Earaches can make for a long night. Your child may be symptom free during the day - but in the middle of the night she wakes up crying and rubbing her ear. Depending on how bad the infection of the middle ear is, your child may be comforted by either Aleve, Advil, Motrin or Tylenol (never give aspirin to a child under 20) and a warm washcloth or a heating pad placed on the ear. In other instances, you have a long night ahead of you until your child can visit your physician and possibly receive numbing ear drops that relieve your child’s discomfort. Your physician may also prescribe antibiotics, depending on the age of the child and the seriousness of the infection. Antibiotics do not address the issue of pain, so be sure to give your child one of the medications listed above.
Just why do children get middle ear infections? The tubes connecting a child’s ear to throat are small - so they can become blocked more easily. When your child has an upper respiratory infection, such as a cold (allergies can also lead to ear infections), the tube can swell and become blocked - trapping fluid within the ear. That fluid is easily infected by the very germs in the nose and throat that are causing the cold.
Why do we gain weight as we age? There are several reasons - and not all of them are fully understood. But researchers are studying several aging factors that affect weigh gain as we age:
- Slower metabolism
- Loss of muscle cells
- Muscle cells that don’t repair as easily
- Changes in hormone levels that account for the loss of muscle fiber
- Worn out muscle cells that don’t burn calories as effectively as they once did
Bottom line? Your weight may have stayed steady over the last 30 years, but the number of optimally functioning muscle cells has not. Chances are, the percentage of muscle in your body is lower at 60 than it was at 30. And that can lead to weight gain or even contribute to diabetes - lower muscle mass means your body has to work harder to regulate glucose metabolism.
Exercise is important at any age. And Baby Boomers are a growing market at the local gym. According to an International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) survey, gym membership among the 55-plus group in the United States jumped from 1.5 million in 1987 to 9.9 million in 2007.
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