I'm Joe Gradyton and I'm Terry Grady. Welcome to this podcast of the People's Pharmacy.

You can find previous podcasts and more information on a range of health topics at

People's Pharm pharmacy.com.

Everyone experiences loss and grief,

and most of us feel anxious or worried from time to time.

Do we need medications? This is the People's Pharmacy with

Terry and Joe Grayden. Doctors have a lot of medications to choose from when it comes to treating anxiety or

depression, but are these always the best options? What other tools do they have to help people cope with the challenges of everyday life?

Our guest today describes some of the difficulties people can experience when trying to stop anti-anxiety agents.

Are patients adequately warned about discontinuation syndrome before they start?

Do doctors explain medication side effects clearly?

Coming up on the people's pharmacy, Health Headlines, cognitive decline is not inevitable with

aging. That's the conclusion from a study of Spanish octogenarians published in the Journal of

Neuroscience. The investigators studied a group of 64 so-called super-ageers and compared them to 55 typical older adults. They gathered

both cross-sectional and longitudinal data on brain structures and cognitive ability.

In addition to tests to assess verbal skills and memory,

the volunteers went in for blood analysis and brain imaging yearly for five years.

Neither group had signs of Alzheimer's disease. The Super-Agers, however, showed

evidence of stronger connections between areas at the front of the brain. They also had more

white matter in the hippocampus

area, part of the brain that's crucial for memory. The researchers looked for

differences between the two groups. Super-Agers had better blood pressure and blood sugar control and also better

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