Senior center offers a free program to help seniors manage their concerns about falls

“Help! I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” Comedians and entertainers have poked fun at that statement many times, but the truth is the fear of falling is a major and legitimate concern to senior citizens and their families.

To address this, the North Mecklenburg Senior Center is hosting a free 16-hour class in May titled “A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls.” Director Joanne Ahern says that the award-winning, evidence-based program, developed at Boston University, is designed to reduce the fear of falling and increase the activity levels of older adults who have concerns about falls. Read the full story

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"Mario Kart"

People who play “brain-training” computer games might as well be playing “Mario Kart,” a recent study suggests. The journal Nature reports this week that a six-week study of people who played online “brain” games showed no gain in intelligence.

“There were absolutely no transfer effects” from the training tasks to more general tests of cognition, said Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist at the Read the full story

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(David Boraks/DavidsonNews.net photo)

SOURCE: Psychological Science

Can a big smile help you live longer? A new study published in the journal Psychological Science says people who smile in photographs live longer than those who don’t. Smiles can be a barometer of emotions, according to Wayne State University researchers, and can help predict longevity.

The researchers examined a database of baseball players and found that people who smile in photographs live longer than those who don’t.

Read the full story

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Any woman runner knows that shin splints, runner’s knee and IT band syndrome are among the hazards of a regular running regimen. Dr. John Gross tells Women’s Running Magazine that it’s important to know what these are and now to treat them. He recommends a tactic he calls RICE, for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Read more in the article, “Tackling the Top Running Injuries.”

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