Fitness that fits your lifestyle
Avoid common workout mistakes
Those of us who are putting in a lot of effort to get fit or maintain that fitness program may find that all that time at the gym is not paying off as we had expected. Although exercise results vary, certain behaviors can impact just how efficient your workouts may be.
Fitness experts suggest that to increase the measurable results of your workouts, try to avoid some common mistakes.
Not giving it enough time. Many people want to see immediate results when they begin a new exercise regimen. While such instant gratification is possible, it’s foolish to expect to wake up and look in the mirror after a week’s time and see a complete body transformation.
Be patient and stick it out. Give yourself some time and you’ll see a definitive change in muscle tone and overall fitness.
Sticking with the same routine. Routines can make it easier to manage everyday life. For example, waking up and going to bed at the same time each day helps many folk maintain the energy they need to live life to the fullest. But routine is not always a friend with regard to exercise.
When you do the same exercise routine over and over, your body becomes acclimated to that routine and your muscles recognize the motion. As a result, your body doesn’t have to work as hard to do the workout. Altering your routine means you’re essentially keeping your body on its proverbial toes. This will help you to burn more calories and even prevent you from getting bored with your workout.
Skipping strength training. Cardiovascular activities like running on the treadmill can certainly burn calories, but cardiovascular exercise alone is not enough to achieve optimal health.
Strength training helps build lean muscle and strengthen bones, so it’s important to make both cardiovascular and strength-training exercises a part of your workout routine.
Maintaining a moderate pace. Much like doing the same exercises over and over, sticking to the same pace will lull your body into complacency. Vary the pace of your workout so that you move through intense, moderate and slow movements. Higherintensity parts of the workout will get your heart pumping and burn calories.
Making unnatural body movements. Movements that mimic the body’s natural movements will be more effective at toning muscles. These movements include bending, stepping, jumping, and running. Unnatural movements may not be practical, and they may increase your risk of injury. Working out alone. When you workout alone, you do not have the benefit of friendly competition to motivate you as you exercise. With no one to egg you on, you may be content to stick to a certain number of repetitions instead of trying a little harder. A partner can provide camaraderie and help you make the most of your exercise regimen.
Ignoring possible injury. No one is immune to injury, which can result from lifting weights that are too heavy or using improper form. If you feel you are hurt, don’t make things worse by ignoring an injury. The body needs time to recover from injury, and ignoring an injury can lead to additional problems that will only extend that recovery time.
Compassionate Care that enri Ches Lives
Rowing workouts
Add an effective cardiovascular exercise to your routine
By Sharon Naylor
Cardiovascular exercise is so important for heart health — not to mention overall health — and rowing is one of the most effective cardiovascular exercises. In addition to the aerobic workout, a rowing session builds muscle in low-impact form, making the rowing machine one of the most popular stations at the gym, as well as a popular purchase for a home gym.
You might think that rowing is an exercise meant to tone just the upper body, including shoulders and arms, but proper form in rowing actually works the quadriceps, hamstrings, back and abdominal muscles, as well. While some gym machines work just the upper or lower body, the rowing machine works both at the same time, creating a more complete workout in less time. According to the Mayo Clinic, while exercising within your target heart rate, you can expect to burn 511 calories during an hour of rowing if you weigh 160 pounds. An hour of rowing burns about 637 calories if you weigh 200 pounds and 763 calories if you weigh 240 pounds.
Rowing machines allow you to use and adjust levels of resistance, increasing the aerobic and muscular benefits depending on your fitness level. Get into the rhythm
Before you hop onto a rowing machine at the gym, always seek the guidance of a gym’s personal trainer, who can assess your fitness level, advise you on your target heart rate and help you choose the best type of machine for you. Some are manual with hydraulic resistance, and some are electronic — much like elliptical machines — with programmable or programmed workouts, timers and other indicators.
Your fitness professional will also help you adjust the machine to your height and reach, and show you how to adjust the resistance. You’ll then learn how to position your back and engage your abs as you pull back smoothly and complete the range of motion.
“Using the rower safely is an excellent workout, but using improper form can stress the lower back,” says trainer Elizabeth Quinn. Avoid common mistakes
Novice rowers often make mistakes when using a rowing machine without instruction and guid-
√ Leaning too far forward at the start position.
√ Leaning too far back at the finish position.
√ Jerking the handle back with the arms.
√ Pulling using the back instead of the legs.
√ Starting without warming up.
√ Rowing for too long.
Quinn advises starting out by rowing no more than 10 minutes on your first day, and aiming for a mastery of proper form instead of breaking a big sweat. “Keep the movement fluid and controlled, rather than jerking through each motion. Push with your legs, and avoid hunching forward to protect your back. Keep a slight bend in the elbows and knees, rather than locking the joints at full extension.
“Technique matters more than strength,” says Quinn, “especially at the beginning of a rowing training regimen.”
As you practice more and build endurance, you might put together a schedule of rowing four times a week for up to 30 minutes.
At home
Once you master rowing form at the gym, you could decide to invest in a rowing machine for your home. Some fitness enthusiasts buy new machines; some buy used ones from friends who don’t use the ones in their basements. Without a fitness expert at home to observe you, it’s essential to maintain proper form as you exercise. If you can position your rowing machine in front of a fulllength mirror, that can help you see your own body position and remind yourself to maintain proper back and neck angles.
Keep track of your workout sessions using a fitness journal or chart, advises Ed McNeely, author of five books, including “Training for Rowing” and “Skillful Rowing,” and consultant to professional Canadian sports teams. “Training without monitoring your progress is like driving with your eyes closed. You’ll get somewhere, but you can’t be sure where or what shape you’ll be in when you arrive. Through daily monitoring, you will be able to make the fine adjustments to your (training) that allow you to continue to progress and recover at the fastest rate possible.”
Exercise: The best prescription for a lifetime of wellness
Get off the couch and stay off
You might think that getting fit means spending hours upon hours at the gym, sweating and getting on machines that look more like torture devices than anything that’s going to help you. Well, that’s not true. In fact, reaping the benefits of exercise doesn’t have to take a huge time commitment — nor does it have to be torturous. It can actually be quite fun!
Start with activities you love
If you’ve had problems making exercise a regular part of your life, then you probably only think of exercise as something you have to do in the gym. But that’s just not true! Things like walking, dancing in your living room, bowling and even cleaning the house can count as exercise as long as you’re getting a little out of breath when you’re doing them. So sit down and make a list of all of the active things you do and find a way to make at least one of them a part of your day, every day. Then, after a few months of making those activities habits, try new ones or more traditional workouts like a group exercise class. As you get in the habit of being active and start to get more fit, you might just be amazed and what activities you like.
Embrace the power of 10
Think you can’t get heart-health benefits from just 10-minute bouts of activity? Think again. Ten minutes of walking three times a day has been shown to lower blood pressure more effectively than a longer 30-minute bout of walking. Something as simple as walking before work, over lunch and after dinner is a fabulous way to squeeze in exercise — no gym required!
It’s not just about cardio
When people think of heart-healthy exercise, they generally think of aerobic or cardio activities like jogging. But did you know that strength training (think lifting weights or doing bodyweight exercises like pushups and lunges) can improve the health of your ticker, too?
When you lift weights at a moderate intensity, you get your heart rate up. This means that you’re working both your muscular system and your cardiovascular system. And when you make your muscles stronger, you make your body stronger, which helps everything. So definitely do some resistance training a few times a week.
Use exercise to de-stress
Stress plays a critical role in heart health, and exercise is great at kicking stress to the curb. Learn to see exercise not as something that you have to do, but instead as something you want to do because it makes you feel good. While most workouts will pump up your feel-good endorphins, workouts like yoga, Pilates and Tai Chi are especially good for de-stressing and improving the mind-body connection. Try ‘em!
Support your efforts with a healthy diet
Of course, working out — as awesome as it is — is only part of the heart-health equation. Eating a nutritious diet that’s rich in fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean proteins and healthy fats is key to overall health, along with helping to give you the energy you need to power through those workouts and your everyday life.
Courtesy American Heart Association
Photo: You want long-term health — for body and mind? Start moving. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardiorespiratory exercise five days a week or 20 minutes of high-intensity exercise three days per week.
Photo: Rowing is low-impact cardiovascular workout that can help you exercise your way to heart health.
When you write up your child’s annual back-toschool list, a “Family Media Plan” to limit screen time and a wellness visit with your child’s pediatrician or family physician should be on it.
Lincoln Ferguson, MD, Chair of Pediatrics at Mount Sinai South Nassau, says a Family Media Plan is an effective approach to managing a child’s time on mobile devices and computers for purely social media, gaming, and entertainment purposes, while an annual a wellness visit is vital to ensuring that your child is developing physically, emotionally, and socially.
Studies show that screen time— whether on cell phones, tablets, computers, or TVs—disrupts children’s and teenagers’ sleep, physical activity, hobbies, behavioral health, and academic achievement.
Parents should not be afraid to firmly address the issue.
A Family Media Plan—if adhered to— will alleviate screen time disruption and promote better health. Based on recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the plan should include:
• One hour daily of physical activity
• 8–12 hours of sleep, depending on age
• A ban on use of devices or screens one hour before bedtime
• Media-free homework time, family time (such as dinner), and locations in the home (including the kitchen, dining room, and/or bedroom)
The AAP also recommends limiting screen time to one hour a day for children 2-5 years old and two hours for children 6-17 years old, for uses not related to school or work. While one size does not fit all, it is important to have a
clear discussion with older children about screen time hours, and to monitor it afterward.
“Social media can be very harmful to children if not properly monitored and controlled via parental involvement,” said Dr. Ferguson. “Parents need to assert themselves to take back some control over who their children are interacting with online.”
In addition to a physical exam and emotional, developmental, and social assessment, the wellness visit is used to ensure that a child’s vaccine schedule is up to date—including the flu vaccine.
During the visit, your doctor will also discuss illness prevention, nutrition and physical fitness, health and safety issues, and responding to emergencies and sudden illnesses. “The well-child visit with your family pediatrician or physician is an ideal time for you and your teenager to express concerns related to stress, anxiety, and bullying and to develop strategies that will prevent these issues from becoming mental health emergencies that require
more intensive intervention,” said Dr. Ferguson.
Mount Sinai South Nassau is the only hospital on the South Shore of Nassau County with a Pediatrics Department that has an inpatient pediatric unit. The 12-bed unit includes a staff of boardcertified pediatricians in-house 24 hours daily, pediatric registered nurses, and a Child Life Specialist. The unit contains a Special Care pediatric area equipped with advanced monitoring medical technologies for emergencies.
In addition to Dr. Ferguson, the department’s physician staff includes pediatric specialists in:
• Anesthesiology
• Cardiology
• Gastroenterology
• Gynecology
• Head, face, and neck plastic surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Neurology
• Radiology
The department’s Pediatric Cardiology program provides innovative and
personalized care for complex congenital or acquired heart defects from fetal life through adulthood. Accredited in pediatric transthoracic and fetal echocardiography by the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission, the program also offers a pediatric hyperlipidemia and hypertension clinic and is complemented by its colleagues at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan to develop and implement treatment plans for rare and unique pediatric cardiovascular defects.
Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology program is one of the few in New York State and is led by a fellowship trained pediatric gynecologist, Gylynthia E. Trotman, MD, MPH, Chief, Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. The program’s team of specialists have all received specialized training to provide comprehensive, empathetic physiological reproductive health care that is tailored specifically to the needs of infants, children, and adolescents who face medical and surgical gynecologic issues. This includes care for disorders of development and the female reproductive system, such as the internal and external organs that are responsible for fertility and menstruation, issues of pelvic pain or cysts, and vulvovaginal concerns.
For more information or a physician referral, call (516) 632-3000 or visit mountsinai.org/southnassau.
– Jim Polito
By Dr. Keith Darrow, Ph.D.
GLifestyle modifications to improve heart health and protect brain function
et ready to talk about some fascinating stuff: lifestyle changes that not only pump up your heart health but also turbocharge your brain function. Yep, I’m talking about the ultimate power duo for a healthy body and mind.
Let’s kick things off with a little heart-toheart (see what I did there!). Your heart is the MVP of your body, tirelessly pumping blood to every nook and cranny. But it needs a little TLC, too, and lucky for us, there are plenty of simple tweaks we can make to our daily routines to keep our tickers in tip-top shape. (Am I the only geek who finds this exciting?)
Diet and nutrition is so vital to heart and brain health. Just remember that it’s all about balance. We’re not here to rain on your parade and tell you to swear off your favorite food forever and sweat up a storm for hours on end. Making simple adjustments can work wonders for your cardiovascular system and brain function.
And listen up — you don’t need to run a marathon or become a gym rat to reap the benefits.
Even just 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week will help so much.
Let’s talk about another significant factor.
Stress Management: Zen and the art of heart-brain harmony
What’s one of the most significant
HEALTH
contributors to heart troubles and brain fog?
You guessed it, stress. It is a pesky little thing that seems to sneak into our lives when we least expect it. But fear not; I’ve got a treasure trove of stress-busting strategies to share with you.
Power of movement: While we already
know that exercise is where it’s at, there are stress-reducing exercises that can be gamechangers. Whether you’re hitting the yoga mat, going for a jog, or dancing around your living room like nobody’s watching, getting your body moving is a surefire way to lift your spirits and soothe your soul.
So, there you have it — an easy toolkit to get you started on stress-busting strategies to help you keep your heart happy and your brain sharp. Pick and choose what works best for you, and don’t be afraid to experiment until you find your perfect stress-relief formula. After all, when it comes to living our best lives, nobody has time for stress to get in the way!
Drum and tambourine circle sparks joy at the Parker Jewish Institute
Residents and patients alike found joy — and rhythm — at the recent drum and tambourine circle at the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation.
Research shows that drumming alters brain rhythms that can boost physical and mental well-being. Drumming can also enhance cardiovascular health and bring benefit to those with neurological and other diseases and even alleviate depression and reduce anxiety.
“Parker’s drum and tambourine circle provides a social activity that our patients and residents really enjoy. It offers great physical exercise, enhances mental health and requires no previous experience or even musical training. That’s the beauty of a drum circle, it’s an engaging group activity and everyone can participate,” said Michael N. Rosenblut, President and CEO of Parker Jewish Institute.
About The Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation
The Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation is headquartered in New Hyde Park, New York. The facility is a leading provider of Short-Term Rehabilitation and Long-Term Care. At the forefront of innovation in patient-centered health care and technology, the Institute is a leader in teaching and geriatric research. Parker Jewish Institute features its own medical team, and is nationally renowned as a skilled nursing facility, as well
as a provider of community-based health care, encompassing Home Health Care, Medical House Calls, Palliative Care and Hospice. Parker Jewish Institute is also home to Queens-Long Island Renal Institute (QLIRI), providing patients with safe, comfortable Hemodialysis treatments in a relaxed setting, as well as PRINE Health, a Vascular Center offering advanced vascular services. The Center and QLIRI further Parker’s ability to expand access to essential health-care services to adults in the greater
New York metropolitan area. For more information, visit parkerinstitute.org or call (877) 727-5373.
Get moving
Creative ways to incorporate family fitness into your lifestyle
If we didn’t know it before, we know it now: being physically active and focusing on fitness is an important life priority beginning in early childhood to build healthy habits. Not only does regular exercise and physical activity increase physical and cardiovascular health, it can improve sleep, reduce stress, increase attention and learning, and minimize illness. Because the habits and preferences children develop early in life will shape their choices and behaviors for years to come, it is critical to establish good physical activity habits now. While eating a diet that is low in fat and high in whole-grain fiber, vegetables and lean proteins is important to our overall health, exercise remains one of the key factors in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. However, many adults and children simply do not get enough exercise during the day. An active lifestyle is hampered by the prevalence of digital devices in our techcentric world or sedentary jobs that encourage more screen time than fitness time. But there are ways for the entire family to get fit. Exercising together is not just a great way for everyone to get healthy, but also a great opportunity to spend time together. Stay on track and work together to incorporate more exercise into your daily routine.
Tackle chores. Yes, tasks around the house can count as exercise. Working together not only gets you moving but also cuts down on the time it takes to tackle tasks around the house. Mowing the lawn, vacuuming the rugs, sweeping the floor — all of these activities can get the heart pumping. Make it fun by setting chores to music or competing against one another to see who gets their task done first or the best.
Compete in the pool. Swimming is a
low-impact activity that works many muscles in the body. Taking a dip in the pool can be both relaxing and beneficial to your health. Compete with family members to make the most of the time spent in the water. Host relay swimming races, see how long each member of the family can tread water, hold your personal Olympics trial or create any other competitions that keep everyone in the pool moving. Create an outdoor obstacle course. Set up a series of obstacles in your yard and
host your own triathlon. You can jump through tires, climb through tubes and scale trees. Make it fun by having adults try to ride tricycles or pair up an adult with a child for sack races. The opportunities for fun are only hampered by your imagination.
Go for family bicycle rides. Traverse your neighborhood or blaze new trails by riding bikes together. Young children can be strapped into trailers that are pulled behind the bike or ride in seats attached to the bike itself. This gives everyone a chance to enjoy the great outdoors and hone their cycling skills.
Go hiking. Hiking is another fun family activity that also happens to make for great exercise. Choose a trail that may not be level and push everyone’s endurance to the test.
Stroll the beach. We’re lucky enough to live close to the beach, so take advantage of our many beaches and incorporate them into your fitness routine. Walking or running on sand offers more resistance than walking on pavement. Take a stroll at the seaside. Break up the walk by collecting shells or stopping by the water to observe marine wildlife.
Photo: Regardless of what you do, its important to make family fitness enjoyable. Having fun together as a family is as important as the physical activity itself.
Go for it
Improve your overall endurance
Pushing oneself physically can be exhausting and demanding. But whether you’re a seasoned athlete, a parttime fitness enthusiast or even someone who lives a largely sedentary lifestyle, you can find ways to dig down and improve your overall endurance.
Many athletes find pushing their bodies past certain boundaries to be empowering. Letting complacency set in is easy, but finding the motivation to press on and push ahead takes mental determination. Make this your time to step it up and find ways “just do it.”
Join a marathon. The statistics reporting site StatisticsBrain.com states that only 0.5 percent of the U.S population have ever run a marathon. Running on the treadmill at the gym or a couple of miles around the track is excellent exercise. Runners can take their passion a bit further by enrolling in any of the hundreds of marathons and halfmarathons held annually. Crossing the finish line after running 26.2 miles is a rewarding feeling, and few activities do more to improve endurance than running a marathon. Try a new gym class. Pushing yourself physically may mean getting out of your comfort zone. Gyms typically offer an array of classes to appeal to as many members as possible. Take advantage of these group classes or personalized training sessions. Explore barre workouts, TRX® and ViPR®, which involve loaded movement and strength training paired with cardiovascular workouts.
Increase workouts gradually. It can be daunting to think about greatly improving your endurance levels. But taking a gradual, incremental approach to improving endur-
ance is both safe and effective. Also, when engaged, mentally divide the workout into smaller chunks of time. This way you have several smaller goals to accomplish, rather than one large goal. This can make it easier to digest a tough workout.
Use friends to keep you motivated. Having friends workout alongside you can keep you motivated. Workout buddies may offer the encouragement necessary to keep pushing through. Another motivating factor is bragging rights afterward.
Have a good emotional connection. A desire to have a great body may not be enough to motivate you to workout
and push harder. If not, think of a better reason to exercise, and it may be the mind over matter you need. Many people find inspiration from family health history risk factors or through the goal of reversing negative health reports from doctors’ offices. These motivating factors will help you press on and push harder.
Photo: It’s one thing to get fit or maintain your workout routine. It’s another to continue to push physical boundaries time and again. Continuing to surpass fitness goals is something to strive for every day.
Massage treatments are by no means a modern practice. The technique has been traced back to ancient Chinese and Egyptian cultures as early as 2700 BC and legend has it Julius Caesar was rather partial to the occasional massage. The word itself comes from the Greek word ‘masso’ meaning “to handle, touch or work with the hands to knead dough”. There’s a reason massage therapy is still hugely popular today. In fact, there are multiple reasons, but in a nutshell, massages are used to treat stress and pain and who wouldn’t want that? Both pre- and post-workout massages provide their own unique benefits.
While the right workout gear and sneakers can help limit how achy you feel during and after a workout, a massage can take your recovery to the next level. Because really, is there anything better than a nice rubdown to ease sore, achy muscles? But, this begs the question: Is it best to get a massage before or after you exercise? On the one hand, a preworkout massage will loosen you up before you put your body to the test again, but a post-workout massage will certainly aid in your recovery. So which one is it? A massage before a workout to stretch out those knots, or after when your whole body is tightening up? The answer: It depends. Pre-workout: Getting a massage before working out allows the muscles to get warmed up and stretched out so you’re more flexible. It also helps get you in the right frame of mind to work out.
Best types: relaxation, aromatherapy, or Ayurvedic massage When to do it: A quick 30-minute massage right before your workout will do the trick. The key thing to bear in mind is that the massage should be gentle with light strokes and
not deep tissue, which, pre-workout, can cause muscle soreness and tightness.
Why it works: A gentle pre-workout massage can help loosen tight muscles, increase flexibility, and decrease the risk of injury before you exercise. Just don’t go for anything too intense. A deep tissue massage, for instance, might feel good in the moment but it’ll leave your muscles too raw and sore before a workout, which may increase the risk of muscle strain or injury. And the benefits of a pre-workout massage go beyond just what they do for your muscles.
If you’re prepping for a big race or event, like a marathon, triathlon, or endurance challenge (like a Spartan race), a massage can help clear your head and work off those anxietyinduced jitters before you get to the starting line. Plus, the endorphins that are released during a massage will put you in a good mood, making the workout you’re about to embark on that much more enjoyable.
Post-workout
Receiving a massage once you’ve finished working out helps reduce muscle soreness by reducing inflammation and reduces your recovery time by speeding up cell recovery.
Best for: Bouncing back from soreness faster. Best types: Deep tissue or sports massage. When to do it: For the best results, according to one study, aim for an hour to 30-minute massage no more than two hours after a workout. The key thing to bear in mind is that the massage should take place as soon as possible after exercising. According to a study in the Journal of Athletic Training this can reduce delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMs) by a massive 30 percent.
Why it works: Most of us have always been taught that it’s a good idea to stretch after a strenuous workout to limit soreness that’s most likely to set in 12 to 24 hours after the workout is complete (this is called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS). But that’s not all we can do to limit how achy and stiff we feel in the days after trying a new exercise routine or turning up the intensity on a circuit at the gym. This is where a post-workout massage comes in.
While most people think of a massage as a treat every once in a while, it’s also something you should consider getting done regularly if you’re engaging in multiple highintensity workouts a week.
Research shows that a good rubdown after a workout can help treat muscle fatigue, speed up post-workout recovery, reduce stiffness, and increase muscle blood flow. And if you’ve ever tried a new workout and felt sore days later (think back to your very first WOD ouch), massage can help with that too.
One study found that when subjects tried a new exercise (in this case, walking up and down five flights of stairs 20 times), a post-workout massage significantly reduced pain brought on by DOMS.
Photo: There are huge benefits to having a massage both before and after a workout, just be sure to get the right type of massage to set your body up for success.
Queens-Long Island Renal Institute offers Home Hemodialysis; Certified Home Health Care available through Parker Jewish Institute
Queens-Long Island Renal Institute (QLIRI), located at The Parker Jewish Institute, now offers a state-of-the-art Home Hemodialysis Program. Those patients who also require Certified Home Health Care can access it conveniently through QLIRI’s affiliate, Parker Jewish Institute.
QLIRI’s Home Hemodialysis Program allows patients to transition from an in-center setting to receiving hemodialysis from the comfort of their home, using the Tablo Hemodialysis System. Enrolled patients are first trained by a registered nurse. The nurse provides step-by-step guidance four days a week over the course of four weeks, or longer if necessary. Through training, patients learn to use the system before transitioning to home hemodialysis.
If needed, patients of Parker’s Certified Home Health Care Agency receive individualized nursing, medical, and
rehabilitation services, so they can maintain maximum independence in the comfort of their homes. Home-care services can include skilled-nursing care; physical, occupational and speech therapy; home-health aides; medical social services; medical supplies; and 24-hour telephone availability.
Call (718) 289-2600. To learn more about QLIRI’s Home Hemodialysis Program, visit qliri.org. For more on Parker’s Certified Home Health Care, visit parkerinstitute.org.
Health memos are supplied by advertisers and are not written by the Herald editorial staff.
An area of emerging research has observed a link between hearing loss, tinnitus, menopause, and hormone therapy. According to a team of doctors at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, hormone therapy can increase your risk of hearing loss and tinnitus if using pills, patches containing estrogen only or combined with progesterone. The studies also showed that women who experience menopause at an older age, 50 and beyond, are at a higher risk for hearing loss.
If you find yourself asking people to repeat themselves or you are turning up the volume more and more often, you are not alone, and while hearing loss affects millions of women every single day, menopause could be playing a part. Like, seriously, I’ve heard menopause is bad enough, now this!
New research from Harvard Health Publishing Hearing loss linked to late menopause, extended hormone use. Harvard Health cites that hormones can be blamed for everything from depression to hot flashes to yes, hearing loss. In fact, their studies suggest that prolonged use (10+ years) of oral estrogen puts you at higher risk for hearing loss/tinnitus as well as women who experience menopause after age 50.
f you are having trouble hearing or you are experiencing tinnitus (ringing in the ears), “listen up” and read on.
Hearing loss and menopause
Decreases in estrogen can sometimes trigger menopause
symptoms such as hot flashes, night sweats, depression, frequent urinary tract infections, the dreaded mood swings, fatigue, weight gain, vaginal dryness, and itching and pain during sexual intercourse (and I’m sure I’m missing some!). Estrogen plays a significant role in the body (muscles, heart, brain, bones). Estrogen is also located in the receptors in our ear cells and auditory pathways.
After you stop menstruating, your ovaries produce less and less estrogen, and low estrogen levels can impair hearing. This is what we believe to be the alterations in blood flow to the cochlea (hollow tube in the inner ear). The yin to estrogen’s yang is progesterone which begins to decrease in the mid to late thirties. Combined together, this is a recipe for hearing loss, tinnitus, and sometimes vertigo in your 60s and beyond.
If you are taking hormone therapy, please monitor your hearing and only take HT as long as needed.
So, what can you do to protect your hearing?
First and foremost, be sure to have your hearing checked by a
doctor of audiology to find out the exact cause of hearing loss. While it may be menopause or HT, don’t assume. There are so many causes for hearing loss and tinnitus.
Diet, exercise and maintaining a healthy weight definitely help. For some scrumptious recipes for active aging, please grab a free copy of my cookbook at PreventingDecline.com.
In addition, be mindful of prescribed medications that are sometimes linked to hearing loss (ask your doctor) as well as overthe-counter pain relievers such as acetaminophen and ibuprofen which have also been linked to hearing loss if taken more than two to three times a week. Be aware that other conditions can be connected to hearing loss, i.e., rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and more. These conditions disproportionately affect women.
Finally, stay away from loud or constant background noise. Do your best to prevent hearing loss as you age, and I wish you well in menopause.
Queens Long Island Renal Institute • 271-11 76th Ave., New Hyde Park • (718) 289-2600
Queens-Long Island Renal Institute is located at the Parker Jewish Institute.
DESIGNED FOR THE COMFORT AND CONVENIENCE OF
Dialysis Patients
The Queens-Long Island Renal Institute, Inc., offers the finest quality of care, state-of-the-art technology and uncompromised dignity, in a bright, ultra-modern setting.
QLIRI provides:
• In-Center Chronic Hemodialysis
• Home Dialysis
• Experienced Nephrologists and Dialysis Registered Nurses
• Comfortable, State-of-the-Art, Private Treatment Stations
• Personal TV/DVD and Free Wireless Access
• Homelike Reception Area
• Social Work Services
• Nutrition Counseling
• Individual and Family Health Education
• Stretcher Capability
• Valet Parking and Medical Transportation Available
• Quality Start
Giving Birth?
Look No Further than the South Shore’s
Only High Performing Hospital for Maternity Care
Mothers looking for a hospital at which to give birth should consider the quality indicators used by U.S. News & World Report ® to determine institutions deemed High Performing for Maternity care.
Mount Sinai South Nassau is the only South Shore hospital to earn the rating of High Performing based on eight key measures:
• Reduced C-section delivery rates
• Low early elective delivery rates
• Low overall unexpected newborn complication rates
• Increased routine VBAC rates
• Increased exclusive human milk feeding rates
• Low episiotomy rates
• Routine birthing-friendly practices
• Transparency on racial/ethnic disparities
If you want the best birthing experience for you and for your baby, look no further than Mount Sinai South Nassau.
Learn more at southnassau.org/maternity, or call 877-SOUTH-NASSAU.