American is becoming an increasingly age-segregated society. This isn't healthy for any of us. In his book How Old Are You?, historian Howard Chudacoff reveals that age was not a part of daily life for most of the 19th century. Chudacoff says, “The country’s institutions were not structured according to age-defined divisions, and its cultural norms did not strongly prescribe age-related behavior.” (Birthdays were rarely celebrated or noticed). Chudacoff writes that our obsessive age consciousness developed gradually." Things began changing as our culture went from primarily rural and agriculture-based to urban and manufacturing-based. Children were no longer going to one room school houses, where all ages...

World Elder Abuse Awareness Day - WEEAD is tomorrow. It is hard and horrible to recognize that according to the United Nations  Around 1 in 6 older people experienced some form of abuse in the past year. Rates of abuse may be higher for older people living in institutions than in the community. Elder abuse can lead to serious physical injuries and long-term psychological consequences. Elder abuse is predicted to increase as many countries are experiencing rapidly ageing populations. The global population of people aged 60 years and older will more than double, from 900 million in 2015 to about 2...

More and more the results of long-term studies show, what helps us have healthy longevity is good for our whole being - brain, and body. One is, after all, housed in the other. We have all heard "garbage in/garbage out" an adage which can apply to both physical and mental wellbeing. For the lucky few this knowledge allows us to continue to make the same good choices and live the same way we always have, but only for those lucky few.  For most of is there is knowing and there is KNOWING. Tara Parker-Pope is here to help with the recent...

What is normal? Is it time to settle into accepting that some things just come with the aging process? Or not?  There is a difference between biological and physiological age. if you'd like an idea of your Real Age follow this link to take the test. The test is interesting in what it does and does not consider. It asks about lifestyle and medical choices, but not about family history. So how much is genetic and how much can we affect by how we live?  In his article Bruce Horovitz from Kaiser Health News quotes, Dr. Thomas Gill, a geriatrics professor at Yale University, as...

“Sleep, those little slices of death — how I loathe them.” ― Edgar Allan Poe Although I can't say that I ever felt quite as vehemently anti- sleep as Poe, I know for much of my life I simply felt sleep took up too much time. It felt like a waste. I have learned the  absolute essential importance of sleep to our well being, and it's importance to our society is just becoming fully recognized.  We are in the midst of a surge in sleep trendiness. According to a report by McKinsey & Company we have a growing "sleep-health" economy. Researchers...