Positive Life NSW

New research shows that simply by doing activities such as solving puzzles, pulling out the Monopoly board, or even indulging in a spot of disco dancing, HIV+ people can improve their quality of life and live longer. Greg Page puts on his ruby slippers to skip down the yellow brick road to find out more.

For many of us life can be effectively divided into two parts – one where we look forward to growing up and getting old enough to do things that “the grown-ups” do. The other half is where we fear growing old and wish we could do what “the youngsters” do. Ain’t life a giggle?!

With the onset of ageing comes a variety of questions, dilemmas and sometimes problems. Not all of them are to do with having to wear incontinence pads, switch on hearing aids or avidly listening to talkback radio either. Of course with the added weight of being HIV+, ageing can present even more “issues”, as per Fountainlakes’ foxymorons Kath & Kim.

According to a Canadian report “Neurocognitive Impairment, HIV & Ageing” by Maggie Atkinson(1), up to 30% of HIV+ people on anti retrovirals may experience some cognitive impairment. This can include problems in attention, memory, speed of cognitive processing and fine motor skills.

What does this mean in real terms? Should we all just call it a day, call a cab and shuffle off to the nearest rest home and lay down for an eternal nanna nap? Well, no, actually, but it does mean that we should all at least prepare for the fact that sometime in the future we may have difficulty with our memory, have trouble remembering names, misplace items, forget details of conversations and so on.

So what can we do to stave off this somewhat inevitable decline?

Not surprisingly, all the things that we should all already be doing – such as not smoking, keeping a close watch on what we eat, maintaining regular exercise in our daily life, getting plenty of rest and also making sure that we have some useful stress management in place.

Stress management is not as fancy as it may sound. Stress management really means taking a long, hard look at your life and then trying to eliminate, or at least diminish, those things which may have a negative impact on your good health and well-being.

Let’s start with what you shove in your mouth. It may be a bit of a strain at first, but it’s recommended that your diet consists mainly of as little fat as possible (i.e. keep your hands off those donuts now!!), no extra salt, cutting back on coffee and alcohol and instead filling your meals with fruits, vegetables, beans, soy, fish and whole grains. We’ve all seen MasterChef now, so none of us has an excuse for not being able to whip up a healthy cordon bleu style culinary treat that isn’t dripping lard or doused in sugar. Bon appétit!

Exercise is also recommended on a daily basis with a mix of cardio, resistance training (i.e. lift those weights now!) and stretching such as yoga or Pilates. Also of use is adding Vitamin D to your daily intake. Yes, pill-popping can be a good thing! Who knew?

What’s going to be the instant benefit of all of this, besides finally being able to see your toes and then touching them? Well, you’ll see a noticeable decrease in your cholesterol and sugar levels, which is always a good thing, and you’ll also be doing your body a bloody good favour.

Fitness doesn’t need to be simply restricted to the body either, it’s also vital that you exercise and stretch your biggest muscle and, no, we’re not talking about what’s in your pants. This is about that big lump of grey mass often idling between your ear holes. It’s recommended that you engage in formulating a “brain fitness” plan for yourself, be it doing crosswords, puzzles, or challenging yourself at various games or equations (if that’s the kinda currazy numbers-crunching person you might be). Research proves that by exercising your mind you’re likely to see a 131% - yes, 131%!!! – increase in brain processing speed. Your memory will also be improved by roughly ten years and you’ll be more able to do the tasks asked of you. You’ll also see numerous other positive benefits, such as improved hearing, better handwriting and, perhaps best of all, a major boost in self-confidence. And you thought this was all a lot of talk about nothing. Pah!

What is also recommended is to go and do those things that you’ve always wanted to, but just never found the time before. Perhaps for one or more reasons (or boyfriends) you got distracted from your aims. Now is the time to reclaim that space, people. Taking up an instrument (a musical one, we mean!) has real therapeutic value, as does learning a language. Even such simple things as doing jigsaw puzzles, juggling balls, taking up macramé, knitting, or playing bridge can be useful noggin-boosters.

Perhaps the easiest thing to incorporate into your lifestyle, and which you may have given up on some years ago after putting away your disco slippers, is to dance. Learning new dance steps, or just simply getting “into the groove” on regular occasions, has been shown to improve the life expectancy of all people, especially HIV+.

So, in a nutshell, if you improve your quality of life, you’ll need to eat more nuts, play mind games and dance yourself silly. That’s not too big an ask now, is it? Because if you really want to start living your life, and enjoying some improved quality of life, it’s truly time to tango. See you on the dancefloor!

1. For more information visit: www.hivandrehab.ca/FR/AGA2009/slides/NeurocognitiveImpairmentHIVandRehab...