Help The Middle ClassNews and Information For The Heart Of America
Companionship: 10 Reasons Older People Need Pets (US News & World Report)
Loneliness can become an unwelcome companion as we get older and can lead to depression as well as physical problems. Dogs mold their schedule and personality to you. They are never unavailable or off duty. Smaller dogs, in particular, can easily travel with you wherever you go.
Having a dog is a responsibility but needn’t be [...]
NEW STUDY: Healthy Adults Need Less Sleep As They Age (AFP)
Healthy older adults need less sleep than their younger counterparts and, even with less sleep under their nightcaps, are less likely to feel tired during the day, a study published Monday showed.
The time spent actually sleeping out of eight hours in bed declined progressively and significantly with age, the study published in SLEEP, the official [...]
Studies Link Exercise in Older Adults to Healthier Aging (Time)
We all know that exercise is good for you. Staying physically active helps keep your heart healthy and your muscles strong, and in cancer patients it has even been shown to ward off relapse. Now a series of independently conducted studies on the effects of exercise in healthy older adults, published on Monday in the [...]
Americans May Be Turning The Corner On Obesity (Los Angeles Times)
The assessments from the CDC indicate that Americans may have turned a corner in fighting weight problems. But health experts say there’s more to be done to reverse the trend.
Americans may not be collectively doomed to die in their recliners after all, one hand in the chips bag, the other stretching for the remote. Obesity [...]
Health Care Bill Update: Closing The Medicare ‘Doughnut Hole’ Will Actually Cost Seniors (Washington Post)
Six years after Congress added a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, Democrats in the House and Senate are poised to make a central change that they and most older Americans have wanted all along: getting rid of a quirk that forces millions of elderly patients with especially high expenses for medicine to pay for much [...]
The Secrets of Weight Loss and Physical Health
When I started teaching aerobics classes in college, I mostly taught the then-popular typical classes of Step, Double Step, Hi/Lo Impact, Body Sculpting and Abdominal classes. But after college, when I taught for Bally’s Total Fitness, I started teaching a class called Body Pump.
Body Pump went beyond body sculpting and incorporated strength training with [...]
Seniors Have Real Concerns Over Proposed Cuts In Medicare To Pay For New Program
Senator Bill Nelson of Florida desperately wants to expand health insurance coverage because one in five Floridians is uninsured. As a former state insurance commissioner, he wants to crack down on insurers. And as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, he can shape legislation to achieve both goals.
But Mr. Nelson, a Democrat, has a [...]
Taking Care of Aging Parents Without Going Broke
Denise Egebrecht needed a break.
It had been three years since her 86-year-old mother, Eleanor Schwartz, moved in with her and her husband in their home in Johnsburg, Ill. Mrs. Schwartz has Alzheimer’s disease and has trouble moving around, so Mrs. Egebrecht helps her mother with her shower each day, makes sure she’s fed and takes [...]
Helping Elderly Leave Nursing Homes For A Home
Walter Brown never wanted to live in a nursing home, but when he had a stroke two years ago, he saw little choice. Mr. Brown, 72, could not walk, use his left arm or transfer himself into his wheelchair.
“It was like being in jail,” Mr. Brown said on a recent afternoon. “In the nursing home [...]
Seniors Defend Medicare Plan Obama Calls ‘Wasteful’
One of the largest spending cuts Congress could rely on to pay for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system comes from a Medicare program President Obama has called a “wasteful” subsidy for the health insurance industry.
Don’t tell that to cancer survivor Maurice Engleman, 82, who says the controversial Medicare Advantage program — which [...]
