Brain Training and Cognitive Health

A round-up of interested news during the month:Brain Health News

1) Training Young Brains to Behave (New York Times)

2) Head Games (OpEd in New York Times)

3) Will Gerontology recognize the Brain? (American Society on Aging event)

4) Brain function gets a boost from walking (Los Angeles Times)

5) An idea whose time has (finally) come (McKnight's Long Term Care News)

6) Train your brain (Financial Times Germany)

7) Toman auge ejercicios que adiestran la mente (Milenio, Mexico)

8) Trois nouvelles études IDATE : Serious Games (Publi-News, France)

Ergonomic Exercises to Relieve Some Pain

I sit at a desk all day as I’m sure many of you do as well. I have to tell you, some days I am just aching in my shoulders and I get headaches from the pain. I know it has to do with how I sit and not taking enough breaks. I finally got rid of my old computer chair which caused me to slouch and picked up a better one that I now sit up straight in. It is much more comfortable to sit at my desk and type.

I’m not slouching at all and my shoulders are more relaxed. If you are a desk jockey and find yourself in pain after a long day of work, you may need to start taking more breaks during the day and stretching out a little bit. Breaks are hard to take when you are so engrossed with work but below are some tips to hopefully help you get into the habit of doing ergonomic exercises to relieve some pain and tension.

Rest Your Eyes Sitting in front of a computer all day means constant staring at the monitor for hours on end. Your eyes need a break too. Try looking off into the distance to refocus. Also try covering your eyes with your palms for 15 seconds. I forget where I picked that up but it helps a lot and feels relaxing.

Get Your Blood Circulating We are not meant to sit for hours without any movement. Keep your blood circulating by walking around after every hour of work. It’s easy to forget to take breaks so you can set the alarm on your watch to remind you or use the alarm on your email program (I think Microsoft Outlook has this feature.)

Exercises for Neck Pain Nothing hurts worse on me than my neck when I am sitting all day. I found a good video which demonstrates neck exercises that you can do at your desk. I particularly like the “figure 8″ exercise - it is very relaxing. The best thing for me, besides stretching, is to actually get up and walk around. Sometimes I am stuck on a problem and leaving my desk actually helps me refocus and figure out a solution much faster.

Melamine Contaminated Powdered Infant Formula

Teen Pregnancy, A Teachable Moment

Governor Palin’s announcement of the unplanned pregnancy of her daughter has brought teen pregnancies renewed attention.  Given all the media attention, many students are talking about this issue.  Now might be a good time to take advantage of their interest and introduce the issue of unplanned pregnancies.   

Some discussion points might be:

1.     What are the options for a pregnant teen?  What are the pros and cons of each?
2.     Why are some teens sexually active and others abstinent?
3.     What factors contribute to the choices teens make when they have the opportunity to be sexually active?
4.     What role should schools play in providing sexuality education?
5.     What does the term abstinence mean? What about the term sexually active or virgin?
6.     What role should parents play in providing sexuality education?
7.     What do you think is the best way to help teens postpone pregnancy and possible parenting until they are adults?

Questions such as those above are non-judgmental.  They allow discussion.  Whether you mention a specific individual is your choice, but not essential. 

The American School Health Association has an official position on quality sexuality education that you might also find valuable.

The discussion is going on.  The question is will you be part of it with your students?

Judging Personal Health Records by their Usefulness

It appears that at least the first phase of personal health record (PHR) certification from CCHIT (Certification Commission on Health Information Technology) will focus on a narrow set of attributes. CCHIT Chairman Mark Leavitt told a group earlier this month that the first set of PHR standards will focus primarily on privacy, security and interoperability.

Leavitt indicated that functionality standards would initially only address what functions are needed to support privacy, security and interoperability. I asked him the following question: Given that what many consumers need to know is how useful would different PHRs be to helping them and their families manage their health, wouldn’t it make sense to include a broader assessment of functionality in CCHIT’s PHR certification?

Leavitt didn’t say that they wouldn’t consider that in the future, and that they intended to continue raising the bar over time.

The concern that some industry insiders have voiced in response to my question is that they are concerned that a more robust assessment of PHR functionality might stifle innovation by mandating adherence to a too-narrow set of specifications.

There are several ways to address that concern, and we can learn from other consumer markets. For example, think about how Consumers Union provides guidance via Consumer Reports. CR evaluates consumer products along multiple dimensions. Although some people may just look at the overall ratings or the “best buy” in a category, CR explains the different dimensions and why each may be important to particular users and allows consumers to understand performance along each of them.

I agree that privacy and security concerns need to be addressed at the outset. There’s no doubt that’s consumers’ number one concern at this point. Before, part of the reason for that primacy is because we haven’t done enough to: 1) Understand consumers’ health needs–and how HIT tools can help address them; and 2) Provide guidance to consumers regarding how existing PHRs may actually serve useful functions.

By focusing PHR certification exclusively on privacy, security and interoperability, CCHIT is basically playing defense. These attributes address consumers’ real concerns but they don’t give them reason to get excited about using new tools.  In other words, we’re not guiding consumers to products that they want to use –- just on products that they don’t want to use.

Some inside the industry have told me that they don’t think it’s CCHIT’s role. Perhaps that’s the case. But the need is definitely there. If CCHIT doesn’t address it, then I presume before long CU or some other consumer organization will develop a PHR consumer guidance tool that is much more useful and has CCHIT certification as just one of its components (regarding privacy, security and interoperability).

Public comment opened here Monday.  I know what I’ll be telling them. What do the rest of you think?