Prime Time: A New Look At Aging

Helping with assisted living

I am quite confident that governments, hospitals and non-profits will begin helping to make assisted living easier and more attractive--it's a big money saver for them, and it's what we all want. Kind of a no-brainer, actually.

Some of the things in this video may not be relevant--but some are, and the conversation about how governments need to make it possible for companies to succeed by meeting our needs is particularly interesting.

What you can try for your next headache

Avoid abrupt changes in your daily routine, and eliminate, if you can, causes of emotional stress.
 
These are two ways of avoiding or lessening the pain of tension or migraine headaches, according to a Better Homes & Gardens magazine article quoting Dr. Robert Kaniecki, director of The Headache Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
 
Lesser causes include food sensitivities, sensory overload, allergies, and changes in the weather, he said.
 
Nearly one-half of U.S. women will experience migraines due, in part, to hormonal changes. Dr. Kaniecki recommends that they continue their daily routines such as the  exercise program and arising at the usual hour. Good methods of helpful relaxing include meditation, yoga, prayer, and reading.
 
It’s best to avoid processed food if you are prone to headaches. Some folks are affected by alcohol, especially red wine. Others may suffer because of chocolate, aged cheeses, artificial sweeteners, MSG, and too much caffeine. Try reconfiguring the computer display control panel to refresh images, and be aware that older monitors often emit a flicker that causes some people problems.
 
Keep allergies in check by taking prescribed medications. Most people gain some headache relief with aspirin, Tylenol or Excedrin, but over-use may lead to rebound headaches.

Ladies, E. V. Lucas offers this advice: "Never have a headache on the same day as your husband; but if you do, be sure to mention it first."

Technology for Caregivers

Again, another short post meant to help those of you who are looking out for a senior. The Family Caregiver Alliance (found here) has a good section on how to find and choose the right tools to help make your life, as well as the life of the person you're caring for, a lot easier. Click here to go to their section on Assistive Technology.

Lifted from their website: "The area of assistive technology has grown tremendously in recent years, and many manufacturers now provide a wide range of products and devices. It can be confusing, however, to determine which products might be right for your loved one. Here are a few basic tips to help you in this task:

• Focus on the actual tasks your loved one wants or needs to do when choosing devices. While this might seem obvious, it’s easy to get drawn into buying a product that looks good but doesn’t really address your loved one’s needs.
• Generally, it is best to pick the simplest product available to meet the need. Simpler devices are often easier to use, less expensive, and easier to repair and maintain than more complex devices. For example, if someone does not have difficulty remembering to take their medications, but gets confused about which pills to take at which times, a weekly pill organizer that can be filled by a caregiver would solve the problem. Purchasing an automated pill dispenser with alarms to remind the person to take medications would be more complicated than necessary and would certainly be more expensive than the simpler pill organizer.
• Ask experts that provide care to your loved one, like rehabilitation specialists or physical and occupational therapists, about which type of technology might be best.
• Ask other people with disabilities what products they have found to be helpful.
• Ask to use the device on a trial basis to see if it is truly going to meet your loved one’s needs.
• Ultimately, your loved one’s opinion about a certain piece of AT is the most important. The device needs to be comfortable, attractive, and simple to use.

Foods that give seniors a boost

Blood flow and circulation help maintain good health in later years, according to Health magazine’s July issue. Boost your level 6.2 percent by increasing your fruit or vegetable intake by one serving a day. Or double that improvement with two servings.

The recommended Vitamin D level for older adults has been 1,000 IU. “But many experts now agree that most of us need more—up to 2,000 IU a day—to raise our levels high enough to fight disease,” the magazine states. It recommends that women especially ask their doctors for a  “serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D” test.

For adequate Vitamin D amounts, Health magazine suggests oily fish such as salmon, sardines and tuna a few times a week. Look for D in milk, orange juice, and other fruity juices; soy milk; butter substitutes; and some cereals and yogurts. A supplement with at least 400 IU could be taken daily, and sun exposure for just 5 to 10 minutes each day also helps.

Dr. Andrew Weill suggests five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables per day to reduce pain caused by arthritis. Eliminate polyunsaturated vegetable oils found in many margarines, vegetable shortenings, and processed foods with fats the promote inflammation. Season meals with ginger and turmeric as often as possible, he says.

Three cups of coffee a day will lower your risk of developing dementia by up to 70 percent, reports the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. A Mayo Clinic study indicates that a healthy diet of reading decreases the risk of developing mild memory loss by 30 to 50 percent.

 

Worries about aging

Insurance companies get rich because we don't understand risk--we take the bad end of most bets.

As an example, what do you think your risks are of getting Alzheimer's disease? 10%? 20%? According to Assistive Technology and Aging, the risk for someone between the ages of 60 and 64 is 1%. If you're between 65 and 74, that creeps up to 3%. Alzheimer's becomes a significant risk only for those over age 85, most likely because you've survived the other risks that got the person next to you in line.

The average age at diagnosis for all cancer is 69. In fact, according to the National Cancer Institute, growing old is the first risk listed. But up to 70% of all cancers are related to decisions we make about what we eat, smoke, drink, and how we behave. So you are not condemned to passively waiting for a death sentence. And for most cancers, adopting better habits has benefits even if you have waited a very long time to see the light--and that even goes for smoking.

Technology is improving in the treatment of all conditions, and it is improving quick enough to possibly help you and me. 

But the biggest risk factor of all, and not ever mentioned by insurance companies, is the quality of healthcare you receive. That's what they're fighting about in Washington right now. 

Where to get the stuff you need to live a better life

Sometimes a short post is better--I don't want to get in the way of information that can help seniors live a better life.

Abledata is a website that can point you to specific machines, tools and resources that can help you. To visit their website, click here or go to www.abledata.com. That's all for this post.

What happens when you expect the best?

In a four-year study, Rick Heber, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, took under his wing 44 newborn children with mothers whose IQs averaged 70 points, a level considerably below the U.S. average. Heber and his associates gave the children an intensely rich, stimulating intellectual life. By the time they were four years old, the children’s average IQ hit an amazing 130. A control group of similar children averaged 80 on the same IQ scale.

Remember the story about the teacher assigned to teach a class of exceptional students? She went in expecting them to excel—and they did. Only later did she learn her class was made up of so-called slow learners.

This sort of high-expectation result is know as the Pygmalion Effect. Studies and anecodtes like these and our own experiences indicate that a stimulating environment helps youngseters develop their potential. 

Yes, you say, but what does that have to do with me?

It’s possible that one of our elected officials may hear about these developments. Legislation pertaining to day care, pre-school, instruction for new mothers might reach the floor of the House or Senate. You might influence that vote with a postcard or letter. 

What’s more, you have a direct stake in similar studies involving seniors. Older adults with brains still intact must stimulate them too. And it isn’t done by running a vibrator around the skull.
 Marian Diamond, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus, researched the subject for years and found that we can keep our dendrites growing. Those are the tiny branches between the neurons, or brain cells. Growth occurs  when we socialize, tackle new challenges, eat properly and breathe deeply.

Put another way, the brain develops just like an exercised muscle. That’s what Dr. Walter M. Bortz II discovered in his practice and research. Use it or lose it holds true for the brain as well as the body.

He says physical exercise definitely helps the gray matter. The mental reactions of athletes are faster than those of couch potatoes, studies show. And his definition of exercise does not include bowling or golf. It takes jogging, walking, swimming or bicycling—anything that requires deep breathing and some heart action. This poses challenges when a chronic ailment such as arthritis limits one. Which helps explain the growing popularity of aquatics exercising.

Quitting 5 minutes before the miracle

What constitutes a fulfilling life at the end of our normal lifespan? What are you willing to give up and what is core?

As a technology commentator I get a preview of what the future holds from companies, scientists and academics. And I have this abiding fear that I will shuffle off this mortal coil the day before a cure is announced for whatever actually does me in. I don't want to be the last man to die from Alzheimer's Disease, for example. On the other hand, I don't want to exist with it for 10 years while I wait...

So for me, the bare minimum is being able to think. To be in my right mind, accept information, analyse it and make a decision. Again, strictly for me, a lot of what's left is negotiable. I love watching movies, and sight is important to me. On the other hand, I've seen a lot of movies, most of them awful, and I can't remember the last time I was surprised by one. So... maybe, maybe not. I might live just fine listening to Talking Books and learning Braille. Lots of people do. (Besides, technologists are working hard on bringing sight to the unsighted. I expect to see rapid progress on this in my lifetime.) It's negotiable.

I try and jog three or four times a week, and it's been a part of my life since I was 12. Could I live happily without the use of my legs? Well... I'm not getting any faster at jogging, and running shoes are getting pretty expensive. It's great feeling in good shape, but I'm getting the nagging minor injuries that come with age more frequently. And again, science is working hard on this and is making notable progress. So, it's negotiable.

I guess the same is true for hearing (I have already compromised mine due to extended proximity to a chainsaw engine), taste (also compromised--too many cigarettes and too much coffee). But so much progress is being made on hearing that I think any loss will be recuperated in my lifetime. I expect to end my days hearing better than I did as a child, due to technology. So it's negotiable.

Functioning brain. Access to a library. Access to modern healthcare. Family and friends not too far away. A little bit of independence. Surprising how little one needs, when you think about it.

How to get squared away with the doctor

“Can’t you give me a pill and let me end it?”

The questioner, a 76-year-old man whose wife had died eight years earlier, was now battling the demons of alcohol and prostate cancer.

“So I asked him, ‘Do you own a gun?’” said Dr. Forrest Beaty.

“I used to, but I gave it away," the man said. "I was afraid after my wife died I might do something drastic.”

“Wait a minute,” the doctor replied. “You had the means to do it yourself, but you gave the gun away. Now you want me to give you a pill. It seems we have a contradiction.”

Dr. Beaty mentioned this case in answering a workshop question about his profession’s views on assisted suicide. The American Medical Association opposes it, but, generally speaking, physicians assist the terminally ill patient with a more comfortable death, he said. Dr. Kevorkian’s well-publicized assistance in Michigan made the issue a “tempest in a teapot,” said Dr. Beaty, a man who quickly won the audience’s respect when introduced as a doctor who makes house calls.

He emphasized that he was not advocating suicide and with equal emphasis advised seniors to fill out durable powers of attorney that spell it out if they do not want heroic measures taken in the final stages. Copies should go to the doctor, the executor, the attorney and anyone else who might be calling the shots when you can’t. “Get it in writing while you’re still in a sound mind,” he added. 

Dr. Beaty noted that physicians sometimes get carried away with their own jargon. They like being in charge. In an emergency room study, doctors tuned in for the comments and complaints of patients for about 20 seconds, then the doctors took control. This suggests, said Dr. Beaty, that you take steps to ensure that your doctor listens when you visit. “Make a list and separate the objective points from the subjective, or emotional, points,” he said.

Develop your own organized agenda, listing what’s important to you. Include a rundown of your prescriptions, mention that you smoke or drink. In addition to describing your chest pains, tell the doctor if your brother just died, because that just may influence what you’re feeling.

Tell your doctor in advance what you want to know about her or his prognosis. In other words, if you have six months to go, do you want to know? And if the outlook is bleak, remember it’s just one person’s opinion. An illness may run its course in a predictable amount of time, “but a vast number are unpredictable,” said Dr. Beaty. 

“Doctors should have a game plan,” he said. That includes prescription management and social issues that may affect you. And to spend quality time with your physician, “Try to get the doctor’s last appointment for the day.” The pressure’s off, the end’s in sight and chances are you’ll get more than ten minutes.

A satisfying life for seniors

I don't think there's much doubt that technology can help us live longer and healthier lives. If that isn't true, a lot of big companies are wasting an awful lot of money. The technology curve has certainly worked so far--adding about 3 years of life per decade to what we can expect, and improving the health of the aging on almost every metric we use.

But can technology help us be happier as we get older? Not much point in living to 100 if you're miserable the whole time. (Centenarian to journalist: "I don't drink, I don't smoke, and I don't fool around and I've lived to be 100!" Journalist to centenarian: "Why?")

The keys to being happy appear to be: Feeling loved, feeling connected and feeling useful. It seems obvious that those inventing new technology tools are trying to help us stay connected--I honestly think a winning slogan for the next decade will be "Just disconnect!" as we're experiencing a bit of an overload in ways of staying in touch... And as Silver Survers multiply in numbers, email, cellphones and other devices will keep us ever-more connected (Can there be too much of a good thing?)

Those same tools can help us stay productive. We can become bloggers, like Ted and myself, we can be more effective citizens and neighbors, we can continue to work or pursue a hobby in greater depth, even continue learning, which is another great way of staying alive.

But can technology help us be happy? If so, I don't think it will be the same technologies we're looking at now. 

I thing one major source of unhappiness for seniors is isolation. We want independent living, don't get me wrong. But we also (I think) need human, face-to-face contact, a touch on the hand, the sound of another person around us. You just don't get that from a TV screen or computer monitor. 

So I think the technology we will have to invest in for a happier life as seniors will be bigger and more material. I think living spaces will need to be redesigned to meet our emotional needs as well as our physical needs. It's great to have ramps and walk-in bathtubs. It will be greater when our living centers also have well-designed common areas and spaces that work to bring people together when they want. Not to mention giving them something to do. Not to mention funneling them back into the community rather than walling them off from it.

There is legislation in many cities that prohibits adult entertainment within a certain proximity to schools. I think equivalent legislation could mandate the proximity of senior centers to schools just as effectively.

The technology that will help us stay a part of this world will not lie in new materials, better wiring or even vastly improved architecture. It will be better community planning, residential codes and traffic design. These areas are changing rapidly due to computer technology. But they've all got a ways to go. 

So if you want to help build a more satisfying life for yourself, hie thee down to City Hall and get involved with zoning and planning issues. Your kids don't have the time. Make these managers buckle down and build a community. 

And get a little cranky--it's expected. In fact, it's part of your job description.