The Truth About Relaxation Techniques By Jane Farrell article The National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), advocates relaxing as an antidote to stress but offers some guidelines so you can avoid ineffective strategies:
_ Menopause The "Silent Symptom" of Menopause By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood Editor's note: October 18th is World Menopause Day. Here, to help you celebrate, is the information you need to keep the loving alive and well as you experience "the change."
Breast Cancer Health Close-Up: Stage IV Breast Cancer By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood Editor's note: October is Breast Cancer Month. This article is ThirdAge's contribution to awareness about a form of breast cancer that is seldom discussed and is underfunded even though a third of patients have it. Read on for the courageous story of one of those patients and learn how easy it can be for you to help the cause.
Addiction & Substance Overuse Are You or a Loved One ΓÇ£Almost Alcoholic?ΓÇ¥ By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood
_ Divorce Getting Past Betrayal By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood “The most important thing about me was that for quite a chunk of my life I was divorced. It was a fact that stayed with me even after I remarried. I have now been married to my third husband for more than 20 years. But when you've had children with someone from whom you're now divorced, that split defines everything; it's the lurking fact, a slice of anger in the pie of your brain.” Nora Ephron
_ Sleep Health Best Treatments for Severe Sleep Disorders By Jane Farrell article Sleep is one of our most ordinary but important activities. If we don’t do it “right,” we can suffer. Snoring, the partial blockage of your airway, has been linked to some serious health issues, including heart disease, diabetes and weight. And the more serious sleep apnea – a condition in which your airway can be completely blocked from anywhere to five to 50 times an hour – can be life-threatening. And in both cases, you’ll probably be plagued by dangerous drowsiness the next day, affecting everything from driving to your job.
_ Retirement Why I'm Taking Early Retirement By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood For me, the sixties are more fabulous than the fifties. For one thing, beginning at age 59 1/2, as a sneak preview, you can access your IRA savings – if you have any -- with no penalty other than the regular tax (do it before and you’re hit with an additional 10 percent penalty). At age 62 you can apply to receive early Social Security benefits. At 65, we have Medicare and can perhaps drop our expensive healthcare insurance if we’ve been paying privately – depending on who is elected and what happens in Congress.
Back Pain A SurgeonΓÇÖs Tips for Back Pain Treatment By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood Debilitating back pain is the second most common reason Americans visit the doctor. But who should you see when you have back pain and what do you ask? Having treated thousands of patients, Dr. Burak Ozgur, a combined ortho-neuro spine fellowship-trained double board certified neurosurgeon based in Newport Beach, California, shares his thoughts.
Addiction & Substance Overuse Drug Abuse Among Seniors By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood The problem of older adults abusing prescription and illicit drugs hasn’t gotten enough attention says Dr. Gaya Dowling, acting chief of science policy branch at NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse). “When we think of drug abuse, we think of young people,” says Dowling. But there has been an undeniable rise in the number of patients over 50 who require intervention and treatment. Many more remain in the shadows, undiagnosed.
_ What You Might Not Know about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood An estimated 12 million Americans suffer from the painful nerve disorder of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS). We’ve heard the term so much that it might start to seem as if CTS is simply something you should live with. But investigators are working on new ways to prevent and cure it.
_ Mental & Emotional Health Emotional Recovery After Public Trauma By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood Horrific events like the shootings in a Colorado movie theater and a Sikh temple in Wisconsin affect not only those directly or peripherally involved, but also many people who only hear about them on the news. “Such events leave most of us feeling vulnerable, helpless, sad and anxious,” says Linda Ligenza, a consultant to the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. These killings, unlike those in war, happened in ordinary and familiar settings. This could have been me, we think.
Music and Alzheimer's By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood If you've ever felt , or witnessed, the unimaginable despair and sadness that accompanies seeing a loved one with Alzheimer's, there could be good news for you. A new feature documentary, “Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory,” demonstrates the power of music to awaken and revive those suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia--and to bring them closer to being themselves once more..
_ Overactive Bladder (OAB) & Incontinence Managing "Urge Incontinence" By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood If you experience the urge to urinate day and night, even though you just went to the bathroom, you may have Overactive Bladder (OAB). A collection of urinary symptoms, the most prominent being an uncontrollable urge to urinate even though the bladder isn’t full, OAB affects millions of Americans. Although up to 40 percent of American women and 30 percent of men have been identified with OAB, there may well be more people who suffer from it because people don’t like to discuss this kind of problem.
_ Alternative Health My Acupuncture Treatment By Jane Farrell article Earlier this year I completed a six-week trial of acupuncture to see if it would banish the pain in my butt from Piriformis syndrome, an inflammation of the sciatic nerve. It didn’t fix that, but it did do something else that I hadn’t experienced with massage or chiropractic treatment (and certainly not with ibuprofen). And I did feel better.
_ Exercise ThirdAge Health Close-up: Pilates By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood I’m doing Pilates machines workouts by the process of elimination. I’ve tried and given up just about everything else. For the last year, my friend’s words have echoed in my guilt chamber: “Just pay the money and do Pilates machines classes. They work!”
_ Senior Health Medicare Provision Helps Boomers Stay Well By Jane Farrell article By Judy Kirkwood If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, as Ben Franklin noted long ago, shouldn’t our health system reward and emphasize prevention rather than the cure? In fact, just a few days ago the Obama administration hired a PR firm to conduct a public education campaign about the utilization of preventive benefits and services included in the Affordable Care Act.
_ Exercise Donald Driver Wins DWTS By Jane Farrell article The winner of Season 14 of “DWTS” is Green Bay Packer Donald Driver, and it’s all over but the TV talk shows. One thing is for sure: this was the most satisfying seasons of “DWTS.” The quality of the dancing was extremely high and this show has left an indelible mark on its fans. I think we’ll expect more of future seasons.