Read The Pedometer Test: Americans Take Fewer Steps, an article by Tara Parker-Pope published in the October 19 , 2010 New York Times Well Blog. Parker-Pope describes a study, in which adults wore pedometers for two days as they went about their daily activities. In the study, Pedometer-Measured Physical Activity and Health Behaviors in U.S. Adults … Continue reading
Filed under aging boomers …
Seniors Go Places-So Get With the Accessibility Program
For a few weeks I’ve been seething about disgraceful treatment of an elderly senior friend at a memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery. Now, Dale Carter’s October 5, 2010 post over at Transition Aging Parents has encouraged me to share my frustrating experience. After an elderly colleague died, many of us gathered at Arlington National … Continue reading
Wages Going Down-Will Children and Grandchildren Have Social Security?
Commentary by Robert Reich, Lower Wages Won’t Lead to Recovery, on NPR’s Marketplace radio program. I wonder how different the world is becoming for seniors’ children and grandchildren? Lower wages mean lower or no benefits. It was all so simple in the growth-fueled years of our aging parent’s middle years, but now it’s not so simple. … Continue reading
Getting Ready for the Gray Tsunami… Staggering Statistics
The American Medical News, a publication of the American Medical Association (AMA), just published an interesting opinion piece, Coping with Baby Boomers and Staggering Statistics, by Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., a AMA board member. After the statistics, she has many ideas and recommendations for physicians, medical training, especially in relation to geriatrics information.
Palliative Care on the Diane Rehm Show (NPR)
Listen to an amazing episode of The Diane Rehm Show (NPR) that explores the recent study on palliative care in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). Diane’s guests include Dr. Jennifer Temel of the Harvard Medical School, a lead author of the study, and Dr. Diane Meier, who leads the Center to Advance Palliative Care at … Continue reading
Losing Adult Friends: In Memoriam
Part of growing into the role of adult child is understanding that life, with all its excitement, adventure, and power, is tenuous and eventually ends. I have no fear and do not spend much time thinking about this, but as one loses parents and starts moving toward the a role in the senior generation, these … Continue reading
Calcium Supplements? To Take or Not to Take?
Calcium supplements are a part of a daily regimen for many aging parents and for adult children. Most of these adults take calcium supplements to build stronger bones and avoid osteoporosis. However, new peer-reviewed research suggests that the benefits of taking calcium may be outweighed by increased risk of cardiovascular events. The July 29th edition … Continue reading
Andy Griffith Likes Medicare Too
Andy Griffith, of timeless Mayberry fame, stars in a new video celebrating the 45th birthday of Medicare, today, July 30, 2010. On this date in 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law. Griffith, now 84 years old, shares his enthusiasm for Medicare and for the upcoming improvements that will occur over the next several … Continue reading
Good-bye Daniel Schorr
Daniel Schorr died yesterday at age 93. In addition to being an amazing newsperson for more than 65 years, he also set an example for all of us — aging parents and adult children — who want to stay engaged and keep working long past traditional retirement age. Schorr experienced occasional health issues, and Scott … Continue reading
Mom and Me: Thoughts on Marginalization and Aging
From Mom to Me As we age, we are treated differently, make no mistake about it, but until I felt it myself, it never rang true. In my professional life, from time to time I observed how people are marginalized – individuals with mental illness, immigrants, international students, people of color. Now, after years in … Continue reading
Introducing… My Mom and Me: Two Perspectives
Tomorrow I will upload the first in a series of posts featuring a dialogue between my mother and me on a variety of topics that relate to aging, senior parents, and adult children. Mom and I often talk about aging issues, occasionally heatedly. Sometimes our initial perspectives diverge, but the longer we talk, the more … Continue reading
Great Review – Passages of Caregiving
Read the thoughtful review of Gail Sheehy’s book, Passages of Caregiving, at the Life With Father blog. Chuck’s writing is engaging and evocative as he describes merging caregiving responsibilities with the rest of his life. He doesn’t write often, so I regularly check and recheck my feeds, hoping for a new post.
End-of-Life: Another Form!
In the July 18, 2010 New Old Age Blog Paula Span reports on yet another form we need to fill out if we want the most control at the end of our lives. Her article, A Final Prescription describes the POLST form, though the name may be different from state-to-state. A individual completes this form … Continue reading
Healthy Aging – Our Health Histories: Deja-vu?
Yesterday I ruminated on healthy aging in my post, Thoughts on Aging: Boomers and Aging Parents, and today one of my Google alerts — one way I discover interesting information to post on this blog — pulled up a fascinating article from the New York Times. On first glance I thought it was recently published. … Continue reading
Thoughts on Healthy Aging: Boomers and Aging Parents
What can be fixed by a doctor and what can’t be fixed? What can be addressed by medication and what can’t be? We boomers only have to look around to see people we know, or maybe even ourselves, indulging in plastic surgery, tooth whitening and remodeling, and much more. Plus we have access, if we … Continue reading
Aging Parents: NIH Senior Health
The NIH Senior Health site, developed by the National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine, maintains a huge library of videos. According the website, the topics are chosen to “offer up-to-date medical information, tips for healthy living, and inspiring stories of older adults who are coping with diseases or conditions of aging.” … Continue reading
Founding Director of National Institute of Aging – Robert Butler
Today the Washington Post and the New York Times carried obituaries for Robert N, Butler, M.D., the founding director of the National Institute of Aging and a pioneer on aging research. In fact, Dr. Butler expanded the frontiers of what constituted research on the aging process and aging people. Before Dr. Butler came along gerontology … Continue reading
NICHE: Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders
A June 29, 2010 article, Preparing More Care for the Elderly, appeared in the New York Times. Written by Milt Freudenheim, who generally writes about the business aspects of health care, the piece describes how the country and our health care system can go about preparing for the huge number of people who are aging. … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 