SAFEGUARD YOUR SENSES FINE-TUNING THE FUTURE

Transcription

1 SAFEGUARD YOUR SENSES FINE-TUNING THE FUTURE

2 We all rely very much on our senses to accomplish our goals each day. A chef relies on the senses of sight, smell and taste. A firefighter relies on sight, touch and smell. A mother relies on all of her senses. How do your senses influence you each day? 2

3 Brain Sense We experience the world around us through sound, light, smell, taste and touch. Without your five senses you couldn t watch the sunset, smell the grass after rain, taste those juicy strawberries, listen to the lapping ocean or enjoy a calming massage. Well-functioning senses not only enable you to have a better quality of life, they promote longevity by allowing you to remain more active and independent. Your brain controls your senses, so by looking after them you ll be helping your brain to stay healthy too. Introduction 3 Seeing is believing 5 Sound as a bell 7 Stay in touch 8 Smell the roses 9 A taste for something 10 3

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5 01 Seeing is believing The brain uses the eyes to process and determine a host of activities, including seeing rainbow colours, the smile on a child s face and the moon in the night sky. What a one-dimensional world it would be without vision. Maintaining healthy eyes and therefore vision, is crucial to optimising brain function. There are many things that you can do to look after your eyes; here s our top six: 1 Eat fish to reduce your chance of macular (parts of the eye s retina) degeneration by 40 percent; cut down on your intake of saturated fats and sugars both are linked to the development of eyesight problems; and eat more green leafy vegetables to enhance retina health. 2 Stay active. Regular exercise can reduce the risk of agerelated macular degeneration by up to 70 per cent. 3 Have your eyes checked every year or two to screen for glaucoma and other debilitating conditions. Undergo regular screening for diabetes and high blood pressure, conditions that can cause chronic and incapacitating eye problems if left untreated. 4 Reduce sun exposure and risk of cataracts by wearing a wide-brimmed hat and sunglasses when in the sun. 5 Give up smoking, which contributes to degenerative conditions of the retina the seeing layer at the back of the eye. 6 Be careful while cooking. Watch for splatters from boiling water and oil, and take care when you remove the lid from the popcorn pot! Did you know? Our eyelashes protect our eyes from dust, dirt and other airborne organisms. Our eyelashes protect our eyes from perspiration. Our eyelids protect our eyes from foreign bodies, exposure to light and help to keep moisture in the eye. 5

6 Your auditory system is not only responsible for your hearing, it also helps you to keep your balance 6

7 02 Sound as a bell The pleasure of listening to your favourite music, hearing your loved ones speak or appreciating the gentle lapping of waves is precious. Unfortunately, hearing loss is common and one in three people over the age of 65 has enough hearing loss to interfere with daily communication. Tinnitus, the sensation of ringing or buzzing in the inner ear, is a symptom that commonly accompanies many varieties of hearing loss. It is thought that as much as 50 percent of progressive hearing loss may have a genetic base. That means that for the other 50 percent, there are positive steps that you can take to protect your hearing. Here are our top tips for maintaining acute auditory function: Treat ear problems promptly and get a referral to an audiologist if you develop ringing in your ears or other hearing deficits. Avoid going to loud music venues more than twice within 24 hours (consider protecting your hearing by wearing ear plugs if you do!) and always wear industrialstrength earmuffs when using noisy equipment. Don t clean your ears with cotton-buds, as this may cause infection and push wax on to the eardrum, which will dull sound. Avoid air travel when suffering from a cold as this may severely compromise your eardrums. Turn down your ipod or other listening device and don t use them for more than six hours per week. Hearing is fundamental not only for optimal brain function, but to your whole quality of life. Protect this sense and you ensure that your brain hears precisely what it should. 7

8 03 Stay in touch The sensation of touch is experienced all over the body and is arguably the most significant of our five senses. Touch enables us to interpret the world around us from the breeze on our skin to the taste and temperature of the food that we eat and make choices which help us to survive. Nerve receptors in the skin send electrical messages through the central nervous system to the cerebral cortex in the brain, which interprets these electrical codes. Damage these nerve receptors and you compromise the brain s ability to recognise pain and pressure; to discern hot and cold. To safeguard your sense of touch and the brain s ability to correctly interpret the outside environment, you need to protect the sensitive nerve endings and touch receptors located in your skin; particularly in your hands, lips, face, neck, feet and tongue. There are about 100 touch receptors in your fingertips, so take care to avoid accidents. Simple measures include using a chopping knife carefully, wearing thermal gloves when handling hot food, placing safety guards on saws and closing heavy car doors with care. Adopting strategies such as wearing a mouth guard when playing sport and putting on protective shoes when mowing the lawn will help protect your touch sensation in the lips, face, neck, feet and tongue. There are five types of touch sensation: cold, heat, contact, itch and pain. As we age, our skin becomes more delicate and less supple. This change reduces our sensitivity to pain and temperature. Our sense of touch can also be affected by poor circulation and some medications, so care needs to be taken to avoid injuries such as burns or cuts that we might not respond to as quickly as we did when younger. 8

9 04 Smell the roses An impaired or loss of sense of smell is known as anosmia. Smell and taste determine flavours, and loss of sense of smell and of taste will mean you cannot determine what is salty, sweet, bitter or sour. Although loss of smell can be a symptom of a serious condition it is one of the earliest symptoms of Alzheimer s, Parkinson s and some other neurodegenerative diseases it can be temporarily caused by the common cold, hayfever or irritation of the mucous membranes in the lining of the inside of your nose. Our sense of smell is also one of the first things to be eroded when impacted by a head injury or stroke and can be dulled by smoking and nasal congestion. There are a number of simple things that you can do to maintain a keen sense of smell. Did you know that eating foods which are high in zinc is crucial to maintaining your sense of smell? Zinc is an important mineral that can be found in oysters and other seafood, lamb and yoghurt. Always protect against nose impact injuries by wearing a seatbelt and use a helmet with a mouthguard when playing such sport as cricket. Also, when you eat stimulating foods like curries, horseradish, cinnamon and spearmint, you arouse the trigeminal nerve which affects smell. 9

10 05 A taste for something Taste begins in the mouth, where each of us has between 5,000 and 10,000 taste buds. Each taste bud contains 50 to 100 taste receptor cells brain cells called neurons that transmit taste information. Taste and smell are inextricably linked. Our olfactory system works in tandem with our sense of taste to provide us with the flavours of foods and beverages. If people lose their sense of smell, they often feel that they have also lost some of their ability to taste, even though their taste buds are still responding normally. If a person perceives less flavour in their food while chewing and swallowing, that usually reflects a problem not with taste but with smell. Much of what we taste in food is actually odour sensed in the back of our noses. The sense of taste affects individual food choices and eating habits. It may therefore play a significant role in overeating and in the rising incidence of obesity, diabetes, and related disorders. Dental health is significant when considering your sense of taste, as teeth and taste work together to feed vital information to the brain. Therefore, for healthy teeth brush at least twice a day, treat gum problems, visit your dentist every 6-12 months for a clean and check-up, limit acidic and sugary foods, and use salty rinses instead of mouthwashes. Be mindful of very hot foods and fluids. A burnt tongue can damage your taste buds. IT MAKES SENSE Today is the day to start looking after your senses. We have outlined the simple tips in this booklet so that you may begin a lifelong practice of safeguarding your senses to enhance your future sensory health. The Neurological Foundation acknowledges wellbeing.com.au and writer Stephanie Osfield for their permission to reproduce content for this brochure. 10

11 THE NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION is an independent body and charitable trust that raises funds to ensure this country s top neuroscientists and clinical researchers can continue leading-edge research into neurological disorders. The Foundation shares a noble vision with these researchers: to progress significant advances in the prevention and cure of neurological disorders; one day, this will greatly reduce the level of suffering and premature death from diseases of the brain and nervous system Alzheimer s, Parkinson s and Huntington s diseases, migraine, stroke and multiple sclerosis to name just a few. The Foundation also funds valuable educational initiatives such as Brain Awareness Week, and regularly provides its members and the wider public with information about the latest advances made in neurological disorder prevention and research. If you would like to know more about the work of the Neurological Foundation, or to ask for information about neurological conditions or support groups, contact our national office or visit our website Copyright of this booklet is reserved by the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand. Copies may be made, provided the source is acknowledged and there is no profit involved. 11

12 66 Grafton Road, Grafton, Auckland 1010 PO Box , Auckland City Hospital, Auckland 1148 Phone Fax Freephone 0508 BRAINS ( ) BY LEAVING A GIFT IN YOUR WILL TO THE NEUROLOGICAL FOUNDATION This information booklet has been produced with the generous support of the Ted & Mollie Carr Endowment Fund, proudly administered by Guardian Trust. Progress through research