Columns
Category: Aging
Aging is one of the deepest mysteries of the universe
After all, what’s the point? Once you’ve passed your genes on to the next generation, why stick around? Why take up space and use food and other scarce resources? It’s the young who need those things to live to reproductive age. So why do old animals even exist? Or old people? Evolution has no reason…
Finally, a study older folks can be happy about
Good news, folks! Some things actually get better with age, and I’m happy to say that emotional stability is one of them. It says so right in the authoritative Journal of Neuroscience. Ever since Freud, psychologists have focused almost exclusively on misery — our fears, our depressions, sadness, anger, hostility, aggression, you name it. Now,…
‘I . . . feel like a man again’
Testosterone was once off limits for men with prostate cancer. Things are changing. Manny Hamelburg, 68, a retired businessman from Holbrook, had fought prostate cancer for years. First he tried radiation, then a drug with side effects that nearly killed him, and finally Lupron, a drug that blocks production of testosterone, the hormone that can…
The Lesson Of Old Geniuses
Grandma Moses first picked up a paintbrush at 78, reportedly after arthritis forced her to give up the embroidery for which she was already well-known. She went on to paint for more than 20 years, finishing her last big canvas at 101. Giuseppe Verdi, the Italian composer, was also no slouch in old age. He…
Men Have A Biological Clock, Too
For years, many prospective parents – and doctors as well – have blithely assumed that, if an older couple’s baby has birth defects, it’s most likely because of the woman’s advancing age. And there’s some truth to this. The risk of mental retardation due to Down syndrome, for instance, clearly rises with advancing maternal age…
A ‘Cure’ For Osteoporosis May Be Near
Scientists who normally shy away from words like “cure” or “breakthrough” say researchers are on the verge of what could be a revolution in the treatment of osteoporosis, the dangerous bone-thinning condition that is responsible for 1.5 million fractures in the United States each year. Thanks to a vast improvement in scientific understanding of the…
A New Weapon Against Memory Loss?
After creeping corpulence, perhaps the most common complaint people have about growing older is what the experts politely call “benign” memory loss and the rest of us, less politely, sometimes call CRS, for Can’t Remember You-Know-What. For men with sluggish memories, the best advice to slow the aging process is tried and true: Exercise (to…
Americans Strive To Live With Chronic Illnesses
At 68, Helen Freeman of Seattle has more chronic diseases than many of us will face in a lifetime. First, there’s her labored breathing because of extensive scarring from years of lung infections. Then there’s the diabetes, for which she needs daily medication. The glaucoma is no picnic, either – she’s almost blind in one…
Getting your shots is not kid stuff
“Here’s what got me thinking,” says Anne White of Lexington, who is 63. “I’ve reached the age where I turn to the obits first. And I keep seeing articles about people who die unexpectedly in the hospital.” Often, she finds, it’s pneumonia that delivers the coup de grace, “and you don’t even have to be…
Caregiving from afar is not easy
For the last five years, Joyce Antler, a Brandeis University historian in her early 50s, has been living what she calls “a terrible nightmare.” Antler lives in Brookline and is trying to manage the care of her increasingly demented, 84-year-old mother — long distance. At first, the solution seemed to be to have her mother move…
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