Forget What You've Heard About Grumpy Old Men

Forget What You've Heard About Grumpy Old Men

Carlsvilleproject Health 

Expat World-Tagum

By J. Dalessio & C. Gilman Jones

     After middle age, adults actually grow happier as they get older, despite the fact that their physical quality of life may decline. Here's the bright side of going over the hill.

Turns out the number of candles on your last birthday cake may not influence your disposition the way you might think. Instead of turning adults into grumps, growing older actually makes many of them happier.

By definition, development is a process of adaptation and successful development demands that people learn from experience, understand contingencies in their environments, approach rewarding situations, and avoid punishing ones. As a consequence, knowledge (or expertise) determines future actions, which are increasingly effective within relevant environments.

This is particularly true with expats. Most, although not all, come to the Philippines for example, with an entire life of experience behind them. Even though there is an expected adjustment period,  our wide life experience actually contributes to having a happier life. It looks like our senior years can be the best ever.

Researchers from the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom , found that disposition improves after middle age, despite declining physical ability. Good news for some of us is that being overweight or obese doesn’t appear to make people any less happy, either.  

Acceptance, wisdom, and awareness seem to come to the fore and play a larger part in our lives, despite adversity.   Have you found yourself generally to be more tolerant than when you were young?  

A study done at the Warwick Medical School showed that heightened happiness may have something to do with better coping abilities among seniors. Makes perfect sense and would actually help us, as expats, adjust more completely to a new life….

Older people are better at dealing with life’s crises than those who are younger, a fact that was supported by a University research team. Then again, older people might just be better at letting things go.

Increased happiness could also be due to a lowering of expectations from life, with older people less likely to put pressure on themselves in the personal and professional spheres. Having the wisdom to prioritize in life; what is really important and what is actually not so important at all…

It sounds like seniors may be more “chill” than twenty-somethings.

Finally, the researchers found that those who slept between six and eight hours per day tended to score better, both physically and mentally, than those who caught less or more ZZZs.

Those of us who haven’t yet reached our happiness peaks should take a lesson from our older, wiser, and scientifically proven happier elders: Give yourself a break and get to bed early tonight.

Do you think you’ve gotten happier with age? Tell us in the comments section below!

Heart Health.. Bundle Branch Block

Bundle Branch Block      

     Sometimes part of the heart's conduction system is "blocked." If an impulse is blocked as it travels through the bundle branches, you are said to have bundle branch block.

For the left and right ventricles to contract at the same time, an electrical impulse must travel down the right and left bundle branches at the same speed. If there is a block in one of these branches, the electrical impulse must travel to the ventricle by a different route. When this happens, the rate and rhythm of your heartbeat are not affected, but the impulse is slowed. Your ventricle will still contract, but it will take longer because of the slowed impulse. This slowed impulse causes one ventricle to contract a fraction of a second slower than the other.

The medical terms for bundle branch block are derived from which branch is affected. If the block is located in the right bundle branch, it is called right bundle branch block. If the block is located in the left bundle branch, it is called left bundle branch block.

What causes bundle branch block?

The block can be caused by coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy, or valve disease. Right bundle branch block may also occur in a healthy heart.

What are the symptoms?

If there is nothing else wrong with your heart, you probably will not feel any symptoms of bundle branch block. In fact, some people may have bundle branch block for years and never know they have the condition. In people who do have symptoms, they may faint (syncope) or feel as if they are going to faint (presyncope).

So why should we worry about bundle branch block? Because it can be a warning sign of other, more serious heart conditions. For example, it might mean that a small part of your heart is not getting enough oxygen-rich blood. Also, researchers have found that people who have left bundle branch block may be at greater risk for heart disease than are people who do not have the condition.

How is bundle branch block diagnosed?

      

Your heart has a natural "pacemaker" called the sinoatrial (SA) node which sends an electrical impulse throughout your heart to cause it to beat (contract). That electrical impulse from the SA node first travels through the heart's upper chambers (the atria). It then passes through a small group of cells called the atrioventricular (AV) node. The AV node checks the impulse and sends it along a track called the bundle of His. The bundle of His divides into a right bundle branch and a left bundle branch, which lead to your heart's lower chambers (the ventricles).

Doctors can use an electrocardiogram (EKG or ECG) to record the electrical impulses of your heart. The electrical patterns can show bundle branch block and whether the block is located in the right or left bundle branch.

How is bundle branch block treated?

In most cases, bundle branch block does not need treatment. But patients who have bundle branch block along with another heart condition may need treatment. For example, if bundle branch block develops during a heart attack, you may need a pacemaker. After a heart attack, your heart is fragile, and bundle branch block may cause a very slow heart rhythm (bradycardia). A pacemaker helps regulate the heart's rhythm.

For patients with both bundle branch block and dilated cardiomyopathy, a new type of pacing called cardiac resynchronization treatment (CRT) may be used. Normally, pacemakers pace only one of the lower heart chambers (the ventricles) at a time. But CRT re-coordinates the beating of the two ventricles by pacing them at the same time.

Even if you do not have other conditions, you should still see your doctor regularly so that he or she can be sure there are no other changes in your heart.