Dr. Bill Thomas, known for Changing Aging, Green Housing, and Eden Alternative, as well as his position as a professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has just given a TED Talk. Click to learn about TED Talks. Below you can listen to and watch Dr. Bill’s TED presentation, Elderhood Rising: The Dawn of a New … Continue reading
Filed under aging boomers …
Hospital Cafeterias With No Low-Sodium Options? – Low Sodium Diet, Part II
Read other Low Salt Journey installments: Senior Parents Get Started in Their 80′s: Part I, Hospital Cafeterias With No Low-Sodium Options? Part II, Making Sense of Sodium Labels and Numbers: Part III, and 5 Lessons Learned About Cutting Back on Sodium: Low-Salt Eating: Part IV. Over the past six weeks I have been in four hospital cafeterias with three different friends or family members who … Continue reading
Aging Parents and Atrial Fib
The Kevin MD blog features an interesting post about atrial fibrilliation (afib). The article, Improving Atrial Fibrillation Communication Between Doctors and Patients, provides suggestions that can help improve communication between physicians and patients with diagnosed or suspected afib. Written by Mellanie True Hills, a patient advocate from Texas, the post suggests physician/patient afib do’s and don’ts. Over 18 months, my husband’s … Continue reading
Some New iPad for Dad Readers?
Check out this Wall Street Journal blog post, A Look at iPad Users. The story shares iPad ownership stats, recently released by ComScore, including a terrific graphic that depicts iPad sales by age group. Notice the statistics for age 65 and older and then add those iPad sales to the stats for the group just below, age … Continue reading
Aging Parents, Adult Children: Caregiving and Empathy
When you have senior parents who need increasing support, empathy is critical. You try hard, and not always with success, to understand what they are experiencing. That’s called empathy. The concept of empathy has received a bit of a bad rap the past year or two with politicians actually taking the time to deliver statements … Continue reading
Multitasking and the Aging Brain
Over the past 20 years multitasking has become a common 20th and 21st Century conversation for people of all ages. Technology, especially the many things we seem to do all at once with the help of our gadgets, makes us think that we are all pretty good multi-taskers. Unfortunately, research is showing we aren’t doing … Continue reading
Medicare Projections: Congressional Budget Office
Read CBO: Seniors Would Pay Much More For Medicare Under Ryan Plan in the Kaiser Health News. A graph using Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data depicts the costs to a Medicare beneficiary (what a person will pay) in 2022 and 2030. In the article Congressman Ryan says, “Washington has been making empty promises to Americans from a … Continue reading
Just Die Already???
Check out today’s post, No Need for Death Threats! over at Changing Aging, Dr. Bill Thomas’ blog. He snapped this picture of this magazine cover at the airport in Philadelphia. I am beginning to believe that the next 30 years will be generationally tough, not only for our parents but also for us, the adult children … Continue reading
Aging Arthritis Patients Should Keep Moving
I’ve observed quite a few people, seniors and not quite seniors, who are diagnosed with arthritis and then gradually slow down and stop moving. They stop climbing stairs and taking walks. According to a recent study this may be precisely the wrong thing to do. In 2000 the Department of Health and Human Services came … Continue reading
As We Age: Keeping In-Touch with Tech Changes
A couple of weeks ago in my post, A Gardening Product for Everyone but Great for Seniors, I wrote about a gardener’s product that I discovered — one that was modular and light-weight, thus making it easier for me to continue creating flower and herb gardens without all of the heavy lifting. The product was … Continue reading
Does Part D Stand for Deficit? Read Medicare and More Column
Many of us appear to want to as much as we can get without planning or paying for it. We hate taxes, but we want a lot done for us anyway. A distant relative says about Medicare, “I deserve every penny I get, I paid for it.” My answer, yes she deserves every penny she … Continue reading
Are Robots an Answer to Caregiving Needs?
Read Does Seamus the Robot Care for Me at the Albany Times Union. The February 27, 2011 article, by Michael Brannigan, explores the use of robots for elder caregiving. Brannigan references Sherry Turkle’s book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Ourselves, a recently published book that explores the ever-changing degrees … Continue reading
Signing Up for Medicare Online #1: Getting Started
A member of my family is about to turn 65, so he applied online for Medicare a few weeks ago. He learned about the online application process because we happened upon this Medicare public service video with people from the distant past — the Patty Duke Show cast (including both identical cousins — Patty and … Continue reading
Seeking Better Things to Buy as We Age…
A must-read article, In A Graying Population, Business Opportunity, appeared in the February 5, 2011 New York Times. Reporter Natasha Singer describes her visit to the MIT Age Lab as well as her experience wearing the Age Gain Now Empathy System (listen to an NPR system about these special suits), and she writes about the need for … Continue reading
Learning About Retinas: Aging Parents and Adult Children
You can also check out my other posts about eyes and retinas. After going through five cataract surgeries with four senior parents and listening to people fret about floaters in their eyes, I thought I knew a lot about middle age and senior eye problems. But now I know that floaters can lead to flashes which … Continue reading
Strokes Don’t Just Happen to Aging Parents
Many middle-aged adults listen to Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion commentaries on life, and a good number of us have been tuning into the radio program for 30 years or so. Few aspects of daily experience escape his humorous and sage observations — families, travel, children, politics, writing, arts — you name it, and not surprisingly, … Continue reading
Taking Your Blood Pressure? Tips from the New York Times
I’ve just finished reading the best information about taking blood pressure in a December 13, 2010 New York Times article posted in the Science section. For years I’ve wondered about some of this information, and though I take my blood pressure on a regular basis, I could never get the answers to my questions. Read … Continue reading
Another Great MedicareBlogger Post
MedicareBlogger has another posted interesting post, this time focusing on a man who wants a cheaper Medicare Advantage plan when he really needs a Medicare Supplement plan. Medicare Advantage Selling Season, a November 18, 2010 post, conveys a lot of information in a few short paragraphs.
An Alzheimer’s Statistic I Did Not Know
Writing in the October 27, 2010 New York Times, three prestigious AIDS advocates, including retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, call for a “man-on-the-moon” effort, setting a goal to stop Alzheimer’s, by the year 2020. Justice O’Connor, writing on the op-ed page along with medicine Nobel Prize winner, Stanley Prusiner (read his Nobel Price acceptance speech), and … Continue reading
Retiring Near a University? Sounds Divine!
When my parents retired to the Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community (VMRC) in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, they looked forward to the many resources available to residents — a wide range of activities, the wellness center, the beautiful campus, and much more. However, another advantage of retiring in the VMRC location was the university next door. … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 