As we age, our brains mature and change due to the greater number of connections between bran cells that exist due to our depth of life experience. As a result, certain cognitive abilities can slow down and make things like remembering a phone number or a news article you just read difficult. However, keeping your mind active could increase your reserves of brain cells and connections.

People typically take precautions to avoid serious illnesses. We politely cover our mouths and noses during coughs and sneezes to prevent spreading germs.

When children, work and household duties cease to be the center of your world, it’s time to focus on you and decide what brings you joy. For some people, jet-setting around the world and participating in leisurely activities is what would thrill them. However, others find happiness doing something they consider meaningful that fulfills their self-purpose. Their next step needs to make a positive impact on others. 

By Deborah Bier, PhD, director of special populations

Halloween isn’t just for little kids anymore and neither is dressing up. In 2015, 64 percent of adults 18 and older planned to participate in Halloween festivities, and adults spent $1.2 billion on costumes just for themselves. It isn’t at all shocking, though. While make-believe and pretend are sometimes seen as childish games, adults also feel the need to express themselves. In an article on Halloween, consumer anthropologist Robbie Blinkoff said, “It's a way for people to try to be more themselves." Costumes can represent who the person is on the inside.

Finding an outfit that perfectly reflects the “inner self” can be difficult and a wheelchair can add to the costume complexity. However it’s not impossible. If you, a parent or grandparent uses a wheelchair and wants to be in costume this Halloween, here is a list of costume ideas that accommodate wheelchairs. 

Crisp cool air, brightly-hued leaves and shorter days are signs that autumn has arrived. Although we may regret the end of summer, seniors, toddlers and everyone in between can have fun with these family-friendly fall activities.

Falling leaves and pumpkins of all sizes are inspiration for these fall-themed projects:

By Aparna Ghosh, MPH, clinical quality consultant, MPRO

I wish I could tell you about new research that shows us exactly what causes Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia or provides a clear way to a cure, but I cannot. Nevertheless, some recent research offers hope to people living with dementia and their families. Here are a few studies worth learning about.

Planning a day out/in with your grandparents can be a vigorous exercise in creative thinking: What do you do? Where should you go? What do you talk about? Thankfully, my grandma and I had very similar tastes, such as window shopping and watching “The Nanny.” However, if you don’t have shared interests or actually know much about your grandparents, besides grandma bakes cookies and grandpa listens to baseball games on the radio, then you are going to have a difficult time. The added pressures of birthdays and getting them a gift is even more stressful. You can’t make macaroni art presents if you are an adult. Trust me.

So, what’s a grandkid to do? I have made the following list of fun activities to do with your grandparents with somethingeveryone will enjoy.

By Emily Lord, executive director, HealthCare Ready

The Louisiana floods in August of 2016 destroyed more than 60,000 homes and forced more than 15,000 people into shelters at the height of the disaster. These floods were not caused by a massive hurricane like Katrina in 2005 but by tons and tons of rain. No one expected rain to cause the damage on the scale it did. It is a powerful lesson that we need to always be prepared to protect ourselves and those we care for, especially the elderly who are more vulnerable than most because of limited mobility and additional health care needs.

While disaster preparedness sounds overwhelming and yet another thing to add to your to-do list, there are easy, low cost ways to protect the health of your family or those to whom you provide care. There are many organizations that provide preparedness training and toolkits, including the American Red Cross and the CDC, but they don’t always include health care preparedness. Here are a few key things to think about when planning.