Natural Way Health Blog

Age Related Macular Degeneration

Firstly let’s try to give you an understanding of what AMD is? The macula is a small area at the very centre of the retina. Sometimes the delicate cells of the macula become damaged and stop working, and there are many different conditions which can cause this. If it occurs later in life, it is called “age-related macular degeneration”, also often known as AMD.

Broadly speaking, there are two types of macular degeneration or AMD, usually referred to as “wet” and “dry”. This is not a description of what the eye feels like but what the ophthalmologist (eye specialist) can see when looking at the macula.

“Dry” AMD is the most common form of the condition. It develops very slowly causing gradual loss of central vision. Many people find that vision slowly deteriorates by gradual central blurring, and that the colours fade away like the colours fading in an old photograph. There is no medical treatment for this type. However, aids such as magnifiers can be helpful with reading and other small detailed tasks.

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Biomarker 3 – Basal Metabolic Rate

“Metabolism” refers to the chemical processes in your body that build and destroy tissue and release energy, thereby generating heat. “Basal” means at baseline or at rest. So your basal metabolism is the rate of your body chemistry when your exertion is minimal. It’s usually measured just as you wake from sleep, which is about the same as when you’re sprawled out on, the sofa watching television.

Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) – or caloric expenditure at rest – falls with age. Study after study has tried to quantify the extent of this BMR slowdown. Researchers always came up with widely divergent figures until they realized that a person’s lean-body mass is the key to compiling a definitive figure.

OK – great news – but how do we combat it. Sounding a  bit repetitious now? EXERCISE.

There is no substitute for exercise. If you want to stay healthy and slow down the ageing process then you have to exercise. OK there are some people who will struggle to walk and some who just can’t seem to get out of the chair. For them it may be too late but it has to be worth trying. Exercise is what gives you health and now it also seems to be a component in slowing down ageing.

By the way I’m not suggesting joining a gym or taking up running a half marathon every day. Exercise needs to be tailored to your level of health and fitness and needs to be appropriate to your age. You should seek guidance from your GP and take things slowly. Remember Rome wasn’t built in a day.

How Old Are You Really?

Sometimes it make sense to question what we know (or think we know). How often have we heard the saying about “you’re just getting old”. When you go to the doctors and they turn around and say very simply “oh! It’s your age catching up with you”. Those aches and pains that you wake up in the morning with are they just showing you’re getting old or are they simply a symptom of something out of balance.In these next few days we are going to provoke, unashamedly, a discussion about ageing and if we can stop it. Many will disagree, some may get angry, some will dismiss us as crackpots and some will learn things that will change the way that they think as a result may change the outcome of their latter years.

So to start with but look at the 10 biomarkers of ageing proposed by the medical community:

Biomarker 1: Your Muscle Mass

Biomarker 2: Your Strength

Biomarker 3: Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Biomarker 4: Your Body Fat Percentage

Biomarker 5: Your Aerobic Capacity

Biomarker 6: Your Body’s Blood-Sugar Tolerance

Biomarker 7: Your Cholesterol/HDL Ratio

Biomarker 8: Your Blood Pressure

Biomarker 9: Your Bone Density

Biomarker 10:Your Body’s Ability to Regulate Its Internal Temperature

A continuing controversy is whether there exist processes of ageing per se, which can be identified and studied independently of age-related disease. It is clear that there are age-related risk factors for disease, and that these overlap with risk factors for ageing, but there is disagreement about whether diseases to which older persons are vulnerable should be considered merely by-products of ageing, or an essential component of the ageing processes.

In response to “How old are you” He would say, “How you suppose to answer if you didn’t know how old you was?” Paige never knew his exact chronological age because he was born before good records were kept. He used to tell people to use his performance on the pitcher’s mound to estimate his age. But that was almost impossible because Paige’s long heyday as a leading pitcher stretched from the 1920’s to 1950’s.

If you didn’t know your age how would you feel?

I.