn more »