It turns out there’s a mountain of scientific evidence that indicates walking — especially walking outdoors — is powerful medicine for your brain. Here’s what the data shows.

1. Walking may help you grow new brain cells.

Moderately paced walks stimulate the release of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, that is key to the survival of existing brain neurons and the generation of new ones. “Perhaps the most exciting finding is that aerobic forms of exercise [including walking] likely help facilitate the growth of new neurons,” says Patrick Smith, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

2. Walking may boost your creativity.

Walking increases the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the brain, which can open the gates to enhanced creativity. The brain uses “about three times as much oxygen for healthy neuron function as muscles do” and is extremely sensitive to decreases in oxygen levels, according to Advanced Neurotherapy, a neurofeedback wellness clinic in Needham, Massachusetts. Creativity is a cognitive skill that is part of problem-solving. Studies show that the simple act of getting up from your desk and taking a short walk can help trigger ideas. A Stanford University study found “creative output increased 60 percent when participants were walking,” even on a treadmill facing a blank wall.

3. Walking may enhance your mood.

When you walk, increased blood flow to the brain initiates a “cascade of changes,” says Marie Pasinski, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School. “A cocktail of feel-good neurotransmitters — serotonin, dopamine, endorphins — is released.” Forty-two percent of American adults suffer a vitamin D deficiency. Our bodies manufacture vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, furthering the production of serotonin, a hormone benefiting memory and mood. Even on a cloudy day, “exposure to light elevates the mood,” says John Ratey, M.D., associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

4. Walking may reduce the risk of cognitive decline.

Participants who walked more than 4,000 steps per day had healthier brain tissue in the area responsible for memory, learning and cognitive function than those who did not, one study found. That brain region, called the hippocampus, typically begins to shrink in late adulthood, leading not only to impaired memory but also an increased risk of dementia. The research revealed that aerobic exercise increases the size of the hippocampus

5. Walking may decrease brain-damaging stress.

Repeated exposure to stressful situations impairs memory, ­attention and cognitive flexibility. Walking in nature has been shown to be particularly effective at reducing stress levels. The impact of being outdoors may have to do with “optic flow” — the perception that objects are moving past us as we walk, which ­quiets the circuits responsible for stress, says Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford Medicine.

“Self-generated optic flow — by walking, running or cycling — shifts the brain into a state of relaxation that’s not seen when you’re stationary,” he says. Scientists have seen walking reduce levels of cortisol, which surges during fight-or-flight situations. Elevated cortisol levels may damage cognition and contribute to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a 2019 ­review of studies in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. Just a 20-minute walk has been shown to reduce stress.

Reprinted from AARP.

FIRST STEPS

Take everything out of your wallet and sort it all, with an eye to paring it way back. Remove old receipts, shopping lists, business cards, single-store credit cards that rarely get used, coffee shop punch cards that you’ll likely never fill up, and so on. If it’s not something you’ll need often or in an emergency, keep it at home.

Create a safe and secure storage system at home for the occasional wallet items you’ve removed. You can put extra cash there, too. Grab cards or items when needed, and when done with your errand, return the cards to their secure spot.

Consumer advocates advise making photocopies (or taking smartphone photos) of the front and back of all your cards, so you know whom to contact if they go missing.

THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T KEEP IN YOUR WALLET

Here are the 10 things you should remove from your wallet and store in a safe place, depending on how often you need to access them:

• Social Security card. You do not need it for daily use, and criminals could use it to open lines of credit in your name or sell it to another criminal.
• Multiple credit cards and credit card receipts. Choose one credit card and one debit card you wish to use the most, and leave the others at home. Multiple credit cards are a gold mine for criminals. They can easily charge items online or send runners to different stores.
• Checkbook, or even one blank check. The days when you might need one for a purchase are mostly in the past.
• Work ID card.
• Passport or passport card.
• List of your passwords.
• Gift card not fully redeemed.
• Birth certificate.
• Library card. It sounds benign, but a crook can always check out lots of books and sell them for a buck or two apiece, Clay warns. 
• House key. Thieves could find your address from the contents of a stolen wallet.

Reprinted from AARP.

How Long Do You Have to Keep Tax Records?

For many financial documents, just 3 years — for others, practically forever

You may be staring at a heap of paperwork when you finish filing your 2022 federal taxes, which are due April 18. Your first urge may be to sweep them all into a paper bag and put the bag under a stairwell. Don’t do that. Instead, keep only the records you need to keep. And that starts with sorting them out.

Try to stay tidy

Neat, complete, well-organized financial files speed the process of filing your tax return and can keep you from making errors. Maintaining some semblance of order after you’ve filed your return — rather than tossing it into a file cabinet or shoebox — will come in handy if the Internal Revenue Service has questions about your form.

“The biggest blunder is not being organized about what records ought to be kept,” says Neal Stern, CPA, a member of the American Institute of CPAs’ National CPA Financial Literacy Commission. “There are people who somehow believe that they should keep all of their paperwork, but they don’t think through what the important paperwork is that should be kept or how it should be kept or how it should be organized.”

People who keep too many financial papers often struggle just as much to find needed documents as those who don’t keep any files. “They end up having drawers full of old papers,” Stern says. “It’s not much better than not having the paperwork if you can’t figure out what you have and where it is.”

What to keep

For an individual tax return, you’ll need to save anything that supports the figures you entered on your return. You should keep the W-2 and 1099 forms you get from employers, for example, as well as any 1099-B or 1099-INT tax documents from banks, brokerages and other investment firms.

If you lost your job last year and received unemployment benefits from the government, be sure to keep your 1099-G form, which reports the amount you have received.

If you’re itemizing your deductions, keep receipts for these: credit card and other receipts, invoices, mileage logs and canceled checks. If you’ve bought or sold mutual fund shares, stocks or other securities, you’ll need confirmation slips (or brokerage statements) that say how much you paid for the investments and how much you received when you sold them. Keep a copy of all your investments for at least three years after you have sold them.

How long to keep it

You’ve likely heard that seven years is the perfect period to hold on to tax records, including returns. The actual time to keep records isn’t that simple, according to Steven Packer, CPA, in the Tax Accounting Group at Duane Morris.

“In most cases, tax records don’t have to be kept for seven years because there’s a three-year statute of limitations,” Packer explains. “So assuming there’s no fraud or nothing else wrong, the IRS cannot look at your tax returns beyond that three-year statute.”

The statute of limitations has some important exceptions, and if your tax return has any of these, you’ll need to keep your returns and your records longer than three years. For example, the statute of limitations is six years if you have substantially underestimated your income. The threshold for substantial understatement is 25 percent of your gross income. If you claim your gross income was $50,000 and it was really $100,000, you’ve substantially understated your income.

The six-year rule also applies if you have substantially overstated the cost of property to minimize your taxable gain. Say if you sold a piece of property for $150,000 and claimed you paid $125,000 instead of the actual $50,000, the IRS has six years to take action against you. And if you have omitted more than $5,000 in income from an offshore account, the statute of limitations is also six years.

Keep records for seven years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad-debt deduction. If you haven’t filed a return, or if you have filed a fraudulent return, there’s no statute of limitations for the IRS to seek charges against you.

“Keep a copy of the return itself,” says Henry Grzes, Lead Manager for Tax Practice & Ethics with the American Institute of CPAs. If the IRS says you didn’t file a tax return, a copy of the return itself should settle the matter.

Property records can be forever

Calculating the cost basis on property you live in is relatively simple because most people can avoid paying capital gains tax on their primary residence. If you sell your primary residence, those filing individual returns can exclude up to $250,000 in gains from taxes, and couples filing jointly can exclude up to $500,000. You must have lived in your home for at least two of the past five years to qualify for the exclusion. Even so, you’ll need to save your records of the transaction for at least three years after selling the property.

If your sale doesn’t meet the above criteria, you’ll need to keep records of significant improvements for at least three years after the sale. IRS Publication 523, “Selling Your Home,” spells out what improvements you can add to your cost basis — and reduce your capital gains bill. The same holds true for rental property.

Most brokerages will compute your cost basis for stocks, bonds and mutual funds, although they are only to calculate your cost basis for stock transactions since 2011 and mutual funds since 2012. It’s a good idea to keep all your transaction records, however, in case you change brokers. Your broker is not obligated to hold your records indefinitely. In addition, keep records of any inherited property and its value when the owner died, which will become your tax basis.

If you’re a long-term investor, you could have a long-term headache trying to find the buy ticket for a stock you bought in 2003. “When you finally sell a piece of property what you paid for it 20 years ago, like to have something to prove to the IRS [about your cost basis], says Mark Luscombe, principal analyst at Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting.

There’s nothing wrong with saving your records longer than the legal limits if it gives you peace of mind and you can stand the clutter. You might consider storing some records in the cloud — remote computer storage space that you rent.

Although many people keep paper records, it’s also smart to have the documents converted to electronic files and stored in the cloud. It’s a good idea to have two sets, in case one is destroyed. Finally, remember that your state may have separate rules for keeping records; check with your accountant or state tax department. 

Reprinted from AARP

Colorectal cancer may not cause symptoms, particularly at first. Someone can have colon cancer or rectal cancer  and not know it. That’s why every person should get screened starting at age 45. People at higher risk may need to get checked earlier, according to their risk factors.  

Screening (testing for colorectal cancer) is the No. 1 way you can prevent colon cancer and rectal cancer. 

With screening, colorectal cancer is one of the most preventable cancers. Colon cancer and rectal cancer are also highly treatable if caught early. That’s why on-time screening is essential and lifesaving. Screening should begin at age 45. 

Symptoms of colorectal cancer may include: 

Changing bowel habits 

Changing bowel habits may include intermittent or constant diarrhea and/or constipation, a change in the consistency of your stool, or stools that are more narrow than usual.

Persistent abdominal discomfort

Abdominal discomfort may present as cramps, gas, or pain. You may also feel full, bloated, or like your bowel is not completely empty. Nausea and vomiting can also be a symptoms.

Rectal bleeding

Blood in or on your stool is a symptom of rectal cancer and colon cancer. The blood can be bright red, or the stool may be black and tarry or brick red.

Weakness and/or fatigue 

Weakness and/or fatigue may be a sign of colorectal cancer. Weakness and/or fatigure may be accompanied by anemia or a low red blood cell count.

Unexplained weight loss

A loss of weight for no known reason should always be investigated. Nausea and/or vomiting are also possible symptoms.