Growing Old Doesn't Necessarily Mean Growing Infirm

[30 November 2006 - Gallup Poll] Growing old is often associated with becoming frail and forgetful, and with losing independence. But according to a recent Gallup Panel survey, nearly half of Americans aged 80 or older are in good health and most still live in their own home, according to their family members. Living into one's 90s is likely to bring mobility problems, but, even at this age, the poll suggests that most can expect to stay mentally alert and to live independently. More

Powers of Concentration

[October 2006 - AARP Bulletin] When his dad’s brain needed a workout, one boomer decided he would get with the program, too. ... At 47, I, too, feel groggy more often. That's just how it is. Or so I thought until, at a conference on aging last year, I heard doctors and scientists agree that older people stay sharper when they stimulate their brains with lots of socializing and problem solving. The good news: The brain is "a machine designed for continuous adaptation," said Gene Cohen, a psychiatrist who directs aging research at George Washington University in Washington. But the brain needs continuous challenge: "If a concert musician stops practicing, you can see her ability deteriorate within a month," said Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist at the University of California-San Francisco. "If she keeps practicing, she can keep her ability until the end of her life." More

OECD: States must improve public finances

[28 November 2006 - Business World - Ireland] The OECD today called on euro zone countries to use the economic recovery to improve their public finances in the face of the cost burden of the ageing population. In its semiannual economic outlook, the OECD noted that public finances are benefiting from the upturn, but said member states must take further steps to balance their budgets and cut debt. 'Some of the improvement in public finances is clearly related to the cyclical recovery, although there has been some structural fiscal improvement by several euro area members, especially in the countries that recently were above the 3pc deficit limit,' it said. More

Life at 140? Longer life spans up for debate

[28 November 2006 - CNN] Imagine a world with no cancer, Alzheimer's disease or diabetes, where people routinely live to be 140 years old. Although outside conventional medical opinion, that world may be just a couple of decades away, according to James Canton, author of a new book, "The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World for the Next 5, 10, and 20 Years." Canton, who has served as a consultant on future trends for clients including Motorola and the White House, said advances in information technology, biotechnology, neuroscience, and nanotechnology will allow for radical advances in medicine and the treatment of diseases. "Once medicine becomes boldly proactive, then you're talking about eliminating 70, 80 percent of diseases," Canton said in an interview. "We're just on the edge of this. It's going to happen very shortly." More

A Report From "Creative Wisdom: Composing a Creative Life" Workshop

[9 November 2006 - Hartford Public Library – Hartford, Connecticut – Facilitators: Steven Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination; and Louise Loomis, New England Cognitive Center]

Getting Primed for Learning …

“There will be miracles / After the last war is won / Science and poetry rule / in the new world to come / Prophets and angels / Gave us the power to see / What an amazing future there will be … / Time is relentless / And as the past disappears / We’re on the verge of all things new / We are two thousand years.” – Billy Joel

“In the middle of the night / I go walking in my sleep / Through the desert of truth / To the river so deep / We all end in the ocean / We all start in the streams / We’re all carried along / By the river of dreams / In the middle of the night.” – Billy Joel

Applying Boomers’ (and Others') Know-How and Can-Do to Meet Society’s Greatest Needs

• How might we “tap the passion and experience of people over 50 to improve society”?
• How might we “take on local, national or international challenges by engaging this vast and vibrant [group] for good”?
  – MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures
  

Summary of Concern Search and Problem Finding
Average age of participants: 56 (ranging from 26 to 78)

* ENVIRONMENT

• Environment (x 3)
• Save our relationship with the Earth
• Caring for our environment
• Save the environment
• An awareness of concern about our natural environment
• Global warming (x 3)

HEALTH

• Disease
• How is this nation going to solve the weight problems of adults and kids?
• Health
• My health
• Medical cures
• Insomnia

WAR AND PEACE

• Ethnic conflict
• War (x 4)
• A more carefully designed and conducted Iraq war effort
• Bringing peace to those so discontent
• Strategizing to gracefully or appropriately exit the Iraq war

DEMOCRACY

• Democracy
• Direction of Democratic Congress
• Dishonesty and corruption

RETIREMENT AND FINANCIAL SECURITY

• Social Security benefits – will there be any?
• Employment
• Finances
• $ – how to spend and save
• Job security, jobs downsizing before retirement age – having to retire early without a back-up job

* PERSONAL FULFILLMENT (AND RETIREMENT)

• Mental alertness
• Setting, working toward, and reaching personal goals
• Relocation?
• Live in the present
• Patience
• Thinking about going back to school
• Making an impact in my sphere
• Making the transition into retirement and finding a meaningful opportunity
• Somewhat weak self-image

* CHILDREN, THEIR FUTURES AND EDUCATION

• Public education
• Save the future for our descendents
• Prayer should be put back in schools
• My children’s and grandchildren’s futures
• Personal and professional success of our kids

SOCIETAL PROBLEMS AND INTERPERSONAL BEHAVIORS

• Pace of change and violent resistance to modernity
• Aging (X 3)
• Help save the helpless
• Age lifestyle society
• National debt
• Society’s materialism
• Road rage
• Truth
• Poverty
• Selfishness
• Home protection
• Greed

* PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS

• Lack of respect
• Harmony among one another
• Keeping long-term friendships alive

CREATIVITY

• Art
• Would like to retire in a creative capacity
  

* = top concerns selected by participants

Find out more information about the "Creative Wisdom" programs.

New dementia screening tool detects early cognitive problems missed by commonly used test

New dementia screening tool detects early cognitive problems missed by commonly used test: New research finds Saint Louis University tool is more sensitive
[1 November 2006 - EurekAlert! - Saint Louis University] A screening tool for dementia developed by Saint Louis University geriatricians appears to work better in identifying mild cognitive problems in the elderly than the commonly used Mini Mental Status Examination, according to a new study. Physicians routinely administer the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) to patients who they believe may have Alzheimer's disease. Both the MMSE and SLU's screening tool –- the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination (SLUMS) –- indicate to doctors when they should pursue further testing in diagnosing dementia. "This early detection of mild neurocognitive disorder by the SLUMS offers the opportunity for the clinicians to begin early treatment as it becomes available," says Syed Tariq, M.D., lead author and associate professor of geriatric medicine at Saint Louis University. More

A healthy mind, a longer life

A healthy mind, a longer life: Can the right attitude and personality help you live longer? Psychologists are trying to find out.
[10 November 2006 - Monitor on Psychology - APA] ... In the late 1990s, Yale University psychologist Becca Levy, PhD, realized that the aging-attitudes questions from the Ohio study could help her answer a research question she’d begun to consider: Could people’s attitudes toward aging influence how long they lived? Levy collected death records to find out whether each participant was still alive or the age at which they had died. When she matched up the records with the people’s survey answers, she found that people with more positive views of their own aging lived, on average, 7.6 years longer than people with more negative views. This significant survival advantage remained after controlling for other relevant factors. More

Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness

Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness
[17 July 2006 - New York Magazine] More and more psychologists and researchers believe they know what makes people happy. But the question is, does a New Yorker want to be happy? More

Retirement age: End of productive journey?

Retirement age: End of productive journey?
[7 November 2006 - Yemen Times - Opinion] Generally, the pensionable age is set at the age of 60 and retirement is the judgment that a person is no longer able to work and has to retire. Nevertheless, this equation is presently no longer appropriate and many countries have now extended the retirement age to 65 years. In my view the retired is an adjective proper for describing the employee who does not work. Here his presence and absence are at an equal footing with respect to the productive process. In reality creativity is not confined to a certain age. Rather, innovation and creativity crystallize and mature after the age of 60 and they are enhanced by experience and wisdom of the years. The best works of many innovators came after the age of 60. Most of scientists in various areas have offered the best of what they possess after they have passed the age of 60. Many poets and writers have produced their best works later in life. More

Major study on ageing launched

Major study on ageing launched
[6 November 2006 - IrishHealth.com] Over 50% of female children born in Ireland today will live to the age of 100 or beyond. This figure was released at the launch of the country's most ambitious study of ageing ever undertaken. TILDA (The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing) will be led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). It will provide a detailed picture of the lives of over 10,000 people as they age over at least a 10-year period. Research indicates that by 2030, one in four Irish people will be over 65 years of age, with the greatest increase being in those over the age of 80. Ageing on this scale is unprecedented in this country and will have significant consequences for Irish society. According to lead investigator, Prof Rose Anne Kenny of TCD, the experience of ageing in Ireland 'is not a particularly happy one'. More

A Portraitist's Candid Retrospective: After 37 Years, Annie Leibovitz Has Turned The Camera On Her Own Life

A good reminder that purposeful living requires focused attention ...

A Portraitist's Candid Retrospective: After 37 Years, Annie Leibovitz Has Turned The Camera On Her Own Life
[5 November 2006 - CBS Sunday Morning] "I did conscientiously work on building a life," says famed photographer Annie Leibovitz. "And I think what's encouraging to me about looking back to this work in the last 15 years is that, oh my goodness, I'm so glad I have these pictures, and it only encourages me to do more." More

Is it Aging or Ageism that Causes the Pain?

Is it Aging or Ageism that Causes the Pain?
[18 October 2006 - Women in Media and News Voices - By Margaret Morganroth Gullette] Ageism, the keyword you never read in the mainstream, is the true target of age-criticism. Nora Ephron is fair game because she is making money from the internalized ageism of her own gender. Sexist ageism. Age-criticism is not otherwise an attack on individuals, male or female, who are caught up in ageism’s vicious riptides, struggling to keep their heads above water by using the alleged life rafts -- Botox, surgery, laser treatments, fad dieting -- that the commerce in aging malevolently, out of self interest, recommends. Ephron and other self-described "aging women" can move into the feminist country of later life any time they like. No passport, no visa required. Feminists don’t police the borders. On the contrary, we are looking for all the new citizens we can inspire. It’s not even a country, of course. It’s a state of mind or a culture of feeling. You can flip into it with one experience of relief. More