Drugs and Older Adults

America is the country for sex, drugs, and rock and roll….well maybe just drugs and rock & roll.  Americans can be very traditional when it comes to discussing sex, but as for drugs we use medication as much as the Japanese. Most Americans are on some kind of medication or illicit drug. During 2015–2016, almost half of the U.S. population, including children, used one or more prescription drugs.  If you include recreational drugs, alcohol, and tobacco then you can assume that nearly everyone is on some kind of mood-altering drug. In addition, nearly everyone takes caffeine, either from coffee, soft drinks, or tea. Drugs are everywhere and they are differentiated only by whether they are legal or not and whether they are prescribed by a doctor or self-administered.

When discussing the problem of drugs, most people fall into the habit of automatically blaming recreational drugs. There is a long-standing myth that drug abuse is rare among older adults. The belief was that long-term drug addicts either recovered or died, and that addiction and use of illegal drugs by older adults were restricted to a small group of older criminals. But when we look at reality a different picture emerges. It is prescription medication among older people that is a primary concern. It is legal medications that cause more harm--those prescribed by your doctor--or those that you can buy from a pharmacy off-the-shelf. Prescription drugs are more popular with older people, especially older women. Pain relievers remain the most popular drug for the last two decades. Nearly a third of adults over 65 are on prescription medication. Most of these are not addictive, but the most popular medicines are, especially those for pain relievers.

While we see older men being addicted to alcohol and illicit drugs, older women are more likely to be addicted to pain medication like sedatives, hypnotics, and anxiolytics for anxiety. One type of anxiolytics is Benzodiazepines, which treat anxiety, pain, or insomnia, and are highly addictive and common. There are also common medications that older adults should not be taking. These drugs are updated every year under the BEERS criteria. 

Some medications might also be used inappropriately either intentionally or through forgetfulness. Older adults forget what medications they are on, and when and how to take them. Even though the US spends more on medications than any other country—mainly because we pay more for drugs than most countries—Japan leads the world in prescribing medications for older adults. 

When the world saw a decline in life expectancy for the first time this century in 2014, that was not due to wars, in the US this was attributed to the over-prescription of opioid medication. Promoted by big pharma, opioids were sold with the lie that they were not addictive. There was a fivefold increase in prescription opioid overdose deaths from 1996 to 2016 in the US. While newspapers focused on younger adults who misused prescription opioids, it was middle-aged and older adults between 50-64 years and older that use prescription opioids at a higher rate than any other group.

Combined with alcohol, prescription drug abuse among older adults is one of the fastest-growing health problems in the US. Alcohol and prescription drug abuse affect up to one in six older adults. Since older adults have a decreased ability to metabolize chemicals, the drugs stay in the body longer and our brains seem to get more sensitive to these drugs. This makes it dangerous for older adults to use any drug, even if the person is not addicted. On top of this, there is self-abuse. One-tenth of all older adults are also binge drinkers—five or more drinks at a time. Binge drinkers were more likely to be male and more likely to also use tobacco and/or cannabis. In the US cannabis use among older adults increased to one in twenty people, especially among older men younger than 69. Prescription medication combined with other drugs does not mix well.  With increasing access to geriatric doctors, nurses, and gerontologists we see a reduction in prescriptions and an overall improvement in life. In a complex world, having someone help you to navigate around these many drug options will benefit you to get the most from medications.

Kenkou to Yoi Tomodachi 2

References

Han, B. H., Moore, A. A., Ferris, R., & Palamar, J. J. (2019). Binge drinking among older adults in the United States, 2015 to 2017. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(10), 2139-2144.

Han, B. H., Sherman, S. E., & Palamar, J. J. (2019). Prescription opioid misuse among middle-aged and older adults in the United States, 2015–2016. Preventive medicine, 121, 94-98.

Tsuji‐Hayashi, Y., Fukuhara, S., Green, J., & Kurokawa, K. (1999). Use of prescribed drugs among older people in Japan: association with not having a regular physician. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 47(12), 1425-1429.

https://www.addictioncenter.com/addiction/elderly/

https://acpinternist.org/archives/2021/03/cannabis-use-increasing-among-older-adults.htm

https://www.verywellmind.com/us-has-highest-levels-of-illegal-drug-use-67909

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db334.htm#:~:text=During%202015%E2%80%932016%2C%20almost%20one,the%20pattern%20varied%20by%20age.

https://rehabs.com/blog/most-popular-drug-in-us-by-decade/

Ending our Story

We have an image in our minds of how our life will progress. This is usually formed when we were children, so it is simplistic. It goes something like this: we grow up, make lots of money, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. We quickly find that this story might not be true for us. But even though we might be disillusioned, what this tells us is that with these stories we like to predict. We like to tell a coherent story about our lives. It is part of how we are designed and we like to guess what will happen in the future, and we seem to do it for our own death as well.

When we ask people how long they expect to live they will be surprised to learn that they are fairly accurate. We tend to underestimate how long we live but otherwise, it is fairly accurate. It is so accurate that statisticians who work with life insurance (actuaries) use this to adjust how long they expect us to live and therefore adjust how much we pay for life insurance.

David Phillips, with the University of California San Diego, has been looking at this phenomenon.  In 1992 Phillips and his colleagues examined three million deaths from natural causes.  Women are more likely to die in the week following their birthdays than in any other week of the year. It seems that females are able to prolong life enough it seems until they have reached a positive, symbolically meaningful occasion—their birthday. For women a birthday seems to function as a “lifeline.” In contrast, male deaths peak shortly before their birthday, suggesting that their birthday functions as a “deadline” for males. Older men are more likely to experience their looming birthday as a negative sign. The importance of a “lifeline” or a “deadline” also works for other significant days.

In 2016 Andrew Stickley and his colleagues looked at over 27,000 suicides in Japan between 2001–2010. What they found was that males were more likely to commit suicide around their birthday—5 days before and a week after their birthday. While females, they committed suicide 7–11 days before their birthday. In Japan, birthdays seem to be a deadline for both males and females. We find cultural variations throughout the world.

David Phillips and Elliot King showed that in a small Jewish group death declines by about a third below normal before the Jewish holiday of Passover and then peaks by the same amount the week after. It seems that Jewish people hold on to life a little bit longer to celebrate Passover. In contrast, non-Jewish deaths showed no such pattern around the same period.

The same is found for the Chinese who are less likely to die the week before the Harvest Moon Festival but peak the week after. In the West deaths spike during Christmas and New Year’s holiday period possibly because these periods are both stressful and indulgent. Also, people might delay seeking medical treatment during the festive season. 

Another interesting observation centers around Tetraphobia, the fear of the number “4”  that is common in Japan, as well as in China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, and Vietnam. This superstition seems to have arisen from the similarity of the pronunciation of the word “four” and “death” in Japanese as well as in Mandarin and Cantonese. When looking at death from heart disease among Japanese and Chinese Americans we find that there are extra deaths on the fourth of the month. No such increases showed up among other populations. 

It is difficult to make any conclusions. Certain days such as our birthdate can have significance. We might see it as an accomplishment (for women) or as a deadline (for men), or as evidence of loneliness among suicidal Japanese.  Some festivities which are stressful likely to hasten our demise (Christmas and New Year) while other holidays we might withstand till after they pass (Passover for Jews and Harvest Moon Festival for Chinese.) Then there are days that we fear that act as a self-fulfilling prophecy (the 4th of each month). What seems to emerge is that how we think about death influences when we die, at a minimum by a few days and at a maximum by some years.

Kenkou to Yoi Tomodachi  1

Long Hiatus

 After a long hiatus, more than two years off this blog post, I have decided to return to this medium. It is not that I have not been writing. I have published three books during this break from blogging, but I realize that my blogs reach more people that need to read about these advances in gerontology. 

I have also been writing blogs for a Japanese newspaper called the Kenkou to Yoi Tomodachi. I have been writing monthly editorials, so I should start by reproducing them here first.

Most Popular Gerontology Professor in the USA according to Authority.org

 https://www.authority.org/rankings/best-colleges-for-gerontology/professors

Do older people have a chance of escaping COVID-19?

Everyone wants a simple answer to this 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. We have politicians forecasting that a vaccine is on its way that will save us. We are told that this is the only answer. But such predictions are misguided and wrong, especially for older people. A vaccine will not end the threat posed by COVID-19 or other viruses following. To appreciate this view, we need to understand how vaccines work.

We have a lot of experience with flu vaccines. The flu is much simpler than a cold virus (COVID-19 is a cold virus.)

Although there are four types of influenza (flu) viruses—A, B, C, and D—influenza A and B viruses are the only ones that cause flu pandemics. A-type viruses have two proteins called H and N. Since there are 18 types of H and 11 types of N there can 198 different A-viruses. B viruses have two types—Victoria and Yamagata—with sub-types. Every year we check what is happening in Asia and then we select a few flu viruses from there and develop vaccines. Vaccines usually include inactive viruses, dead viruses. In some cases, however, attenuated viruses (weakened live viruses) are used. 

Vaccines work by pretending to infect the body and then the body reacts in three ways. It is best to see the body's reaction as a war with different types of defense: soldiers, mercenaries, and intelligence units.  

The first line of attack are antibodies produced by B cells. Antibodies are soldiers, that either go out into the bloodstream to fight the viruses or stick close to the fort on the B cells. Antibodies have five methods of killing the virus and are therefore effective soldiers. Newly infected people are unlikely to have detectable antibodies during the first few days, but most develop them after one to three weeks. In the meantime, the second cell type that fights infections is T cells. One type of T cell is mercenaries that inject the virus with a lethal poison. Unlike antibodies, these T cells only fight one specific type of virus. They are very specific. Another type of T cell calls for help, especially from antibodies. In the absence of antibodies, T cells can control infection by themselves. What is interesting is that T cell responses are found in most COVID-19 patients that may last longer than antibodies. The third way the body reacts is through Natural Killer (NK) cells. If B-cells are soldiers, and T-cells are mercenaries, then NK-cells are the CIA, the intelligence unit. They kill viruses, cancer and they play an important role in pregnancy by differentiating the fetus as a special foreign body. Aging reduces the number and effectiveness of NK cells. Taken together, with reduced efficiency at generating antibodies due to reduced B- and T-cells, aging brings about a reduced resilience to infections in general and specifically to COVID-19.

Even with an effective vaccine, sometimes the vaccines completely miss the viruses that are around. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that in 2018-2019 vaccines were effective between 12%-16%. with older adults having the lowest effectiveness despite having the highest vaccination rates. Meaning that on average the vaccines do not work in seven out of eight cases among older adults. Older adults do not produce enough antibodies even if they take the right vaccine. Most older adults are inefficient at producing antibodies. This is why even though older people take a flu vaccine they still get infected and some eventually still die from the flu. Flu deaths are higher among older people. Also, as Asim Biswas just discovered in 2020, because older adults have had many different colds and flu infections, these earlier antibodies may conflict with current vaccination. Our memory of infections reduces our ability to generate new antibodies. As a result, older adults are not only at greater risk of death and sickness from influenza than younger people, but they also have greater difficulty in developing protection when given the vaccine. 

What is surprising is that sometimes it looks like the vaccines not only do not help but they might be detrimental. When the Canadian researcher Melissa Andrew and her colleagues in 2017 compared older adults who were vaccinated with those who were not vaccinated, they found that infections were higher among those who were vaccinated. The argument is that those that get vaccinated are more likely to be frail and prone to get infections in the first place. Most of the time there are other viruses that cause similar symptoms, but they are missed by the vaccines for that year. Tom Jefferson and his colleagues looked at many studies and found no evidence of a benefit of influenza vaccination in older adults. Meaning that it does not matter whether you take the vaccine or not.  This is because there are many other viruses floating around at any one time, and that older adults, with or without a vaccine, do not cope well with these other viruses. 

The complexity of flu is nothing compared to the complexity of the cold viruses. In addition, cold viruses persist in the environment and are resistant to most household disinfectants—which is why washing our hands is so important as we wash the viruses off our skin, but washing does not destroy them. Some cold viruses are lethal, killing more than a third of those infected, such as MERS-CoV, and some are inconvenient but harmless, such as the common cold. 

There are two types of cold viruses either Adenovirus or Coronavirus. Each type has many, many subsets with a lot of variabilities. For example, there are 57 Adenovirus types (and hundreds, or maybe thousands, of sub-types). Then there are seven types of human Coronaviruses with many sub-types and mutations. With flu having two proteins in comparison cold viruses have many: COVID-19 for example has 29 proteins.

Because the T-cells are too specific and the COVID-19 mutates quickly—already in three months Los Alamos National labs found 14 strains—it is unlikely that T cells will be effective. Antibodies are still the best attack, except for older people who are not efficient at producing them, even with a vaccine. The Natural Killer cells are still an unknown in this fight and might be another avenue for controlling COVID-19 but we know older adults have fewer of these cells as well. Overall the only sure way we have of combating this disease is through social measures of reducing the probability of infection and reducing the infection load. Both can be achieved through the well-known drill of distancing, hand washing, wearing masks, and most importantly, not to gather. The world is going to be a distinctly different place. 

The activity by drug companies is to develop therapies rather than vaccines. Therapies that address some of the effects of the disease, in particular, the lung infections that leave some of the COVID-19 victims scarred for life. But there is another side of the infection that is more worrisome, the infection to the brain. Recent studies showing that COVID-19 causes dementia takes us back to an awareness of how few tools we have to combat this disease. We know how difficult it is to treat the brain, as research on dementia has taught us, so this will be a challenge to address. In the end, we need to rely on preventing rather than attacking. The world has changed for all, but it will be especially different for older adults.

Further Readings

Andrew, M. K., Shinde, V., Ye, L., Hatchette, T., Haguinet, F., Dos Santos, G., ... & Chit, A. (2017). The importance of frailty in the assessment of influenza vaccine effectiveness against influenza-related hospitalization in elderly people. The Journal of infectious diseases, 216(4), 405-414.

Bernstein, E., Kaye, D., Abrutyn, E., Gross, P., Dorfman, M., & Murasko, D. M. (1999). Immune response to influenza vaccination in a large healthy elderly population. Vaccine, 17(1), 82-94.

Biswas, A., Chakrabarti, A. K., & Dutta, S. (2020). Current challenges: from the path of “original antigenic sin” towards the development of universal flu vaccines: Flu vaccine efficacy encounters significant hurdles from pre-existing immunity of the host suggesting assessment of host immunity before vaccination. International Reviews of Immunology, 39(1), 21-36.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Seasonal Influenza (Flu) (2017) Seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness 2018-2019. Available at https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/2018-2019.html Accessed June 25, 2020

Jefferson, T., Di Pietrantonj, C., Al‐Ansary, L. A., Ferroni, E., Thorning, S., & Thomas, R. E. (2010). Vaccines for preventing influenza in the elderly. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (2).

Varatharaj, A., Thomas, N., Ellul, M., Davies, N. W., Pollak, T., Tenorio, E. L., ... & Coles, J. P. (2020). UK-wide surveillance of neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of COVID-19: The first 153 patients. The Lancet Psychiatry.

INDEX

iAge Archive over 200 Blogs

• ▼  2019 (2)
  • ▼  October 2019 (1)
    • Cartographer of the Mind
  • ▼  September 2019 (1)
    • Preparing for Death The Final Frontier

• ▼  2018 (15)
  • ▼  August 2018 (2)
    • THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
    • TIMES OF MALTA
  • ▼  May 2018 (5)
    • Slowing Down Aging
    • How Films Portray Aging
    • All Demented Sinners
    • A Critique of the 2018 National Institute on Aging...
    • Adapting to Ageism
  • ▼  April 2018 (3)
    • Dementia is not a Normal Part of Aging
    • Aging Is Not a Genetic Dustbin
    • Jumping Genes and Longevity
  • ▼  January 2018 (5)
    • The Religion of Aging: Finding Meaning
    • Humility or Humiliation in aging, its your choice....
    • Aging Envy
    • An apology to Paul Dirac.
    • Theoretical Summation of Culture.

• ▼  2017 (20)
  • ▼  December 2017 (3)
    • How Much Does your Soul Weigh?
    • Medicare Cuts in the 2018 Budget
    • Driving While Old
  • ▼  November 2017 (2)
    • Is Citizenship the New Care for People With Dement...
    • The Psychology and Mathematics of Time in Aging
  • ▼  October 2017 (2)
    • Montclair Film Festival On Aging
    • Are Hormetins the new Fountain of Youth in Aging?
  • ▼  September 2017 (5)
    • Hope Versus Depression
    • Why Does God Want to Kill Me?
    • Age Apartheid
    • Dawn of the Age of Parrhesia
    • Aging In Montclair and bevival
  • ▼  August 2017 (2)
    • Tuberculosis Has Been Shown to Cause Dementia
    • Is Mouth Bacteria Causing Dementia?
  • ▼  June 2017 (1)
    • Immortality: With a Lifetime Guarantee
  • ▼  May 2017 (2)
    • The Coming Pandemic of Lyme Dementia
    • Learning about Aging through Film: The Narrative A...
  • ▼  April 2017 (1)
    • Big Pharma Against Dementia
  • ▼  March 2017 (1)
    • Reminiscing Therapy and Dementia
  • ▼  February 2017 (1)
    • Alzheimer's disease Repeating Failures

• ▼  2016 (20)
  • ▼  December 2016 (2)
    • The Rise and Fall of Long Term Care Insurance
    • Reversing Fifty Years of Progress in Life Expectan...
  • ▼  November 2016 (3)
    • The Fear of Aging in Trump’s New World
    • Brain Plasticity is Key to Surviving a Stroke
    • Can I grow a new brain to stop dementia developing...
  • ▼  October 2016 (2)
    • Fluid and Crystalized in Intelligence in Older Ag...
    • Suicide among Older Adults: Not all in the head
  • ▼  September 2016 (3)
    • Witness my Life: A Psychotherapist's Journey to He...
    • Witness my Life: A Psychotherapist's Journey to He...
    • If Alzheimer’s disease was Treated like Cancer
  • ▼  July 2016 (1)
    • The Death of Biological Determinism
  • ▼  June 2016 (1)
    • How Mild is "Mild Cognitive Impairment"?
  • ▼  March 2016 (3)
    • Reversible Alzheimer’s Disease: The role of norma...
    • Early Emotional Cascade and Alzheimer’s disease
    • Wrong on so many levels: The Amyloid Cascade hypot...
  • ▼  February 2016 (3)
    • Complexity Theory and Alzheimer's disease: A Call ...
    • Piaget's Missing Cognitive Stage: Socioemotional S...
    • The Fallacy of the Epidemiological Transition
  • ▼  January 2016 (2)
    • A New Paradigm for Alzheimer's Disease Research
    • Bad Drugs and Older Adults

• ▼  2015 (19)
  • ▼  December 2015 (4)
    • Death of Happiness Greatly Exaggerated
    • The Preservation of Human Energy through Aging
    • The Eugenics Period in Research
    • The Politics of Anguish: How Alzheimer’s disease b...
  • ▼  November 2015 (2)
    • How Would Real Capitalism Work?
    • We are Becoming Gods
  • ▼  October 2015 (1)
    • Why Death is Important
  • ▼  September 2015 (3)
    • God, Mathematics and Psychology: Are they all one?...
    • Lost with Dementia
    • Legal Consequences of Dementia
  • ▼  August 2015 (2)
    • The Psychology of Physics
    • Ontological Question
  • ▼  May 2015 (2)
    • Fluoride Levels and Falls Among Elderly
    • Geography of Aging and the Illusion of Self
  • ▼  April 2015 (2)
    • Humans are Cleverly Stupid Beings
    • Ménage à Trois: Sex, Dementia and the Law
  • ▼  March 2015 (3)
    • Life Expectancy
    • Genetics of Longevity
    • Lifespan

• ▼  2014 (34)
  • ▼  December 2014 (2)
    • Is Aging Determined by our Gut Bacteria?
    • Reclaiming the word "Senile"
  • ▼  November 2014 (2)
    • Social Security: Supreme Court Denies the Fifth Am...
    • Hiding from the Pain: Robin Williams's Autopsy
  • ▼  October 2014 (3)
    • Is Cancer the Cure for Alzheimer’s disease?
    • Infections/ Antibiotics and older Adults
    • Is Having Children Detrimental to Longevity?
  • ▼  September 2014 (3)
    • Is the Human Race Heading For Extinction?
    • Is Our Population Sustainable?
    • Is Castration the Answer to Longevity?
  • ▼  August 2014 (7)
    • Grieve Alone, Your Way.
    • Grieve Alone, Your Way.
    • Are we Suppose to Live Longer?
    • How Old Are You?
    • A Heart to Heart Talk
    • Our Own Virtual Reality Box
    • Financial Elder Abuse by Banks, Casinos and Lawyer...
  • ▼  July 2014 (3)
    • No Pissing Joke
    • Is Dementia caused by Aluminum through Fluoridatio...
    • Fluoridation and Dementia
  • ▼  June 2014 (1)
    • Traveling with Dementia
  • ▼  May 2014 (4)
    • Death by Numbers
    • Dating in Older Age
    • Our Subconscious Internal Reality
    • Kafkaesque Government Guidelines on Dementia
  • ▼  March 2014 (3)
    • Down Syndrome and Aging
    • Aging brings challenges – and the resilience to de...
    • Following Your Spouse to Death
  • ▼  February 2014 (4)
    • Complexity of our Brain
    • Dementia and Gambling
    • Casinos Preying on Older Adults
    • Cholesterol and our Aging Brains
  • ▼  January 2014 (2)
    • Leaving Behind the Victim of Dementia
    • Older Adults' Fascination with Obituaries

• ▼  2013 (28)
  • ▼  December 2013 (1)
    • The Death Experience.
  • ▼  November 2013 (6)
    • Cougar Sex
    • Children Killing Their Parents
    • Dying to Be Born
    • Aging Plastic Surgery: How does invasive cosmetic ...
    • Intergenerational Conflict and the Addiction to Mo...
    • Epigenetic and Dementia
  • ▼  October 2013 (1)
    • Childhood disability and Aging
  • ▼  September 2013 (5)
    • Faith Leaders in End-Of-Life
    • Diversity and Elder Abuse
    • Dementia and Sex in Nursing Homes
    • Accepting Our Losses and Living Longer
    • Fibs, Puffery, Lies and Immortality: Telomeres and...
  • ▼  August 2013 (3)
    • Longevity and Reilgion/Spirituality
    • Depression without Sadness
    • Painful Religion at End-Of-Life
  • ▼  June 2013 (1)
    • Last Will and Testament
  • ▼  May 2013 (1)
    • Gerontocracy, Plutocracy, Oligarchy and the Aging ...
  • ▼  April 2013 (6)
    • Geography of Aging
    • Lesbian Gay Bi-Sexual and Transgender Older Adults...
    • Guns and Older Adults
    • Dying for Real
    • Cemeteries as Toxic Landfills
    • Happiness and Dementia
  • ▼  March 2013 (3)
    • Aging Tattoos
    • Aging Movie Stars
    • Tonsillitis and aging
  • ▼  February 2013 (1)
    • Crying among Older Adults

• ▼  2012 (13)
  • ▼  November 2012 (2)
    • We are all Becoming Demented
    • Smell and Dementia
  • ▼  September 2012 (2)
    • Super Brains and Dementia
    • Highway Brain and the Earthquake Dementia
  • ▼  July 2012 (1)
    • Elder Abuse and Dementia
  • ▼  June 2012 (4)
    • Aging and Pandemics
    • How Physicians Die
    • Dying Priorities
    • Being Happy Changes You
  • ▼  April 2012 (1)
    • New Insights in Aging
  • ▼  February 2012 (1)
    • Why America’s Aging Population is not the reason f...
  • ▼  January 2012 (2)
    • Conceptual Solution to Elder Abuse
    • The Age of Psychology

• ▼  2011 (40)
  • ▼  September 2011 (5)
    • Older Adults in Films: The Invisible Older Woman
    • Seeing through Ages
    • Aristotle and Cool Old Age
    • Cicero and the Attitude of Aging
    • Taoist Orgasms and Older Adults
  • ▼  August 2011 (4)
    • Hearing loss
    • Medicine and Religion at the end of life.
    • Dreaming of Traveling
    • Ageless Animals
  • ▼  July 2011 (2)
    • My Personal Experiences of Aging
    • Download all blogs
  • ▼  June 2011 (9)
    • Wiser Older Adults
    • Poverty is (really) on the Increase among Older Ad...
    • Ethnic Diversity Among Older Adults: Older adults ...
    • Gambling and the Older Adult: Losing More than Jus...
    • Older Drivers
    • Older Adults are programmed to remember happy thou...
    • Fear of Alzheimer’s Disease
    • Dying Older Adults
    • Brain Fitness and Dementia and How We Can Re-Progr...
  • ▼  April 2011 (4)
    • Ageism-Modern Variants
    • Dancing away Dementia
    • HIV/AIDS among Older Adults
    • Plastic Surgery-Looking Younger in Older Years
  • ▼  March 2011 (11)
    • Rich Man Poor Man
    • Sex, Romance and Relationships of Older Adults
    • Falling for You
    • Sleep is the Best Medicine
    • Tele-Intensive Care Units: Technology at the end o...
    • Volunteerism and Wellbeing among Older Adults
    • Homeless Older Adults
    • Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll
    • Facing the Music
    • Collecting problems: Hoarding
    • Oldest Boldest
  • ▼  February 2011 (4)
    • Old Problems New Approaches : mHealth
    • Pet Therapy: Four-legged Florence Nightingales
    • Retirement: a Gold Watch or a Golden Nest Egg
    • Anti-Aging : A New Windmill for Don Quixote
  • ▼  January 2011 (1)
    • A Century of Living:Centenarians and Living Longes...

• ▼  2010 (18)
  • ▼  December 2010 (16)
    • Caregiving : Providing care for a loved one: what’...
    • Loneliness & Depression You Are not Alone
    • Services for Older Adults in San Diego County Self...
    • Loving your Brain Emotional Maturity in Older Age
    • Aging and Dental Problems: Getting Long in the Too...
    • Aging in Prisons Who is ultimately responsible for...
    • Minority Aging The Canary in the Mine
    • Sex and Old Age Same Old same Old?
    • The Cost of Dying Is Over-Pricing Death the Soluti...
    • Staying Fit Eating Right Live Long and Prosper
    • Elder Abuse The Quiet Violence
    • Dying to Live Longer The weird and wonderful attem...
    • Dying to Live Longer The weird and wonderful attem...
    • Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFEs) ...
    • A Legacy of Debt Social Security and Medicare
    • Dementia A Pandemic in the Making
  • ▼  November 2010 (2)
    • Brain Plasticity in Older Adults: You Can Teach Ol...
    • Aging in Place: How to Continue Living at Home

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