Prime Time: A New Look At Aging

Technology and aging by category

We keep talking about the future of aging--perhaps so much so that we forget to talk about what's currently available. Here is a partial list of recent technology advances currently being adopted on a wide scale. I offer it so you can see if you or your loved one might benefit from taking advantage of any or all of them.

According to this well thought out article, technology used to benefit seniors falls into three main categories:

"For the purpose of this report, aging-services technologies will be categorized into three broad categories based on the relationship these technologies address between the older adult and his or her environment (safety), oneself (both physical and mental health and wellness), and others (social connectedness)." Okay, although I would add a host of technologies aimed at the general population that have direct or indirect relevance to seniors, such as cellphones, etc.

Under safety, they further break down the category:

Fall detection and prevention technologies
For this class of technologies reliability is highly important. False negatives carry a higher weight than false positives. Reliability information is generally scarce. The effectiveness of these technologies depends on the setting, availability of caregivers and response protocols.

User activated push button on a pendant or wristband such as Philips Life Line (www.LifelineSystems.com), Life Alert (www.lifealert.com), and automatic, such as Tunstall’s wearable fall detector (www.tunstall.co.uk), which is accelerometer and tilt sensing based, and FallSaver (www.fallsaver.net) chair alarm, which is patch that integrates tilt angle measurement

Embedded in the environment (User’s compliance is not required.)
The University of Virginia’s floor vibrations-based fall detector (marc.med.virginia.edu/projects_gaitmonitoring.html), which showed promising reliability on crash-test and anthropometric dummies [19 Objective]; motion-based (Living Independently’s QuietCare, (www.quietcaresystems.com), HealthSense (www.healthsense.com), GrandCare (www.grandcare.com) and many research groups, including Virginia (marc.med.virginia.edu), used motion-based “possible fall” alerting functionality when lack of motion is detected)10; and imaging-based, including SIMBAD and the University of Missouri’s research effort (eldertech.missouri.edu/index.htm).

 Mobility aids (User’s compliance is required.)
Mobility aids, traditionally used to enhance balance and/or help in weight support, are being adapted and enhanced to enable seniors to navigate safely in their environments. Examples include the iBot stair-climbing two-wheel balancing powered wheelchair (www.ibotnow.com), Guido the guiding walker (www.haptica.com/id2.htm), the University of Virginia’s robotic walker (marc.med.virginia.edu/projects_eldercarerob.html) and CMU’s and the University of Michigan’s guiding walker (www.ri.cmu.edu/centers/merit). (Readers of this weblog have seen more and more innovative solutions here.)

For health and 'wellness' technologies, they say:

Includes a base station with or without two-way video, usually with proprietary peripheral sensors, such as BP cuff, scale, spirometer, glucometer, pulse and temperature readers, wired or wireless connectivity (e.g.,  Viterion (www.viterion.com), Honeywell HomMed (www.hommed.com), Philips (www.medical.philips.com/main/products/telemonitoring), WebVMC (www.webvmc.com), Vitel Care (www.vitelnet.com), Health Buddy (www.healthhero.com), etc.). Some are interactive and incorporate condition-specific branching logic.  Imetrikus (www.imetrikus.com/products.asp) has a universal connectivity hub, MetriLink, which allows connecting off the shelf low-cost health products (blood pressure monitors, gloucometers, etc.) to download the data to the Imetrikus Personal Health Record, MediCompass, to be shared with health care professionals.

Wearable
Value proposition may include better health outcome for the person, and reduced health care bills to payers. These technologies entail gross activity monitoring based on accelerometers as well as other sensors. Examples include simple pedometers, actigraphs (e.g. Minimitter’s Actiwatch), and HomeFree’s activity monitors to more sophisticated devices that incorporate physiological measurements, such as skin temperature and metabolic function (e.g. BodyMedia).

Environmental (passive)/non-wearable

These systems are based on embedding sensors in the environment to monitor daily life activities/behavior (such as QuietCare and others including, HealthSense and GrandCare), monitoring activities of daily living (University of Virginia (marc.med.virginia.edu/projects_smarthomemonitor.html)), and monitoring sleep quality (University of Virginia (marc.med.virginia.edu/projects_naps.html), Elite Care (www.elitecare.com)). Mainly targeted at professional and informal caregivers for coordinating care and early detection of decline in function or health issues; do not require user’s compliance. These systems work indoors only, mostly when a person is living alone. If the motion detectors are not pet immune, the presence of pets may affect the accuracy of the inferences and alerts generated by the system.

Hybrid
Hybrid wearable and environmental wellness monitoring systems require a wearable RFID reader and tagging objects in the environment with RFIDs, and they monitor ADLs; these are still in the research phase (e.g., Intel and University of Washington (www.intel.com/research/prohealth)). These technologies require the compliance of the user, and may not be scalable/practicable with existing technologies due to the low reliability and short battery life of the reader.

Telemedicine and Telehealth
Telemedicine technologies are targeted at health care professionals and are used primarily by home health providers, physicians and hospitals, mainly in chronic disease management and for short-term follow-up after hospital discharges, whereas telehealth technologies encompass using them, along with educational information, in self-management of one’s health.

Traditional telemedicine
Includes a base station with or without two-way video, usually with proprietary peripheral sensors, such as BP cuff, scale, spirometer, glucometer, pulse and temperature readers, wired or wireless connectivity (e.g.,  Viterion (www.viterion.com), Honeywell HomMed (www.hommed.com), Philips (www.medical.philips.com/main/products/telemonitoring), WebVMC (www.webvmc.com), Vitel Care (www.vitelnet.com), Health Buddy (www.healthhero.com), etc.). Some are interactive and incorporate condition-specific branching logic.  Imetrikus (www.imetrikus.com/products.asp) has a universal connectivity hub, MetriLink, which allows connecting off the shelf low-cost health products (blood pressure monitors, gloucometers, etc.) to download the data to the Imetrikus Personal Health Record, MediCompass, to be shared with health care professionals.

Ambulatory and wearable monitors
Ambulatory and wearable monitors: Ambulatory and wearable monitors connect via wire—or wirelessly—to a recoding device that sends the data. These include ambulatory electrocardiography device (also known as Holter monitors). An example of these systems is LifeWatch’s (www.lifewatchinc.com/LWTpo_vsm.html) cardiac monitors that use a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone as a data recorder and connectivity gateway. These devices rely on the compliance of the users as well.

Purely interactive Q&A systems
These systems do not have dedicated peripheral measurement devices. An example of these technologies is ZumeLife (www.zumelife.com); these technologies are generally not reimbursable, except possibly under PACE and MA-SNPs.

Video phones and Two-way video stations
These devices are used to connect with a health care professional for telemedicine, televisits, and teleconsults; interventions with these technologies are generally reimbursable with limitations. An example of a simple system is KMEA’s videophone (www.kmea.net).

Passive/environmental/non-wearable
The University of Virginia’s bed monitor for vitals and clinical sleep assessment (under validation) and instrumented walker for gait and balance assessment are examples of this category of telemedicine/telehealth technologies that are under research; such technologies are generally not reimbursable, except possibly under PACE and MA-SNPs.

Medication compliance technologies
These technologies have monitoring, reminding, dispensing features and combinations thereof. Most of these technologies are stand-alone and are targeted at the seniors or the caregiver. Simple monitoring is offered by QuietCare. Intel and Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) (www.orcatech.org/index.php) have prototypes of monitoring and reminding systems and Honeywell HomMed has a medication monitoring and reminding system as part of the telemedicine suite. The Med-eMonitor from Informedix (www.informedix.com) incorporates reminding and educational information/ instructions. The MD2 (www.md2.com) and CompuMed (www.compumed.com) products have the dispensing functionality but may require a professional caregiver to perform the loading and programming. Most products have usability/ user interface issues for elderly users. Many products can be found on the Internet (e.g. on www.epill.com).
 
These devices have the potential to improve health outcomes and reduce cost of care, and to provide peace of mind to informal caregivers, but are generally not reimbursable. There is some preliminary evidence of their effectiveness in improving medication compliance, but more objective evaluation studies, aiming to evaluate their impacts on health outcomes and the cost of care, are warranted.

How is being a Senior different to being anything else?

Straying away from my search for tech toys that can help us get through the aging process as comfortably as possible, I thought I would wish you all a happy 4th of July and spend a few moments on what it really means to be a senior in the United States of America in 2009.

I believe that if you made a list of what 'seniors' need to have a happy and productive Third Age, that it would look remarkably similar to a list of what everybody needs: Being part of a family, a community, a network of friends. Being free from continuous worry about finances or health. Being free from chronic pain, and free from dependence on others. Feeling productive, like someone who contributes to the greater society. Feeling that what you know is of some value to the lives of others. And perhaps most important, having someone to love in your life, and feeling that someone loves you.

There isn't a child, a teenager or younger adult that wouldn't check these off a list of important things to have. So why should we expect seniors to be different? Are there important things I didn't mention? (Tell me in the comments...)

If not, if that's really the list of big things, then the only thing that makes seniors different is that seniors need a little extra help in getting some of those things done. Seniors are not (all) handicapped, but there's a lesson they can learn from those who are challenged by disabilities. Nobody thought worse of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood because they used a stirrup to help them mount a horse. They used one tool to help them use another tool.

That's one reason I enjoy bringing you reports of new tools that can help. Because that's what makes human society different from ants and bees--what we do differently is try new tools and new arrangements and hang on to what works, sometimes discarding older ways of doing things as part of the process.

Seniors have something that is in very short supply in this modern world, and it is something that is greatly needed, if not always recognised. Seniors have experienced change. If you look at the resumes of CEOs and job listings for senior executives, experience of managing change (which basically means going through change and surviving it) is a key criterion for success in this world. And seniors by definition have done it in spades.

It might seem a bit cartoonish to picture yourself as a specialist who requires specialist tools to bring your experience to bear on solving the important problems of life. But from the outside perspective of someone who hopes to be a productive senior in the not-too-distant future, it doesn't seem that far from the truth.

Happy 4th to you all.

The power of the mind in controlling your world

This article describing how Toyota researchers in Japan have built a brain/machine interface (BMI) that has been demonstrated to control a wheelchair using a person's thoughts is important, and not just for wheelchair users.

The idea that human thinking can be transmitted to a device and translated into a command has huge implications for seniors. If the device can use radio to transmit commands, than any device, from your television to your refrigerator, can be operated remotely. Adjusting your bed, changing your channel, operating your telephone--it will indeed be a different world. Mobility will not be just limited to wheelchairs. Exoskeletons that you wear like a fashion-conscious spacesuit already exist and can walk up stairs as well as down the street. Powered by thought impulses, they could take many out of a wheelchair entirely.

"The system enables a person to make a wheelchair turn left or right to move forward simply by thinking the commands. The response time is in 125 milliseconds. One millisecond is equal to 1/1000 of a second.

The BMI was developed at the BSI-Toyota Collaboration Center (BTCC), a 2-year-old research center established by Japan's government research unit RIKEN and Toyota Motor, Toyota Central R&D Labs, and Genesis Research Institute. Japan has focused on the control of devices through brain waves as a way to deal with the projected shortage of healthcare workers to tend to Japan's large aging population.

The BTCC's system uses several sensors placed over the areas of the brain that control motion to measure electrical activity in the region. The electical impulses triggered by the rider thinking of turning or moving the wheelchair are picked up and analyzed by an onboard laptop that passes the commands on to the wheelchair.

The system has an emergency stop that can be activated by the user puffing his cheeks.

The BMI adjusts itself over time to the characteristics of each driver's brainwaves. If a person dedicates three hours a day to using the system, the BMI can reach 95% accuracy in a week, researchers said."

I'm excited by all of this--I was an avid science fiction fan in my youth, and we're finally seeing the inventions postulated back then come to reality. Sadly, though, it makes science fiction of today seem a bit pedestrian. But living in the future has its compensations.

Ideas for your nursing home visit

If you’re thinking of taking a gift for a nursing home resident, consider a calendar with colorful illustrations and big numbers. Call first and find out the best time to visit, suggests Etta Maitland of the Ombudsman Services program in Contra Costa County.

“The human contact means everything. Patients have a variety of experiences they want and need to share. You may find it’s best to visit before lunch, since naps are popular after noon,” says Maitland, who, along with a group of Ombudsman volunteers, checks conditions and potential problems at nursing homes.

Here are more visiting tips:
Find out if a grandchild or pet can accompany you. Either one will make a hit.

“The main thing is share your time and take an interest in the person,” says Maitland. “If you’re pressed for time, it’s best to forget it until a better day.”

Carla Hoskins says, “The thing residents hold onto the longest is music, so I'd suggest using this whenever possible.” Photos, illustrated magazines and newspaper articles about days gone by may spark recollections, she adds.

Residents enjoy reminiscing about their days on the farm or in the towns where they grew up. “You can ask about some of their favorites, such as the seasons or colors they like, says Hoskins, an activity director.

Focus on a resident’s abilities. A woman who was a skilled quilter may lack the vision to sew now, but she may be able to select patterns or enjoy looking at pictures of quilts. “Always begin at a level where a person can find success, no matter how small,” says Beckie Karras, another activities director. Be regular in your visits and specific about when you’ll arrive, she advises. 

The Friendly Visitor Program matches volunteers with older adults who are homebound because of age or infirmities. The goal is to help them remain independent for as long as possible. Volunteers are asked to visit once a week for at least six months. They may chat or read to someone or take them to the store. Outings at the park, a concert or church are appreciated.

Activities that stimulate the senses may benefit people with limited abilities. Favorite foods (within dietary guidelines), fabrics, perfumes and keepsakes provide pleasurable moments. Often friendships evolve, as in the case of a fellow of about 35 who had enjoyed close ties with his grandmother in his home state. He was matched with an older woman and, in the months that followed, she taught him how to bake bread and he took her to the movies and brought her flowers. She was the envy of all the ladies in her neighborhood. 

Senior volunteers are welcomed because they can often arrange daytime visits; working folks can only call on weekends or at night. Groups such as the Friendly Visitor Program provide training. For more information, contact the Office on Aging, the Area Agency on Aging or your local senior center.

Caregiver? Take care

The woman’s husband suffered from Lou Gehrig’s disease. She was caring for him seven days a week and confided that she couldn’t spare the money for in-home help.

Wendy Lustbader persuaded her that a few hours of respite was feasible with an aide. Next, to assuage her guilt, Lustbader, in her role as a social worker in Seattle, talked with the woman’s  husband. “This is a chance for you to give your wife the gift of a few hours of rest,” she said. “Kick her out.” He nodded in agreement.

But how to spend those hours? “You forget what it is to have a life,” the woman said. Then she recalled being part of a walking club and, with some urging, found the members still met at the donut shop. And, if it was raining, they sat inside and chatted. A month later the woman looked like a new person. “I remembered what it was to be alive,” she told Lustbader. The ailing husband, in a position with virtually nothing to offer, also benefited from this chance to give a gift to the woman he loved.

“Take care of yourself so you can take care of the person who is ill” is Lustbader's theme. She recommends the concept of the Sabbath—one day of the week that’s different from the rest. She asks caregivers to write five things they would love to do that day that don’t cost money. “I’d love to take a long, hot bath; just soak,” one stated. “I’d go the attic and read some trashy novel,” another declared. “I’d like to make a phone call without him listening in on the extension,” a woman noted.

Lustbader strongly recommends that caregivers join a support group. They’ll learn there that guilt is part of practically every caregiver’s burden. It ranges from entrusting the care of a loved one to a stranger to the unspoken feelings of hostility toward family members who won’t help. Also, resentment crops up. “Resentment is poison,” Lustbader said. “It can be a line that cuts across your stomach. When that happens, you know you’re doing too much.”

The antidote often consists of the courage of telling the ill person the truth. In a support group, a caregiver learns that almost anyone can reach a breaking point, as in the case of the matron who arose in one session and declared, “I hit my husband.” And a real life saver is a sense of humor.

When Lustbader’s grandfather was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, he stopped shaving and bathing, and refused his wife’s offers of help. So a visiting aide was hired. When the attractive young woman arrived, he smiled and a gleam appeared in his eye as the pair headed into the bathroom. Later, he could be heard singing. When he emerged, he was clean-shaven and fairly glowing, much to his wife’s discomfiture. “She never could find out what went on in there,” Lustbader recalled.

She finds that the nursing home is not the main fear of those who are ailing. It is the fear of abandonment. When the move occurs, it often improves relationships between caregivers and their loved ones because visits to the nursing home focus on talk that means something. At home, the toll of nursing, cleaning and household operation short-circuits dialogue that counts.

Lustbader is the author of Counting on Kindness: The Dilemmas of Dependency, published by The Free Press, and the coauthor with Nancy Hooyman of Taking Care of  Aging Family Members by the same publisher.

This is a good time to prepare for your departure

 “I know a fellow who says, ‘I’ve come to terms with death—other people’s.’” Thomas Grimm, a therapist, mentions this in his opening remarks during a workshop.

As a former clergyman, he describes death as life’s biggest adventure. “You need to think about it and plan for it. Nothing can be changed until it’s faced,” Grimm says.

No one attempts a joke about his subject matter and his last name, but humor abounds anyway amid older adults who appear willing to talk about a topic that’s often taboo.

A first step should be reconciliation, Grimm says. One of his patients reached it via a dream of photographing key people in his life. This paved the way for a discussion with Grimm about a sister with whom he’d had a falling out after the death of their father. “Write her a letter and express your feelings,” Grimm advised the man. “You don’t have to mail it.”

But the patient, a school teacher, felt so much better after writing a first draft that he sent a second version, then was thrilled by the phone call she made after reading it. The next night he tripped and fell at home and went to the hospital in a coma from which he never recovered.

“So make amends and take care of any unfinished business,” says Grimm. Think of affirmations about your life, a collection of your accomplishments, he recommends. Yes, you were taught that bragging is unseemly, but it’s healthy to find some things you’ve done that you feel positive about.

Mary says she feels good about how her 12 children turned out. Another plus: Because of her efforts, eleven of them reestablished relationships with their father after he initiated a divorce. Adeline could give herself a pat on the back for enriching the final years of an aunt and uncle with her presence and caring.

One woman tells how her husband described to the undertaker the funeral suit he’d chosen and even the handkerchief for his breast pocket, then she added, “Two weeks later he died.” After a long pause, the woman next to her says, “The moral is, don’t talk to the undertaker.”

It’s a big help to relatives and friends if you prepare for the last chapter. There’s the will and the trust. You should inform people where you keep the instructions about being buried or cremated, organ donations, the recipe for that prize-winning fudge. Describe the memorial service you want and who will officiate. 

Grimm once asked mourners to jot down their remembrances of a man whose service he was conducting. The widow read them in what proved to be a poignant, often joyful part of the service. 

Finally, you can create your own epitaph. It’s going to tough, though, to top these:
“This is all over my head”—Robert Benchley
“Involved in a plot”—Dorothy Parker (She also had suggested, “Excuse my dust.”)
“Over my dead body”—George S. Kaufman
“This one’s on me”—Milton Berle
“Here’s something I want to get off my chest”—William Haines

 

A little laughter helps a lot

George Burns said, “You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to be old.” But how do you avoid the “old”? you may be wondering.

Gene Ahlf provides an answer you might find laughable: add more humor to your life. Research reveals that laughter, like exercise, reduces stress and promotes endorphins, which are a kind of chemical morale booster for the brain.  Ahlf, a California resident, incorporates chuckles when he’s golfing, skiing, biking or walking. He’s been married nearly 40 years and says humor is a necessity for a union lasting that long. His secret? “I don’t try to run her life, and I don’t try to run mine. When I mentioned to her that I’d never had an ulcer, she said, ‘No, but you’re probably a carrier.’”

Norman Cousins, an editor diagnosed as terminally ill, undertook a study of his painful condition and found that ten minutes of belly-bobbing laughter gave him two hours of uninterrupted sleep. He made visitors bring with them tapes of “Candid Camera” and Marx Brothers movies, after deciding that laughter possessed curative powers. He lived for years after leaving the hospital. His book, Anatomy of an Illness, helped inspire some hospital and nursing home staff members to supply patients reasons for smiles and chuckles. It’s a movement that deserves far wider practice.

“When one of life’s tragedies occurs, it’s entirely up to you whether you’re stressed or angry,” Ahlf says. A case in point: You wait at the deli counter ten minutes then find out everyone else has a number. Instead of flipping out, find the humor in the situation. 

Worry takes a toll because we can’t make decisions, Ahlf says. Try looking at a problem on a credibility scale from 1 to 9, he suggests. You’re staring into darkness  at 3 a.m. with a worry. Typically you’d start midway on the scale with a 5 rating, then, upon reviewing the facts and probabilities, you could lower the rating and realize the problem’s insignificant, or you may need to up the number, and determine that, yes, it’s a concern that you will do something about first thing in the morning. Either way, having reached a decision, you can turn over and saw some ZZZZ’s again.

He quotes Robert Frost, who wrote, “The reason worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.” When he tried resuming softball, Ahlf found he could still hit and run, but his arm told him his throwing days were over. It was like Rodney Dangerfield telling the doctor, “It hurts when I do that,” and the doctor replies, “Don’t do that.”  Limited athletic prowess provides some advantages. “When I drive a golf ball now I never lose sight of it,” Ahlf says.

He tells the story of the minister who asked his congregation, “How many of you want to go to heaven?” Everyone except a man in back raised a hand. “You, sir,” said the minister. “Don’t you want to go to heaven when you die?” The man replied, “Oh, when I die. I though you were gettin’ up a load now.”

After Ahlf experienced that most devastating of losses, the death of a child, he could in time look back to the happy moments with his daughter. “I steer myself that way.”

He sums up his message by recommending that you “Mobilize your body’s own natural healing resources with positive emotions. Apply liberal doses of humor in dealing with tragedy,” whether it be as minor as a spilled glass of water or the loss of a loved one.

 

Helping those who help seniors

From the Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST) comes this report on helping caregivers:

Family caregivers are a critical component in elder home care. Employed caregivers carry an additional set of workplace demands that overlay their caregiving responsibilities, yet no supportive technology based applications exist for them. 

Through funding from the Dept of Commerce's Technology Opportunity Program (TOP), we developed and tested the first technology based system designed to support working caregivers concerned about older adults alone at home during the caregiver's worktime. Known as the Worker Interactive Networking (WIN) project, it innovatvely offered workplace Internet access via PC/PDA/cellphone to a uniquely integrated system providing a caregiver support group, resource linkages, and remote home monitoring of consenting elders. 

The home monitoring system consisted of 2 in. wireless event sensors unobtrusively placed in the home that sent data via a transponder that uploaded it to our server that filtered and updated status information in real time. Workers logged on to their personal webpage to see their relatives status at three levels, each with increasing specificity of information. If everything was fine, they saw a Green "OK", when a parameter neared its' limit, a Yellow "Watch" was displayed and if exceeded a Red "Alert" was shown. Alerts automatically triggered an e-mail notifying the caregiver. Caregivers could click on the alert or any of the non-alert screens to proceed further down for specific information on the status indicators such as when the elder got up, the last time they moved about, where they went, if they went into their pill box, or went out the door. 

After the caregivers/elders chose what to monitor, we used a "Nursense" (TM) assessment process to assess for and offer other preventive health and safety options. Endusers were given the control over the monitoring times and could change settings at any time or turn them off.

Tell a friend.

A credo for the elderly

“I should continue to weed the garden of my life, remove yesterday’s flowers and branches, and foster new growth.”

This is No. 7 in a list of nine personal responsibilities James L. Birren set for himself under an umbrella theme of “Resourceful Aging.” It merits emphasis because some people as they age become creatures of habit, comfortable in ruts whose ridges grow imperceptibly into walls. They may be reluctant to prune the branches of a friendship with someone whose interests no longer match their own or sever their membership in a group that’s grown dormant.

At the time he developed “My Responsibilities for My Old Age,” Birren headed the Borun Center for Gerontological Research at the University of California. Here’s the complete list:

1. I should honor my children and all children and foster their growth.
2. I should avoid becoming bitter if overlooked by the passing young and by events. May my spirit not be eroded by the acids of life.
3. I should continue to seek information and learning and avoid dogmatic positions and postures.
4. I should use the experience of my years for attaining fairness and justice for others.
5. I should foster my physical and mental health. Should I have poor health, I should cushion its impact so that it does not weigh unduly upon others.
6. I should manage prudently and with affection my relationship with others and also initiate the expression and caring for others.
7. I should continue to weed the garden of my life, remove yesterday’s flowers and branches, and foster new growth.
8. I should prepare others and myself for my death.
9. I should leave the land and its people better than I found them. May I plant seeds that will bloom off theirs in springs I will not see.

As you ponder these thoughts, keep in mind Ashleigh Brilliant’s observation: “Life can be good while it lasts, and it’s guaranteed to last your whole lifetime.”

 

Health tips for seniors

Forgetting to floss? If the answer is yes, trouble awaits. Periodontal infection may lead to heart disease, reports the American Academy of Periodontology. You can learn more by calling toll-free 1-800-FLOSS-EM or try an interactive website (www.perio.org), according to Seniority magazine. 

So you feel like the morning after—and you haven’t even been partying. You have company. Older adults reported experiencing an average of five minor health problems during a two-week period, in a study by the Non-prescription Drug Manufacturers Association. The most frequent complaints: arthritis, sleeping difficulties, muscle aches and pains, upset stomach, being overweight, headaches, colds, and bunions/corns/calluses. In 28 percent of the cases, the seniors gained relief from over-the-counter medicines, says the United Seniors Health Report. The other 72 percent? They evidently saw their doctors for a prescription or toughed it out.

Don’t dawdle when you make a left turn. Seniors rack up a high accident rate during the maneuver because they take too much time, reports the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The longer a driver takes, the greater the risk of a crash with a car coming toward you or from right or left. 

Constant worry about memory can actually impair it, says Dr. Barry Gordon of Johns Hopkins University’s Department of Neurology. Fear of dementia can deplete your self-confidence and depress you. For the majority of healthy people, lapses of memory after age 50 are simply part of the normal aging process. Memory problems can occur from stress, depression, fatigue, changes in hearing or vision, medications, a poor diet, excessive drinking, and illness unrelated to Alzheimer’s—all of which are treatable conditions, says the UC-Berkeley Wellness Letter.

An age-related drop in estrogen impacts men as well as women when it comes to osteoporosis, based on studies described at a San Francisco meeting of the International Bone and Mineral Society as reported in the New York Times. Until now, the general view was that low testosterone levels led to the condition, thus suggesting that osteoporosis is under-reported for men. So, gentlemen, as most women could inform you, here are the guidelines to avoid it: Stop smoking, limit the amount of alcohol and get off your duff and work out now and then. Take 1,500 mg of calcium per day (1,000 mg is O.K. to age 65). Get out in the sun at least 10 minutes a day or take 400 IU of vitamin D. For exercising, try walking, jogging, racquet sports or stair climbing. Pump some iron too.

For muscle soreness or arthritis, use one-half to one teaspoon of dry or fresh ginger cooked into recipes or in boiling water as tea. This is the advice of Dr. Neal Barnard, author of Foods that Fight Pain.  Also eat green leafy vegetables and beans. Avoid foods such as eggs, citrus fruits, meat, poultry and fish, wheat, dairy products, and chocolate (especially bad for migraine), he is quoted as saying in the Bottom Line newsletter.

Between 10 and 20 percent of seniors suffer from depression, according to a four-year study by the National Institute on Aging. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop depression, but are more likely to get treatment, says Seniority magazine. Men may mask their despondency by drinking; otherwise, depression rates among men and women would be closer. Doctors fail to diagnose the problem in half their patients who have depression. The good news is that psychotherapy, anti-depressants or a combination of both are successful in 80 percent of the clinical depression cases, the magazine says.