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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 According to researchers, this advice is outdated and could prove risky for older adults.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

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

(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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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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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

March 2, 2010

Middle Boomers: A Separate Demographic Group
New MetLife Study Examines Differences Among the Baby BoomersFor decades, American Baby Boomers have been characterized as a bloc of people who think and act as one monolithic generation. However, recent data from the MetLife Mature Market Institute(R), show that Young, Middle and Older Boomers grew up during disparate "eras" and are now at different stages in their lives. They should, perhaps, be treated as separate demographic groups.

In both a series of Demographic Profiles and a new study, The MetLife Study of Boomers in the Middle, facts are emerging about how distinct the segments are. >> 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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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 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 25, 2010

The Boomer
Retirement Advice: What Ward Told the Beaver About Savings
Remember when Ward taught Wally and the Beaver about savings? He gives them each piggy banks and tells them to put their spare change in them. They did, and suddenly it came time to decide what to do with their savings. hey were young, so it was OK (and funny, too) that they spent their savings outright on a sporting coat for dad, rather than open a bank account, as dad had advised.

Today we need to take Ward’s advice, Boomers. >> 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