May 19th 2014 is the third national Hepatitis Testing Day. Testing is especially important for Boomers and Beyond because people in that cohort may have contracted the HCV virus through blood transfusions or organ transplants prior to 1992 before screening went into effect. HCV, a potentially life-threatening infection of the liver, can be chronic with no symptoms for years and even decades. Millions of Americans have chronic hepatitis and most of them don’t know they are infected until serious liver damage has occurred.
Author: Sondra Forsyth
Sondra Forsyth is Co-Editor-in-Chief of ThirdAge.com. She is a National Magazine Award winner with scores of major magazine bylines and twelve books to her credit. Her most recent book is “Candida Cleanse: The 21-Day Diet to Beat Yeast and Feel Your Best”. Sondra was Executive Editor at “Ladies’ Home Journal,” Features Editor at “Cosmopolitan,” and Articles Editor at “Bride’s”. A former ballerina, she founded Ballet Ambassadors, an arts-in-education company in New York City, and served as Artistic Director for 16 years.
Debunking Injury Prevention and Treatment Myths
By Sondra Forsyth
ThirdAge Health Close-Up: Living With Lupus
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The Right Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Hepatitis C
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The Centers for Disease Control has designated May as Hepatitis Awareness Month. One goal of that campaign is to let Boomers know that of the more than three million Americans infected with hepatitis C, over 75% are in their 50s and 60s. You can find out the extent of your risk with this 5-minute online assessment from the CDC.
Women & Peripheral Artery Disease
Women, especially older women, face greater limits on their lifestyle and have more severe symptoms as a result of peripheral artery disease (PAD) than men do. The condition happens when fatty deposits build up in arteries outside the heart, usually the arteries supplying fresh oxygen and blood to the arms, legs and feet. About 8 million Americans have peripheral artery disease.
We Feel Younger Than Our Years!
Good news about Boomers and Beyond! The ninth annual 100@100 survey by UnitedHealthcare reported that Americans at age 65 say they feel 55 on average. Not only that, but our hardy centenarians say they feel as though they are 83 “years young” on average, and more than half live independently without the support of a caregiver to help them with their daily activities.
Health Searches Peak on Monday
Happy Monday! We’re glad you’re here on ThirdAge today to learn the latest about health. As it happens, you’ve probably got a lot of company. A study published on April 18th 2014 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that on average, searches for health topics were 30 percent more frequent at the beginning of the week than later in the week, with the lowest average number of searches on Saturday. This pattern was consistent week after week and year after year.
Resilient Older Women Show Compassion
If you’re 50+ and you’ve recently been through a tough time but you’ve bounced back, chances are you would score high on a compassion test given by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The study, published in the April 2014 issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, reported that resilient older women who have suffered a recent major loss are more likely to be compassionate toward those they don’t even know than are other older adults.
Massage Really Does Do a Body Good
Improved circulation and relief of muscle soreness are common claims made for massage therapy but no studies had ever been done to substantiate these assertions even though massage therapy is increasingly used as an adjunct to traditional medical interventions. Now researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago have shown that massage therapy not only improves general blood flow and alleviates muscle soreness after exercise but also helps people who have not worked out such as those who are bedridden.
Delirium Severity Measure for Older Adults
Researchers from Harvard, Brown, and the University of Massachusetts have developed a new method for measuring delirium severity in older adults. A release from the Hebrew Senior Life Institute for Aging Research, a affiliate of Harvard Medical School in Boston explains that delirium is defined as the sudden onset of confusion or change in mental status that is often brought about by physical illness, surgery, or hospitalization. Delirium is a common and often costly condition that is a leading complication among older adults who are hospitalized.
Our New Secretary of HSS
In the wake of the error-plagued healthcare rollout that left millions of Americans struggling to log on to HealthCare.gov in order to get insurance, Kathleen Sibelius has resigned from the position of United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. On April 11th 2014, President Obama nominated Sylvia Matthews Burwell to be Sibelius’ successor. Burwell, who will turn 49 in June, served as Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget beginning in April 2013 after a stint as president of the Walmart Foundation starting in January 2012.
Advance Directives Critical for Elderly Still at Home
More than 70% of elderly Medicare beneficiaries experience cognitive impairment or severe dementia near the end of life and may need surrogate decision makers for healthcare decisions. Advance care planning for older adults with dementia may be particularly important for individuals who do not reside in a nursing home or a long-term care facility, according to research done at at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in the April 2014 issue of Health Affairs.
Watch: 3 Common Heart Disease Myths You Probably Believe
Here's another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
More Proof Protein Is Good as We Age
On March 5th 2014, I posted an item on ThirdAge.com that dealt with the misleading title of a press release that went viral: “Meat and cheese may be as bad as smoking”. The study the release referred to actually showed that for people over 65, animal protein is protective.
Over 65? High Protein Diet Is Protective
This morning a news release from the University of Southern California entitled “Meat and cheese may be as bad as smoking” hit my inbox. Since then, numerous sites around the web have picked up the eyeball-grabbing headline and the accompanying story. If you encountered any of those posts and you’re over 65, don’t be alarmed and don’t cut back on the percentage of protein you eat.
In One Ear and Out the Other
Do you remember that sound bite you heard on the radio this morning? The name of the person you met socially yesterday? The grocery items your spouse asked you to pick up? Chances are the answer is no, according to a study done at the University of Iowa that showed there is truth to the old adage “in on ear and out the other”. The team reports in a paper published February 2014 in the journal PLoS ONE that we don't remember things we hear nearly as well as things we see or touch.
Diabetes: “Lend a Hand” Prioritizes Goals
The "lend a hand " illustration that accompanies this article shows an open palm with the five major forms of diabetes interventions are arranged in descending order of importance from thumb to little finger as follows: smoking cessation, blood pressure control, metformin therapy, lipid reduction, and glucose control.
Antidepressant Helps With AD Agitation
The antidepressant drug citalopram, sold under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil and also available as a generic medication, significantly relieved agitation in a group of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to research led by a Johns Hopkins team and reported in the February 19th issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. However, side effects including sings of abnormal heart function and a slight increase in cognitive decline.