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February 15, 2009

ChangingAging.org Redesign -- Please Bookmark!

Attention Readers! We are launching a new design for the blog that will be hosted directly at the URL www.changingaging.org. Please navigate to www.changingaging.org and reset your bookmarks and sign up for our new RSS Feed. In the coming days we will set up an automatic redirect to the new hosting site. See you there!

Web Master

Posted by Kavan Peterson on February 15, 2009 8:00 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

February 13, 2009

Disaster in Buffalo

A great loss...

A commuter plane dropped out of the sky without warning and nose-dived into a suburban Buffalo house in a fiery crash that killed all 49 people aboard and one person in the home. It was the nation's first deadly crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2 years.
The cause of the disaster was under investigation, but other pilots were overheard around the same time complaining of ice building up on their wings — a hazard that has caused major crashes in the past.

The twin turboprop aircraft — Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J. — was coming in for a landing when it went down in light snow and fog around 10:20 p.m. Thursday about five miles short of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Witnesses heard the plane sputtering before it plunged squarely through the roof of the house, its tail section visible through flames shooting at least 50 feet high.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 13, 2009 11:50 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

February 2, 2009

Facts Are Stubborn Things: Social Security Edition

Media Matters calls David Gregory out for misinforming his viewers about Social Security.

During the February 1 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory falsely asserted that "Social Security is about to go -- pay out more than it's taking in by 2010." In fact, the 2008 Social Security trustees' report estimated that "[u]nder the intermediate assumptions, the OASDI [Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance] cost rate is projected to increase rapidly and first exceed the income rate in 2017," not in 2010 as Gregory claimed. Moreover, as Media Matters for America has noted, the 2008 Social Security trustees' report forecasts that, in the absence of a change in the law, Social Security will be able to pay full benefits until 2041, after which it will be able to cover between 78 and 75 percent of scheduled benefits through the end of the 75-year period the report's long-range projection covered.
This is not the first time NBC has perpetuated myths about Social Security. As Media Matters documented, during the October 2, 2008, edition of NBC's Nightly News, NBC News correspondent John Yang falsely asserted: "At current rates, analysts say Social Security will run out of money by 2041." Additionally, on the September 18, 2008, edition of MSNBC Live, correspondent David Shuster stated that Social Security "will run out of money unless we make some major changes, at least in the next several years."

Self-government requires the existence of an informed public. The existence of an informed public depends upon the ability of the press to present the public with facts. Gregory's cavalier approach to the truth (he either did not know or did not care to find out the truth about Social Security) injures our democracy. This type of failure highlights the rot that pervades the for-profit news industry. Blogs and blogging represent an active effort by the citizens of our nations to respond to the damage that is being done by the traditional media's repeated failures to fulfill their duty.

I may not have the same platform that David Gregory possesses as host of NBC's "Meet the Press" but I do have more credibility than he does because I do the best I can to understand and respond to reality. I seek to be reality-based.

David Gregory should strive for a similar stance the next time he discusses the future of Social Security.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 2, 2009 2:26 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

January 27, 2009

We Were There...

This is a good use of web technology to bolster journalism.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on January 27, 2009 3:20 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

December 5, 2008

Let's Play "How Old is the Celebrity!"

Sylvester Stallone: How Old Is He?

Eli Manning is one of the most talked about men in New York and the World after beating the undefeated Patriots in this years Super Bowl.

Paula Abdul has parlayed her initial choreographer success into singing, jewelry designing, acting, and now being the face of ‘American Idol.’

Tom Brady has quarterbacked the New England Patriots to three Super Bowl wins. He’s dating supermodel Gisele and has the striking looks which has landed him countless endorsement deals. I’m convinced most people would trade years off their life to live in Tom’s world for just a few.

Ric “The Nature Boy” Flair wrestles for both SmackDown and Raw. He is one of most well known wrestlers in the world, starting his career in the early 1980s. Flair has numerous world championships over his long career. Over the years, he has taken many extended breaks but recently announced her would “never retire” from wrestling.

Sylvester Stallone is the epitome of being a “man’s man.” The Rocky and Rambo movies are his claim to fame, and at “over the hill status” the man just keeps on making them. And why not? The franchises at the end of the decade were billion dollar franchises internationally.

Find the Answers Here

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on December 5, 2008 5:26 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

December 4, 2008

Immersion

Human elders have a millenia long win streak when it comes to transmitting culture across the generations. They have a proven ability to immerse young people in the stories, the legends and the ways of their people.

Now they are being challenged and the competition is formidable.

Here is the new immersion.

(The film maker aimed his camera at children as they watched music videos and played video games.)

What, our elders ask, lies ahead?

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on December 4, 2008 5:34 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

December 3, 2008

Face Lift

Here is something that is new to me. The opening of a show of sculpted objects was videotaped, then edited and set to music so that the opening is now part of the artists's work.

Like the soundtrack, our culture never stops reminding us that the pursuit of physical beauty is a "duty" for women.

Here is the artist's website...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on December 3, 2008 5:21 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

November 7, 2008

Power Up Friday #2

St. John's home got a nice story on BBC News today. here's the web version:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7711794.stm

There will be a TV and radio version broadcast as well.

AP

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on November 7, 2008 5:30 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

July 7, 2008

New Old Age

Jane Gross from the New York Times has a new blog.

It's called The New Old Age.

I like it so far.

Here are a couple of posts...

Coming Home for Herbie

The Car Key Conversation

It well written, loaded with content and is likely to become a frequent stop for all of us.

The New York Times done a good job in covering aging for the past few years and I think that this blog is a sign that the paper continues to see the issue as important.

So far, the focus is clearly on "Caring For Your Parents" and the legendary difficulties that such caregiving can entail.

Now for a quibble.

This quote from "Coming Home for Herbie," while clearly accurate, is a bit off key.

That was the moment, Ms. Winokur said, when she knew she was truly in charge, the role reversal complete. “The time for discussion was over, and I was like a parent talking to a child,” she said. “You can clean up your room or you can’t have dessert.”

(Emphasis Mine)

The idea that adult children experience a "role reversal" idea is both common and not very helpful. In my experience, this kind of thinking can easily lead to a profound loss of dignity on the part of the older relative. It can also make caregiving more, rather than less, burdensome.

It is better, I think, to conceive of the caregiving relationship as a new phase in the original parent child relationship.

Adult children are often relieved when I say to them, "You are still your mother's child and you will always be her child but the time has come for you to become a different kind of daughter/son."

Not better, not worse, just different...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on July 7, 2008 8:04 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

June 3, 2008

KGMB and the Genius of Aging

Watch the Video here...

DR THOMAS: This morning the Genius of Aging turns its attention to an important topic that frankly, doesn't get talked about enough, and that's elder abuse. And luckily, we've got Scott Spallina and Lei Shimizu. Thank you for coming in and talking with me about this, and you know, a lot of people don't really understand how big a problem elder abuse is, and I know you guys are hip deep in it every day. What's the story?

SCOTT: Well, you're absolutely right, that this is a grossly under-reported crime.

DR. THOMAS: It's a crime.

SCOTT: It is a crime, definitely. And that's why the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney set up the Elder Abuse Unit to deal specifically with these crimes, focusing on victims over the age of 60 years old.

DR. THOMAS: You know, a lot of times, bad things happen, between even people who love each other. It really is a crime. In a sense, it really is domestic violence, a different kind of domestic violence. Lei, you've worked with this for a long time.

LEI: A lot of times it's intergenerational transmission of family violence. You know like being a victim of child abuse, becoming a parent who's abusive, becoming a parent or a couple who abuses each other, like spousal abuse. And then, as an elder, you are abused and neglected and maltreated because of the generation of abuse.

DR. THOMAS: Right. And we've got to break the cycle.

SCOTT: They say that one fifth of all elder abuse crimes happen in a family. And we're talking about not only spouses but about adult children. In a case I was recently prosecuting in Hawaii, was an elder adult son who beat up his 69-year-old mother, because she did not clean the bathroom to his liking, and be broke her orbital bone. When the police arrived at the scene, she was forced to crawl out the window.

DR. THOMAS: Wow. I'm a geriatrician, I mean I love elders, it's my calling in life. It makes my blood boil. It must be tough, getting through a day at work sometimes, but, even all of the details you're dealing with, there's a whole bunch more that's not being reported.

SCOTT: Exactly. Elder abuse right now is where domestic violence was 30 years ago. And even now we're having trouble convincing the public that there's a problem with domestic violence. So, to even mention elder abuse, we're like 30 years behind the curve. We're trying to model our program after successful programs on the Mainland, but they've been working at it for over a decade.

DR. THOMAS: We will, we will catch up. I mean I am swearing. This is really important, and you know Lei, you said that a lot of times people don't report the crime because they're dependant on the person who's committing the crime.

LEI: They're dependant on their caregiver. It's the cultural nature that we have in Hawaii, and you know that it's shameful to say that you are abused by your son or your daughter. You know it's just incredible…

DR. THOMAS: So neighbors, I mean I think both of you agree. Neighbors, other family members, friends, ministers, anybody should have their eyes pealed, really.

SCOTT: Exactly. And there's that saying that what happens behind closed doors, every man's home is his castle. That doesn't apply to domestic violence. It does not apply to elder abuse. There's no shame when you're the victim of a crime. You need to get help. That's whey the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney is working with the police department, is working with Elder Affairs, is working with Adult Protective Services.

DR. THOMAS: I am so with you on this and I, you know, I'd love to see the day come when this, when the sunlight is out on the topic, people can talk about it, there's no shame, people can report it, because quite frankly, it's one of the great dangers people face in old age is winding up in a situation where you're dependant on somebody who commits acts of violence or neglect against you, so…

SCOTT: Well you remember that the seniors of our community are our greatest resources. And they need the protection, they need every protection we can give them.

DR. THOMAS: I'm like so proud, I mean I want to come to your office, I want to work with you guys, I love you!

SCOTT: We'll give you a badge.

DR. THOMAS: I'm on it.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on June 3, 2008 6:36 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

Power-Up Friday: Is Grandma Drugged Up?

Check out the news article on CNN.com, "Is Grandma drugged up?". This is important information, especially for older health care consumers.

The article states that 38 million older Americans suffer from drug complications every year, 180,000 of which are life-threatening.

It adds that people over 65 have a "risk for drug errors" that is seven times greater than those under 65. I'm not sure if their wording is correct here. This ratio might actually reflect the risk of drug complications, not errors. Either way, it is an important caution for older people on multiple medications, (see my post from April 25).

New drugs are rarely tested on older people before FDA approval. The study populations are carefully selected to minimize risk. That's not necessarily a bad thing; but after approval, the companies will often take drugs tested in healthy 40 and 50 year-olds, and promote them for people in their 70s and 80s. It is NOT a valid assumption that these pills will have the same efficacy and safety in older people.

I'm not a big fan of CNN-TV, which seems to use a lot of fearmongering and histrionics to peddle its news. However, this article is a good read. It has lists of potentially harmful drugs and drug interactions, instructions for doing a "brown bag review" of your pills, and suggestions for discussing these concerns with your doctor. Check it out!

--Al Power

Posted by Kavan Peterson on May 30, 2008 9:54 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

April 16, 2008

Sheilah Kast Wins!

[UPDATE -- thanks to Jen Chang for supplying the original audio and to Bill Shewbridge at UMBC's New Media Studio for uploading it -- LISTEN HERE!]

A while back I sat down for a chat with WYPR's Sheilah Kast. We talked about the Erickson School masters class I co-teach with Judah Ronch. In particular, we discussed the way we use Shakespeare's "King Lear" to explore the full depth and meaning of aging and longevity.

We had a great time doing the interview together and she wound up submitting the interview for an award.

And....

Drum roll, please...

She won.

Radio Specialty Reporting

First Place:

"King Lear: A Study in Aging"

Sheilah Kast

WYPR

A fascinating look at the challenges of aging and relationships and how Shakespeare's King Lear can serve as a model for addressing various issues. Kast is an intelligent interviewer who asks the type of questions many listeners would if they had the opportunity to talk to the guest.

Way to go Sheilah!

I'll see if I can find the link to the original interview [POSTED ABOVE].

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on April 16, 2008 11:22 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

April 14, 2008

The Green House

I caught this article from The Longview News-Journal online...

I think the journalist Angela Ward gets it right.

Elderly residents at the Green House are blooming along with the flowers in their courtyard.
The innovative nursing home, which opened in December, is designed to look and operate less like an institution and more like a home, said Debby Bravo, Green House guide. It is part of a spectrum of living options for elderly residents at Buckner Westminster Place, which also includes independent living, assisted living and memory care.

Farooq Bahadory, a staff member with the Green House at Buckner Westminster Place, hands out cornbread to the residents Monday at the Green House in Longview.

"We've seen a number of improvements in the residents since they moved in," Bravo said. "One woman who was strictly using a wheelchair when she came here now uses a walker most of the time, and several of them are gaining weight."

Two homes are connected by a central courtyard. Both can house 10 residents, each of whom have a private room and bathroom. The rooms open onto a central living and dining area, with offices and laundry facilities in the back of the house. One house is completely filled; the other has five residents, with five more residents scheduled to move in this month.

"The residents don't have specific times they have to wake up or go to bed, and they're encouraged to decorate their rooms to reflect their individual personalities," Bravo said. "Lunch and supper are served in a communal manner, with the staff and residents eating together."

Residents of the homes range in age from 65 to 97. All have health problems severe enough to require skilled nursing care, Bravo said.

James Smith, 88, admits his memory isn't what it used to be, and that's why he can no longer live independently.

"I like it here. It's a beautiful setup," the World War II veteran said. "I never thought I'd reach a point where I couldn't live on my own, but since that's where I'm at in life, this is preferable to a nursing home."

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on April 14, 2008 5:53 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

March 18, 2008

One Fish Two Sexes...

A little while back I blogged about the presence of trace amounts of prescription drugs in our water supplies. I agreed with the expert who asserted, "That can't be good."

Now the Washington Post offers an update on the problem of intersex fish in the Potomac River.

The article focuses on the more general issue of "endocrine disruptors" rather than just medications but the fundamentals are the same. If we use it-- sooner or later it is going to wind up in our water supply.

The Potomac River contains an array of man-made chemicals that could play havoc with animals' hormone systems, federal scientists have found in their best glimpse yet of the river's problems with a mysterious new class of pollutant.
The research, unveiled at a conference last week, found more than 10 of the compounds, including pesticides, herbicides and artificial fragrances. Through an accident of chemistry, formulas designed to kill bugs or add smell to soap might also interfere with vital signals in fish, amphibians and other creatures.

The scientists said they hoped this new research might explain one of the Potomac's most bizarre discoveries: Some male fish have begun growing eggs. Scientists said there was no evidence of a threat to human health.

Taken with a recent report that drinking water samples from the river contain traces of drugs, the results provide troubling evidence about the river's health. People living along the Potomac, the results showed, have widely tainted it with pollutants that scientists are just beginning to understand.

"The types of things we're finding are the types of things that are associated with everyday life," said David Alvarez, a U.S. Geological Survey research chemist who analyzed samples from the Potomac. The contaminants flow into the river from sewer plants and in rainwater washing off of farm fields and suburban lawns, he said.

"If it's something we're using, ultimately it's going to end up in the water," Alvarez said.

The chemicals in the study presented at the conference, held in Berkeley Springs, W.Va., are suspected by scientists to be "endocrine disruptors." This group of contaminants interferes with natural hormone systems, twisting or aborting the processes that hormones control. The conference was sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

Much about the compounds is still unclear, including which of them really do have bad effects.

In 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency was ordered by Congress to create a testing program to identify endocrine disruptors, but the tests have not begun.

Along the Potomac, researchers have long suspected that hormone-mimicking chemicals were the cause of the "intersex" fish. The first of these creatures, male fish with eggs growing in their sex organs, were noticed in a rural West Virginia tributary in 2003.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 18, 2008 10:06 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

More on Age Bashing...

From the comments, Jon offers this take on ageist prejudice...

Original post here

Regardless of your political views, perpetuating ageist thinking is a disservice to our elders and society in general. Of greater concern than the “McCain-is-old-bashing” going on late night TV shows, is how ageist views also crop-up in “serious” discussions about the election or candidate qualifications, but in more subtle ways.
The presumption seems to be that the chronological age of a candidate (such as Senator McCain or Ralph Nader) in and of itself creates a “negative” hurdle that the candidate must explain away. But where are the questions about whether or how the chronological age of these candidates could be a positive characteristic in relation to carrying out the duties and responsibilities of the President of the United States?

Even it we can’t stamp out ageist thinking in the short term, the debate needs to be expanded to take in to account the positive and developmental aspects of aging as well.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 18, 2008 6:39 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

March 17, 2008

Jimmy Cayne Was His Name..

Former Bears Sterns left quite a trail of wreckage behind him.

This report from Yalman Onaran at Bloomberg is from November of 2007.

Remember as you read this that these are the geniuses who were going to run a "privatized" Social Security system.

One point that manic advocates of the free market frequently fail to acknowledge is that in a time when regular folks are increasingly exposed to the fierce competition and uncertainty that come with globalized markets, it becomes even more important to have a real, incorruptible and highly trustworthy public sector safety net.

I give you, titan of Wall Street (emeritus) Jimmy Cayne...

Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Bear Stearns Cos. Chief Executive Officer James ``Jimmy'' Cayne denied that he ``engaged in inappropriate conduct'' and said he remained ``intensely focused'' on the firm.

Cayne's comments, made in an internal memo sent to employees, came after the Wall Street Journal, in a front page story earlier today, cited unidentified people as saying he smoked pot at bridge tournaments. The story also said Cayne, 73, spent 10 of 21 working days in July outside the office while two of the company's hedge funds collapsed.

``I stand by the record of success the firm has had over the 14 years that I have had the privilege of leading this great organization,'' Cayne said in the memo. ``Thank you for your continued dedication to Bear Stearns, and don't be distracted by the noise. I am certainly not.''

The collapse of the market for securities linked to subprime mortgages in July sparked the worst credit markets since Russia's debt default in 1998. Earnings at New York-based Bear Stearns, the No. 2 underwriter of bonds backed by mortgages after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., dropped 61 percent, the biggest decline in more than a decade. The company has cut 900 jobs, or about 6 percent of its workforce.

Bear Stearns fell 3.4 percent to $109.69 in New York Stock Exchange Composite trading. The stock has dropped 30 percent this year, the worst performance among the five biggest securities firms, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman. All are based in New York.

Bear Stearns spokeswoman Elizabeth Ventura confirmed the contents of the memo and declined to comment further. Cayne wasn't available for comment.

Cayne ousted Co-President Warren Spector in August, holding him responsible for the hedge-fund losses. Spector, 49, was considered a potential successor to Cayne.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 17, 2008 7:02 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Whose Safety Net?

Matthew Yglesias agrees with me and argues the point more clearly to boot...

As I said before, I don't necessarily have a problem with the government intervening to help stabilize the financial markets if that's what's necessary for the economy. There's no sense letting a sense of spite directed at the wizards of high finance get in the way of doing what needs to be done. But surely Democrats could seize this opportunity to make the case for the rest of the social contract. After all, it was just a couple of months ago that the GOP was blocking efforts to temporarily increase food stamp benefits and extend unemployment insurance and doing so in the name of free markets and moral hazards.

It's preposterous. This is the time to be making the case for progressive taxation and for a safety net that works for the broad mass of people, not just a selective one for people who reap the windfall during boom times and then walk away from losses when things go bust.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 17, 2008 11:30 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Fiddle Meet Rome

Nero had nothing on these guys...

From Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bear Stearns Cos Inc (BSC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Chairman Jimmy Cayne was playing cards in a tournament late last week while his company's future appeared to be at risk, according a published report.

As the bank hammered out an emergency funding deal on Thursday with the Federal Reserve and JPMorgan Chase (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), which resulted in Bear's shares falling by as much as half, Cayne was playing in the North American Bridge Championship in Detroit, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site on Friday.

Cayne, who in January stepped down as Bear Stearns' long-time chief executive, is no stranger to controversy about his hobbies. Last year he was criticized for spending too much time playing bridge and golf while Bear stumbled on wrong-way bets on subprime mortgages.

Speaking of golf, CNBC had this report from the summer...

CNBC has learned that the Hollywood Country Club in Deal, New Jersey is examining whether Bear Stearns CEO Jimmy Cayne changed his golf scores to allow him to win the July 4th tournament at the club.
Cayne's golf-game had made news earlier in the month after news reports said he had gone on a golf outing during some of the worst days in Bear's subprime hedge fund crisis.

The Hollywood Golf Club president Harvey York has formed a three person committee to examine a complaint against Cayne, according to CNBC reporter Charlie Gasparino.

Gasparino spent some time on the phone Friday with York to gauge the seriousness of the allegation.

He told Gasparino that allegations of cheating occur all the time. York said the committee has thus far found no confirmation of cheating on Cayne's part.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 17, 2008 8:54 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

March 14, 2008

More Age-Bashing McCain

[Guest-post by UMBC's Kavan Peterson]

Following-up on Bill's post "Age Bashing McCain", The New York Times explores how "codger jokes" have become a mainstay of late-night-comedy in contrast to taboos over gender and race jokes:

“Mr. Leno and his counterparts have been merciless with Mr. McCain, peppering their monologues with digs about dementia, pills, prostates and Miracle Ears. In a nightly schtick, David Letterman compares Mr. McCain to ‘the old guy in the barbershop,’ ‘a mall-walker,’ ‘a Wal-Mart greeter’ and more. Conan O’Brien said recently, ‘After John McCain swept yesterday’s primaries, he purposely stole a line Barack Obama’s been using: I’m fired up and ready to go. When Obama heard this, he stole a line McCain’s been using: I’m old and not sure where I am.’”

Hat-tip to Ronni Bennett for dissecting this story.

Posted by Kavan Peterson on March 14, 2008 10:23 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

March 12, 2008

Elders as Peacemakers

A global village needs global elders to help bring peace into places where there is strife.

This is their story.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 12, 2008 5:50 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

March 11, 2008

That Can't Be Good

Mike Nizza at the New York Times blog, The Lede, takes note of a recent report that shows measurable levels of prescription drugs in municipal water supplies.

There are traces of sedatives in New York City’s water. Ibuprofen and naproxen in Washington, D.C. Anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety drugs in southern California.
A 2,550 word article from The Associated Press is drawing attention to the widespread problem of trace amounts of pharmaceutical chemicals turning up in the drinking water supply of millions of Americans, but no one seems to know how to react. The report itself culminated with a doctor offering a tried-and-true deduction for the Ages: “That can’t be good.”

(full article here)

But how bad is it, exactly? The answers range in degrees of confidence and alarm, though no one was ready to predict imminent doom.

‘’We recognize it is a growing concern and we’re taking it very seriously,'’ said Benjamin H. Grumbles, the Environmental Protection Agency’s water chief. But the government has not established any safety limits for pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water, as it has for many other chemicals; the agency is just learning how to detect low concentrations of drugs in water, let alone assess the risk posed by them.

The American Water Works Association, a trade group representing thousands of water utilities, seemed to suggest that the problem is the testing data, not the water. A California water official warned The A.P. before it published the article that that the public “doesn’t know how to interpret the information” from the tests.

I will echo the "tried and true" conclusion of the doctor cited in the article--- "That can't be good." Although Nizza seems skeptical, there is good reason to believe"that can't be good" in advance of results from large clinical trials.

A drug is, by definition, a chemical compound which has, at low doses, a specific biological effect. Drugs used by humans are designed to have a specific biological effect--- on humans. So here is the thing that Nizza is not getting. Tiny doses of drugs given to millions of people for many years (through the water supply) are likely to create changes in the health status of at least some of those people. No one one can say what those changes might be-- and that can't be good.

The other issue is that people are, rightly I think, quite sensitive to the purity of their water supply. For decades, the addition of fluoride to water supplies was the subject of great political conflict (conservatives thought it was a communist plot-- not kidding) the irony is that we have conclusive proof that fluoridated water is a public health boon. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely that hundreds of millions of people mindlessly ingesting a random cocktail of prescription drugs (even at very low doses) is going to lead to anything other than major public health problems.

Checkout Tailspin's full rundown of blog chatter over this one.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 11, 2008 9:11 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

March 10, 2008

TGB's "This Week in Elder News"

[A sample of Elder news from Ronni Bennett at TGB: In this regular Saturday feature you will find links to news items from the preceding week related to elders and aging, along with whatever else catches my fancy that I think you might like to know. Suggestions are welcome with, however, no promises of publication.]

Today marks the launch of a new group blog, Wowowow which stands for “The Women on the Web”. The blog features a bunch of New York’s elite, elder women such as gossip maven Liz Smith, actors Candace Bergen and Whoopi Goldberg, TV journalist Leslie Stahl, “Miss Manners” otherwise known as Judith Martin, comedian Lily Tomlin and a few more. I have no idea yet how “wow” this idea is, but you can read more about it here.

Dr. Robert N. Butler who invented the term “ageism” and who is CEO and president of the International Longevity Center-USA, published an issue brief on elders and drug safety [pdf]. Although elders use 40 percent of all prescription drugs, the FDA does not require us to be included in trials on efficacy and safety. This is crucial information you and your physician should know.

On the same topic, manufacturers increased the prices of prescription drugs by an average of 7.4 percent last year - two-and-a-half times the rate of inflation. The price of the sleep drug Ambien jumped 27.7 percent.

Tenure can be hard to come by for college professors; many wait decades. But 68-year old Victoria Rauch Lichterman, assistant professor of humanities at New York City College of Technology who focuses on the negative effects of ageism, was recently granted tenure after just six years of teaching at the school. Score one for elder academics. [Hat tip to Naomi Dagen Bloom of A Little Red Hen]

When Crabby Old Lady posted her objections last Tuesday to Hillary Clinton Feminists, she quoted but did not comment on a NOW leader’s swipe at black women who choose not to vote for Senator Clinton because – well, Crabby is white and doesn’t believe she can properly speak for black women. Now, G Bitch has done it for Crabby in a colorfully worded and no-uncertain-terms rant.

When, through some glitch in the system, Social Security declares you dead, it is nearly impossible to convince the agency your heart still beats. “’I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to be dead when you’re not,’ said [Laura] Todd, who is very much alive…even though the federal government has said otherwise for many years.” It happens more often than you would think. Between January 2004 and September 2005, Social Security had to resurrect 23,366 beneficiaries and plenty more who remain active and above ground are still on the dead list.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on March 10, 2008 1:24 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

The Baltimore Sun Shines

Nice article in the Sunday Edition.

It's worth a look.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 25, 2008 2:21 PM |Permalink |Comments (2)

February 21, 2008

12 People who Are Changing Aging No. 4

[Editors note -- this is a continuation of 12-part feature by The Wall Street Journal profiling "pioneers who are shaping the way Americans will live, work and play in later life."]

Yesterday, Brenda from MAgS made this excellent comment in response Eric Dishman's laudable efforts to help people live independently:

Staying home is great, and seems to be what everyone wants. But where is the healthcare? In a CCRC, healthcare is available whenever it is needed. At home, unless links have been made in advance, getting healthcare can become a real obstacle to staying put, and people should not be fooled that technology can fully take the place of personal care.

Here's what's at the heart of this debate: Our society judges the worthiness of individuals based almost entirely on their ability to function and act like adults. There's good reason why most folks want to live independently -- failing to live independently is tantamount to failing to be an "adult." The consequences ARE SEVERE. Failing to be an adult can result in loss of home, loss of possessions, having your pets euthanized and ultimately, the loss of freedom, privacy and dignity.

I am keenly interested in the idea of aging in community as a successor to America's increasingly outmoded devotion to Aging in Place. Aging in Place lionizes the private family home as the ONLY legitimate place where older people can and should live. I suppose one could argue that back when we all lived in close proximity to a large network of close blood relatives, aging in place was the natural order of things. But guess what?

The world has changed and our understanding of aging needs to change as well. What people in late life need, in addition to privacy, safety and dignity, is to be part of a real flesh and blood community. The need to be able to participate in a range of meaningful relationships, people (of all ages) need to care and to know that others care about them.

Living alone in a typical detached family dwelling (minus the family) cannot serve this need and that is why I think that Aging in Place is failing us as an organizing concept for the last half of life.

These ideas bring us to the next WSJ Changing Aging profile and a familiar face to the Erickson School family -- John Erickson, founder of Erickson Retirement Communities, who helped launch the Erickson School and continues to be a committed partner in our work. John's genius has, I think, revolved around making the decision to "leave home" into a move toward something -- a vibrant community-- rather than a move away from something-- leaky gutters.

Number Four -- Helping People Leave Home.

In contrast to Mr. Dishman, John Erickson sees a future where millions of Americans leave their homes in later life. And he's preparing your accommodations.

Mr. Erickson, 63, is chairman and chief executive of closely held Erickson Retirement Communities, one of the country's largest developers of continuing-care retirement communities. In a CCRC, residents are guaranteed access to different levels of long-term care as they age.

Starting in Maryland in 1983 with a single facility (a renovated seminary), Mr. Erickson began developing retirement "campuses," where residents, among other activities, can produce their own TV shows. Today, the company has 20 CCRCs with 21,000 residents in 11 states. Mr. Erickson hopes to nearly double that number in five years.

Why should we leave our homes in later life? "Accidents, falls, depression, isolation," Mr. Erickson answers. "That's not what was meant for the last half of retirement."

Beyond housing, Mr. Erickson also may have a hand in shaping what older adults watch on television. In the past two years, he has spent an estimated $100 million building Retirement Living TV, a cable network focused on later life. He also donated $5 million in 2004 to start a professional program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, that combines management, policy and aging issues.
-- By Kelly Greene, The Wall Street Journal

Tomorrow -- A Life of Purpose.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 21, 2008 10:00 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

February 18, 2008

12 People who Are Changing Aging

Or your retirement, to be exact. The Wall Street Journal over the weekend looked into their crystal ball and profiled 12 folks, including myself, "whose work, in effect, is shaping the future of retirement."

From the Encore section of the WSJ, editor Glenn Ruffenach explains:

One thing we try to do with each issue of Encore is to get you to think about retirement and later life -- how you might spend your time and money. As it turns out, a lot of people are thinking about your retirement, and our cover story tells you what they have in mind.

Kelly Greene, a staff reporter in The Wall Street Journal's Atlanta bureau, asked experts in aging across the country to identify those individuals whose ideas and work are likely to have the biggest impact on the future of retirement. The 12 people she profiles already are pushing their plans out of offices and labs and into older adults' lives. We think it makes for an instructive and fascinating read.

We at ChangingAging.org agree. We'll feature all 12 of the WSJ's profiles over the next couple of weeks. Today -- The Numbers Guy

William Bengen
It's the most frequent question, and biggest concern, for many people approaching retirement: How big a nest egg will I need, and how do I make it last?

William Bengen is working on that.

Mr. Bengen, a certified financial planner in El Cajon, Calif., has already achieved what amounts to rock-star status in the retirement-planning business. His pioneering research in the 1990s gave rise to the "4% rule": Withdraw no more than about 4% a year from your nest egg, and it's highly likely that your savings will last 30 years. That finding has already helped to establish budgets and spending patterns for numerous retirees.

Today, Mr. Bengen, age 60, continues to refine his research. In 2006, he introduced a method of withdrawing funds from nest eggs that tailors the 4% rule to individual circumstances. (It's online at www.fpanet.org/journal. Click on "Past Issues & Articles," then on "Past Issues," and go to August 2006.) And now, he is researching, he says, "the possibility that dividend-paying stocks, particularly those that increase dividends over time, might provide a better retirement resource than the S&P 500." As Mr. Bengen explains: "The thesis is that those have at least as high a total return as S&P 500 stocks, and they have lower volatility.... If you have stocks that don't go down as much in the bear markets, you're better off."

Mr. Bengen doesn't see himself as shaping baby boomers' financial future. He says he simply wants to help his 60 or so clients.

"I was starting to get some clients who were planning for retirement," he recalls, "and they were asking me, 'How much can I take out, and how should I set up my investments?' And I couldn't find a thing substantiated by any research."
-- By Kelly Greene, The Wall Street Journal

Tomorrow -- Harnessing Technology

(Or read ahead here)

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 18, 2008 12:00 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

February 9, 2008

Power Up Redux: "Away From Her"

[Editor's note: This comment was originally posted by Al Power in response to some fantastic comments on his post about the film "Away From Her." Since it's longer than the original post (and hard to read in the comments section as Naomi pointed out :), I thought it's worth putting up by itself.]

Well, now we're getting somewhere!!

Let me try to explain where I'm coming from in a somewhat coherent way:

First, regarding plot believability (in "Away From Her"), I tried to steer away from those concerns - I could also nitpick some of the details, but I was looking at this movie from a whole different place. I don't see it as overly pretty or rose-colored at all. In fact I think it asks harder questions than "The Savages" did. The latter movie hits the more obvious problems with nursing home care, (all very legitimate), and the family issues rang extremely true to me in that movie, as I have said previously.

"Away From Her", however, touched on areas that I have been wrestling with in my current writings. A major difficulty most people have with my ideas stems from the nature of this disease. It's far easier to make a film that finds hope in coping with, say, cancer or paraplegia without being accused of being Polyanna-ish. But there's something inherently difficult in the concept of losing one's cognitive abilities - people find it much harder to see this as anything but the worst of tragedies. I think we'd all rather lose just about anything than our mental faculties, and many would choose death first.

What I'm trying to say is that it is this very tragic view of Alzheimer's disease that has caused our whole medical and elder care system to treat it purely as tragedy, and to view the person with dementia as fundamentally and irretrievably broken beyond repair.

This has played out in the ways we resort to institutionalized, segregated and programmatic approaches, and resort to medications that we would never rush to use on people in any other state. There is no more disempowered, "abandoned" person in our medical care system than the one with dementia.

As a result, most caregivers don't even bother to, as Fiona said, "try to find a little grace" in a bad situation. And that is what to me is much deeper than The Savages.

It's easy to show a crowded, dingy nursing home with crass lighting, but to show a country club atmosphere with people that say all the right things and still make such incredibly poor choices for those who live there is, to me, a far deeper indictment of how our elder care system needs fixing.

It is this same attitude toward dementia that leads many loved ones to take on the person's disease more as their own personal tragedy, which is what Fiona's husband did. It certainly was a tragedy for him as well, but he kept trying to shake her back to a place her mind could no longer occupy, because he could not find that grace and acceptance of her illness that she had somehow come to terms with in her own way. That is something I see quite often. And his attempts to shake her back to "normalcy" mirror our usual medical approach to people with dementia - it's like pushing a paraplegic out of their chair to try and force them to walk.

And when people fail to respond to our efforts, we medicate them for failing. I liked it that Fiona said that she preferred to sit with Aubrey because "He doesn't confuse me". What I also liked was that Grant finally discovered that the best way to connect to his wife was to go to her place, even if it wasn't his own reality.

This is the core of my work with viewing dementia from an experiential, rather than a neurochemical standpoint, and conforming the environment to the person's needs, rather than trying to force them back into "normal" patterns that no longer exist.

While it certainly doesn't cure the disease, some amazing "blossomings" have resulted - and people often do things that many doctors said were beyond their capability. (There are a few people with dementia who have traveled the world as spokespeople for those with the disease. In her book Dancing With Dementia, patient/author Christine Bryden writes that she has been called a "liar" by neurologists, because she shows a picture of her MRI scan at her talks and they refuse to believe that a woman with such a "swiss cheese" brain appearance can stand up and lecture!)

So ultimately, as crazy as it may sound, I choose to see each person with dementia as a person capable of continued growth, development and engagement with life, in spite of the fact that they have a disease that will, as Grant said, "progress".

And that view informs my out-of-the-box notions of how to care for people with the disease. This is the only movie I've ever seen about dementia that has dared to challenge our conventional view that there is little more than tragedy and loss, and to show the complex capacities that many people maintain well into their disease, (that our usual approach to care unfortunately stifles and suppresses).

What I'm saying may sound hopelessly naive in theory, but when 40% of people with dementia in nursing homes in the US and other developed countries are on antipsychotic drugs and only 7% of mine are, I think there is reason for hope.

Thanks for the responses!

-- Al

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 9, 2008 12:57 PM |Permalink |Comments (1)

De-Lurk!

Honestly--- de-lurking is fun...

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on February 9, 2008 7:54 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

January 30, 2008

BIZZARO news headline

AHHH-HA! This is my kind of news. Go Canada!

Aging really is depressing (until 50)
by TRALEE PEARCE
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
January 30, 2008 at 8:34 AM EST

The biggest risk for a midlife crisis is not divorce, ill health or losing one's job. It's merely the act of aging itself.

According to new research published in the current issue of the journal Social Science & Medicine, whether you're in Canada, Mexico or Malaysia, most of us bottom out in our mid-40s, describing ourselves as unhappy or even depressed.

But here's the good news: We bounce back and describe ourselves as happier in our 50s and 60s.

Crunching data collected from health and social well-being surveys completed since 1972 by two million people in 80 countries, economist Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in Britain found that happiness follows a U pattern regardless of geography.

SNIP...

In some cases, Dr. Oswald and his colleagues were able to pinpoint specific ages that represent the nadir of middle-age mental health.

In Britain, 44 is the low point for men and women. In the United States, women reach it at 40, and men hold out until they're 50. Dr. Oswald says the mid-40s is the stage at which Canadians are most unhappy.

Fantastic news. As a male American, I have only one more year of the doldrums before the genius of aging liberates my mind.

Continue reading here.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on January 30, 2008 8:35 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

Ronni tells it like is

Ronni at www.timegoesby.net takes on AGEISM in the media. Check It Out: Quindlen's Shameful Ageism

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on January 30, 2008 11:44 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

January 23, 2008

The Jerusalem Post Gets It

Reader Alex M passes along this gem by Helly Paz...

Jan. 20, 2008

"One of the things that characterizes old people is that they keep talking about what they used to be before they retired," says Pnina Sulzbacher, director-general of the Nofei Yerushalayim assisted living facility in Jerusalem's Bayit Vegan neighborhood.

Here, Sulzbacher says proudly, "each resident uses his or her skills to contribute to and further shape the community they live in, and holds a position that helps run this unique home."

Beyond offering residents the opportunity to grow old with dignity, Nofei Yerushalayim is a place for those who want to continue to play an active role in their community.

The building, which served as a hotel in the early 1980s, contains some 200 one- to three-bedroom apartments, all of which are occupied. Only 10 professional employees work there, as opposed to at least 40 in regular assisted living facilities. This is possible because the residents of Nofei Yerushalayim continue exercising their professional skills after retirement. One resident is in charge of preparing and serving the food in the cafeteria, another gives art classes, and others give enrichment lectures.

Every four years, the house's tenants elect a new chairman of the organization, and all of them vote on the house's budget once a year, as per the regimen of available classes, recreation and services the house funds.

Former Knesset member Tamar Eshel, 87 - who also served as an adviser to former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek and as Israel's envoy to the UN in charge of the Committee for Women's Rights - is one of the three founders of Nofei Yerushalayim. At first, she says, the home - which has been registered as a nonprofit organization since 1989 - was not self-sufficient.

"We didn't like the fact that there was an authority above us, so we established a new company called Nofei Yerushalayim, and we decided to create a place that would be... highly accessible to the typical Jerusalemite."

Eshel's co-founders were Eliyahu Lankin and Pinhas Pino Ginzburg, who were once on opposite sides of the fence in Israel's early years. Lankin was a Revisionist, a Zionist activist, an Irgun Etzel member and a politician who commanded the Altalena cargo ship that the IDF bombed in June 1948; Ginzburg was a Hagana member who was on the shores of Tel Aviv and commanded the attack on the Altalena. Forty-one years later, the two joined together with Eshel to build a house for senior citizens who still had control of their faculties.

"Most tenants are... not businessmen, but people with average incomes," says Eshel. "We were strict on the self-managing aspect, even though we didn't know much about it. Shortly after establishing the place, we started visiting similar organizations and comparing services. We wanted to build a community that would supply all the tenants' needs and desires," Eshel recalls.

There is always a waiting list of at least 50 people, and the lucky ones who eventually get an apartment can design it themselves with the home's two interior designers.

Each new tenant must deposit a check for $160,000 - the cost of an average apartment - which is returned to the heirs if the tenant passes away. All residents pay a monthly fee of around NIS 4,100, which covers all facilities - including medical and cultural services - except for phone service and food. The facility does have a dining room, however, and the meals are served at a fair price.

The facility boasts a gym, a pool, a billiard hall, a supermarket, two libraries, on-call medical staff and a variety of enrichment courses given in two languages - Hebrew and English - since many of the tenants are native English speakers.

The place also keeps four apartments for tenants' relatives, who can stay over for NIS 90 per night.

Most residents are busier than they were before retiring, and besides volunteering in organizations like Yad Sarah and Nofei Yerushalayim's geriatric department, they go to the theater, put on their own presentations, read and generally enjoy a satisfying standard of living.

Aba Gefen, a former Foreign Ministry official, and his wife Frida chose to bring their furniture and lifestyle into Nofei Yerushalayim. Gefen is currently the house's chairman and writes articles in Yiddish for a New Yorker outlet, while Frida is a member of the house's welcoming board, which approves new tenants, and of the house's appearance committee.

"We have realized that age has no meaning here and a person can be part of this community as long as he [or she] can call this place his or her home," says Frida. "The youngest tenant is 69 years old, and he still goes to work every day, and the oldest is 96, and she is still very vital and contributes."

"This house has succeeded," says Eshel, "but one can never know what will happen in the next 20 years."

A great change has occurred in the market of assisted living facilities, and today people have different expectations when they move to a protected residence. Besides, this market has become business-oriented, and ultimately it's all about the investor's revenue and not the residents' satisfaction."

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on January 23, 2008 6:44 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

January 16, 2008

Elders – Boon or Burden?

[Guest post by Kavan from UMBC]

In my years tracking state government news as a reporter for Stateline.org, I saw a lot of doom and gloom stories like this gem from the Cincinnati Enquirer:

Study: Aging Ohioans putting strain on economy
COLUMBUS -- Ohio's aging population is going to put a backbreaking strain on the state's economy, property-tax base, health-care and retirement systems starting in 2012, according to a study released last week.

“Backbreaking”? Sounds like Ohio has a pretty serious problem… OLD PEOPLE… here are the numbers:

Today, Ohio experiences a daily net increase of 14 people age 65 or older. By 2012, that number grows to 119 new retirees per day.

The publisher of the report goes on to call Ohio’s aging population a ”disaster for state and local budgets, with no obvious solution.”

Well, that’s one way to look at our elder-rich future. And I won’t argue with the numbers. For the first time ever in a handful of states, healthcare is supplanting education as the largest chunk of the budget. And we know most healthcare spending goes towards caring for people in the final years or months of their lives. Nationally, America's official debt is over $9 trillion, and our primary social safety nets for older adults -- Social Security and Medicare -- face unfunded liabilities upwards of $40.9 trillion. Locally, nationally and globally, we face some pretty significant public policy challenges in terms of adapting to our rapidly expanding population of elders. Duh. Nobody is arguing with that.

But that is no excuse for the hysterical tenor of most news coverage about the "Silver Tsunamai" waiting to wipe out our economic future. I don't care how scary the demographic projections are, there is no excuse for painting the entire over-65-demographic as a bunch of freeloading leeches poised to suck our economy dry.

In fact, some folks are making a case that there is actual VALUE -- social, economic, spiritual, etc. -- to be gained by welcoming elders with open arms.

Take Colorado for instance -- Boomers blogger Brent Green explains here:

Our state is going to beat your state.
What I mean by this is simply a promise that Colorado will be doggedly persistent in transforming the aging of the Boomer generation into a strategic focus and an economic opportunity. Many states are talking about it; few are taking substantive action.
[snip]
After two years of planning and generous contributions of time, resources and energy, Colorado introduced last November its strategic vision called Silverprint Colorado. Our goal is straightforward:

Colorado will establish a culture for positive aging addressing the needs, contributions and opportunities for all its older residents.

Certainly this vision addresses our intentions to provide quality care and assistance to older Coloradoans late in life. But it’s also a revelation about economic opportunities.

As I discussed in my keynote address, Colorado has exceptional prospects to capitalize on aging in the areas of tourism, housing, spirituality, healthcare, biotechnology, the arts, the green movement, and education, to name a few.
[snip]
Colorado has a mile-high vision for aging; we have broad-based support; and we have an entrepreneurial drive that’s endemic of the new west.

If you live elsewhere and I’ve stimulated your competitive instincts to challenge Colorado's preeminence as the nation’s most hospitable state for Boomers and pre-Boomers, then, frankly, we all win.

I say let the competition begin. Click the logo to learn more.

Posted by Kavan Peterson on January 16, 2008 7:09 PM |Permalink |Comments (3)

January 7, 2008

TGB Rock's this Week in Elder News

New must-read feature by Ronni Bennett at TGB:

[EDITORIAL NOTE: Today we inaugurate a new feature at TGB that will appear each Saturday - links to news items from the preceding week relating to elders and aging, along with whatever else catches my fancy that I think you might like to know about. Suggestions are welcome.]

Catch-up here -- This Week in Elder News.

Posted by Kavan Peterson on January 7, 2008 3:55 PM |Permalink |Comments (1)

The Boomer Bash

[Editor's Note] Below is a post from the latest issue of Age Beat Online (ABO), an e-newsletter for the Journalists Exchange on Aging, which is an excellent network supported by the American Society on Aging. This post is longer than usual, but all our Baby Boomer readers will appreciate ABO Editor Paul Kleyman's rant.

NPR AND THE EDDIE HASKELL FACTOR: Remember Eddie Haskell, Wally’s selfish and conniving buddy on “Leave It to Beaver”? Nobody liked that phony. One would think that at least some in today’s national media would equate the boomer generation more with the Beav: bright, open, curious. But the boomer bashing that continues in mainstream media -- some of it purposeful attacks from those wishing to slash entitlement programs for elders, but much of it gratuitous -- seems to frame the boomers as the Eddie Haskell of generations. RODNEY DANGERFIELD got more respect.

Leave%20it%20to%20Beaver.bmp
(Eddie Haskell, The Beaver and Wally)

A case in point is JOHN YDSTIE’S piece on NPR’s “Morning Edition” this Wednesday (Jan. 2) titled “Baby Boomers Begin to Claim Social Security”. Ydstie, a usually fine reporter and fill-in anchor, starts, “America’s baby boomers have always thought they were special.” Later, “The culture of their youth still lingers in the air.” (That’s the “they’ll never grow up” cliché that’s become so prevalent.) Later still, “Baby boomers have always lived in denial of growing old. Age 62 is the new 50, right? Except that now you are eligible for a Social Security check.” And in discussing the small size of Gen X, which will yield a demolished workforce charged with covering Social Security’s ongoing costs, Ydstie opines, “Of course, that’s the baby boomers’ fault. They had fewer children.” Funny, this boomer remembers being told -- especially by Paul Erlich, a member of the older Silent Generation -- that having too many babies was irresponsible and would set off “The Population Bomb.”

What’s odd about Ydstie’s piece is that these smarmy asides were unnecessary. In a 7½ minute piece, a major story for broadcast, he gets most of his overview of Social Security right. Ydstie does fall into the usual trap of citing the shrinking ratio of workers to pay for the retirement of the aging boomers, a figure widely quoted but almost always misused, but he does not go on, as so many have, to declare that Social Security will be bankrupt and is in crisis. These outright fabrications were fed to the public through a largely unskeptical Washington press corps that had been cultivated by conservative think tanks since the early 1980s. Now it’s refreshing to see other sources cited to balance such claims.

Ydstie includes quotes by the venerable liberal economist HENRY AARON of the Brookings Institution and conservative ALAN VIARD of the American Enterprise Institute both agreeing that Social Security does not warrant, as Aaron put it, “a hysterical sense of urgency” and that Medicare is in a much more precarious financial state. (Ydstie didn’t quite get to the larger concern that Medicare and Medicaid are in trouble because of wider healthcare inflation, but his report is an improvement on past reporting.) At least on the issue of the shrinking fertility rate he didn’t cite rightist economists who have said -- I kid you not -- that young women today should show their patriotism by having more babies, unlike their irresponsible, bra-burning mothers of the ‘60s and ‘70s.

So, what’s with the nasty slams, the pseudo-psycho profiling of the selfish boomers? Is it just too cute to pass up a two-buck chuckle and doesn’t really seem to hurt anyone? Problem is that these kinds of group slurs are expressions of -- dare I say it -- prejudice. ABO has cited more vicious examples, notably Christopher Buckley’s novel “Boomsday,” a laugh-filled promotion of the idea that boomers will drain our children’s future -- and should have an assisted-suicide option for those presumed noble enough not to collect Social Security benefits.

I guess one shouldn’t expect too much originality around national newsrooms, but there is an alternative view: that an older population in which both men and women are healthier, well educated and widely experienced can be a boon to society. Ydstie does note that a longer-working population of elders can do much to close the current projections of Social Security’s 75-year shortfall. But reporters might also talk to someone like THEODORE ROSZAK, author of the 2002 book “Longevity Revolution: When Boomers Become Elders” (Berkeley Books). The historian, whose 1968 classic “The Making of a Counter Culture” added that coinage to the language, posits that older societies have always been wiser, kinder and gentler. There are others we could mention (Bob Butler for one) who can argue pretty convincingly that widespread longevity is not such a bad thing. Or reporters could note that most of the economic problems attributed to spendthrift, “me-generation” boomers have to do with poor management of the national economy. A couple of wars, some tax cuts for the rich, a subprime mortgage debacle, failure to control healthcare costs for the rich, and pretty soon you’re talking about a real crisis. Oh-oh.

But what about this seeming urge to psychologize about the alleged profligacy of an entire generation as if it were one character -- named Eddie Haskell. Even TOM BROWKAW has indulged in some of this couch-jockeying in recent interviews about his new book, “Boom: Voices of the Sixties” (New York City: Random House, 2007.) The characterization seems to spread through news copy like a virus.

A few real facts can be said about the boomer generation in the United States:

* At around 78 million, they are the biggest generation in history.
* The GI bill gave them better-educated parents and a large middle class, so they grew up with a higher standard of living than ever before.
* Universal compulsory education, still only a few decades old by 1946, accelerated after World War II for both boys and girls.
* The pill.
* The diversity of the boomers presents an enormous demographic range for analysis.
* Boomers have more living parents than any previous middle-aged population in history.
* And boomers have the benefit of the longevity revolution in science, technology and social organization.

I’m sure ABO readers can think of a few other incontrovertible and consequential facts. In the meantime, though, I can assure Mr. Ydstie that 62 is the new 62. And that’s something worth celebrating: some aches and pains aside—not something to complain about.

By the way, for a well-balanced treatment of Social Security, see “Fears of Social Security’s Collapse Unfounded, Experts Say,” by BOB MOOS in the Dallas Morning News (Dec. 11, 2007).
Reprinted with permission from Age Beat Online, e-news of the Journalists Exchange on Aging, www.asaging.org/agebeat, copyright JEOA 2007

Posted by Kavan Peterson on January 7, 2008 1:24 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

December 10, 2007

Sunshine Down Under

Similar studies show the same results in the U.S. -- the older we are the less likely we are to be depressed, stressed and anxious:

Middle-aged 'more anxious than elderly'
Elderly Australians are less anxious and depressed than those in middle-age, according to a new study which paints a refreshingly bright picture of growing old.

A major survey of 5,000 people over 45 has found that baby boomers have significantly higher rates of psychiatric and anxiety disorders than those in their twilight years.

"This is a new and very positive view of ageing," said psychiatrist and co-investigator Dr Julian Trollor, from the University of New South Wales.

"The general perception out there is that disease and burden is what you've got to look forward to as you age, but we can be much more positive than that."

Read more in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on December 10, 2007 9:48 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

December 3, 2007

Time Goes By Goes Bye Bye

Man this is sad.

I accept it. I honor it and, in some ways I understand it. But still, it's a sad day for the elder blogosphere.

As of this post, Time Goes By is over.
The decision to do so has been building for the reasons below and other related ones, but response to today’s post – and it’s only 11AM here - tipped me over the edge. Isn’t it odd how often decisions are made on small events.

I can’t tell you which of half a dozen emails telling me that 60 isn’t old or you’re only as old as you feel or age is relative or whatever other excuse did it. It’s all bullshit. Old is old. The Crabby Old Lady in me is finished arguing that, along with all her versions of old-is-as-worthy-as-every-other-age.

Too many people want to slice and dice the language and proclaim their youthfulness in other ways unto the grave and if that is your position, this or any blog is unlikely to change your mind.

But all this age denial (the negative ones never publish publicly; they just rant in emails to me) before noon has made the decision for me. I’m out of energy to move forward with this.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on December 3, 2007 8:28 PM |Permalink |Comments (3)

November 28, 2007

On The You-Tube Picket Line at Age 94

Hey folks -- below is a post from today's issue of Age Beat Online (ABO), an e-newsletter for the Journalists Exchange on Aging, which is an excellent network supported by the American Society on Aging. We'll be featuring interesting highlights and commentary from ABO on a regular basis.

Satirist PAUL KRASSNER forwarded a link to a You-Tube segment (see below) that presents one Hollywood writer’s case (cue GROUCHO here) for the Writers Guild of America in their strike. IRVING BRECHER, who will turn 94 next month, pleads the writers’ brief in 1:38 minutes: “Since 1938, when I joined what was then the Radio Writers Guild,” he recalls, “I’ve been waiting for the writers to get a fair deal. I’m still waiting. I’m still angry that they took away our copyrights. I’m very angry that they took away the residuals for everything up to 1960.” For Brecher, “everything” includes compensation on video, DVD and the like from a few little Hollywood classics he wrote, such as “The Marx Brothers at the Circus” “The Shadow of the Thin Man” with WILLIAM POWELL, MYRNA LOY and ASTA (arf); “The Life of Riley” with WILLIAM BENDIX; and “Meet Me In St. Louis” with JUDY GARLAND. Brecher continues, “Don’t let them take away the Internet -- it’s our future.” He concludes simply but proudly, “I’m Irving Brecher, and I’m a writer.”

Brecher’s writing partner, HANK ROSENFELD, e-mailed ABO that the pair has worked for six years on Brecher’s memoir, “The Wicked Wit of the West: The Guy Who Made Groucho Funny,” to be published next spring by Ben Yehuda Press (www.benyehudapress.com). Rosenfeld noted, “Brecher is remarkably sharp and relentlessly retortable. He has been on NPR (‘All Things Considered’) and now, of course, is a big star on You Tube, even though he can't even see it.” He added that the pair, who live in Santa Monica “spend a lot of time sitting listening to PHILIP ROTH audio books and eating pastrami sandwiches.”

Reprinted with permission from Age Beat Online, e-news of the Journalists Exchange on Aging, www.asaging.org/agebeat, copyright JEOA 2007

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on November 28, 2007 3:14 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

November 27, 2007

No Aging For Old Men

A guest-post from the UMBC’s Kavan Peterson:

“That's what some male movie stars would have you believe - though the smart ones use age rather than fight it,” writes Boston Globe film critic Mark Feeney in a sharp review of how aging male movie stars act their age – or not -- in recent films.

Feeney offers a refreshing critique of the responses of Hollywood’s leading men to the inevitability of aging – which range, he says, “from furtive evasion to forthright embrace.” As Feeney rightly argues, Hollywood’s leading men tend to get a free pass when it comes to confronting age. Think Harrison Ford attempting to reprise his role as Indiana Jones at age 65 (that’s not a hypothetical -- we’ll get to see how gracefully Ford plays an aging Indiana Jones in the fourth installment of the franchise in 2008).

Here’s Feeney’s take on aging Hollywood hunks from a few recent films:

Tommy Lee Jones
'Age will flatten a man," Tommy Lee Jones says in "No Country for Old Men." Yes, it will. It can also deepen, strengthen, and enrich him, too. One look at Jones in "No Country" - or in "In the Valley of Elah" - and you see demonstrated the power of age to bring up as well as bear down.

Jones is 61 now, and in those movies the weight of every minute of his time on earth seems recorded on that face. A moonscape of seams, crags, and creases, Jones's visage doesn't look so much lived in as lived on - a spiritual terrain, an Old Testament geology. Even more than that bark of a voice or big-as-Texas presence, that face is what lends Jones his enormous onscreen authority.

George Clooney

You'd think gravitas would be no less a problem for someone as good looking as Clooney. But it isn't. Maybe it's as simple as not reaching for the Grecian Formula. Clooney's letting himself go gray was always a smart career move. He still looked great, but now had the aspect of a regular guy. It made him seem more honest - more serious, too. In "Syriana," he added a thickened waist and unbecoming beard (which made him a dead ringer for New York Times columnist Paul Krugman) and got himself an Oscar.

Clooney looks a lot better in "Michael Clayton," but he does nothing to disguise the effects of the wringer his lawyer-fixer character goes through: a giant lawsuit on the verge of collapse, a friend losing his mind, a very large debt needing urgent settlement. There are bags under the eyes, a puffy face, a general sense that soon enough the mirror will be as much enemy as friend. The movie ends with a very long close-up of Clooney sitting in the back of a taxi, and there's no mistaking that it isn't just the cab's meter that's running.

Robert Redford

Redford is more or less playing his age in "Lions for Lambs." He's a college professor who served in Vietnam, so he has to be at least 60, and probably older. Yet it's as if he's a superannuated Sundance Kid with tenure. The hair is as thick and golden as ever, the handsomeness little touched by the years.

Partly, that's the benefit of great facial structure (it's always the bones that go last). More than that, though, it's a suspiciously unlined dullness around the eyes that makes him look (there's no polite way to put this) weird. Is it Botox? Lighting? Makeup? Nipping and tucking? The strange thing is, in person, Redford's eyes look normal enough. Whatever the reason, their unblemished deadness in "Lions" helps make his performance all the more wooden - and Redford has never exactly been the most expressive of actors.

Tom Cruise

Underscoring the unfortunateness of Redford's unnervingly age-resistant appearance is the presence in "Lions for Lambs" of Tom Cruise. It's a good thing they don't have any scenes together or gerontology might never recover. Playing a very ambitious Republican senator, Cruise is the best thing in the movie - certainly the liveliest. Yet he seems so unbearably young. At 45, he suffers from a terminal boyishness that makes him seem like a can of Red Bull yearning to be a bottle of Bordeaux. The risky business of aging can cut both ways.

Dustin Hoffman

Wonder, if only titular, informs Hoffman's performance as the most aged character seen on screen this or any other season, in "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." The toy store owner is all of 243. Oddly enough, this isn't Hoffman's first crack at triple figures. Jack Crabb, the Indian-raised Western pioneer he plays in "Little Big Man," lives to be 121. Hoffman was 33 then, yet through the magic of latex he looked old, seriously, deathly, prune-shriveled old. The curious thing about Hoffman as Magorium, a character twice Crabb's age, is that he looks so, well, good. Does the AARP need a new spokesman? Magic will do that for a man, fictional or real - and when it comes to appearance, there's no magic like the movie-star kind.

Read the full review here.

What do you think? What actors or roles do you think provide a positive portrayal of aging? And what about the double-standard for female actors?

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on November 27, 2007 10:54 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

November 9, 2007

Power Up Friday

Dr. Al Power guest blogs on Fridays here at ChangingAging.org.

Musician, Physician and all around great guy, he dropped me a note concerning quotes from women about aging.

One comment comes to mind. I recently facilitated a Management Team Retreat for St. John's and we had an hour when we were addressed by elders from St. John's Meadows. One of the elders, Margaret Thirtle, is 92 and worked for many years for the Sibley's Corporation. During that time, she oversaw the visits of almost 200 celebrities to Rochester. Margaret told us that one such celeb, Gloria Swanson, "gave me some advice I'll never forget: She said, 'After 40, my dear, always sit with your back to the light!'"

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on November 9, 2007 11:19 AM |Permalink |Comments (2)

October 18, 2007

Pop-culture Bonanza

So media mega-giant Viacom is allowing Comedy Central to launch a new web site for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart that will provide free access to video clips covering the entire output of the show since it began in 1999.

Our good friends at the UMBC ebiquity blog make some keen observations on this development, notably that this is a "response to the presence of many Stewart clips on Youtube and the related $1B copyright-infringement suit." Both the lawsuit and Viacom's bold move to provide this content free-of-charge (apparently confident they can support the web site through advertisements) are a testament to the impact "fake news" shows such as the Daily Show are having on our popular culture.

The LA Times reports:

“The database is searchable by both date and topic, making it a potential bonanza for students of American pop culture. If you want to see what host Jon Stewart has had to say about former First Lady Barbara Bush or ill-fated Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, you can find the clips and put them in context by seeing what else was featured on the same day.

…

Going forward, however, Comedy Central plans to tap into the collective intelligence of its fans by allowing them to contribute to the process, a la Wikipedia, the user-created Internet encyclopedia.”

Check out the culture bonanza here: The Daily Show Videos 1999 to Now.

John Stewart explains Social (In)Security:

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on October 18, 2007 5:17 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

October 13, 2007

Pro-Aging: Bare Skin Edition

YOUTH=BEAUTY
AGE= UGLY

These are the equations that drive ALMOST all of our media, advertising and (too often) art.

Dove deserves kudos for challenging these assumptions and doing so with flair and style.

How AdFormula sees it...

Six, over-50 gorgeous women do their best 'calender girl' homage in this controversial campaign titled pro age campaign ,designed and executed by their time tested agency O&M,posing buck naked in the ad, which was banned from airing( see the tvc here) and landed Dove in all the mess,because it "showed too much skin". The positive side as I see it, is that it was the first time, that a brand, that took on skin care, was talking to women about aging in a positive tone...Dove, the global beauty brand, boldly challenged the “only young-is-beautiful” stereotype with this Campaign which aimed to sell pro aging (and not anti aging) products . Designed to expose what our anti-aging society has been hiding, proage celebrates women of 50+ by showing their honest, real beauty.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on October 13, 2007 7:48 AM |Permalink |Comments (1)

October 9, 2007

The Blue Screen of Death

I am not sure how I feel about the makers of Windows TM becoming the holders of America's health information.* Here is a quick summary. The company toots its own horn here.

* This blog is written on a Mac G5. I'm just sayin'.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on October 9, 2007 6:45 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

October 8, 2007

Smack Down

The Gimp Parade lays a smack down on private, for-profit investors who are, increasingly speculating in the nursing home real estate market. Blogger Kay Olsen highlights the following from the recent New York Times article that covered this issue.

"The typical nursing home acquired by a large investment company before 2006 scored worse than national rates in 12 of 14 indicators that regulators use to track ailments of long-term residents. Those ailments include bedsores and easily preventable infections, as well as the need to be restrained. Before they were acquired by private investors, many of those homes scored at or above national averages in similar measurements."

What does she want to do about this?

"One of the demands of ADAPT at the recent sit-in at the Chicago headquarters of the American Medical Association [see the AMA's policy on the use of restraints in nursing homes here-- WHT] was that doctors divest themselves of financial interest in the nursing homes they recommend to their clients."

I agree with and support ADAPT's position on the divestment issue.

"While there is a movement by aging Boomers gaining steam to make nursing and assisted living institutions into communities where people can go to live happily instead of going there to wither of neglect and die, a key factor in the injustices visited upon the people who end up in these homes is that continued institutionalization with minimal service and minimal care financially benefits someone else."

When you get down to it, the paragraph above is the core of a moral argument against health care as a purely profit-driven "marketplace" and for the enlargement and preservation of human dignity and freedom of choice as a fundamental human right.

When the profits of corporations in the medical-industrial sector come to take precedence over the life and death needs of ordinary citizens we have a prescription for disaster.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on October 8, 2007 2:40 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

October 5, 2007

Sedated

ChangingAging reader/commenter Margie Buck writes:

Thanks for the update on the new blog site. I loved the youtube Ramones "sedated". Will share it with many. look forward to seeing you all in Columbus OHIO (The Eden Alternative International Conference will be held in Columbus in June of 2008-- WHT)

So without further ado, here is the thoroughly up-to-date remake of the Ramone's classic "I Wanna Be Sedated."

Enjoy.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on October 5, 2007 1:11 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 30, 2007

Sex and the Nursing Home

Slate's Daniel Engber rings in with what must be the most bizarre silver lining sighting long-term care has ever encountered. Must be read to be believed.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 30, 2007 3:38 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 24, 2007

Kaboom: NYT lowers the boom on for-profit nursing homes

Sunday's NYT pulls back the curtain on the practice of "flipping" nursing homes for profit. There is money to be made and some people are making lots of money. No problem there, this America after all and making a buck is an honored tradition. No, the problem is that there are real problems with safety, quality and dignity. The article can also be read as a cautionary tale regarding health care as a profit making activity. In my opinion, the best starting point is health care as a right not an industry. Click here to read the full article.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 24, 2007 2:47 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 18, 2007

New Life for Old Bones

USA Today has a nice write up on some good news for people living with osteoporsis.

"A new once-a-year intravenous osteoporosis treatment significantly reduced the risk of additional fractures and death in men and women who had broken a hip, researchers reported Monday."

An estimated 10 million Americans have osteoporosis — 20% of them men — and each year more than 300,000 of them suffer a hip fracture, according to the National Osteoporosis Foundation. This is actually a matter of life and death because...

"Older adults who break a hip are more likely to die in the following year and 2½ times more likely to suffer another osteoporosis-related fracture than people the same age, the study's authors write in this week's New England Journal of Medicine."

"Roughly half the people who can live independently before a hip fracture are not able to live independently after a hip fracture," says Dr. [Dennis] Black, an epidemiology professor at University of California, San Francisco.

The issue is important and the study seems, to me, to be very well done. I count this as a useful addition to evidence-based medicine. and that means a better use of resources along with better outcomes for patients.

Still, let's not forget that lifestyle changes can play a role that is as big, or bigger, than medications when it comes to the prevention of osteoporosis.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 18, 2007 10:18 AM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 17, 2007

There's No Blogger Like and Old Blogger

"Her readers call her "the little granny," and for eight months she has engrossed them with her ruminations on the present and her recollections of the past. Since her debut in cyberspace in December, María Amelia López, 95, has drawn thousands of readers from across the globe with an incisive blog."

Read the rest of the article here.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 17, 2007 3:51 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 16, 2007

Right Answer Wrong Question

The New York Times has a nice piece on the City of San Francisco's efforts to provide health insurance to uninsured adults. This is good news because it shows that the system can be changed when principled people put their minds to work on "system change." Still, the San Francisco program is best categorized as a public policy band-aid because it does not address the tremendous difficulties faced even by those who have health insurance.

In other words, while "universal health insurance coverage" is a good thing; "health care as a basic human right" is the best thing.

Posted by Dr. Bill Thomas on September 16, 2007 4:47 PM |Permalink |Comments (0)

September 10, 2007

Time Gets it Wrong

A report on national service by one of our national news magazines is a good thing but what message do Time's editors choose to emphasize with the cover art?

National Service is, or could be, a good thing. (Full disclosure, I never served in the military, Peace Corp, Vista or any other kind of National Service myself.) The problem is that the magazine slants its National Service coverage toward the issue of youth and service and away from what elders are already doing to advance the common good. This framing is consistent with the dominant cultural theme which says: "Old Age Equals Decline." If that was true (and it is not) then the only hope for our society would lie with the young. In fact, we live in a time when there is an unprecedented opportunity for young and old to be together, work together and make change together.

The model who sat as Rockwell's model is now an 83 year old grandmother. The iconic image of the original "Rosie the Riveter" remains powerful image because, even six decades after it was made, it retains the capacity to remind us that some things are worth struggling for and sometimes the struggle for the good can be found close to home-- in our own neighborhoods and communities.

So- in the spirit of Time's Rosie Remix, I have a challenge for UMBC's Visual Arts/Graphics Majors--- Make me a remix of the Time cover that gives that poor woman on the cover a mighty mane of Gray Hair and some wrinkles. Send your Remixes to me at wthomas@umbc.edu and be sure to put "Remix" in the Subject line. I will post the best of them on this blog.