Sod Sitting, Get Moving! is the must-have guide to keeping fit and healthy in your sixties, seventies and beyond. Specifically designed for older adults the exercises, stretches and strengthening movements will help keep you fit, strong and supple for the years ahead. You will feel better, look better and younger and reduce your risk of disability and dementia. As we get older too many of us spend our time sitting and not exercising. This is a call to arms - a bonfire of the slippers! Walk more, get moving, get exercising, get fitter, and feel better! This handy book shows you how. With easy exercise ideas created by Green Goddess and health and fitness expert Diana Moran, with text from Sir Muir Gray, author of the bestselling Sod Seventy!, this is the perfect present for yourself, or for anybody turning sixty, seventy or eighty!

Dreaded by many people as an inevitable part of normal aging, Dementia has displaced Cancer as the most feared health problem. Cancer continues to be a serious condition, but it is often curable, and almost always treatable. In contrast, the fear of dementia is complicated by the fear of ageing, and by muddled thinking about its relationship with Alzheimer's disease. Yet, there is no reason to be disheartened. Ever-evolving scientific evidence means that we can be increasingly optimistic about the future, and on-going research shows that the problems we dread- dementia, disability and dependency- can be controlled. By taking steps to limit damage to the brain caused by stress, sleep problems, and inactivity throughout our lives, it is more than possible to substantially reduce your risk of dementia. Equally, a loss of physical fitness (which starts long before old age) is preventable. Based on research from the Optimal Ageing Programme, and full of practical, evidence-based advice on managing the major risk factors underpinning dementia, this book will inspire readers to fight back against the modern environment and negative societal attitudes. Through simple but effective lifestyle changes that anyone can make, everyone can take positive action to increase their brainability. It is never too late to change your life, reduce your risk, and live better for longer.

Screening programmes involve the systematic offer of testing for populations or groups of apparently healthy people to identify individuals who may be at future risk of a particular medical condition or disease, with the aim of offering intervention to reduce their risk. For many years, screening was practised without debate, and without evidence, but in the 1960s serious challenges were raised about many of the screening procedures then being practised. Benefits and harms of screening must be measured in high quality trials, and the benefits of screening must be weighed alongside the negative side-effects. Concerns were raised about potential and actual harm arising when people without a health problem received dangerous and unnecessary investigations and treatments as a result of routine screening tests. Controversy raged, and it took some 50 years to achieve widespread recognition that evidence-based and quality assured programme delivery was essential, coupled with provision of balanced informed to enable informed choice for potential participants. Commercially motivated provision of poor quality and non-evidence based screening tests is increasing and screening remains a highly contested topic that has relevance in all health systems including for the general public and media. This book serves as a practical and comprehensive guide to all aspects of screening. Following the international success of the first edition, this second edition brings extensive updates and new case study material. The first section deals with concepts, methods, and evidence, charts the story of screening back to 1861, and covers all aspects of a screening programme and how to research the full consequences. The second section is a practical guide to sound policy-making and to high quality delivery of best value screening. The controversies, paradoxes, uncertainties, and ethical dilemmas of screening are explained, and each chapter is packed with examples, real-life case histories, helpful summary points, and self-test questions. Reference is made to the NHS, a leader in screening, but the primary focus is on universal principles, making the book highly relevant across the globe.

How eliminating "risk illiteracy" among doctors and patients will lead to better health care decision making. Contrary to popular opinion, one of the main problems in providing uniformly excellent health care is not lack of money but lack of knowledge-on the part of both doctors and patients. The studies in this book show that many doctors and most patients do not understand the available medical evidence. Both patients and doctors are "risk illiterate"-frequently unable to tell the difference between actual risk and relative risk. Further, unwarranted disparity in treatment decisions is the rule rather than the exception in the United States and Europe. All of this contributes to much wasted spending in health care. The contributors to Better Doctors, Better Patients, Better Decisions investigate the roots of the problem, from the emphasis in medical research on technology and blockbuster drugs to the lack of education for both doctors and patients. They call for a new, more enlightened health care, with better medical education, journals that report study outcomes completely and transparently, and patients in control of their personal medical records, not afraid of statistics but able to use them to make informed decisions about their treatments.