Tag Archives for WHO

AARP report: 6 Pillars of Brain Health – lifestyle changes and community policies

Published in RINewstoday on April 4, 2022

The Washington, DC-based AARP releases its latest Global Council on Brain Health (GCBH) report citing strong scientific evidence that behavior changes and lifestyle habits can positively impact one’s brain health – yet many adults struggle to implement such simple changes.

In a new report released last month, “How to Sustain Brain Healthy Behaviors: Applying Lessons of Public Health and Science to Drive Change,” GCBH outlines how individuals age 50 and over, communities, and policymakers can all take steps to support brain health.

The World Health Organization predicts that the number of people living with dementia is expected to grow to 82 million by 2030 and skyrocketing to 152 million by 2050. The GCBH report notes to lower this expected trajectory it will take “effective behavior and cultural changes, initiated and driven by all the pertinent actors working in concert at all levels of society.”

The 38-page report and its recommendations are based on a review of the current state of science and the consensus of 20 experts from across the world in an array of disciplines, notes the report. GCBH is an independent collaboration of scientists, health professionals, scholars and policy experts from all over the world who are working in the area of brain health related to human cognition to promote brain health.

GCBH’s 38-page report, released March 15, 2022, provides tips to support brain-healthy behavior. Over the past six years, the GCBH has issued reports on broad topics taking a look at whether adults’ behavior and lifestyle style habits could affect their brain health as they grow older.

“While we encourage people to make good decisions, the GCBH recognizes that an effective strategy to enhance brain health must be framed broadly, and that individual choices are made in a larger social and environmental context… Simply putting research findings forward and expecting people to change their behaviors and sustain healthy lifestyles accordingly is unrealistic,” say the report’s authors. 

Calls for Supporting Positive Brain Health

In the latest GCBH report, the authors share what they have learned about how to persuade and motivate people to maintain brain-healthy lifestyles, and how community policies can be shaped to promote this vital goal. 

“We know what works to support brain health – this report focuses on how to make that happen,” says Sarah Lenz Lock, GCBH’s Executive Director. “Our experts have identified specific, practical tips to help older adults, communities and policymakers support the habits that are good for brain health. We show that change is possible, and why supporting brain health for an aging population makes good health and economic sense for communities and society as well as individuals,” Lock says.

“We describe why implementing programs designed to promote brain health for older adults makes good health and economic sense for communities and societies as well as individuals. GCBH experts advise individuals to set specific goals, be realistic about what they choose, and approach their goals step by step,” says the report’s authors. 

“We encourage community-based organizations to create opportunities for peer-to-peer coaching. And we urge policymakers to raise public awareness that people can take steps to help themselves. These and many other recommendations along with a framework for achieving change for individuals, community organizations and policymakers are provided in the final report approved by the GCBH Governance Committee,” they add. 

The GCBH report also calls for addressing the disparities in health and access to care that undermine the cognitive well-being of underserved communities including many African Americans and Hispanics.

Hearing loss, high blood pressure, obesity, and depression are among the health issues that may be linked to cognitive decline and should be properly managed with access to health care.

The Six Pillars of Brain Health

After a careful analysis of scientific findings, GCBH’s report notes that “evidence continues to mount” that people may be able to lower their risks for cognitive decline by engaging in healthy lifestyle behaviors, referred to as the six pillars of brain health.

Specifically put:

“Be social” and continue to maintain and expand your social network.  Keep tabs on family and friends and don’t isolate yourself from others. 

  • Find new interests and hobbies to “engage your brain” and to stimulate your thinking. 
  • Meditate, relax, and maintain a consistent schedule to “manage stress.”
  • Don’t forget the importance of “ongoing” exercise” and schedule at least 2.5 hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week.  
  • Achieve “restorative sleep” by at least getting 7-8 ours of restful sleep daily.
  • Finally, “eat right” by choosing a nutritious, heart healthy diet to limit high blood pressure, of fish, poultry, nuts, low-fat dairy, vegetables, whole grains, fruits, and vegetable oils. 

The GCBH recommendations urge people to avoid smoking and not drink alcohol.  But if you drink, limit alcohol to more than one drink a day for women and two drinks a day for men.

The Brain-Heart Connection is examined in GCBH’s report.  Hypertension is a serious risk to brain health that can lead to stroke, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia. With knowledge of this, the report notes that people can lower blood pressure by increasing physical activity and reduce overeating, excess drinking, smoking and even reducing sodium (salt) intake.

The GCBH report provides simple, easily obtainable steps to make successful behavioral changes to improve brain health.  Specifically, people can:

Set a goal, identify a specific action you want to take on.

Be thoughtful and realistic about the goals you choose.

Find something that is fun and choose what is enjoyable for you.

Re-purpose some of your free time.

Rethink your environment to reduce the temptations and encourage better choices.

Celebrate the wins.

Learn from the setbacks.

Involve friends and family with common goals to reinforce healthy choices; and

Pick a good start time. 

While brain health behavior changes can be achieved by individuals, these changes require the support health care providers, employers, and community organizations.  Health care providers can help their patients improve their lifestyle habits and make healthy choices to reduce risks and alleviate the symptoms of disease. Employers can promote healthy behaviors too by creating healthier work environments, offering wellness initiatives, health screenings, immunizations, supporting healthy sleep by minimizing shift work, not requiring employees to respond to emails 24/7 and respecting vacations and breaktimes.  These all can promote better brain and mental health, says the GCBH report.

Mission-driven organizations, like AARP, the Arthritis Foundation, and the Heart Association, can also provide individuals with needed information and tools to access their own wellness and motivate a person to make positive behavior changes.

Finally, policymakers can set goals to improve the public’s brain health with a focus on building equity, fighting the sigma of dementia, and implementing best practice to improve brain health from around the world. They can also become aware of how public policies in other areas, such as the built environment, nutrition, and education, can have a lifelong impact on brain health. Some specific examples of successful public health policies include seat-belt laws and smoking cessation requirements.

“A chasm remains between what researchers are discovering about brain health and how little this knowledge has been applied for the public good. Progress will require the combined actions of individuals and communities, reinforced by public policies that facilitate healthy lifestyles,” says the report’s authors. “By applying lessons of public health and science, we can improve brain health for the benefit of individuals, communities and countries around the world,” they say, noting that this report lays out the steps needed to achieve this goal.

The full report on “How to Sustain Brain Healthy Behaviors” is available by going to https://www.aarp.org/content/dam/aarp/health/brain_health/2022-03/gcbh-behavior-change-report-english.doi.10.26419-2Fpia.00106.001.pdf.

To obtain all of the GCBH’s past reports on brain health, go to https://www.aarp.org/health/brain-health/global-council-on-brain-health/resource-library/.

To see how staying socially active impacts brain health, go to https://thriveglobal.com/stories/spumoni-s-where-everybody-knows-your-name-study-says-being-socially-active-may-improve-cognitive-functioning-2/

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Calls for Rhode Island to become more “Age Friendly”

Published in Pawtucket Times on January 24, 2022

On Aug. 3, 2020, The Decade of Healthy Aging 2020-2030 proposal was endorsed by the 73rd World Health Assembly. It was presented to the U.N. General Assembly Dec. 14, 2020, (Resolution 75/131), leading to the proclamation of a U.N. Decade of Healthy Aging (2021-2030).

The four-page Resolution expressed concern that, despite the predictability of population aging and its accelerating pace, the world is not sufficiently prepared to respond to the rights and needs of older people. It acknowledges that the aging of the population impacts our health systems but also many other aspects of society, including labor and financial markets and the demand for goods and services, such as education, housing, long-term care, social protection and information. It thus requires a total whole-of-society approach to make changes.

The passed Resolution called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to lead the implementation of the decade, in collaboration with the other U.N. organizations. Governments, international and regional organizations, civil society, the private sector, academia and the media are urged to actively support the decade’s goals.

According to WHO,  the world’s population is aging at a swifter pace than any time in the past and this will have an impact on all aspects of society.  There are more than 1 billion people aged 60 years or older, most of these individuals living in low- and middle-income countries. “Many do not have access to even the basic resources necessary for a life of meaning and of dignity. Many others confront multiple barriers that prevent their full participation in society,” says WHO.  

In a December 14, 2020, statement announcing the passage of Resolution 75/131, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, stated that it “sends a clear signal that it is only by working as one, within the United Nations system and with governments, civil society and the private sector that we will be able to not only add years to life, but also life to years.”

“By adopting a U.N.-wide approach in support of healthy aging, we will be able to galvanize international action to improve the lives of older people, their families and communities, both during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond,” Dr Etienne Krug, Director of the Department of Social Determinants of Health at added World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO says that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the seriousness of existing gaps in policies, systems and services and a decade of concerted global action is urgently needed to ensure that older people can fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment.  

WHO’s worldwide initiatives would seek to change “how we think, feel and act toward age and aging; facilitate the ability of older people to participate in and contribute to their communities and society; deliver integrated care and primary health services that are responsive to the needs of the individual; and provide access to long-term care for older people who need it.” 

Healthy Aging Baseline Data Released

Just days ago, WHO released, “Decade of Healthy Ageing: Baseline Report,” in all official U.N. languages, to support member states, academia, civil society, U.N. partners and others to aid in evidence-based decision making on the policies, programmes and services needed to support all people, in particular older persons, to live long and healthy lives.

The Baseline report, released January 20, 2021, brings together data available for measuring healthy aging, defined by WHO as “the process of developing and maintaining the functional ability that enables well-being in older age.”

According to WHO, optimizing “functional ability” is the goal of the Decade of Healthy Aging, which began in 2021 and addresses five interrelated abilities that all older people should enjoy:  the ability to meet basic needs; to continue to learn and make decisions; to be mobile; to build and maintain relationships; and to contribute to society. The report also takes a look at people’s capacities (including physical and mental) and the environments (spanning attitudes, services, natural and built) in which people live, which contribute to functional ability.

The 203-page baseline report, now available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, introduces the concepts of health aging and strategies for achieving the initiatives goals by 2030. It provides a first-time baseline (in 2020) for healthy aging worldwide and takes a look at what improvements that can be made by 2030.  It documents progress and scenarios for improvement. The report addresses how stakeholders can work together and impact the functional abilities of older people. Finally, it outlines next steps detailing opportunities that can increase collaboration and impact by 2023, the next reporting period.

Is Rhode Island Becoming Age Friendly?   

Maureen Maigret, policy consultant and chair of the Aging in Community Subcommittee of Rhode Island’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council, says that many Rhode Island communities are involved to 1 degree or another in what we consider age-friendly activities. “The initiative is usually led by the local senior center and in some instances volunteer programs such as RSVP and AARP and The Village Common of RI,” she says.

According to Maigret, over the last five years the state’s Long-Term Care Coordinating Council Aging (LTCCC) in Community Subcommittee has adopted and continues to work to support WHO’s decadelong initiative, adding the domains of Food & Nutrition and Economic Security and Supports to Remain at Home.

Maigret noted that Newport was the first community to join the AARP age-friendly network; Cranston, Providence and Westerly following. The state’s Office of Healthy Aging has adopted its State Plan on Aging, calling for Rhode Island to become an age-friendly state.

Governor Dan McKee’s proposed budget for FY2023 includes an additional $200,000 for local senior programs increasing the total amount to $1 million. Maigret calls for adding an additional  $800,000 so each municipality would be allocated $10 per person aged 65 and over to support local senior programs. Advocates had promoted this since at least 2018 to make up for prior budget cuts and inflation, she says.

Don’t forget improving and expanding the state’s transportation options for older Rhode Islanders who have mobility needs and are no longer able to drive. “This could be accomplished by adding trip types to the state funded Elderly Transportation Program,” she says, noting that trips are now limited for trips to medical appointments, adult day care services, meal sites and Insight. Why not provide trips for older adults to access volunteer activities, she adds.

“We also need to adequately fund our subsidized home care programs by providing realistic reimbursement to address the huge workforce challenges we face,” warns Maigret, noting that seniors are waiting over two months to get service. “This is a travesty,” she says.

“It is tragic that the state’s Office of Healthy Aging is so under resourced in so many areas,” says Maigret, putting the spotlight on the lack of affordable home maintenance and chore services to keep people in their homes. “There is also a need to provide greater supports for our family caregivers who provide the vast majority of caregiving in our state and nation,” she adds. 

Getting Municipalities Involved

Maigret suggests that Rhode Island’s cities and towns review their community’s Comprehensive Plans to see how age-friendliness is addressed. “This is what Newport did. They can also form local Steering Committees to identify local needs and develop recommendations to address them both at the local and state level,” she says.

Governor Dan McKee can also issue an Executive Order directing all state departments and agencies to review programs and policies for age-friendliness and provide incentive funding for local communities to assess their communities. Several states have done this. NY, MA, CO, FL, MI, ME, CA, she says. 

While aging advocates pushed for McKee and lawmakers to allocate ARPA COVID-19 federal funds to make Rhode Island a more age friendly, it’s gotten little attention, says West Warwick resident Vin Marzullo. “Quite frankly its shocking — that there is yet an explicit acknowledgement that the aging community needs resources, support, more collaborative arrangements, to extend living in-place. There seems not to be any sensitivity to the fact that 90% of the COVID deaths were adults 60 and over – and 53% were in congregate care,” says Marzullo, a  well-known aging advocate who served as a federal civil rights and national service administrator.

“The ARPA funds were authorized to be used to ameliorate the impact on the populations, communities, sectors, etc. that were adversely impacted. Our older adults must be in the conversation and not neglected,” says Marzullo.

Maigret agrees. “It is tragic that neither the McKee-Matos’ “Rhode Island 2030 Plan” nor the Rhode Island Foundation report outlining the use of ARPA funds gave sufficient attention to the needs of our state’s older population, she says, warning that this population is increasing, and getting more economically insecure and diverse,” she says.

“When we look at the exceedingly high cost of residential institutional care,  much of which is paid for taxpayers through government programs, we can make a strong case that funding programs helping older persons remain healthy and living in their homes and communities are important investments,” says Maigret. 

To obtain a copy of WHO’s “Decade of Healthy Ageing: Baseline Report,” go to:

https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240017900.

Rotary Gears Up to Eradicate Polio

Published in the Woonsocket Call on October 16, 2016

Just days ago, Louis A. Marciano came to St. Paul’s Church on a mission to get his fellow Pawtucket Rotarians more involved in Rotary International’s efforts to create a polio-free world. Marciano, a former Mount Pleasant High School football player, a coach, a World War 11 veteran who fought in the Pacific Theater and a Rotarian for over 44 years, came to publicize the upcoming World Polio Day on October 24 and give an update on the international service organization’s efforts to eradicate Polimyelitis (polio).

Polio is a paralyzing and potentially fatal infectious disease that still threatens children in some parts of the world. The poliovirus invades the nervous system and can cause total paralysis in a matter of hours. It can strike at any age but mainly affects children under five. Polio is incurable, but completely vaccine-preventable. The infectious disease is found mostly in lower-income countries where poor sanitation and limited access to clean water facilitate the spread of the virus.

A Call for Action at
the Pawtucket Rotary Club

Marciano’s calls for assistance in raising funds to pay for polio inoculations for children and ratcheting up the awareness for Rotary’s efforts is not new. For over four decades, the former Rotary club president District 7950 Governor, has taken his fund raising campaign to end polio to 66 clubs in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. His efforts has received attention from his national headquarters, too. The North Providence Rotarian cherishes the Soccer Ball award “Kick Polio out of Africa” presented to him in 1998 for his efforts to eradicate Poliomyelitis

Some say that it may well “Takes a Village” to marshal the resources needed to make a world-wide impact. Over 1.2 million Rotary members belonging to 34,000 clubs world-wide work together to raise funds, advocate for government support, serve as volunteers to help immunize children, and raise awareness in their communities, said Marciano to his audience of Pawtucket Rotarians.

At the podium, the Cranston resident rattled off specifics as to why this global effort is important and is succeeding. Ending polio will save lives, is a very good investment, and most important is achievable, says Marciano.

Marciano notes, India is a prime example of one of the greatest Rotary International’s achievements in wiping out polio. “There were zero cases of polio in 2010 in India and they have been polio-free for nearly six years,” he says, noting that the World Health Organization has officially certified India polio-free in 2014. [According to Devin Thorpe in his March 15, 2014 article published in Forbes, in the 1980s there were approximately 150,000 cases of polio every year in India]

Marciano also announced the upcoming fourth annual world Polio Day event, co-hosted with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to be held on Oct. 24. The event streaming live from CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, is expected to bring together more than 50,000 viewers around the world to learn from celebrities and experts about the progress to eradicate polio. For information about World Polio, go to http://www.endpolio.org.

While winding down his talk, Marciano acknowledges that there is still work to do but Rotary is moving closer to its goal of finally wiping polio from the face of the earth.

Carol Pandak, Director of Rotary’s PolioPlus program, agrees with Marciano’s assessment. “For more than 30 thirty years, Rotary has harnessed the dedication of community leaders around the world in support of polio eradication. When we started this effort, nearly 1,000 children a day were paralyzed by this disease. Today, there have been only 27 cases [Afghanistan (8); Nigeria (4); Pakistan (15)] in the whole world. Rotary remains fully committed to this important effort until every child is protected from this disease.”

From the Beginning

Rotary’s effort to eradicate polio began in 1979, with a multi-year project to immunize six million children in the Philippines. The international service organizations, “PolioPlus program, was established in 1985.

As indicated by the “plus” in PolioPlus, Rotarians also provide support for related health services, such as distributing Vitamin A and zinc tablets, providing bed nets to prevent malaria, assisting with preventative inoculations for other diseases, including measles, rubella, mumps, tuberculous, and other childhood diseases. The “plus” also means a system of advocacy and fundraising, and infrastructure and partnerships that will support the fight against infectious disease long after polio is gone.

Rotary also works closely with partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), including the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the governments of the world in this public health initiative.

Today, Rotary has given more than $1.6 billion to immunize more than two billion children against polio in 125 countries to wipe the infectious disease from the face of the earth. It is estimated that Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by countries to contribute more than $7.2 billion to the effort.

Rotary’s polio initiative has also caught the attention of others. As far back as 2008, one of America’s biggest philanthropists came to the table to fight the war against polio. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that every dollar Rotary committed to polio eradication would be matched two-to-one by the Foundation up to $35 million a year through 2018. Since this Foundation began its partnership with Rotary more than $2 billion has been contributed to Rotary’s polio eradication effort.

These funds help to provide much-needed operational support, medical personnel, laboratory equipment.

Public figures and celebrities have also joined Bill & Melinda Gates as ambassadors to help educate the public about polio through public service announcements, social media and public appearances. They include: Kristen Bell and Archie Panjabi; WWE superstar John Cena; supermodel Isabeli Fontana; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu; action movie star Jackie Chan; boxing great Manny Pacquiao; pop star Psy; golf legend Jack Nicklaus; conservationist Jane Goodall; premier violinist Itzhak Perlman; Grammy Award winners A.R. Rahman; Angelique Kidjo and Ziggy Marley; and peace advocate Queen Noor of Jordan. These ambassadors help educate the public about polio through public service announcements, social media and public appearances.

Until polio is eradicated, all countries remain at risk of outbreaks, says Marciano.

Experts say that $1.5 billion is urgently needed to sustain the polio eradication initiative. Without full funding and political will power, polio could return to previously polio-free countries, putting children at risk contracting this paralyzing disease. From every corner of the globe Rotarians are gearing up on October 24 to garner support to wipe polio out, once and for all.