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I didn't listen much to my mother when I was growing up.  Nobody does. But now it's turning out that people in their 60s may actually benefit from giving advice.  Maybe that's why our moms did. A new study , however, also found that few people are willing to receive it. Bingo! The new study reveals that individuals in their 60s who give advice to a broad range of people tend to see their lives as especially meaningful, according to newswise.com. At the same time, this happens to be the age when opportunities for dispensing advice become increasingly scarce.  “This association between advice giving and life meaning is not evident for other age groups,” says Markus H. Schafer, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto and the lead author of the study. “Overall, we interpret these findings to suggest that the developmental demands of late midlife—particularly the desire to contribute to others’ welfare and the fear of feeling ‘stagna...

Okay.  So if you read my blog yesterday, you learned that stress erodes our memories. So now a new study is saying, using a computer and social activity helps our memory.  Huh? Keeping the brain active with social activities and using a computer may help older adults reduce their risk of developing memory and thinking problems, newswise.com reports.  Now we've known this for some time.  That's why you see people in nursing homes doing puzzles and crossword puzzles (and grabbing the nurse's skirt, do they wear skirts anymore? -- but that's for another time). The bottom line is, these kinds of activities keep the mind healthier, longer. For the study, researchers followed 1,929 people, age 70 and older, who were part of the larger Mayo Clinic Study of Aging in Rochester, Minn. The participants had normal memory and thinking abilities at recruitment to the study. They were then followed for an average of four years until they developed mild cognitive impai...

I don't know whether to be delighted -- scared-- but supposedly your friends know how long you'll  live.  That's according to a new study by Washington University in St. Louis.  Apparently, close friends  may have a better sense of whether you'll live a long life, suggests new research on personality and longevity. “You expect your friends to be inclined to see you in a positive manner, but they also are keen observers of the personality traits that could send you to an early grave,” says Joshua Jackson, PhD, assistant professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, at newswise.com. The study demonstrates that your personality at an early age (20s) can predict how long you will live across 75 years and that close friends are usually better than you at recognizing these traits. Male participants seen by their friends as more open and conscientious ended up living longer. Female participants whose friends rated them as high on emotional stability and ...

It's the greatest news I've heard in a while. Jogging keeps you young. But then I read the article through and sure enough, it was a bit of a come-on.  Turns out that  those who run at least 30 minutes, three times a week were less likely to experience age-related physical decline in " walking efficiency" than those who simply walked. Big deal. Though, I suppose, when I'm 80, that will mean a lot.   “What we found is that older adults who regularly participate in high aerobic activities—running in particular—have what we call a lower metabolic cost of walking than older, sedentary adults. In fact, their metabolic cost of walking is similar to young adults in their 20s,” said Justus Ortega, a Kinesiology Professor at Humboldt State and director of HSU’s Biomechanics Lab.  Now that, I'll buy. But here's the kicker. Decline in walking ability is a key predictor of morbidity in older adults. I've been jogging for over 30 years, most...

Duh.  A new study has found that regular exercise can slow aging. It may even be able to add up to five years to your life. New research s uggests that a person can slow the speed at which she ages by exercising regularly, according to newswise.com. My husband, who believes exercise can cure everything from the common cold to cancer, will be jubilant (and boastful).   I can't wait. Regular exercise not only improves the quality of life but can also extend a person’s lifespan by up to five years, the Web site reports on the study's facts. Additionally, research suggests that older adults receive the most benefits when combining endurance exercise with resistance exercise. Yay.  Finally I'm doing something right.  I jog and swim.  Not well, but still. However, other studies suggest it's extreme exercise that slows aging.   The Guardian writer Matthew Jenkin claims that e very morning, 72-year-old grandmother Dr Betty Holsden-Smith does a few cr...

That's the question The Atlantic asked today in its story on the effects The Affordable Care Act will have on our healthcare . The reality is that this earlier death rate may be affecting all of us, to some degree, but mostly women in the South and West without a high school diploma.  These women often do not have access to good healthcare, if any at all. The Atlantic reports, "In March, a study published by the University of Wisconsin researchers David Kindig and Erika Cheng found that in nearly half of U.S. counties, female mortality rates actually increased between 1992 and 2006, compared to just 3 percent of counties that saw male mortality increase over the same period." Various studies have put this earlier death rate down to "growing health disadvantages," which have disproportionately had an impact on women over the past three decades. Another study in July found "that inequality in women’s health outcomes steadily increased between 1985 and ...

Good news for women.  More of us are living past 50.  According to a story at The New York Times, "Life expectancy for women who live to age 50 is going up around the world, but poor and middle-income countries could easily make greater gains, according to a new World Health Organization report." Donald G. McNeil Jr. reports that, since "Heart disease, stroke and cancer kill most women over 50," according to Dr. John R. Beard, director of the W.H.O.'s department of aging, "Countries should focus on lowering blood pressure with inexpensive drugs and screening for cervical and breast cancer." Those diseases can be prevented or treated, McNeil quotes Dr. Beard, who was also an author of the study , which was published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. But we still have challenges ahead.  Smoking, obesity and excessive drinking still kill many in their younger years. McNeil notes that Japanese women live longest, but women in most ...

Good news!   Infertility rates in this country are dropping!  They've gone from almost 9 percent of women in 1982 to 6 percent of women now. But fertility treatments have also doubled, according to the CDC. According to cbsnews.com, the CDC report found that "6 percent of married women aged 15 to 44, about 1.5 million women, were considered infertile at some point from 2006 through 2010."  But, that's down from 8.5 percent of women (2.4 million) in 1982. "When you look at this downward trend, it goes against the popular wisdom of people we all know," report author Anjani Chandra, a health scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics, told USA Today , as noted by cbsnews.com. Age is thought to play a large role in infertility. Among married women without children, 25 percent of those aged 35 to 39 were infertile, as were 30 percent of those 40 to 44 years old. That's compared with between 7.3 percent and 9.1 percent of women under 34 ye...

We may be living longer.  But we're not living healthier. That's the result of a recent study of the U.S. population that's the largest in 15 years, according to the WSJ's Ron Winslow. Compared to other developed nations, "death rates from illnesses associated with obesity, such as diabetes and kidney disease, as well as neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease, are on the rise" here, Winslow reports. Winslow, who interviewed the researcher who led the study, Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle., quoted him as saying, "Despite gains in longevity, Americans are living the extra years 'not necessarily in good health.'" Why?  We're getting larger.  The rates of many illnesses, like heart disease and cancer, are more and more being linked to obesity, while those of diabetes and kidney failure, which are known outcomes of obesity, are so...

I've always loved books.  Maybe that's why I'm a writer.  But I couldn't wait to get home from anywhere out and dive back into my book. Now studies are showing that bookworms may hold on to their memories longer than those who don't read a lot or write or "participate in brain-stimulating activities," according to newswise.com. “Our study suggests that exercising your brain by taking part in activities such as these across a person’s lifetime, from childhood through old age, is important for brain health in old age,” the Web site quotes study author Robert S. Wilson, PhD, with Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. With so many Baby Boomers inching up into their 70's, of course, there's a massive interest in brain maintenance.  Whether it's exercise (which has also recently been touted as a way to stay mentally fit), or doing crossword puzzles (though exercise beats this, too), retaining memory is replacing liposuction and Botox a...

It used to creep me out when a new baby was born somewhere in our extended family and one of our older members would say, "That means someone will die." While I'm not too terribly superstitious (knock on wood), that always used to make me look around uneasily when a baby was born, or when someone died.  It seemed to be pretty true. The New York Times reports today that a baby is no longer being born every time someone dies .  In fact, for whites, fewer babies were born this year than older folks dying.  This year, for the first time in at least a century, according to Sam Roberts, the two did not cancel each other out.  More people died.  So?  Actually, it's quite significant. Roberts calls it "a benchmark that heralds profound demographic change." The number of non-Hispanic white Americans is expected to begin declining by the end of this decade.       “These new census estimates are an early signal alerting us to the impending decl...

A new study has found that as little as 20 minutes in the sun can harm your children's eyes, according to newswise.com. What can it do?  Age the lens or damage the retina, the Web site quotes James McDonnell, MD, medical director of pediatric ophthalmology at Loyola University Health System and professor of ophthalmology at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. Either can lead to blindness down the road. McDonnell says if a child is going to be in the sun-- playing softball, swimming, even just hanging out with friends -- he should wear sunglasses.  Now I have a 12-year-old and I know how hard it is to get kids that age to do just about anything. Even before he got contacts, and wore glasses, anyway, my son refused to wear sunglasses. I've known for some time that over-exposure to the sun can lead to cataracts in older people But I didn't know it could also affect kids' eyes. And here's the next difficult part.  Not all sunglasses are crea...

Than other nations, that is.  Believe it or not, American men come in dead last at #17 on a list of countries whose men live longest, according to the usnews.com Web site.  Call it stress, call it unfortunate accidents, but whatever you call it, our men, with all their advantages, are dying sooner. http://health.usnews.com/health-news/articles/2013/01/15/why-arent-americans-healthier

Want to still be having hot sex in your 90s?  People on a Greek island live longer than we do and have relations far more often than the average senior.  A connection?  Maybe. It's the wine, and the radiation -- radiation -- from the hot springs, they say.  As a cancer survivor, can't say much positive about radiation, though! http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/the-secret-to-longevity-wine-and-radioactivity/9560?tag=nl.e660&s_cid=e660

Guess what? We're really good at looking back on ourselves (and feeling humiliated at our antics in college), but we really stink at looking ahead and predicting who -- and what -- we will be 10 years from now. It's called "the end of history illusion," a fancy term for not knowing what the heck our lives will be like, in the future.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/science/study-in-science-shows-end-of-history-illusion.html?_r=0

Doctors are now saying that a little bit of extra weight may help you live longer.  That's the good news.  The bad news?  Only after age 65.  And your B.M.I. may not need to be under 25, though it should stay in the '20s (sadly, I still don't qualify!!!). http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/02/health/study-suggests-lower-death-risk-for-the-overweight.html?_r=0