How independently can you live with macular degeneration?
About 20 million Americans live with macular degeneration, an age-related condition. It comes on gradually, painlessly, and progressively...
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Is going online good for your brain? Depends on when you do it.
“Using the Internet may help extend the cognitively healthy lifespan,” notes a study published in last month’s Journal of the American...
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What’s your risk of falling?
Last week, I wrote about the growing number of older adults who die from fall-related injuries. Statistics show that every 11 seconds, an...
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Why a night owl schedule can be unhealthy for humans
Most people in the US sleep from around 11 PM to 7 AM, but many don’t. Or can’t. They fall asleep and wake up hours later than what’s...
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You may not have to turn in your car keys after all.
Contrary to stereotypes, older drivers can be safer drivers. While there are more drivers in their 70s driving more miles each year, a...
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Having trouble getting back to sleep at night?
The problem isn’t waking up in the middle of the night; cycling out of sleep every two hours or so is normal. The real problem is not...
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The condition too embarrassing to talk about
It’s incontinence. Depending on whose statistics you believe, between 15 and 23million Americans have it, 80 to 85 percent of them women....
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The biggest worry about major surgery isn’t the surgery itself.
It’s what happens during and after the recovery. Of all US surgeries, almost 40% are performed on patients 65 or older, almost one in...
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5 ways to make a home more “dementia-friendly” (Repainting the walls may be one of them)
Virtually every aspect of a home can affect [a person with dementia’s] quality of life,” says Charles Fuschillo Jr., president and CEO of...
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What’s a better time for exercise – morning or evening?
It depends. Medical research has found that exercise in general can help promote heart health, prolong life, and postpone the onset of...
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You can still see your doctor via telehealth. But should you?
Telehealth was originally for rural patients – to spare them hours of round-trip driving to keep a 15-minute doctor appointment. The...
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Are your parents making smart use of their smartphones?
Smartphones are an essential part of everyday life. For people like your parents – members of the Silent Generation or Baby Boomers –...
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Do you have type 2 diabetes? Are you sure?
Almost 25% of all Americans 65 and older – some 13,525,000 men and women – have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. But another 4.7%...
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Having trouble reading?
If you’re having trouble reading type this size, you’re not alone. Thanks to presbyopia (AKA farsightedness), so does everyone else at a...
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How do you tell a parent it’s time to stop driving?
Last week, I wrote about how aging can affect driving safety. It affects different drivers in different ways, and some older drivers are...
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When’s the time to put the brakes on driving?
In 2020, Federal Highway Administration data showed that some 31 million licensed drivers 70 and older (9.4% of total US population) were...
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The time to plan for caregiving help is earlier than you think
Sometimes independence-undermining disabilities develop slowly over time, and sometimes they strike literally overnight. But either way,...
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Accessing your own health records will soon be easier than ever
Sometime early this tear, new HHS Privacy Rule changes will have removed some major barriers between you and your own health records....
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Start the year by taking steps to end loneliness
Particularly for older adults, loneliness isn’t just an emotional problem; it can also be a physical one. A 2012 Journal of the American...
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Who Needs Assisted Living? (And what kind of assistance?)
According to the Family Caregiver Alliance there’s a 68 percent probability that a disability will keep people 65 or older from...
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