Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Three Types of Phobias and Possible Treatments

This posting is inspired by recent experience of a relative who is a resident of an active Senior Living Community in Southern California similar to THD. My relative informed me that she recently meet another resident in their community for the first time. She thought she was new and try to make small talk and appear to be friendly to the newcomer. During their conversation my relative was surprised that the person she thought to be a newcomer has been residing in their community for over 5 years. My relative found out this person has Social Phobia and is under treatment. Her going out of her apartment and attempt to socialize was part of her therapy. I asked my relative perhaps the reason she does not want any body to know where she is, is the fact that she is under the FBI protection witness Program.  My relative informed me that this person is not listed in their community phone book as well as no mail box, so she must be hiding or perhaps under the FBI Witness Protection Program. My relative informed me,  it is a possibility, but unlikely.  Thinking about it, I feel that Senior Living Communities are ideal, for hiding places and as a place for the FBI Witness Protection Program, specially if it is located in rural community or big cities. 

People who isolate themselves are suffering from Social or Agora Phobia.  I did some search and here are the three common types of phobias and possible treatments.   

 Types of Phobias 

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) identifies three different categories of phobias:

  1. Social phobias: Now known as social anxiety disorder, this phobia is marked by a fear of social situations in which a person might be judged or embarrassed.
  2. Agoraphobia: This phobia involves an irrational and extreme fear of being in places where escape is difficult. It may involve a fear of crowded places or even of leaving one's home or apartment.
  3. Specific phobias: When people talk about having a phobia of a specific object such as snakes, spiders, or needles, they are referring to a specific phobia. 
  4. I have claustrophobia- fear of closed/confined places as well as
  5. agoraphobia( heights).  However, I definitely do not have social 
  6. phobia, since I love to associate with people.

  7. Here's Possible Phobia Treatments. For details visit the link below:
  8. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/specific-phobias/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20355162


Meanwhile enjoy this recent photo of my two apartment companion here at THD


   My Next blog will be about cat's intelligence compared to dogs. Tune In! 

Monday, April 29, 2024

Pittsburg Theatre Company Presents Willy Wonka

Yesterday, April 28, Daughter-in-law, Ruth Carver Katague💚, wife of my oldest son Dodie Katague treated me to lunch at Crepes Oh La La and to the Pittsburg Theatre Company presentation of Willy Wonka. The opening was published at the Contra Costa News listed in the link below.

It was a fun afternoon away from my apartment and a welcome change from my daily routine as a Senior Citizen residing in a Senior Living Community. My oldest son Dodie ( Retired Prosecuting Attorney from Costa County💗) has a minor part as GrandPa George. His part and dialogue was the comic relief of the musical presentation. He played as an old man with early Senile Dementia.  Ruth took me to lunch at Crepes Oh La La Restaurant. 

Thank Ruth for the lunch as well as being an Excellent Driver and the Free Ticket to Willy Wonka. 

The restaurant is rated number 19 out of 270 restaurants in Walnut Creek. It has a 4 star rating and a $ price range. I recommend this restaurant to all THD residents if you like vegetarian crepes. 

Ruth and I took some pictures at our lunch of vegetarian crepes and dessert, during and after the musical presentation as follows:

💚


Daughter-in-law, Ruth Carver Katague with her new spring outfit at Crepes Oh La La. 
  
Me, Dodie ( Grandpa George) and Adam Green ( Willy Wonka). Adam has a beautiful baritone voice suited for musicals. 




For Details visit: 

https://contracosta.news/event/pittsburg-theatre-company-presents-willy-wonka/#google_vignette

Meanwhile Here's the Latest News from THD

She Quit THD after 3 Days- Welcome and Good Bye!  Hope You are Happy in your New Position. It was a pleasure talking to you the other day, during your first day here at THD.

The other day I posted in my blog for today, welcoming our new THD Activity Coordinator Danielle Clark replacing Karen Kopp who is retiring.  In my blog I said welcome and I hope you will have a long career here at THD, but I will not be surprised if you are not staying long. I said this because when I met Danielle the other day, I learned she had zero experience with senior citizen issues.  I have a premonition that she will not be happy here and the duties of Activity Coordinator  can easily overwhelmed her and possibly cause an early burnt out.  I was correct. 

Yesterday morning after breakfast, I saw Karen and asked her about Danielle. Karen said she quit with no detail explanation except that she found another job more suitable to her experience/training. Whoever interview her should have sense this but I guess the Interviewers of THD were fooled by her youth and beautiful personality. THD interviewers believe THD needed young employees to cheer up the morale of its Senior Citizen Residents.  This is an incident that my 6th sense (premonition of the future) is still working for future events. 

💗https://www.amazon.com/stores/Dodie-Katague/author/B003HI3GJO?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Sunday, April 28, 2024

Ten Unusual Words to Spice Up Your Writings

Time to play with English words. My blogs on this topic had received some positive responses from my readers here at THD. Today are 10 unusual words that can spice up your writings.
💙


I subscribe to the daily series WordsGenius.com  Today's word is Quisquous. If you play Scrabble this is a word you should Know. The letter "Q" is a high point letter.  

Definition: Quisquous
Hard to deal with; dubious; of people: having a character difficult to assess.

Quisquous

[KWIS-kwəs]

Part of speech: adjective

Origin: Scottish, late 17th century

1.

Hard to deal with; dubious; of people: having a character difficult to assess.

Examples of quisquous in a sentence

"I wanted to trust him, but I also knew that he had a quisquous reputation."

"She tried to be patient, but she knew that her friend was quisquous."

About Quisquous

While we know that "quisquous" is a Scottish word that first came into use around the late 17th century, its exact origins are uncertain. It could possibly originate from the Latin word "quisquis," which means "whoever."

Did you Know?

Quisquous characters have long been referred to as tricksters in mythology; the coyote (in Indigenous cultures), the fox (in East Asian cultures), Anansi (the spider god of West Africa), and Loki (a Norse god) are all viewed as tricksters.

💙Meanwhile here are ten usual words that could add spice to your writings and blogs from the language gallery.com.  I have used in my blogs only three out of the ten listed here. Enjoy!

1.Anachronism

An anachronism is something (or someone) that is out of place in terms of time or chronology. This is most common with old-fashioned items in a modern setting, but can also occur with futuristic items in period pieces. Most anachronisms are there by mistake, especially within movies and television shows.

E.g. Showing the Pharaoh wearing a wristwatch was an obvious anachronism.

2. Accismus

A form of irony in which someone feigns indifference to something he or she desires. Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Grapes illustrates accismus when the fox dismisses some grapes he is unable to reach, stating that he is sure they are sour anyway.  

E.g. “Oh I couldn’t possibly accept…” Exclaimed Veronica upon being presented with a pair of diamond earrings, her natural affinity for accismus shining through.

3. Cacophony

A cacophony is a harsh mixture of sounds. It descends from the Greek word phōnē which means sound or voice, and is joined with the Greek prefix kak-, meaning bad; creating the meaning bad sound. In a similar way, the word symphony (which means a harmonious arrangement of instruments) traces to phōnē and the Greek prefix syn-, which means together.

E.g. I couldn’t hear over the cacophony of alarm bells.

4. Draconian

An adjective to describe something that is excessively harsh and severe. Derives from Draco, a 7th-century Athenian law scribe under whom small offenses had heavy punishments; prescribing death for almost every offence.

E.g. The new parking fines are positively draconian.

5. Limerence

The word limerence was coined only recently, in the 1970’s by psychologist Dorothy Tenov. It can be defined as an involuntary state of mind resulting from a romantic attraction to another person combined with an overwhelming, obsessive need to have one’s feelings reciprocated.

E.g. Eva wasn’t sure how to shake her recent feelings of limerence.

6. Pareidolia

A psychological phenomenon in which the mind perceives a specific image or pattern where it does not actually exist, such as seeing a face in the clouds. Pareidolia can be used to explain a host of otherwise unexplained sightings.

E.g. Alex was sure he saw a human face on the moon’s surface, but it was more likely to be pareidolia.

7. Riposte

A quick or witty retaliatory reply. In the context of the sport of fencing, a riposte means a counterattack that is made after successfully fending off one’s opponent.

E.g. Cora was known for having an excellent riposte to any insult. 

8. Sanctimony or Sanctimonious

Pretend or hypocritical religious devotion or righteousness. Someone who is sanctimonious will preach about the evils of drug use whilst drinking a beer, for example. Associated with a holier-than-thou attitude.

E.g. There was an air of sanctimony in the way he detailed his charity work. 

9. Serendipity

The act of finding something valuable or interesting when you are not looking for it. Coined by English author Horace Walpole in the mid-1700s, crediting it to a fairy tale he read called The Three Princes of Serendip. In the tale, three Persian princes sail to an island called Serendip (today known as Sri Lanka) to find their fortunes, making wondrous discoveries along the way.

E.g. It had to be serendipity that I found my dream house during a random drive in the country.

10. Verisimilitude

Something that merely seems to be true or real. Many writers or filmmakers try for some kind of verisimilitude in their stories, to make them believable. Including a great many details in a novel, for example, adds to its verisimilitude.

E.g. She was experiencing a nightmare of the most extraordinary verisimilitude.

 For Details visit:

https://www.thelanguagegallery.com/blog/10-unusual-words-to-add-to-your-english-vocabulary

Meanwhile here's Ditas latest Painting that was sold before the Gallery Opened.

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Metformin May Slow Down the Aging Process

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE WAS RECENTLY REFERRED TO ME BY A FELLOW THD RESIDENT VIA COMMENTS ON MY BLOG SERIES ON AGING. THANKS JANE M FOR THIS AND I AM POSTING IT FOR EVERYONE TO READ. I HAVE ALSO BEEN TAKING METFORMIM FOR OVER TWO DECADES NOW FOR MY TYPE 2 DIABETES SO I HOPE THE DRUG WORKS: 

My last posting on this subject was last August 20, 2023 and is similar to the article below. Enjoy!  

HTTPS://CHATEAUDUMER.BLOGSPOT.COM/2023/08/MEAL-TIME-CONVERSATIONS-HERE-AT-THD_28.HTML

  THIS IS THE LAST OF MY BLOG SERIES ON AGING.

APRIL 22, 20245:01 AM ET- NPR NEWS

BY 

A drug taken by millions of people to control diabetes may do more than lower blood sugar.

Research suggests metformin has anti-inflammatory effects that could help protect against common age-related diseases including heart disease, cancer, and cognitive decline.

Scientists who study the biology of aging have designed a clinical study, known as The TAME Trial, to test whether metformin can help prevent these diseases and promote a longer healthspan in healthy, older adults.

Michael Cantor, an attorney, and his wife Shari Cantor, the mayor of West Hartford, Connecticut both take metformin. "I tell all my friends about it," Michael Cantor says. "We all want to live a little longer, high-quality life if we can," he says.

Michael Cantor started on metformin about a decade ago when his weight and blood sugar were creeping up. Shari Cantor began taking metformin during the pandemic after she read that it may help protect against serious infections.

The Cantors are in their mid-60s and both say they feel healthy and have lots of energy. Both noticed improvements in their digestive systems – feeling more "regular" after they started on the drug,

Metformin costs less than a dollar a day, and depending on insurance, many people pay no out-of-pocket costs for the drug.

"I don't know if metformin increases lifespan in people, but the evidence that exists suggests that it very well might," says Steven Austad, a senior scientific advisor at the American Federation for Aging Research who studies the biology of aging.

An old drug with surprising benefits

Metformin was first used to treat diabetes in the 1950s in France. The drug is a derivative of guanidine, a compound found in Goat's Rue, an herbal medicine long used in Europe.

The FDA approved metformin for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. in the 1990s. Since then, researchers have documented several surprises, including a reduced risk of cancer. "That was a bit of a shock," Austad says. A meta-analysis that included data from dozens of studies, found people who took metformin had a lower risk of several types of cancers, including gastrointestinal, urologic and blood cancers.

Austad also points to a British study that found a lower risk of dementia and mild cognitive decline among people with type 2 diabetes taking metformin. In addition, there's research pointing to improved cardiovascular outcomes in people who take metformin including a reduced risk of cardiovascular death.

As promising as this sounds, Austad says most of the evidence is observational, pointing only to an association between metformin and the reduced risk. The evidence stops short of proving cause and effect. Also, it's unknown if the benefits documented in people with diabetes will also reduce the risk of age-related diseases in healthy, older adults.

"That's what we need to figure out," says Steve Kritchevsky, a professor of gerontology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, who is a lead investigator for the Tame Trial.

The goal is to better understand the mechanisms and pathways by which metformin works in the body. For instance, researchers are looking at how the drug may help improve energy in the cells by stimulating autophagy, which is the process of clearing out or recycling damaged bits inside cells.

Researchers also want to know more about how metformin can help reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, which may slow biological aging.

"When there's an excess of oxidative stress, it will damage the cell. And that accumulation of damage is essentially what aging is," Kritchevsky explains.

When the forces that are damaging cells are running faster than the forces that are repairing or replacing cells, that's aging, Kritchevsky says. And it's possible that drugs like metformin could slow this process down.

By targeting the biology of aging, the hope is to prevent or delay multiple diseases, says Dr. Nir Barzilai of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, who leads the effort to get the trial started.

The ultimate in preventative medicine

Back in 2015, Austad and a bunch of aging researchers began pushing for a clinical trial.

"A bunch of us went to the FDA to ask them to approve a trial for metformin,' Austad recalls, and the agency was receptive. "If you could help prevent multiple problems at the same time, like we think metformin may do, then that's almost the ultimate in preventative medicine," Austad says.

The aim is to enroll 3,000 people between the ages of 65 and 79 for a six-year trial. But Dr. Barzilai says it's been slow going to get it funded. "The main obstacle with funding this study is that metformin is a generic drug, so no pharmaceutical company is standing to make money," he says.

Barzilai has turned to philanthropists and foundations, and has some pledges. The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, set aside about $5 million for the research, but that's not enough to pay for the study which is estimated to cost between $45 and $70 million.

The frustration over the lack of funding is that if the trial points to protective effects, millions of people could benefit. "It's something that everybody will be able to afford," Barzilai says.

Currently the FDA doesn't recognize aging as a disease to treat, but the researchers hope this would usher in a paradigm shift — from treating each age-related medical condition separately, to treating these conditions together, by targeting aging itself.

For now, metformin is only approved to treat type 2 diabetes in the U.S., but doctors can prescribe it off-label for conditions other than its approved use.

Michael and Shari Cantor's doctors were comfortable prescribing it to them, given the drug's long history of safety and the possible benefits in delaying age-related disease.

"I walk a lot, I hike, and at 65 I have a lot of energy," Michael Cantor says. I feel like the metformin helps," he says. He and Shari say they have not experienced any negative side effects.

Research shows a small percentage of people who take metformin experience GI distress that makes the drug intolerable. And, some people develop a b12 vitamin deficiency. One study found people over the age of 65 who take metformin may have a harder time building new muscle.

"There's some evidence that people who exercise who are on metformin have less gain in muscle mass, says Dr. Eric Verdin, President of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. That could be a concern for people who are under-muscled.

But Verdin says it may be possible to repurpose metformin in other ways "There are a number of companies that are exploring metformin in combination with other drugs," he says. He points to research underway to combine metformin with a drug called galantamine for the treatment of sarcopenia, which is the medical term for age-related muscle loss. Sarcopenia affects millions of older people, especially women.

The science of testing drugs to target aging is rapidly advancing, and metformin isn't the only medicine that may treat the underlying biology.

"Nobody thinks this is the be all and end all of drugs that target aging," Austad says. He says data from the clinical trial could stimulate investment by the big pharmaceutical companies in this area. "They may come up with much better drugs," he says.

Michael Cantor knows there's no guarantee with metformin. "Maybe it doesn't do what we think it does in terms of longevity, but it's certainly not going to do me any harm," he says.

Cantor's father had his first heart attack at 51. He says he wants to do all he can to prevent disease and live a healthy life, and he thinks Metformin is one tool that may help.

For now, Dr. Barzilai says the metformin clinical trial can get underway when the money comes in. 

Source: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/22/1245872510/a-cheap-drug-may-slow-down-aging-a-study-will-determine-if-it-works

Meanwhile here's the latest News at THD: Two days ago THD hired a very young Activities Director. Her name is Daniele Clark. I was introduced to her and I asked her if she has any experienced with dealing with Senior Citizens. She said no. I advised her since there are around 110 seniors here at THD, not to attempt to please everyone. Danielle, Welcome to THD. Your age is a meal time conversation topic here. Do you mind if you tell us your age and school experiences?

My guess is if you can get along with your Parents/Grand Parents, you may be happy here for quite a while. I hope your stay here with THD will be long and a pleasant experience in your young career. However, if your stay here will be short, I will not be surprise. Again, Welcome!!!!

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