Life Done Right™

It happens at some point: you work for hours and hours on a project, save it to your handy flash memory stick, and then suddenly when you go to print it out later, it’s gone. Vanished. Poof. Like it never existed in the first place. The thought of reproducing hours of work can be so [...]

“They’ll do anything to avoid paying, because if they wait long enough, they know the policyholders will die.”
Insurance companies suck, no doubt about it. They get you to buy an intangible product on the promise that if something should go wrong, don’t worry, we got you covered. As they always like to say in their [...]

The bad news: The Picker Institute Europe for the Patients’ Association recently concluded that a whopping two out of five patients in nursing homes were in constant pain. That’s a whole lot of suffering that sure seems like it could be alleviated by some good prescription drugs. But since the vast majority of people are [...]

Five million people currently have Alzheimer’s Disease, a form of dementia that mucks up the brain chemistry required to make the rest of your body work. This is the first article I’ve read that suggests this disease is in fact a disease and not some rite of passage that comes with growing older. Is this [...]

Imagine sitting in your bed, smelling smoke, seeing flames, and then realizing because you’re old and infirm, there’s no way you’ll get out of the building alive. Such was the case in a Russian nursing home. A night watchman ignored two alarms and the building went up in flames, killing 62 people. Life can be [...]

Would you want to know at a young age if you were going to suffer Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, or some other terrible genetic mutation when you got older? Now that the Genome is pretty much mapped, the ability to test for particular diseases is going to become more common. The fallout from learning about [...]

The glory days of being an NFL superstar may make for a great conversation starter at cocktail parties, but beware, all those hits to the head may turn your brain to mush, Alzheimer’s mush. A couple of NFL wives got together and pressured the NFL to pay for a program called the 88 Plan, which [...]

Biology is always asking which has a greater influence on humans: nature versus nurture. A couple of gerontologists set out to answer this question by examining the relationship between housing and a senior’s well-being.
Specifically they wanted to know how the quality and type of living situation contributes to a sense of well-being and sense [...]

The one complaint I hear over and over again from people living in nursing homes is they hate the fact that everyone in the place is old! They can’t stand it. Without a cross-section of life, every day living gets stale and repetitive — the last thing a person needs if they’re going to keep [...]

Susan Berg is the Activities Director at the Hunt Nursing Home in Danvers, Massachusetts. She’s been working around some of the 4.5 million people with dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease and learned a few things that might help other caregivers. Photographs, it turns out, provide an excellent source of stimulating the memory of those with Alzheimer’s [...]

A stroke has a way of disabling certain features of the human body like hand movements. Humans being humans, with the ability to think, have turned to robotic therapy as a way to improve the situation instead of living in deprivation. Check out HOWARD, an acronym for Hand-Wrist Assisting Robotic Device, designed by [...]

The fun thing about science is anyone can dream up an experiment and then test their hypothesis for its validity. With the right controls in place, even a 10-year-old just might discover his or her insight provides a breakthrough in medical knowledge.
Some researchers recently tested the idea of whether social isolation contributes to the [...]

As we move into the 21st Century, technology will play a more important role in our lives, especially in terms of keeping us alive. The future portends a variety of monitoring systems that place sensor devices around the house in order to keep track of daily life.
The system will be available online 24 hours [...]

The more you stimulate your brain, the less likely you are to suffer from cognitive impairment later in life, especially from nasty diseases like Alzheimer’s…at least that’s what a host of new companies are saying as they push their brain games into the marketplace.

Here’s a rundown of what’s out there:

Posit Science Brain Fitness Program
The Brain [...]

Actor Kirk Douglas is hitting the book tour circuit soon. His new book, Let’s Face It, offers up 90 years of living, loving and learning. The Hollywood life has been good to Kirk. New York Post’s Page Six is highlighting the “loving” part of his biography by featuring an incident involving a German airline stewardess [...]

With January almost over, it’s time to start thinking about Spring Break. Warm weather. Cool breezes. A romantic walk along the beach at sunset…and of course a wet t-shirt contest. This if for all you players in the nursing home who need a hit of sunshine!

Good news on the Alzheimer’s Disease front: researchers have discovered genetic markers that indicate a likelihood of getting the disease. Time to buy more kids chemistry sets. The earlier kids get fascinated with science, the better off the health of the world.
Having genetically screened some 6,000 people, the researchers found that in four of their [...]

For all you non-subscribers to New York magazine, buy the December 11th issue. It contains an excellent guide to elderly services in New York City. It covers all the usual suspects like nursing homes, retirement communities and advice on how live off a fixed income in an expensive city. Kudos for such a fine guide [...]

Bobby Valentino
With the AARP hot on selling Baby Boomers music, it can only be a matter of time before singers realize they can sell more music by visiting senior centers, assisted living buildings and nursing homes. Soul singer Bobby Valentino is leading the way this holiday season. So show tha brother some love!
Disturbing Tha Peace [...]

For those suffering from low vision or macular degeneration, here’s a couple of oversized TV remotes that make controlling electronic products a lot easier.

Super-Sized TV Remote
With giant buttons, this extra-large remote is easy to use and impossible to lose. Simple to program, this 6-in-1 remote controls your TV, VCR, DVD player, satellite, cable and [...]