Health and Wellness
Chronic Conditions of People Living in Residential Care
What are the most common chronic medical conditions of people who live in residential care facilities, including assisted living communities? This graph depicts the 10 most common chronic conditions of residential care residents. The data come from a …
Full Story »Teens Teach Seniors Tech
Many of us know that our parents are eager to learn a lot about technology. My parents enjoy attending computer classes at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Virginia — and they learn a lot at these classes. Read Teens Teach Seniors How to Use Compu…
Full Story »New Report on Treating Depression in People with Parkinson’s
Some of the newer antidepressants can help treat depression in people with Parkinson’s without aggravating other disease symptoms, according to a new report published in the April 17 issue of Neurology.
In the study, 115 people with Parkinson’s r…
Full Story »Aging Abundantly Founder Points to New Look at Aging
I am tiring of “the boomers are coming” dire warnings that seem to be everywhere. Boomer bashing is nothing new — it’s been going on since it became clear that the demographic cohort would be a large one. Yes there are pro…
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Dying Well: A conversation with Dr. Ira Byock
Check out Dr. Ira Byock on the latest episode of Prime Time Radio explaining how to ensure the best possible care for those we love who are dying. In his book, “The Best Care Possible”, Byock emphasizes we must not only remake our healthcare system, we must also move past our cultural aversion to talking about dying and acknowledge the fact of mortality. It turns out, Byock argues, that we all must eventually balance the length of our life with the quality of our life.
Full Story »Want a Little Inspiration? Check Out 86-year-old German Gymnast Johanna Quaas!
It’s no wonder this video has been viewed over two million times! I couldn’t do what Johanna does, even when I was 20 years old:
Want to see just a little more?
You go, girl!
Full Story »Banishing Exercise Guilt
The concern of this blog is the overall idea of getting old. Drilling down a bit, that means “what it is really like” to do so because there is hardly any place to find the truth about it.
Among the realities of aging is health. Our bodies mostly serve us well for many decades. But as they age, parts wear out, things go wrong. What doesn’t kill us, can limit our choices and what we once did with ease can become problematic.
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Building Bridges Offers Experiential Youth Track at International Conference
At each Eden Alternative International Conference, we get a chance to take a fresh look at culture change as a community issue. Through Building Bridges, Elders and youth, ages 11 to 15, come together to learn more about each other and the value of reframing aging and attitudes about care.
Full Story »Phyllis Richman: Singing, Dancing, Moving
On May 3, 2011, beloved former Washington Post food critic Phyllis Richman — like me, a Person with Parkinson’s – wrote a piece for her old paper. In that article, she questioned why Michael J. Fox – arguably our country’s most well-known PWP …
Full Story »Sample Exercise Routine – National Institute on Aging
Exercising on a regular basis is a challenge for everyone. Older seniors, so busy with lots of daily activities, may need encouragement and support aimed at motivating them to make exercise one of those daily activities. In October 2011 the National In…
Full Story »Time, Time, Time, Time, Time, Time…
Just like many adult children, I am in the habit of worrying about time. Whenever I have a lot of things on my plate, which is quite often, I become frustrated about not having enough — time, that is. Then I get even more frustrated because every…
Full Story »Add Depression to the List of Ailments that Curcumin Might Help Fight
In my initial post on curcumin (the active ingredient in the spice turmeric), I noted that recent studies had found it promising for combating:
Alzheimer’s
Parkinson’s
MS
Cancer
Arthritis
Diabetes
As if those results weren’t enough, I just ca…
Caballo Blanco
My wife has a way of saying, “Oh no!” that causes my heart to jump, because when she says it in this one certain way it usually means one of three things: death, destruction or property taxes. This past Sunday I heard, “Oh no!” and my heart sank, without even knowing why it was sinking.
When I responded with my usual, “What?” She said, “The Born to Run guy died.” At first I thought she was talking about the author of the book, Christopher McDougall. Instead, it was the central character (and he was a character), Caballo Blanco. My heart then knew why it was sinking.
Full Story »5 Things Caregiving Employees Should Know
Home & FamilyCompanies are beginning to realize that their eldercare programs—if they even have them—need to be ramped up to better accommodate caregiving employees. And if they don’t, they should get cracking. According to Society for Human Resource Management, the number of employers offering eldercare referrals has taken a dive, from 22 percent in 2007 to 9 percent in 2011. That’s a problem. According to an AARP report, U.S. companies lose more than $33.6 billion a year in lost productivity from full-time …
Longevity and Life Expectancy
Young and Old Most readers of this blog, like Carol, Judi, and I, are or have been caregivers of aging parents. That means we have seen firsthand the aging process and its result. Our loved ones experienced decline that tended to progress over an e…
Full Story »Tribes of Eden — by Dr. Bill Thomas — Book Launch
Click on the image or visit Changing Aging, the site of Dr. Bill Thomas, to learn about his new book, Tribes of Eden, which comes out this week. Dr. Thomas’ post tells about the activities that will celebrate the book’s launch, but it’…
Full Story »Green House Construction Update at VMRC – April 3, 2012
A few weeks ago I spent a day with my parents, and I checked out the Green House Homes construction at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Community. The earliest part of construction, right now after the groundbreaking, is the most challenging time for eve…
Full Story »Sugar: Sweet and… Deadly?
For decades, Americans have waged a kind of war against sugar… and successfully, too. Since the 1970s, sugar consumption is down about 40 percent.
So, mission accomplished, right?
Far from it. Enter the new culprit: high fructose corn syrup. Thi…
Full Story »A Retirement Journal: The Bottom Line
Many years ago our wonderful accountant Darv gave us the magic number. He suggested that we needed to step up our savings in order to have $500,000 put away to support us during our retirement years. Since at that moment our combined IRA’s and 40…
Full Story »86-year-old German Gymnast Johanna Quaas Outpaces Much of the World
This is pretty incredible. Check out the floor routine Johanna Quass, 86, peformed at the recent Cottbus World Cup in Germany:
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