Aging

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Mom Flies Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

By Eliezer Sobel on November 7, 2009 in The 99th Monkey

Several weeks ago my mother, in her eighth or ninth year of Alzheimer’s Disease, and 63rd year of marriage, began wielding knives and trying to stab people, verbally threatening to kill my father, throwing dangerous glass objects and screaming bloody murder at her own image in the mirror—“I DON’T WANT YOU HERE, GET OUT!!!” My brother and I finally intervened and had her temporarily hospitalized in a psychiatric ward, hoping we could buy more time for her at home through stabilizing her on the right meds, and getting Dad more help. Read More
Is Surgery a Cause of Alzheimer's Disease?

By Howard Fillit, M.D. on November 4, 2009 in Alzheimer's: Hope on the Horizon

Last blog, we talked about head trauma as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, stimulated by recent press regarding potentially hundreds of NFL players suffering dementia. But to put the NFL issue in perspective, there are many other modifiable and preventable risk factors for dementia with far more importance in terms of impact, factors that affect perhaps millions of people. Read More
How to Become an Age Buster

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. on November 3, 2009 in Fulfillment at Any Age

The lives of creative older people, such as Katharine Hepburn, can serve as an inspiration to all of us. How can you benefit from their examples to become an Age Buster in your own right? Read More
What's Scary About the H1N1 Vaccine?

By Tamara McClintock Greenberg, Psy.D. on November 1, 2009 in 21st Century Aging

Why would older people be less suspicious of vaccines?

Read More
Eight Steps for Family Caregiving - Part 4

By Dan Tobin, M.D. on October 28, 2009 in The Caregiver

OK, so you now understand your parent's doctors' treatment plans (Step 1) and you have acquired a certain proficiency in gathering medical information (Step 2) and non-medical information (Step 3) specific to your personal situation. The next step is pulling everything together - multiple doctor's appointments, tests, procedures, medical information, home care services, medication management, devices, and as many other services as your aging parent requires to be safe at home, wherever home is. Read More
Happy 95th Birthday Jack LaLanne

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. on October 27, 2009 in Fulfillment at Any Age

Want to live to 95? Try Jack LaLanne's approach to "use it or lose it." Jack LaLanne turned 95 last month. His passion for exercise, diet control, and a positive attitude toward life is an inspiration to all of us. LaLanne exemplifies the "use it or lose it" philosophy that helps keep people aging successfully well into their later years. Read More
Women's Liberation - Baby Boomer Style

By Doreen Orion, M.D. on October 25, 2009 in Queen of the Road

Like many of us, until my forties, I had gone through life feeling rather invincible. Not only was it inconceivable that something bad could ever happen to me, even my very mortality seemed suspect. Then, feeling creaks and aches in bones I hadn't thought about since anatomy class in medical school, made me reluctantly concede that I actually was mortal - or even worse - getting older. Read More
Relinquish Dignity Last

By Gordon S. Livingston on October 24, 2009 in Lifelines

This, I think, is why the old have such a deserved reputation as complainers. If we become preoccupied with our physical selves when we are young we are thought of as hypochondriacs. When we think (and speak) primarily of our aches when we are old, we are just bad company. Read More
Growing Wise

By Tamara McClintock Greenberg, Psy.D. on October 21, 2009 in 21st Century Aging

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for O Magazine, Maya Angelou remarked, "I'm going to die. So why can't I do everything?" Read More
Baby Boomers Find Fulfillment in Making a Difference

By Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. on October 20, 2009 in Fulfillment at Any Age

Did you know the mid-life crisis is a myth? Read More
Cancer Doesn't Make People Happy

By Ariel Gore on October 20, 2009 in Women and Happiness

The idea for the happiness journal came from a little book called A Life of One's Own written by the British psychoanalyst Marion Milner and published under the pseudonym Joanna Field in the 1930s. Milner's idea was that if she recorded the best moments in her daily life, she might begin to trace patterns from those moments and discover the conditions for lasting happiness. Read More
‘Net Surfing Is Good for the Brain...at Any Age

By Faith Brynie on October 19, 2009 in Brain Sense

New research from UCLA shows that just a few hours of surfing the Web can trigger increased activity in regions of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. Read More
Is Alzheimer's disease preventable? What the NFL Tells Us

By Howard Fillit, M.D. on October 19, 2009 in Alzheimer's: Hope on the Horizon

There has been a lot of recent press regarding the presence of cognitive impairment and even dementia in NFL players who have suffered repeated head trauma and concussions.

But this is not a new story. Read More
Anti-Aging

By Kristine Anthis, Ph.D. on October 15, 2009 in Who Am I?

Identity aside for a moment. 'Anti-aging' is a term that shows up more and more every day. It's also a misnomer. Once we reach maturation, i.e., complete puberty, the aging process begins. Read More
Eight Steps for Family Caregiving, Part 3

By Dan Tobin, M.D. on October 14, 2009 in The Caregiver

When we started our steps for family caregiving, we advised you to create and continually update a problem list of all the issues your family is facing. First, it's a tool for working with your parent's doctors. Your problem list is also a guide for gathering and evaluating the non-medical information you will need to help your parents stay independent, or deal with such issues as homecare, insurance, and healthcare finances. Read More
Mid-mid-life crisis: Stage two lessons in animal hasbeendry

By Jeremy Sherman, Ph.D. on October 14, 2009 in Ambigamy

I had a mid-life crisis around forty. It was conventional and by that I mean head-implodingly fierce, deep, miserable--a seemingly interminable plummeting. It was prompted by the usual questions: Is that all I am? Is this all there is? Am I already at this late a stage of the game? Read More
Is Poor Self-Care Contagious?

By Tamara McClintock Greenberg, Psy.D. on October 10, 2009 in 21st Century Aging

Social contagion theory suggests that “clusters of friends appear to ‘infect’ each other with obesity, unhappiness and smoking.” My initial response was: Cool! --maybe if I find more friends who are size 4 then I can be too! I was about to place my Craigslist ad for new friends... Read More
My Father's Impatience

By Regina Barreca, Ph.D. on October 9, 2009 in Snow White Doesn't Live Here Anymore

During my father's illness I learned that the noun "patient" and the adjective "patient" are --no surprise -- not merely etymologically bred from the same root (the Latin present participle pati, to suffer): they also hold within them the seeds of what's necessary when dealing with death.
When someone you love is a patient, meaning that he is suffering, enduring pain, indignity, and helplessness, the only thing that you can do is find patience in yourself. Read More
Obama’s Nobel Honors His Dignitarian Politics

By Robert Fuller, Ph.D. on October 9, 2009 in Somebodies and Nobodies

Awarding President Obama the Nobel Prize is an expression of the hope that our best chance for world peace lies in the dignitarian politics of which he is an exemplar. Read More
Travel to Create Your Self

By Robert Fuller, Ph.D. on October 8, 2009 in Somebodies and Nobodies

We do not travel to get away from it all. Travel fails as escape but it succeeds as confrontation--confrontation with our old selves that, deprived of their usual confirmatory surroundings, may yield to a new one.
Read More

Aging Blogs

21st Century Aging
Living longer and better.
By Tamara McClintock Greenberg, Psy.D.
Adventures in Old Age
A candid look at aging, old age, and eldercare
By Ira Rosofsky, Ph.D.
Alzheimer's: Hope on the Horizon
Detection, prevention, treatment, and drug discovery.
By Howard Fillit, M.D.
Brain Bootcamp
Exercising your most important organ.
By Gary Small, M.D.
Fulfillment at Any Age
How to remain productive and healthy into your later years
By Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D.
Love and Dementia
To Love What Is: The Caregiving Life
By Alix Kates Shulman
The Caregiver
Family caregiving solutions as parents age.
By Dan Tobin, M.D.
Who's Caring for Mom?
Caring for the elderly and aging.
By Cecilia Capuzzi Simon

Aging Basics

By 2030, the number of Americans age 65 and over is projected to be about 71.5 million, of which nearly 10 million will be 85 or older. The good news is that many seniors report better health, greater wealth, and higher levels of education than older people in the past.

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