Here’s yet another myth buster about growing older: Mental health disorders are not a normal part of aging. In fact, there are three “patterns” of mental health disorders commonly seen across the lifespan, including individuals who: Develop a disorder (usually between the mid-teens and mid-20s) and maintain it for a lifetime; Experience some mental disorder […]
The holiday season can make people contemplative. And quite often, it can also inspire them to accomplish one of life’s many “Shoulds” — getting affairs in order such as completing advance health care directives and final arrangements. But for many, those tasks seem daunting. Or confusing. Or just plain not fun. Until now. The Coda […]
“I don’t consider myself a natural-born doctor,” Victoria Sweet recently told a group gathered at San Francisco’s Institute on Aging. She then described her unlikely scholastic path to physiciandom: a major in math, minor in classics — and an awakening to Karl Jung while browsing in a bookstore one day. “I was taken by the […]
Most adults will lose at least 30% of their muscle mass during their lifetimes. That frightening truth even has a scary-sounding name: sarcopenia — literally translated as the even scarier sounding “poverty of the flesh.” The “poverty” actually begins for most people around age 30. At that point, even individuals who are physically active will […]
Even avowed Luddites can’t claim to be totally immune to the way older people are portrayed online — when you can find them there at all: a bit feeble, immobile, badly dressed, and all alone or in the company of a doctor or caregiver. And a recent study strongly confirmed that’s not just an optical […]
Geriatrician Louise Aronson set out to write a book that promises to “look at old age in new ways.” But the first challenge, she explained recently, was the title she chose. “I wanted to call it ‘Older,’” she says. “But then a woman in the publishing industry took me aside and said: ‘I think you […]
Potential perils of seniors suffering from loneliness are now well documented and well trumpeted. For older people, being lonely and isolated is akin to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, they say. It increases the risks of heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure — and can even hasten death. A fact less pondered: Unpaid family caregivers […]
In November 2018, the town of Paradise in northern California (population 26,218), known for its physical beauty, friendly residents, prolific fruit crops, and annual Johnny Appleseed Festival, was decimated by the deadliest fire in the state’s history. Nearly 100 people died in the so-called Camp Fire; their average age was 71 — and city officials […]
The World Health Organization launched the Age-Friendly Communities Initiative in 2006, with the laudable goal of making communities throughout the world accessible and safer for seniors. The first step was to gather information from older residents, service providers, and other groups from a total of 33 cities worldwide. They identified eight key areas communities can […]