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December 12, 2011

Tips for Baby Boomers Reaching Retirement Age in 2012

In 2012, the oldest baby boomers will turn 66, an important age for Social Security eligibility. At 66, boomers can claim the full amount of Social Security they have earned, and the penalty for working and claiming Social Security benefits at the same time disappears. Here are some retirement planning tips for those turning 66 next year. >> Read more

December 2, 2011

Baby Boomers Make Old the New Young

When I was a teenager, I viewed anyone over 30 as old. These days 30-year-olds are just kids in my book. And I venture to say that before long that ripe old age of 80 will not seem quite as ancient as I once thought. Perceptions of what constitutes old age tend to change in our individual lives as we approach those ages. >> Read more

August 24, 2011

Older People May Learn Better Through Trial and Error

If at first you don't succeed, try again -- and you may get a brain boost.

A study released today in the journal Psychology and Aging found that older people benefited from trial-and-error learning. The research paper encompassed two small studies ... >> Read more

July 26, 2011

Jerry Brown vetoes bill to help elderly, disabled

Sacramento -- Time is running out for the tens of thousands of frail, elderly and disabled Californians who currently depend on centers around the state for medical care and other support, after Gov. Jerry Brown refused to support a smaller incarnation of the decades-old program.

Brown vetoed a bill Monday that would have offered an alternative to Adult Day Health Care, which was eliminated under the budget signed last month. >> Read more

July 9, 2011

Theodore Roszak (1933-2011)

Theodore Roszak, a Berkeley writer who coined the term "counter culture," has died. He was 77.

Roszak was a social critic, cultural historian and author best known for his bestselling 1968 book, The Making of a Counter Culture. He was also a novelist and taught history at Stanford and San Francisco State University before joining the faculty at California State University, Hayward. >> Read more

June 16, 2011

How Baby Boomers Will Change Retirement Living

Watch out world, the Woodstock generation is about to move into retirement communities.

But this isn’t your grandma’s retirement community. Baby boomers want more from their communities than just bingo and shuffleboard, and will shun anything associated with growing older. >> Read more

May 4, 2011

Better Choices, Better Health™ Goes National

No-cost online workshop for people with arthritis, diabetes, heart disease and all other chronic conditions now available nationwide at SelfManage.org

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) today announced the national launch of Better Choices, Better Health™, the online version of the internationally recognized Chronic Disease Self Management Program (CDSMP). Registration for, and information about, the online workshop can be found at SelfManage.org. Offered at no-cost, spaces are limited, and availability is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Better Choices, Better Health™ is a six-week online workshop that helps people with chronic long-term conditions manage their symptoms and take control of their health. >> Read More

April 25, 2011

Amortality: Why It's No Longer Necessary to Act Your Age

If one place on earth has vanquished nature and stopped the clocks, it is Las Vegas. Built on land without water or any reliable resource apart from the blazing sun, the resort entombs visitors in the permanent, cool, jangling dusk of hotel casinos. Its skyscape positions ancient Egypt near Renaissance Venice and fin de siècle Paris. I had come to this confected city to find out if the Cenegenics Medical Institute, "the world's largest age-management practice," could subvert the laws of human biology with similar ease. >> Read More

April 3, 2011

Integrative Medicine: Dancing helps ward off dementia in older adults, studies say

Want to avoid your risk of dementia holistically? Besides controlling your weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugars and decreasing your intake of inflammatory foods, what else cand you do?

Start Dancing! >> Read More

April 1, 2011

Older adults who have sleep apnea and who are excessively sleepy in the daytime may have more than twice the risk of death as people who do not have both conditions, new research suggests.

In a study of 289 adults over age 65 without depression or dementia, the risk of death was not increased for people with sleep apnea without excessive daytime sleepiness or for those who reported only excessive daytime sleepiness without having sleep apnea, the researchers say. >> Read More

January 4, 2011

For older people, walking faster may be linked to living longer, a study finds

Time to step it up -- for older people, there may be a connection between walking at a faster pace and living longer. We first reported this study in summer 2009 when it was presented at the IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics in Paris. >> Read More

December 15, 2010

Seniors surge on social networks

Stand by, kids, Grams and Grandpop might be trying to friend you soon.
Eldercare Locator, a service of the U.S. Administration on Aging, is releasing a guide today to help older people learn about life online, from joining social networks to hooking up to Skype and exploring Google.

"We're hearing that more older people are interested," . . . >> Read More

December 8, 2010

How Doing Puzzles Can Help Senior' Sharpness

Dr. Alan Mazurek, a neurologist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Neurology at New York's, Mt. Sinai Hospital, explained to co-anchor Harry Smith how working out one part of the brain can help keep the other parts working, as well. >> Read More

November 2, 2010

Baby Boomers putting caregiving needs ahead of own needs

Baby Boomers who are caring for a loved one are putting their own health at risk from stress and exhaustion, according to a new study from Humana.

“People who ignore their personal well-being are often fine at first,” said Jean Bisio, president of Humana Cares, in a statement. “But over time the impact on one’s personal health can be seen in weight gain, fatigue, and stress-related illness.” >> Read More

October 13, 2010

One way to ward off Alzheimer's: Take a hike
Study: Walking at least one mile a day reduces risk of cognitive impairment by half

Walking about a mile a day can increase the size of your gray matter, and greatly decrease the chances of developing Alzheimer's disease or dementia in older adults, a new study suggests.

"This is the first study that really looked over a several-year span and was able to assess this," said study author Kirk Erickson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. >> Read More

August 19, 2010

Seniors: Get moving toward better health

Our society tends to protect older people from performing physical activities. "You're not as young as you used to be" is a common phrase used to encourage older adults to slow down and take it easy. According to researchers, this advice is outdated and could prove risky for older adults.

Many older adults accept loss of strength and ability to do things on their own as part of the normal aging process. The fact is that loss of strength and stamina is due in part to inactivity and lack of exercise. >> Read More

August 5, 2010

Obama administration awards $159.1 million for training geriatric-care workers

The Obama administration awarded $159.1 million in grants Thursday to educational programs that train nurses and geriatric specialists as well as those that recruit and support students from minority groups that are underrepresented in those fields. >> Read More

August 2010

We may leave childhood behind, but not our childhood selves, research finds. (Surprised?)

Chatty kids tend to become chatty adults. Roll-with-the-flow kids tend to become roll-with-the-flow adults. Impulsive kids ... humble kids ... insecure kids ... well, you can see where this is going. Personality traits tend to stick with us. >> Read More

July 28, 2010

Relationships Improve Your Odds of Survival by 50 Percent, Research Finds

A new Brigham Young University study adds our social relationships to the "short list" of factors that predict a person's odds of living or dying.

In the journal PLoS Medicine, BYU professors Julianne Holt-Lunstad and Timothly Smith report that social connections - friends, family, neighbors or colleagues -- improve our odds of survival by 50 percent. >> Read More

June 23, 2010

Promise Seen for Detection of Alzheimer’s

Dr. Daniel Skovronsky sat at a small round table in his corner office, laptop open, waiting for an e-mail message. His right leg jiggled nervously.

A few minutes later, the message arrived — results that showed his tiny start-up company might have overcome one of the biggest obstacles in diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. It had found a dye and a brain scan that, he said, can show the hallmark plaque building up in the brains of people with the disease. >> Read More

May 21, 2010

Normal Aging or Alzheimer's Disease?

(CBS) In part three of our series, "Alzheimer's: A National Crisis," CBS News Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton discussed how you can distinguish between normal signs of aging -- what we jokingly call "senior moments" -- and the serious symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. >> Read More

May 3, 2010

Dr. Oz's Longevity Plan For the 50-Plus

Dr. Oz is certainly not lacking in enthusiastic followers of his healthy living and lifestyle advice. But recently, the favorite physician focused on a new market by teaming up with AARP Magazine and creating a six-month plan for increasing longevity.

Oz, who himself is on the verge of turning the big 5-0, provided the publication, which focuses on the 50-year-old-plus population, with a regimen that features 18 stretching, strength and balance exercises, most of which can be done at home . . . >> Read More

March 30, 2010

Fulfillment at Any Age
How to remain productive and healthy into your later years

The idea that an optimistic attitude is not only correlated with but can perhaps cause people to live longer became established as scientific fact several years ago by Yale psychologist Becca Levy. In her studies of people's perceptions about the aging process, Levy found that those who held more favorable views about getting older actually lived to older ages than those who took a less sanguine attitude about their own aging. This research was a great boost to other gerontologists who, like myself, think that society's negative depiction of the aging process creates a self-fulfilling prophecy. >> Read More

Washington Examiner
February 28, 2010

Top Anti-aging foods From Around the World

From exotic juices to cans of cocktail peanuts, more and more edibles in the supermarket are being dubbed "anti-aging foods" by some marketer or media pundit. The real deal about munchies that keep you youthful? They come from the earth, not from a vacuum pack. >> Read More

February 11, 2010

Health Checkup: How to Live 100 Years

How to Live 100 Years
Don't write that down! Put your pencil away!" Agnes Buckley is trying in vain to head off an entertaining story her sisters are telling me about how she used to sneak out of the house as a teenager. (She favored boys with motorcycles.) When their father hid her shoes to keep her at home, Agnes simply bypassed the front door and leaped out the window. >> Read More


Living Long and Living Well
When explorer and longevity investigator Dan Buettner guided me into the Costa Rican rain forest last year in preparation for an Oprah show on longevity, each of the centenarians I met there greeted me with the customary "Pura vida" — variously translated as "Pure life," "Full of life" or even "This is living!" >> Read More

Longevity Drugs May Be Coming
Elixirs of youth sound fanciful, but the first crude antiaging drugs may not be so far away. To date, two compounds have sparked scientists' interest: resveratrol, a substance found in grapes, red wine and peanuts; and rapamycin, first isolated in the soil of Easter Island. Both compounds seem to work in . . . >> Read More

How Do You Spell Longevity? D-N-A
What if exceptionally long life could be brought about with a single genetic mutation? In a few very simple species, that appears o be the case, and molecular biologists are exploring ways to parlay that knowledge into something that could benefit humans. >> Read More

The Importance of Being Female
There's nothing new about the fact that women live longer than men — and nothing uniquely human about it either. The same is true in many other mammals. Japanese scientists may have new insights into why. >> Read More

February 9, 2010

Geriatrics experts discuss the upside of growing older

If you think that getting older is the beginning of the end, think again. Sure, skin loses some elasticity and joints get creaky, and maybe you can't keep your eyes open past 9:30 p.m. But even people well into their 80s are going to yoga and Pilates classes, volunteering, having sex and taking college courses. In short, getting older has its upside. >> Read More

January 28, 2010

Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: Assisted Living for Aging Parents

"Good Morning America's" new series "Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk" tackles tough topics on aging parents. And few subjects are more difficult to broach than the question of assisted living: When is it time to get your parents help or move them to a senior residence?

Elinor Ginzler, senior vice president for livable communities at AARP, offers advice on how to recognize the signs that your parents need assistance in day-to-day living, and how to talk to them about it. >> Read More

January 16, 2010

When to ask your parents for the keys

It can be a tough thing to tell a parent. First, do some research. Second, choose your words carefully. >> Read More

December 13, 2009

Technology becomes friendlier to older generations

The 75-year-old actress "was always very afraid of anything technical like that," and instead of seeking help from her children, she got a three-minute lesson from a business associate. She now has no problem with texting and regularly video chats with her granddaughter in St. Louis. >> Read More

December 2009

The Older and the New

A range of products have emerged to meet the many and diverse needs of older adults exercisers. >> Read More

November 9, 2009

Healthy lifestyle, attitude help resilient seniors stay on track

Orville Rogers can make it twice around Coppell High School's track in a little over four minutes. >> Read More

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November 27, 2011

Seniors work to close tech gap

Electronics companies trying to remove obstacles for older users.

Some people who’ve bought an iPad have been known to brag about their 4-year-olds figuring out how to use the digital tablet within 15 minutes.

There are many others with the opposite concern, trying to persuade an aging parent to try a new tech device so that they might start sharing photos, reading e-books or joining video chats.

Despite the increasing hype and widespread acceptance of technology, Americans over 65 are not leaping forward into the new digital age at the same rate as their younger counterparts. >> Read More

Social Media Websites Attract More Older Adults

A few years ago it was unfathomable to see anybody over 50 on websites like Friendster and MySpace, but that's becoming a more common sight.

More young people are seeing their parents and grandparents on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook, reports CNN. >> Read More

April 9, 2010

"Intellectual" Book Launch at AARP, Tuesday, April 20, 4-6 p.m.:

AARP is hosting a book-launch party — billed as (raise your tea cup and lift a pinky, now) an "Intellectual Exchange" for Longevity Rules: How to Age Well Into the Future. Full disclosure: This editor has an essay in these scholarly pages. But I must admit that I'm impressed by the high quality of both the book's content and design. My piece, "Will Generational Coverage Survive the Media Meltdown," seems to have crashed high tea with more than 30 other chapters, including the likes of Pulitzer Prize winner Dr. Robert N. Butler, Making of an Elder Culture author Theodore Roszak, Stanford psychologist and Long Bright Future author Laura Carstensen, and long-term care iconoclast Dr. Bill Thomas. >> Read More

December 7, 2009

What Do Baby Boomers Want From Technology?

By next year, one-third of the United States population will be over 50 years old. >> Read More

November 20, 2009

Why Grandma Should Get Online

Grandma doesn't spend much time online — but she would be better off if she did, researchers agree. >> Read More

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November 28, 2011

Life After Age 90

The 90-plus population is expected to more than quadruple between 2010 and 2050.

Living to age 90 is a worthy goal Americans are increasingly meeting. The number of people age 90 and older almost tripled from 720,000 people in 1980 to 1.9 million in 2010, according to a new Census Bureau report. And the 90-plus population is expected to more than quadruple between 2010 and 2050. Here's a look at what life is like in the United States after age 90. >> Read More

July 15, 2011

Aging America: Percentage of Children in U.S. Population Hits Record Low

Is America following the footsteps of Japan, notorious for its aging and declining population?

The 2010 U.S. Census shows a major drop in the percentage of children in the States, the Associated Press reports. Currently, people younger than age 18 take up 24% of the entire U.S. population. By 2050, the number is predicted to fall even more, to 23%, while the senior population is set to jump from 13% to 19%.

(MORE: What the World Will Look Like in 2050) >> Read More

May 12, 2011

Census: Elderly increase faster than children in Sacramento region

The number of elderly residents in the Sacramanto region grew three times as fast as the number of children during the last decade, acording to census figures released today. >> Read More

December 14, 2010

30 Cities Ranked by Retirement Readiness

The survey's bottom three has Los Angeles last, behind Indianapolis and Orlando.

Ameriprise's look at the 30 largest U.S. metropolitan areas suggests that where you live can be a factor in your readiness to retire. Scoring was based on responses to a national survey gauging attitudes and saving habits. The survey collected responses from 10,028 adults, ages 40-75, in September and October. >> Read More

September 10, 2010

Having redefined necessities, boomers face uncertain futures in retirement

What do an Internet connection, weekend getaways, professional haircuts and hair coloring, and shopping for birthdays and special occasions have in common?

They are all considered basic needs rather than luxuries by many baby boomers, a poll of 1,049 working Americans ages 45 to 65 by Harris Interactive shows.

“We have clearly expanded beyond the three traditionally thought of [as] necessities’’ >> Read More

June 14, 2010

Retirements by Baby-boomer Doctors, Nurses Could Strain Overhaul

Since the passage of the health-care law in March, much has been said about the coming swarm of millions of retiring baby boomers and the strain they will put on the nation's health-care system.

That's only half the problem. Overlooked in the conversation is a particular group of boomers: doctors and nurses who are itching to call it quits. Health-care economists and other experts say retirements in that group over the next 10 to 15 years will greatly weaken the health-care workforce and leave many Americans who are newly insured under the new legislation without much hope of finding a doctor or nurse. >> Read More

June 1, 2010

Deficit Commission Looks at Social Security

Certainly, Baby Boomers will have an impact on the future of Social Security. They're having an impact now.

Boomers are becoming eligible for government retirement benefits at a rate of 10,000 a day for the next 20 years. And, beginning in 2011, the first of the Baby Boomers will be turning 65 and becoming eligible for Medicaid benefits. >> Read More

June 29, 2009

Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality

Getting old isn't nearly as bad as people think it will be. Nor is it quite as good. >> Read More

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July 12, 2011

Boomers who work longer can get more from Social Security

Most of us aren't very good at delayed gratification, which is why so many pies mysteriously disappear before it's time for dessert. Social Security is no exception. Most seniors file for benefits as soon as they become eligible at age 62, even though that results in a permanent haircut in their monthly benefits. >> Read More

December 17, 2010

Grandparents' Giving is a Grift to Our Economy

Mary Hopp has firm beliefs about her role as a gift-giver to her seven grandchildren.

Money deposited into their 529 savings plans for college? Absolutely, on every birthday. Money frittered away buying them trinkets, gadgets or (heaven forbid) cars? Not on your life. Every Christmas, the grandchildren – ranging in age from 5 to 16 – receive books.
>> Read More

December 14, 2010

Nix Retirement Planning For ‘Longevity Planning’

Despite all the financial gloom recently, at least two experts feel it should be a time of optimism as the baby boomers and their advisors carve out a new definition of retirement.

Instead of retirement planning, people should be thinking of longevity planning, and advisors should be preparing themselves to deal with new products and services for this kind of planning.

The conclusions were reached by two financial experts who elaborated on The Hartford's 2010 Investment and Retirement Study, the fifth annual study produced by The Hartford. This year's study included 764 men and women ages 45 and up. >> Read More

November 22, 2010

Long-term Care Insurance Worries Baby Boomers

Kathy Kozakiewicz, 59, of Pheonix, decided to buy long-term care insurance after her father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. He had to wait 18 months until space opened at a local Veterans Affairs nursing home, and during that period, the family was responsible for his care. >> Read More

October 9, 2010

The Retirement Age Debate — As Social Security Reaches Insolvency, Policymakers and Politicians Debate on Raising Retirment Age from 66 to 70

Under current law, the normal retirement age — the age at which full retirement benefits are payable — is already scheduled to increase from 66 to 67 in two-month increments from 2017 to 2022. >> Read More

September 7, 2010

No retirement for these older folks, just work

The preparation before work each morning starts in a methodical fashion. By 6 a.m., Morris Wilkinson, a 91-year-old letter carrier, irons his postal worker uniform -- a crisp, collared shirt and gray slacks -- a habit he formed while in the Marines during World War II. He enjoys a hearty breakfast of eggs or pancakes with his wife. He shines his black shoes. And he's off to work.

"I'd rather work than be idle," he says one morning before heading off on his route. >> Read More

August 13, 2010

Approaching retirement, boomers still tied up in some riskier bets

Baby boomers approaching retirement may be nervous about outliving their savings — but they continue to keep most of their money in riskier investments. >> Read More

May 17, 2010

Baby Boomers' Game Plan for Retirement

Baby Boomers are "exhausted and emotionally frustrated with Wall Street." As a result, "they are doing nothing and will not be able to retire," Frank Troise from the company SoHo Asset Management told CNBC today.

Boomers were initially advised that they would see an 8 percent return in the market over 20 years. So, they built in this expectation for the long term.

When the financial crisis hit they . . . >> Read More

May16, 2010

Start planning now if you may have to care for an aging parent one day

As the nation ages, millions of adults will find they are thrust into caring for an aging parent or relative. My husband and I have just joined this group. We recently began taking care of my father-in-law, a fiercely independent, 81-year-old former military man. His basic living needs — walking, cooking, bathing, and cleaning his house — have become too hard for him.

So for now, he’s living with our family. >> Read More

Aprl 29, 2010

How the Sandwich Generation Can Ease the Money Squeeze

Raising children, adult and otherwise

The other side of the coin for those in the sandwich generation is raising children and, in some cases, supporting adult children, even up to age 30.

There are reasons why some sandwich-generation parents are helping their adult children. According to Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of Charles Schwab Foundation, some adult children have an overwhelming amount of college debt and are unemployed. But the adult children of sandwich-generation parents are dependent for other reasons as well: Some have overspent and have a tremendous amount of consumer debt. >> Read More

March 24, 2010

Planning to Retire
Increased Longevity Creates Challenges for Retirees

It’s well known that the life expectancy of citizens in developed countries has increased dramatically over the past century. This longer and healthier lifespan creates challenges for people aiming to save enough to fund their own retirement.

Increasing longevity is mainly due to public health measures which keep people healthy longer, . . . >> Read More

March 12, 2010

How to Salvage Your Retirement

Is it too late to save your retirement? For many, the answer is surely yes. News out this week shows that 29% of those who have already retired have saved nothing at all to support themselves, while only a third have saved at least $50,000.

To put this in context: A retirement account of $50,000 will provide a 65-year-old man with an annuity of just $4,000 a year. >> Read More

February 16, 2010

10 Ways Baby Boomers Will Reinvent Retirement

The baby boomers redefined each stage of life as they passed through it. This generation also will retire in a way that is distinct from their parents and will set the standard for generations to come. Baby boomers are likely to live longer, . . . >> Read More

June 16, 2009

For Boomers, recession is redefining retirement

They grow up during a time of cultural change, and now are being forced to redefine retirement at midlife. >> Read More