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{ Monthly Archives }
August 2007
Paths of aging
Both of my grandmothers lived to 99. Both grandfathers to 87. So I’ve thought my timeline was in between those numbers.
But my dad will be 90 this Saturday. My mom is 87 and still drives. My dad and I both talk to her about how to adapt her driving to her age.
I pickup my son this morning so we spend some vacation time before the weekend trip to my folks’ city, and the family festivities there. Then he and I will spend some vacation time there before he heads off to his town.
One of my dad’s sisters had Alzheimer’s. The paths of aging vary wildly. We plan. But we never really know what path may be before us.
Zen and the Art of Coping With Alzheimer’s
The New York Times, Second Opinion, By Denise Grady, August 14, 2007
During the YouTube forum with the Democratic presidential candidates in July, the first question about health care came from two middle-age brothers in Iowa, who faced the camera with their elderly mother. Not everybody with Alzheimer’s disease has two loving sons to take care of them, they said, adding that a boom in dementia is expected in the next few decades….
Helping the non-Internet Senior
Seniors not online can get help via phone, mail
The Arizona Republic, from the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Aug. 15, 2007
Old age can bring a number of challenges, including chronic illnesses, Medicare choices, limited incomes and caregiving duties.
Finding resources, accurate information and the latest updates on services and programs can be difficult, especially if senior citizens are not computer- savvy or don’t have access to the Internet.
Estimates are that as many as 21 million Americans 65 and older are not “wired,” says Tobey Dichter, founder of Generations Online, a nonprofit organization that encourages widespread computer literacy by providing software tutorials to senior centers, public libraries, retirement homes and other locations where older people congregate….
There’s help available, but you have to know where to look. Government agencies, nonprofit associations and health organizations still put topics of interest to older citizens in brochures and reports that can be obtained with a toll-free phone call or by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope.
BenefitsCheckUp.org is a comprehensive online service provided by the National Council on Aging to help individuals 55 and older find more than 1,400 federal, state and local programs….
the entire universe, with one exception
“It is well to remember that the entire universe,
with one trifling exception,
is composed of others.”
John Andrew Holmes.
quoted by Tim O’Reilly
Trauma and Culture
notes from the field
Suffering Differently
By Ethan Watters, The New York Times Magazine, August 12, 2007
After the 2004 tsunami in Asia, many mental-health experts agreed that a “second tsunami” of mental illness in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder would strike the region. Like doctors rushing to the outbreak of an epidemic, American counselors and trauma researchers soon arrived on the scene hoping to pass on useful knowledge about PTSD. A few years on, however, their efforts have raised a troublesome question: Were they bringing the wrong treatment to the wrong people?
At issue is not whether tragic events like the tsunami trigger debilitating psychological distress and even mental illness — everyone agrees that they can. The question is over the extent to which survivors’ cultural beliefs shape their symptoms. If culture has the impact that some researchers suggest, the PTSD diagnosis may be of little help (and even do potential harm) when applied wholesale in other countries.
In the last 25 years, PTSD has had a remarkable ascendancy in American psychiatry and in public consciousness. Proponents of the diagnosis assert that experiences of fear or horror often spark a cluster of 17 broad symptoms, including intrusive thoughts, memory avoidance and uncontrollable anxiety. The concept of PTSD also encompasses notions of how best to overcome the disorder, usually through measured re-exposure to the original trauma supervised by a counselor. PTSD, many Americans assume, describes the way that all humans react to trauma.
Gaithri Fernando, an expert on trauma from California State University, questions that assumption. “Researchers and counselors who came to Sri Lanka after the tsunami did find some PTSD symptoms,” Fernando says. “But it was not the nightmares or flashbacks that most of the population was concerned with. The deepest psychological wounds for Sri Lankans were not on the PTSD checklists; they were the loss of or the disturbance of one’s role in the group.”…
Eye on DNA Headlines for 12 August 2007
by Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei, Posted August 12, 2007
includes:
Matt Ridley writes in The Agile Gene:
If personality is created by parents, peers, or society at large, then it is still determined; it is not free.
In some ways the news that our genes are important contributors to our personality should be reassuring: the imperviousness of individual human nature to outside influences provides a bulwark against brainwashing. At least we are determined by our own intrinsic forces rather than somebody else’s.
A more non-trauma, non-DNA US culture view at: Culture, Counterculture #1
Edible Flowers, yum
How to Choose Edible Flowers
Edible culinary flowers are useful for a variety of purposes,from cooking to candy making and from saladsto decorative presentations on a dinner plate. Find out here which flowers are safe to consume, and get some ideas for their use.
Fitness Myths
Think you know the facts about getting fit? You may be surprised to learn how many are really fiction.
By Colette Bouchez, WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
Top 10 Fitness Time-Wasters
Avoid these time thieves and make the most of your trip to the gym.
By Barbara Russi Sarnataro, WebMD Weight Loss Clinic-Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
both found under Healthy Aging Guide
Exercise! Often!
Move It! New Exercise Guidelines
Crystal-Clear Exercise Advice From U.S.
Heart, Sports Medicine Groups
Heart, Sports Medicine Groups
By Daniel J. DeNoon, Aug 8, 2007, WebMD Medical News
New exercise guidelines make it crystal clear: To be healthy, you gotta move….
To erase any uncertainty, the new guidelines spell out what you have to do in graphic detail: To be healthy, you must exercise.
You need two kinds of exercise. The first kind is aerobic exercise — the move-your-butt kind….
The second kind of exercise is strength training. This means activities — such as weight lifting — that use the major muscles of the body….
Fact vs. Fiction
Your heart, your brain – your entire body – benefits from exercise. In this chapter, we’ll bust the exercise myths that hold you back and help you set goals.
many tools to help you
Senior Friendly Libraries
GenBetween points to (& discusses) a resource for Senior Friendly Libraries
from WebMD Auguest 4, 2007
Acid Blockers Linked to Mental Decline
H2 Blockers May Raise Risk of Age-Related Cognitive Impairment
Long-term use of H2 blockers, including Axid, Pepcid, Tagamet, and Zantac, may increase the risk of mental decline in later life….
How Safe Is Imported Food?
In the wake of some food safety scares, experts offer advice for worried consumers.
The headlines have alarmed U.S. consumers: unapproved antibiotics in seafood from China, tainted toothpaste, and deadly pet food adulterated with the industrial chemical melamine.
Lately, many Americans have become concerned about imported food and question whether the nation’s food safety system can protect them from tainted foreign products. With threats popping up from surprising sources, how does one stay safe?
Imports from China have drawn the most criticism. But China has no monopoly on tainted food….