sacredhands on Sep 26th, 2007Cancer Treatment in the Future A Scary Science Fiction Story
Aside from war, starvation, lack of fresh water, and idiot heads of state, add lack of treatment centers for the near future elderly population. The size of the Baby Boomer generation has some health care folks worried. Imagine the expense of treating cancer in a rapidly expanding senior population. If you thought GM’s health care [...]
sacredhands on Sep 21st, 2007Elderly Seniors Attracted to Suicide as Choice of Checking Out
Elderly suicide rates by state for 1999-2004
Imagine coming home from work to find this on your grandmother’s door: “Don’t come in by yourself. Get somebody to come with you. Sorry, Love Beale.” 72-year-old Anne Beale Golsan had shot herself in the head. Depression is usually a lifelong condition. Whether it leads to someone deciding [...]
sacredhands on Sep 18th, 2007Autumn Series on Aging American Society on Aging
Autumn Series on Aging American Society on Aging
Continuing education for Professionals who work with older adults and their families
East Coast
Philadelphia, September 17-20, 2007
West Coast
San Francisco, October 8-11, 2007
sacredhands on Sep 15th, 2007Age Old Questions Put Off By Baby Boomers
Older women love hearing how they don’t “look their age.” Why, with all that plastic surgery and collagen injections, why should you. The ability to live longer though brings with it a complicated set of questions that need to be addressed. The facts about how much longer you are going to live offer a good [...]
sacredhands on Sep 13th, 2007Exercise and Diet Rejuvenate Your Brain and Genes
For those who still need convincing that exercise and the right diet make a difference, indulge yourself and read about how these activities can increase your longevity. If you’re a miserable person by nature, though, then sorry, hit the ground and give us fifty push-ups.
Bigger Brains, Better Genes
sacredhands on Sep 4th, 2007Men Less Likely to Call 911 After Suffering MAjor Heart Attack
A recent Minnesota study discovered that gender differences accounted for the fact “that 37% of men from rural communities arrived at a hospital in an ambulance, compared with 49% of rural women” when suffering from a major heart attack. Men, apparently, have a harder time admitting something is wrong. Whatever the hang up, get over [...]
sacredhands on Sep 4th, 2007Smokers Over 55 Fifty Percent More Likely to Develop Dementia
Research fact: “Smokers over the age of 55 were 50 percent more likely to develop dementia than similar nonsmokers.”
For those of you who smoke, we suggest buying some long term care insurance for the bleak future. You do have a mind. Exercising it is optional, of course, and your democratic right.
Study finds smokers have [...]
sacredhands on Aug 30th, 2007Gene Therapy Kapows Alzheimer’s Disease Cells
New Alzheimer’s disease research suggests gene therapy might reverse the disastrous damage done by Alzheimer’s disease. The cure for this bastard condition seems within reach. Whether it turns out to be merely a mirage or actually restores the mind to its rightful condition is up to the researchers. Let’s hope it works. There’s too damn [...]
sacredhands on Aug 23rd, 2007Cerebral Response to Own Name in Vegetative State
There’s an article in Neurology that, I’m sorry, we just could not rouse ourself to finish: “Cerebral Response to Patient’s Own Name in the Vegetative Conscious State.” Don’t let our lack of enthusiasm stop your curiosity, though.
Neurology
sacredhands on Aug 23rd, 2007Caffeine Drinking Women Juice Their Aging Memory
The dark side of aging is the fact that memory takes a rain check but fails to honor its promise of recall. A name or face that was as familiar as a hundred dollar bill burning a hole in your pocket suddenly vanishes on the spot. Can anything be done about this tragedy? Researchers have [...]
sacredhands on Aug 23rd, 2007Sexually Active Seniors Boinking Like Bobbleheads
Okay, fess up. Somebody participated in a study of sexually active older adults. The study was just published and reveals that 3005 U.S. adults (1550 women and 1455 men) 57 to 85 years of age were queried about how often they felt the urge and whether they had any, um, performance problems. The oddest part [...]
sacredhands on Aug 21st, 2007Color Pink is in the Eye of the Female Beholder Says Little Boy Blue
What makes the human mind so fascinating is its ability to ask a simple question and then set out to find an answer. Being able to dream up a great hypothesis has done more for the progress of humankind than any other form of intellectual endeavor. So it should come as no surprise that a [...]
sacredhands on Aug 13th, 2007Marc Andreessen Ponders Relationship Between Age and Productivity
Marc Andreessen, the guy who developed the Netscape web browser back in the early days of the internet, must be feeling his age because he has a blog entry on the relationship between age and productivity. This was a hot topic a couple of months ago (see below). But like any good scientist, Marc did [...]
sacredhands on Aug 12th, 200740 Percent of All Household Assets are Retirement Assets
For those who like numbers, the Investment Company Institute has determined that “almost 40 percent of all household financial assets are retirement assets.” What’s that mean? Baby Boomers are saving more than doomsayers say they are. Now get back in your boat this Sunday and try catching that mythical monster in the lake with your [...]
sacredhands on Aug 12th, 2007Pancreatic Cancer Inheritance Makes For a Malignant Family Tree
The crap shoot known as life is fraught with terrible odds for those who harbor a sketchy set of genes. One day you’re enjoying a Broadway play in New York and the next day you might find yourself in the emergency room being rushed off to surgery to remove a cancerous growth or unblock some [...]
sacredhands on Jul 12th, 2007Hearing Loss in Baby Boomers Makes Music Mute
It sucks to be single these days, especially if you’re sipping wine at a bar. Chances are the din in the room is wreaking havoc on your ability to hear anything! Given your early rock ‘n’ roll days, it’s not surprising. Those loud decibels battering your ears were doing more than make your crotch pulse; [...]
sacredhands on Jul 11th, 2007Cancer Patterns Distinctive to Asian-Americans
Gather round the genetic pool if you are Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean or Japanese. A large scale study of cancer prevalence among these ethnic groups has churned out a distinctive pattern of incidence. Not great news, but at least you don’t have to stand on the diving board and wonder how deep the cancer [...]
sacredhands on Jul 11th, 2007Seniors Over 65 Don’t Get the Joke Har Har
Why did the rooster cross the road? Because he forgot she was a chicken. Is that a joke or just a jumble of words? For those of you over 65, the joke’s on you! New research shows that those over 65 have “greater difficulty with cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and short-term memory” when it comes [...]
sacredhands on Jul 10th, 2007SIRTRIS Hoping Wine Resveratrol Targets Genes that Control SIRT-1 Aging
One of the best things about being a human being is having a mind that can formulate concepts out of thin air. When an entrepreneur read about how reserveratrol, which is found in red wine, influences the aging process, the money-making wheels started spinning. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals was formed and they are working their asses off [...]
sacredhands on Jul 9th, 2007Baby Boomers Break Bicycles Over Golf Crumbs
Love statistics? Get this: “People ages 45 to 64 account for 20% of all those over age 7 who rode a bike at least six times last year, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. That’s up from 13% a decade ago.” It sure explains why the roads in The Berkshires are constantly cluttered with [...]