Whole Grains and Their Importance during Aging

Your body betrays you as you get older. Tastes change; you can no longer eat what you want without heartburn or indigestion; and your diet has to change in order for you to fend off illness. That is why the consumption of whole grains versus white flour or refined products is essential to reducing your chances of illness and disease. That old adage that you are what you eat is practically true.

Refined products are more likely to lead you to problems such as heart disease and even diabetes. Most refined products are turned into sugar in the body which is a no-no for diabetics. Instead, reach for whole grain products instead. It all boils down to how the body processes the food that you eat. As mentioned above, refined products can cause problems with blood sugar and you can gain weight in your belly area which contributes to the susceptibility of a variety of illnesses like high blood pressure.

By consuming whole grains, your body burns more calories to process them, thereby keeping unnecessary weight off and reducing your chances of diabetes and other health risks. Whole grains are chock full of important minerals, fiber and vitamins, things that are often removed in the refining process.

If you start eating these whole grains at an early age, chances are that you will not experience higher cholesterol or heart disease. In fact, whole grains coupled with other healthy eating habits will help you burn more calories. It's a great weight motivator.

There are many ways to cut down on refined products and introduce whole grains into the picture. Here are some helpful hints to get you started:

1. Read food labels. Some bread products say whole wheat bread or whole grain bread. However, when you read the food labels, it is full of white flour with just a hint of grains. You want to find products that are at least 75% to 100% whole grains.

2. Substitutions for your favorite foods. If you are a pasta lover, you can still indulge in your favorite spaghetti or pasta salad. Just choose whole wheat or vegetable based pasta in place of the white version. The switch will boost the flavor of your food and you will not likely notice too much of a difference anyway, especially if you put a sauce on the pasta.

3. Substitutions also include those in recipes. If you are baking a cake, muffins or even cookies, try and substitute whole wheat flour for the white flour. Using whole wheat flour will take some redesigning of recipes but your health will thank you for them.

To thoroughly understand what whole grain means, the FDA published guidelines that define what they really are. Simply put, whole grains consist of the ground, unrefined or cracked "fruit" part of the grains which include bran, germ and endosperm parts of the grain. During a refining process like white flour, those "fruit" parts get taken out and that is what makes whole grains so healthy in the first place!

Treating Elderly Depression with Cymbalta Oral

Known by the brand name Cymbalta, the actual drug contained is known as duloxetine and has long since been associated with not only the treatment of depression and several anxiety disorders, but also has found off-label usage in the treatment of nerve pain associated with a plethora of conditions, but most commonly problems that are found to be indicative of diabetes induced complications.

In the classification of antidepressants, Cymbalta falls under the heading of serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors which are targeted at affecting the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain of a geriatric patient suffering from depression.

The goal of the medication is to help the elderly person to once again experience restful, sound sleep and reclaim a healthy appetite. This in turn will lead to a healthy intake in nutrients, rest, and thus will lead to overall heightening of energy levels and thus the ability to once gain pursue the activities she or he enjoyed to engage in prior to being struck semi immobile by the ravages of elderly depression.

Even as this is a preferred drug for treatment of depression in the elderly patient population, it is vital to remember that there are a number of medications with which Cymbalta adversely interacts, and as a geriatric patient you must be vigilant in disclosing each and every medication you are taking or may take. Most important is a report on any MAO inhibitor you may take or if you are taking sibutramine, tryptopha, or thioridazine. There drugs are thought to have sometimes fatal results when combined in sufficient dosage.

This may contribute to some doctors' hesitation to prescribe Cymbalta to an elderly population that is known to have a well stocked medicine cabinet and who, more than likely, is concurrently taking a host of other medications to deal with ailments, and to prevent certain illnesses from occurring. On the other side of the spectrum are the physicians who prefer prescribing this medication to those elderly suffering from depression as well as diabetes and who have evidenced exemplary disease management skills since even though Cymbalta has the reputation of adversely affecting blood sugar, those who are taking all diabetes management steps and keeping a close eye on nutrition to boot are also those who will be least likely to take over the counter drugs that might interfere with the effectiveness of the antidepressant.

It has been reported that treating elderly depression with Cymbalta oral sometimes runs afoul of the patient because she or he may be less willing to take a drug that indicates potentially fatal interactions with other drugs, even if the patient is not currently taking any of them. The very fact that a drug may induce such dire consequences scares off a good number of individuals and physicians will do well to counteract this fear and hesitancy with education. In the same way, the balance needed between keeping a patient safe and soothing their fears is sometimes a hard one to maintain and this is where physicians, patients, caregivers, and family members need to work together.