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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 –...
Now you can buy hearing aids over the counter. But should you?
Now that the FDA deregulation I wrote about in August has taken effect, anyone over 18 years old can buy a hearing aid at a pharmacy, a...
Caring for a parent who didn’t care for you
Nobody ever said that caregiving for a parent was easy. It can rob you of personal, professional, and family time; eat into your...
Are you about to make a Medicare mistake?
It’s almost that time of year again. A little over two weeks from now, Medicare’s open enrollment period (officially known as the...
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%...
How many steps a day are enough? Too many? Too few?
Conventional health wisdom recommends walking 10,000 steps a day to stave off the onset of dementia. An international study, based in...
Are you treating the wrong kind of back pain?
Nearly half of all Americans 65 or older – 45.6%, according to the Centers for Disease Control – have back pain. Many may not be treating...
New hearing aid deregulation could be music to your ears
Back in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration deregulated air travel, interstate trucking, and phone service, the result was more...
Is a monster lurking in your medicine chest?
Every day, some 750 older Americans are hospitalized for side effects of one or more medicines they’re taking. That doesn’t mean the meds...
Is your doctor ignoring you?
Weeks after she’d fallen off her bike, a 39-yer-old woman told her doctor that her elbow was still hurting. “Well," replied the doctor,...
In summer heat, can some heart meds increase heart attack risks?
Every day, millions of Americans with coronary disease take beta blockers to lower the risk of heart attacks. Millions more take statins...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
Boomers live longer than their parents did. But are they less healthy?
A Journals of Gerontology report published this month seems to suggest so. Comparing health statistics for seven age groups (Greatest...
Can you spot a sign of elder neglect in this picture?
The man in the photo is wearing dirty clothes. Dirty clothes can be a sign of elder neglect – but not necessarily a conclusive one. His...
Want to prevent strokes? Try doing some housework.
It’s common medical knowledge that sitting around all day can be hazardous to your health. Too much sitting can increase the risks of...
What will happen to your online data if you can no longer access it?
If you’re like many people, you have important data on computer files and applications. Having bank account, credit card account,...
Your Medicare Advantage Plan may have a built-in disadvantage.
As the name implies, Medicare Advantage Plans come with many advantages, starting with annual out-of-pocket cost caps. Those advantages...
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