Exercise
May Stave Off
Early Death for
Older Adults
T
STRESS COULD
IMPACT TASTE
reating exercise as medicine might go
a long way in reducing the chances of
earlier death in older adults (women in
particular), according to a study by researchers
at the Queensland University of Technology in
Australia.
Analyzing data from five years of research,
researchers found out that moderate to highintensity activities are essential to reducing the
risk of death in women 50 years and older.
Researchers recommend that, in addition to
conventional treatments, health professionals
should also prescribe customized and regimented exercise programs to older adults.
According to Debra Anderson, one of the
study’s researchers, older adults should be
doing at least 30 to 45 minutes of moderate to
high-intensity exercise, five times a week.
Do you offer tailored fitness programs to
your older guests? Are your staff members welltrained to understand your older guests’ unique
health needs and risks?
N
ew research published in Neuroscience Letters suggests that,
under conditions of stress, hormones called glucocorticoids
(GC) interact with receptor sites on taste cells, which in the
process, affect our sense of taste.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Rockwell Parker of the Monell Chemical
Sciences Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, thinks that the results may
help explain “stress-eating.” According to Dr. Parker, sweet taste, in particular,
could be affected by stress.
The study found that, when under stress, GC hormones affect the body
by activating specialized GC receptors. The highest concentrations of GC
receptors were found in Tas1r3 taste cells, which are sensitive to sweet and
umami tastes.
Taste receptors, however, are found all over the body—including the
gut and pancreas. As a result, stress might affect many stages of the ingestion process, including metabolism and appetite.
March/April 2015
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