Reader\'s Digest Canada - 10.2019

News from the

WORLD OF

MEDICINE

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BY Samantha Rideout

STEPS FOR A LONGER LIFE

A lot of wearable fitness devices come with a

default goal of 10,000 steps per day. It’s a nice,

round number and a realistic aim for many people,

but it’s also arbitrary. A large observational study

of older women (average age 72) found that com-

pared to taking 2,700 steps per day, even just

increasing to 4,400 steps was associated with a

41 per cent lower risk of death during the next four

years for this group. The risk continued to decrease

until around 7,500 steps, at which point it levelled

off. So even if 10,000 is out of reach for you, setting

a more modest goal might still be worthwhile.

A Lesser-Known

Reason for

Hallucinations

Vision or hearing loss

leaves the brain short on

input. Sometimes, it fills

in the blanks with hal-

lucinations such as geo-

metric patterns or

music. This phenom-

enon, known as Charles

Bonnet Syndrome

(CBS), is not a psychotic

disorder; in other words,

the people who have it

realize that what they’re

seeing or hearing isn’t

real. CBS may affect up

to 15 per cent of people

with low vision. Aware-

ness of it is growing and

experts are emphasizing

the importance of dis-

tinguishing it from

other causes of hallu-

cinations. Unlike men-

tal illnesses such as

schizophrenia, CBS

does not respond to

antipsychotic medica-

tions. Instead, what

patients need is reassur-

ance that their condition

is benign, if disconcert-

ing. Talk therapy can

help them come to

terms with it.

reader’s digest

28 october 2019