As you grow old, your health starts to deteriorate. Everything, whether it is your mental health or your physical health, starts to slow down. However, with age, your mental health gets overshadowed by your physical health.

Signs You Should Note

If you note these signs in your ageing parents or grandparents, take note of it. Try to get involved with them. It is also important to ensure that they have a separate social circle apart from the family. This way, they can have friends who they can also relate to.

With age, suggests Sinha, you are more prone to be depressed, and anxious. “Mental health conditions like schizophrenia or bipolar disorders are not something that happens when you grow older. You may have been living with these for the last 40 years, but the management differs, she suggests.

As you grow old, your symptoms start to overlap with other mental health conditions. For the proper treatment professionals use differential diagnosis, suggests Sinha. “The lines become blurred and to differentiate the symptoms from one mental health condition to another becomes difficult,” she says.

Preventive Measures

There are also food habits like eating leafy vegetables, nuts, fish, virgin coconut and beans that help with brain functions.

Sinha suggests that keeping a social circle and continuing your hobbies can help your mind stay healthy. “Men especially face this issue, after they retire, they feel like they are at the loss of authority, and they start to lose control. It is thus important to keep doing things and learning a new skill to keep your brain active. While for women, since they continue taking care of the house, their brain stays active,” she says.

Cognitive stimulation is the key, especially to managing dementia, she notes.

“Just with weight training, you push your body and after a while, it becomes your muscle memory. Same with the brain. However, one should not get into solving too many puzzles, or trivia after being diagnosed with dementia. Because that would mean you are making your already injured brain exercise which might lead to agitation,” she recommends.

How to support?

“The most important part is for the caregiver to understand what is happening and come to terms with the conditions. Because the elderly with cognitive conditions are not able to understand, they cannot be told or instructed to do anything. Thus, the responsibility is solely on the caregiver,” points out Sinha.

So, what can be done?

Awareness

Reach out to therapists and counsellors to know the ways to create such a healthy environment.

Be Patient

She suggests adopting the same approach that you do with kids and with your pets. This is when you focus on gestures, body language and mood over language. Due to cognitive disorders, parents experience a loss of language and the only way to communicate and to understand what they are communicating is through these means.

Be Empathetic

Create a healthy environment by agreeing with them and listening to their stories. The responsibility of creating a safe environment is totally with you.

There might be times when your parents may do socially unacceptable or non-compliance behaviour. But it is important to understand the triggers and ensure that the triggers do not occur anymore.

Help Them Stay Fit

Keeping the television on while falling asleep or leaving a light on in the bedroom may feel reassuring, but new international research suggests it could seriously affect heart health. A recent study has found that exposure to light at night significantly raises the risk of heart disease, even if a person believes they are sleeping well.

Sleeping With Lights On Could Harm Your Heart, Study Warns

The findings come from a large, long-term study carried out by researchers in Australia and the United States. The team followed nearly 90,000 adults in the United Kingdom over a period of nine years. Participants were given light sensors to accurately measure how much light they were exposed to during sleep.

Researchers tracked cases of heart attack, heart failure, and stroke throughout the study period. The results were striking. Compared to people who slept in complete darkness, those exposed to light at night faced a 56 percent higher risk of cardiovascular problems. The risk of heart failure increased by 47 percent, while the likelihood of coronary artery disease rose by 32 percent. The study noted that this risk was particularly higher among women. The risk of stroke was also found to be up to 30 percent higher.

Why Night-Time Light Is Dangerous

According to the research, published in JAMA Network Open, the main reason behind this increased risk is disruption of the body’s circadian rhythm. This internal biological clock regulates sleep, hormone release, metabolism, and other vital functions.

Artificial light at night interferes with this natural rhythm, pushing the body into a state of imbalance. Over time, this ongoing disruption places added strain on the cardiovascular system. Researchers warned that for people over the age of 40, exposure to light during sleep is emerging as a significant risk factor for heart disease.

Professor Frank Scheer, a neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, believes doctors should look beyond sleep duration when assessing patients’ sleep habits. He says physicians should also ask about bedroom conditions, including light exposure.

“There is no harm in keeping the bedroom completely dark,” he explained. “In fact, it is extremely beneficial for overall health.”

Simple Tips For Better, Heart-Healthy Sleep

Experts suggest a few practical steps to reduce light exposure at night:

• Turn off the television, mobile phones, and laptops before going to bed
• If light is needed for safety, keep it below 5 lux, roughly equivalent to the soft glow of a few candles
• Use thick, dark curtains to block out streetlights and outside glare
• Sleeping in darkness may seem like a small change, but researchers say it could play an important role in protecting heart health over time.

Researchers also noted that many people underestimate how much light they are exposed to at night. Even dim sources such as alarm clocks, charging indicators, or light filtering in from nearby buildings can affect the body’s natural night-time processes. Over years, this low-level but constant exposure may quietly increase the risk of high blood pressure, insulin resistance, and weight gain, all of which are closely linked to heart disease. The study reinforces a growing body of evidence that sleep quality is shaped not just by how long we sleep, but by the environment we sleep in.

A neurologist has spoken about a simple daily practice that may help guard against cognitive decline, and it requires just six minutes. Dr Clint Steele, a specialist in the brain and nervous system, works with patients to improve quality of life by strengthening brain function and preventing, and in some cases reversing, conditions such as dementia.

What Is Dementia?

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a significant decline in mental function that is serious enough to affect everyday life. It commonly impacts memory, thinking, and reasoning skills. Dementia itself is not a single disease but a collection of symptoms caused by underlying conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or vascular dementia. Common signs include memory problems, confusion, difficulty finding words, changes in mood or behaviour, and trouble completing familiar tasks.

These symptoms usually worsen over time and are not considered a normal part of ageing. Although there is no cure, treatment options can help manage symptoms, and early diagnosis plays an important role in care planning.

Dementia: Signs And Symptoms

The signs of dementia can differ from person to person. Some common examples include difficulty with short-term memory, misplacing personal belongings like a purse or wallet, trouble managing finances or paying bills, challenges with planning or cooking meals, forgetting appointments, and becoming disoriented when travelling outside familiar areas.

Dementia symptoms tend to be progressive, meaning they often begin subtly and gradually become more severe over time, eventually interfering with daily functioning. If you or someone close to you notices ongoing memory issues or changes in thinking or behaviour, it is important not to dismiss them.

Six-Minute Daily Routine That May Help Slow Dementia Risk

The 56-year-old expert says that reading for six minutes a day could meaningfully lower the risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurological conditions. In a TikTok video that has since been viewed thousands of times, Dr Steele points to long-term research showing that strengthening what is known as “cognitive reserve” may help prevent or reduce the likelihood of dementia and similar disorders, as per Mirror.

Why Cognitive Reserve Matters

According to Dr Steele, one way to support cognitive function is by learning new skills, such as picking up a foreign language, learning to dance, or simply reading a book for at least six minutes each day. “Reading six minutes a day actually lowers your risk of dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and more,” he told What’s The Jam.

He explained that reading helps build cognitive reserve, which refers to the brain’s ability to adapt. “Adaptability is so important because when you encounter stress, you want your brain to be able to adjust to that stress, respond in the right way, and then, once the stress has passed, adapt again and settle down,” he said.

A Small Daily Commitment

“One of the most important things you can do is read six minutes a day, according to the research, and that will help,” Dr Steele added. Based in Maine and Florida in the US, he has spent 34 years focused on brain health and dementia prevention.

Public Response To The Advice

His TikTok video has also drawn hundreds of likes and comments. One viewer wrote: “Normally read at least 100 books a year, plus the Bible, dance classes, acrobatics, clogging for at least six years, at 84 still moving, just slower, my mom had Alzheimer’s, so I do know!”

Another commented: “I still enjoy reading news every day.” A third added: “Another really good one is fine art, probably why so many older people take up painting.”

Students gaming more than 10 hours a week can have long-lasting negative effects on their physical and mental health, a new Australian study suggests.

Researchers from Curtin University, Perth have found that playing online games for over 10 hours can worsen diets, increase body weight and led to poorer sleep than lighter gamers.

Professor Mario Siervo, Curtin School of Population Health said of the results: "What stood out was students gaming up to 10 hours a week all looked very similar in terms of diet, sleep and body weight. The real differences emerged in those gaming more than 10 hours a week, who showed clear divergence from the rest of the sample."

What Did The Study Find?

Researchers surveyed 317 students across five Australian universities, with a median age of 20, to understand how time spent gaming each week might affect their diet, sleep, and body composition.

Students were categorized as low gamers (zero to five hours a week), moderate gamers (five to 10 hours) or high gamers, who played video games for more than 10 hours each week.

They found that low and moderate gamers showed largely comparable health outcomes but health indicators deteriorated sharply among students whose gaming time exceeded 10 hours a week.

The study found diet quality declined and obesity was more common once gaming exceeded 10 hours a week, with each extra hour linked to poorer diets even after accounting for other lifestyle factors. While high gamers recorded a body mass index (BMI) of 26.3kg/m2, low and moderate gamers fell within a healthier range, with median BMIs of 22.2kg/m2 and 22.8kg/m2 respectively.

Professor Siervo said: "Each additional hour of gaming per week was linked to a decline in diet quality, even after accounting for stress, physical activity and other lifestyle factors."

Additionally, sleep quality was generally poor across all groups but students who played video games for moderate or high amounts of time reported worse sleep than low gamers.

Despite clear results, the expert added that the study does not prove cause and effect but shows excessive gaming is linked to higher health risks, while low to moderate play appears largely fine.

Why Is Playing Video Games Bad For You?

"Our data suggests low and moderate gaming is generally fine, but excessive gaming may crowd out healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet, sleeping properly and staying active.

"Because university habits often follow people into adulthood, healthier routines such as taking breaks from gaming, avoiding playing games late at night and choosing healthier snacks may help improve their overall well-being," Professor Siervo said.

Playing video games for excessive amount of time has also been linked to paving the way for mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, aggression and poor emotional control as well as social/life problems including neglecting responsibilities, isolation, poor relationships, academic/career impact.

Moreover, previous research has also found that playing games for over three hours straight significantly raises the risk of physical issues. Sessions exceeding this time frame can lead to eye fatigue, headaches, neck pain and wrist pain, regardless of the player's age or gender.

This study was published in Nutrition on January 16.