Planning your Retirement Smart Way

How Dry Sauna will help you to Stay Healthy?

2012-01-23T21:44:00.000-08:00

With growing tendency in aging population to chose healthy lifestyle and natural ways to improve their health and wellbeing, many people in the USA are turning their glances into one of the types of hydrotherapy - to the sauna. While it is a common knowledge that sauna helps to lessen stress and offer deep relaxation, general public knows much less on the great therapeutic effect of sauna on the physical health and on its ability to assist with some diseases’ treatment.

What is a sauna?

A sauna is a hot air bath or sweat bath. You take a sauna in a special, insulated room that keeps the air still and heat in. There is a heat source in the room to transfer heat to your body: The heat in a sauna comes from rocks heated in a fire, stove, or an infrared radiator. The heat source may only heat the air, or it may also produce steam which makes it feel hotter. So, there are two main types of saunas: dry and wet (steam room). In this post, we will review dry sauna only.

In the sauna your skin gets heated well above its normal temperature. In response, your body begins sweating profusely to keep yourself cool. To get the feeling of heat all over your body and to prevent clothes from being soaked with sweat, the sauna is typically used nude, or with as little clothing as practical.

A saunas’ dry heat (which can get as high as 185° F) has profound effects on the body. Skin temperature soars to about 104° F within minutes. The average person will pour out a pint of sweat during a short stint in a sauna. The pulse rate jumps by 30% or more, allowing the heart to nearly double the amount of blood it pumps each minute. Most of the extra blood flow is directed to the skin; in fact, the circulation actually shunts blood away from the internal organs. Blood pressure is unpredictable, rising in some people but falling in others.

Sauna for Elderly

Until recently, medical community was reluctant to recommend sauna for the midlife and elderly population, since it was consider not very safe for not too healthy individuals. While, the procedure is indeed highly intrusive, safety precautions and common sense minimize the risks. Now, many physicians round the US recommend visits to the sauna on regular basis to their elderly patients who are afflicted with rheumatic conditions. According to recent studies, the heat from the sauna can help to minimize aching and improve the mobility of the joints in patients plagued by rheumatism and other joint pains.

But besides treating rheumatism and bettering joint mobility in elderly people, one of the many other benefits of sauna is soothing symptoms of asthma and persistent bronchitis. In accordance with a number of studies, the heat from the sauna spa can help decrease lung infection among patients who suffer from asthma disease and long-term bronchitis.

Though a trip to the sauna does not really cure asthma or long-term bronchitis, it can reduce the signs and symptoms of these conditions and help sufferers feel more comfortable as well as have a good night's sleep. Additionally, a sauna bath also helps stop colds and remedying clogged nose once colds set in. Research has shown that individuals who go to the sauna spa regularly are usually far less likely to be afflicted by colds and other types of infection in their upper respiratory tract.

We will review sauna benefits and safety tips in more details below.

Sweating

Sweating is as important to our body proper functioning as eating and breathing. It accomplishes three important things: rids the body of wastes, regulates the critical temperature of the body at 37 degrees C (98.6 degrees F), and helps keep the skin clean and pliant.

When you lounge in a sweat bath, heat sensitive nerve endings produce acetylcholine, a chemical which alerts the 2.3 million sweat glands embedded in the skin. But not all of them respond. The aprocine sweat glands, located in the pubic and arm pit areas, are activated only by emotional stimuli. They carry a faint scent whose purpose is believed to arouse the sex drive.

Nevertheless, the eccrine sweat glands, by far the most abundant, respond to heat. During a 15-minute sauna, about one liter of sweat is excreted, depending upon the individual. (Normal daily rate ranges from .5 to 1.5 liters.) Eccrine sweat is clear and odorless; any odor is only created by the presence of bacteria. One of its chief functions is to cool the body by evaporation, although there are also eccrine glands on the palms of your hands and soles of your feet which react to emotional stimuli.

A third kind of sweat, called insensible perspiration, originates inside and works its way through blood and other cells to the surface of the skin. Even without a sweat bath, approximately a liter of insensible perspiration evaporates each day.

Sweat also has the function of being a judicious garbage collector. During a 15-minute sauna, sweating can perform the heavy metal excretion that would take the kidneys 24 working hours. Ninety-nine percent of what sweat brings to the surface of the skin is water, but the remaining one percent is mostly undesirable wastes. Excessive salt carried by sweat is generally believed to be beneficial for cases of mild hypertension.

Sauna Effects on Health

Artificial fever. The logic behind the health benefits of having a sauna, is that sitting in a heated sauna would simulate an artificial "fever" and in so doing stimulate the immune response of the body to be activated, which in turn would speed up the production of white blood cells - some studies have shown a remarkable increase during "artificial fevers". It furthermore is supposed to help the production of interferon in the body. Interferon is an anti-viral protein that has powerful cancer fighting properties.
Blood pressure. One cardiologist is quoted as saying “If you can walk to the sauna, you can use the sauna”. If circulation problems are severe enough to restrict mobility you need to be very cautious about using a sauna, otherwise it’s probably OK. There is quite a bit of evidence that one sauna benefit is the effect it has on your heart. Blood pressure is lowered and your heart gets a gently workout due to increased heart rate. This is only a temporary effect. Since blood pressure is lowered you need to be careful of sudden movement in the sauna. When lying down be sure to get up gradually to avoid that light headed feeling and the chance of falling.
Toxins Removal. Since a sauna also speeds up the chemical processes in the body, it is also a favorite way to help clear the body of accumulated toxins. Not only does it speed up the body processes, but also perks up the working of the skin, which as the largest organ is important for waste removal, and in so doing stimulates the process to sweat, and helps remove waste products. It is with this same logic that body-wraps are used. While having a sweat session, your body will also require more oxygen, and an increase of up to 20 percent is reported, and with this greater demand on the lungs more wastes can be expelled by them.
Cold and Flu Prevention. People that feel a cold or flu starting, have reported that they can ward off the manifestation of the actual symptoms by taking sauna baths.
Immune System. The temperature during a sauna increases the skin temperature by about 10 degrees Celsius and the body temperature by about 3 degrees Celsius - the "artificial fever", which many alternative practitioners believe helps to kill off unwanted bacteria and viruses, plus gets the body to move its immune system into a higher gear.
Muscles Relaxation. Traditional wisdom is that muscle soreness after a workout comes from excess lactic acid. More recent evidence indicates that it is more likely due to microscopically torn and swollen muscle cells. Whichever the case, a sauna will help relax the muscles and ease the soreness. The process of sweating helps rid the muscles of excess lactic acid. Dilated blood vessels increase the flow of oxygen to muscles, reduces swelling and aids in the repair of tears. But remember to first wait awhile after exercising and to have a cool shower before entering the sauna.
Burn Calories. Sauna will help you to burn calories as well. A dry heat sauna really causes your sweat glands to work, which uses up calories and uses up energy. Research has proven that users of a dry heat sauna can burn more than 300 calories in a dry heat sauna session.
Skin Treatment. There is no better treatment for the skin than a sauna. This is a way to clean and rejuvenate your largest organ from the inside out. The skin is meant to be a pathway for the elimination of toxins and waste material from your body. Creams, deodorants, oils, dead skin cells, etc. will clog skin pores and lock waste in. Skin conditions like acne, pimples and blackheads can be caused by clogged and infected pores. Heat from a sauna opens the pores and sweat will flushes out the toxins. The newly cleaned out pores have a long lasting effect on the ability of your skin to function. Dilated blood vessels increase the flow of oxygen and fluids to skin cells. Cleansing eliminates dead skin cells and other material exposing a new layer of fresh, clean, health cells. Your skin not only looks and feels younger, it will also function more efficiently.
Relaxation. It’s great to have a mental escape from the day-to-day grind. This alone is enough to improve your outlook on life but there is more to the story than that. Endorphins, feel-good chemicals in the brain, are released due to the increase in cardiovascular activity. This combination would give anybody a positive attitude adjustment for the day.

Safety Precautions

If you never practiced dry sauna before, you are not sure if your health conditions permit you to try it, you are on active medications, we do recommend consulting your primary physician first. Note that you need to specifically avoid medications that may impair sweating and produce overheating before and after your sauna.
It is also recommended to people that have elevated blood pressure not to have a sauna before checking the advisability with their medical practitioner. Other people who shouldn’t take up sauna bathing before speaking with a qualified health professional include individuals with heart conditions, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, or respiratory ailments.
Start slow, get in for short session first and continuously listen to your body. Sauna is not a punishment, and you have to learn enjoying it.
DO NOT take alcohol or any types of drugs before, in, and immediately after sauna. The combination of two, generally pleasant things, may lead to unpredictable, mostly highly unpleasant, or even dangerous consequences.
Before sauna, heavy and large meals, that will require large amounts of blood for digestion, are not recommended. A light meal is a far better idea. After a large meal, just wait at least several hours before venturing into the sauna.
Take off your glasses, jewelry, other metal objects and most or all of your clothes before taking a sauna. Note that any clothing will simply decrease the effectiveness of your sauna bath and impact your own comfort. Nude procedure is highly recommended, but if the circumstances do not allow that, wear as little clothes as possible. However, if your hair is sensitive to heat, wear a hat, towel, or turban, to decrease the over-drying effect. The intense heat can dry out the hair shafts, causing hair to be brittle and possibly break off.
Don’t stay in much more than 20 minutes at a time. If you wish to return to the sauna, allow a suitable rest period of at least 10 minutes.
Drink water before, in, and after a sauna to prevent dehydration.
Leave the sauna immediately if you feel light headed or ill. Trust your instincts. If you begin to feel overly tired, dizzy, and nauseous or just begin to feel odd, it's time to step out of the sauna back into fresh air and take a break from it.
After you’ve completed your sauna bath, don’t get dressed too quickly. Allow your body about 20 minutes to return to its normal temperature. You can put your clothes on at the end of this brief cool-down period.
A warm shower before you head into your sauna will help wash oil and dirt off your body. You can also hop into your shower throughout your sauna session to help you cool down when necessary. Alternatively, a jump in a swimming pool or a roll in the snow can accomplish the same result. Be sure, though, to take a shower after you finish your sauna session, as doing so will help wash off your perspiration as well as any toxins that have risen to the surface of your skin.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://saunascape.com/2011/10/what-is-a-sauna/

http://betterbodysystem.org/articledirectory/?benefits-of-spa-what-you-should-learn-about-going-201

http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/sauna_health_benefits

http://www.essentialoils.co.za/sauna.htm

http://www.the-home-sauna-center.com/sauna-benefits.html

http://cyberbohemia.com/Pages/saunahealth.htm

http://www.greatsaunas.com/info/10Tips-ultimate-sauna-bath.cfm

RetirePilot for iPhone

2012-01-15T23:43:00.000-08:00

WealthDefender's RetirePilot offers a comprehensive and powerful enterprise class retirement planning analytics package in iPhone app format. It allows you to enter retirement-relevant personal information and goals, and add your current investment allocations by asset category on the Profile page. After launching this app, it asks the users for a few basic details such as Date of Birth, Retirement Savings, Current Annual Income, Current Annual Spending, Expected Retirement Age and Retirement Spending.

After the input of all required information, you can follow two options: analyzing the current status of your retirement savings, or get recommendations on how to optimize the allocation to reach your retirements goals.

When you choose the "None" option on the Optimize page and select Analyze, the app simply quantifies the probability of successfully fulfillment of your financial retirement expectations. If this probability of success is too low for comfort, you can ask RetirePilot to calculate an adjustment to any of the following to bring your probability of success up to any level you specify: Asset Allocation, Initial Investment Balance, Pre-Retirement Income, Pre-Retirement Spending, Retirement Spending, Retirement Income, or Retirement Age. By selecting Analyze, you can see how these would need to be adjusted in order to meet retirement goals.

Screenshots:

System requirements:

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Internet connection is required for the apps to work.

Cost: Free

Developers’ website: http://www.levineservices.com

iTunes site: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retirepilot/id471913170?mt=8

About Developer - Levine Services, LCC:

The principal has been designing and implementing risk and finance optimization software solutions for over 20 years. His expertise includes investment and portfolio optimization, risk management, trading systems, and technology delivery. Dr. Levine has published three finance books and is working on a fourth. He holds Doctorate of Finance, Postgraduate Diploma, Masters of Business Administration, and Bachelor of Science Economics degrees from University of California-Berkeley, SMC University, Baruch College, and New York University.

RetirePlan for iPad

2012-01-06T21:07:00.000-08:00

While there is a strong competition on the software market for iPhone platform, and there are multiple applications available for the retirement planning, one of the most usable and bold app, regarded by many users, is RetirePlan, developed by Katherine Philip. The graphs, spreadsheets and email capability increase the usability of the application. The application is free for all users.

RetirePlan will help you to answer the most important retirement related questions, and among them:

When can I Retire?
How much do I need to save every year?
How much money will I get every year in my retirement?
How long will my money hold out in my retirement?

In just a few seconds, you can enter your data and related assumptions, and the graph will update to show you if your retirement plan will work. If you have more time to spend, you can enter as much detail as you want to refine your plan to the very details.

The sliders give you an easy way to see what different values will do to your plan. Need to enter a value outside the slider range? Just press the amount and a calculator will pop up to let you enter whatever number you need. The slider range will update automatically.

Bring up the spreadsheet to see all the details for every year of the plan.

Email your results.

Use the settings to add your spouse, include or remove Social Security, and show or hide inflation and interest rates.

Use the + button to add a pension, send a child to college, large upcoming expenses, add additional rates of return and retirement income assumptions.

Reviewing the application, Wealth Building Course highlights the following positive and negative traits of the utility:

Pros:

Easy to enter data, results are based on assumptions, sliders help users determine how different values will affect your retirement plan, spreadsheets include details for every year of the plan, email capability, capable of adding a spouse, pension, college, Social Security or inflation, excellent graphics, ability to add different rates of return or retirement assumptions.

Cons:

No Excel spreadsheet capability, no ability to toggle between charts listing current dollar value and how inflation affects retirement savings, no ability to determine how a market crash would affect the retirement value.

Screenshots:

Cost: Free

Requirements: Compatible with iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.

Web site: http://sites.google.com/site/retireplanapp/

iTunes site: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retireplan/id435739013?mt=8

Retire Logix - Interactive Retirement Planning App for iPhone

2011-12-29T20:48:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of 2011, Finance Logix has introduced an interactive retirement planning application for iPhone called Retire Logix. The app has been designed with touch screen navigation in mind offering a forecast of an individual’s retirement situation through innovative sliders and charts.

Users of Retire Logix can easily change assumptions, including annual retirement spending, retirement age, social security contributions, asset values, inflation and other inputs via the “Money Capsule” visual display and “Retirement Timeline” charts.

These create a simple retirement projection displayed dynamically.

“As individual investors increasingly are using mobile devices and touch-screen technology for their everyday interactions, creating native financial planning applications for the iPhone will help them simply and easily plan for their financial futures,” said Oleg Tishkevich, CEO and founder of Finance Logix. “As a nation, we are not prepared for retirement,” Tishkevich added.

“To help solve this major issue, we believe that mobile technology can help communicate in a simple way how financial planning concepts can help people prepare for retirement and encourage them to work with financial planning professionals to take ownership of their financial future,” the CEO noted.

Available as a free download from the iTunes App Store, Retire Logix is free to use for current Finance Logix financial advisor clients at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/retire-logix/id423876928?mt=8.

The app requires iOS 4.2 or later, and works with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Finance Logix said that institutions and advisors working side by side with the company would be able to make the application available to their individual clients. Any data that the investor inputs into the application can be uploaded into the Finance Logix client portal.

Finance Logix strongly believes that the ability to empower clients with innovative financial planning tools will help advisors better manage their relationships.

Money Magazine has named Retire Logix to its “100 Best Money Moves”. Thousands of financial ideas are reviewed by the editors at Money Magazine every year and narrowed to the 100 Best Money Moves, an annual guide to “...the best and timeliest investments, deals, products and strategies that will help individuals make smarter financial decisions.” Retire Logix, the only financial planning application named to the 100 Best Money Moves list, has been specifically designed for the intuitive touch screen navigation of the iPhone.

About Finance Logix

Finance Logix is an innovative technology firm that provides customized end-to-end financial planning and client management solutions for leading financial services institutions and independent advisors. Since 1998, Finance Logix has created financial planning technology with the vision that users would be able to easily identify client requirements and needs, quantify future goals, and return the most highly customizable, realistic, and achievable plan of action. Finance Logix is the result of extensive research and insights into what the financial services industry requires to market and deliver consistent, accurate, personalized financial advice.

Finance Logix products are developed using a customer centric architecture that emphasizes client acquisition and retention. The Finance Logix suite of products is designed to provide the appropriate financial modeling sophistication and complexity in a client facing, intuitive platform. Finance Logix product line includes a retirement and in-retirement module as well as an asset allocation module.

Single User License Cost Monthly: US$ 95.00

Sources and Additional Information:

https://www.financelogix.com/NewsArticles/RetireLogixNewiPhoneApp.aspx

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Retire-Logix-Interactive-Retirement-Planning-App-for-iPhone-189670.shtml

Should mortgage be paid in full before retirement starts?

2011-12-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

Last week, we were able to refinance our house for pretty attractive interest rate, and we face the 30 years of payments ahead again, as we just started. Conventional wisdom says that lower interest on your loan is better, especially if the loan is a big as mortgage usually is. Simple calculation will show you that you are saving tens of thousands, and there is quite unclear if such low interest will ever be on the real estate market again. May be yes, may be no. In any case, if the interest drop is significant, reasonable fees you pay for refinancing are justified.

But refinancing is not the main topic for this post. I would like to discuss with you if the mortgage should be paid earlier if possible by writing each month a check which is bigger than your required minimum payment. There is no straightforward answer, as it all depends on the amount of payment, income, your ways to spend money, your lifestyle, your retirement plans, and more other circumstances. But, we will try to bring together some related considerations for you to decide.

First of all, start viewing on your monthly mortgage bill not only as inevitable evil, but also as your savings. For most people, a mortgage is the biggest monthly bill. Although few realize it at first, their mortgage also represents one of their biggest savings each month. Since a part - a growing part - of every mortgage payment represents the repayment of principal, part of that big monthly bill is actually savings. At the end of the typical 30-year mortgage, you'll own your home free and clear. Depending on what happens to the value of your home over that time, you might find yourself with quite an asset.

Reasons Why Paying Off the Mortgage Early Is a Good Idea

There are a lot of people who think that paying off your mortgage early is a great idea and there is some valid reasoning both financial and psychological to support this approach. Yes, there is a psychological aspect of money that differs for each person. Money isn’t all about math for most individuals. Some are good at separating emotion from money and treating their finances as a business with little emotional attachment, but that’s not common in my experience. For some people, eliminating debt is preferred over maximizing money. For one, less or no debt can reduce stress, which improves your health.

Here are some of the reasons they give for paying extra:

Paying less interest on the mortgage: When you pay extra on your mortgage principal it ends up meaning you’ll shave months or years off of your mortgage, and you’ll save thousands of dollars in interest. For example, on a 300,000 dollar mortgage over 30 years, with an interest rate of 5%, you’ll end up paying over 309,000 in interest. Cut that to a 15 year mortgage and you’re only paying 143,000 in interest. Cutting the payment term in half leads to significantly higher monthly payments, so that is out of question to many consumers, especially if the mortgage amount is high. However, even small additional sum you add to your check will cause direct deduction of your principle leading to the faster mortgage pay rate, and lowering the amount of total interest you’ll have to send to the mortgage company!
Less risk, more peace of mind: With less debt on your balance sheet, you have less risk in your life. You’ll have less to worry about when your only bills are food, taxes and other necessities. Add to that having the burden of debt removed from your shoulders. The psychological benefit of being free of debt isn’t to be underestimated. And speaking about retirement coming, think if will you be able to pay the same amount after retirement, as you are paying from your monthly paycheck. And what if you will get unemployed in your pre-retirement years, when finding a new good-paid job, or any job will be much more challenging due to your age?
More freedom: When you don’t have a mortgage payment when you retired you’ll have more freedom. Don’t want to take any job at retirement to meet your financial obligation, do not want to count on your grown-up kids’ financial help – you don’t have to because your monthly debt obligations are next to zero. Instead do something you love! You can afford it! You may be able even to help your kids yourself, if you want to.
Eliminating debt is a sure thing: While investing in the stock market isn’t a sure thing -having a paid off house you can live in IS.
Extra money to save, invest and give: When you have a paid off mortgage you’ll have a lot more money left over every month that you can use to save invest and give. Can you imagine how fast your nest egg would grow if you had no debt obligations - including a mortgage?
More equity on hand: Paying off your mortgage means you’ll have more equity in your house, which could lead to a bigger reverse mortgage (a way for the 62-and-older crowd to turn their home equity into lump-sum or lifetime income, if needed).

The benefit of having a paid off mortgage can’t be understated. With no mortgage, and no other debts you’ll be free to pursue things that you enjoy. You’ll be able to work less doing things you enjoy. You can take the money you’ve saved in interest and build wealth.

Reasons Why and When You Don’t Want To Pay the Mortgage Off Early

There are those that say that while it’s a nice idea to pay your mortgage off early, there are reasons why you shouldn’t.

Liquidity of your assets and flexibility: One argument against paying off the mortgage is the idea that putting all your extra cash into your mortgage means you’re going to have a lot less liquidity in your assets, and if a situation is to arise where you needed money fast, your money would be all tied up in your house. This is very important and valid argument, and the reason why you need to have certain emergency fund, from which money can be pulled out anytime if needed.
Higher returns by investing your money: Many people argue that you would get higher returns on your money if you simply invest it. If you can get 7-8% on your money, you will end up coming out ahead. On the other hand, there is risk with investing as well, and there aren’t guarantees. Ben Stein advises: “Generally speaking, if you have a very low mortgage rate, it is better to invest the money than to pay off your mortgage. It's an interesting fact - the rate of return on your mortgage is the interest you're paying on it. If you have a 6 percent mortgage and you're paying it off, you're earning 6 percent. If you can earn more than 6 percent in the stock market, you should probably put it in the stock market. But, on the other hand, pay it off in an expeditious way. It's good to have it paid off, or at least mostly paid off, by retirement time”.
You miss your employer’s company match to your workplace retirement plan. If, for example, your employer matches you dollar-for-dollar on the first three percent of your contributions to your 401(k) plan, then you’re throwing away free money, if you decided to stop contribution to the plan in favor of making extra mortgage payments. If our employer matches even half that amount, then you’re still passing on a sure-fire 50% return on your money. Opportunities like that don’t come up too often. Take advantage of them when you can.

You have other debt that accrues at a higher interest rate than your home loan. It definitely makes no sense to pay off a mortgage at the moment when you are carrying credit card debt at a higher interest rate. When you pay off a credit card with a 15% interest rate, for example, then every dollar of debt you pay off earns you an instant 15% return. Simple calculation helps to understand that the high interest loans should be paid first.
You owe significantly more on your house than it is currently worth. If your mortgage is upside down, the fact is you are more susceptible to foreclosure if you lose your job or suffer some other hardship that prevents you from making your payments.

Inflation works for you: As inflation goes up by 3-4% annually, by not paying off the mortgage and paying it over time, you’re essentially paying less for the same amount of house every year. You pay the same today to live in the house that you do 30 years from now.
Tax deduction: You can deduct the interest you pay on your mortgage, on your taxes. However, keep in mind that the true tax benefit is limited to the extent that your itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction, which in 2010 is $5,700 for single taxpayers and $11,400 for married taxpayers; those age 65 or older get an additional $1,400 (if single) or $1,100 (if married) deduction each. Also, mortgage payments progressively consist of more principal and less interest. Thus, the amount you can deduct declines each year. The bottom line: The mortgage-interest deduction can be valuable, but don’t overestimate it.

Summary

While there are multiple considerations as whether pay or not the mortgage early, I personally adapted several rules, which work for me and my family:

The mortgage should be paid in full by the retirement age, or even earlier for at least couple of years.
Do not put all eggs in one basket: try to get multiple assets in your retirement portfolio, and closer you get to the retirement age, less risky it should be.
The highest interest loans should be paid first.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://retireplan.about.com/od/howtobegin/a/Is-Paying-Your-Mortgage-Like-Saving-For-Retirement.htm

http://www.biblemoneymatters.com/should-i-pay-off-my-home-mortgage-early-or-invest/

http://lenpenzo.com/blog/id1131-12-good-reasons-why-you-should-and-should-not-pay-off-your-mortgage-early.html

http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/ben-stein-invest-or-pay-off-mortgage/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/12/01/should-you-pay-off-your-mortgage-early/

15 reasons why listening music is key to healthy lifestyle?

2011-12-04T11:12:00.001-08:00

Why listening music brings positive emotions?

There's no doubt that listening to your favorites music can instantly put you in a good mood. It can be considered in some way as a core function in our brain. Yes, our brains are wired from the beginning to process and understand music. Yet music has always been sort of a mystery, especially since it's not typically considered "necessary" for survival, as it is not part of the “the must” trio food, sex, and sleep.

However, when we satisfy our desire to eat, to sleep, or reproduce, our brain releases dopamine-- the "feel good" neuro-chemical involved when we experience pleasure and reward. The recent study, conducted by researchers at McGill University in Canada, revealed a surprising fact that the same chemical is released when listening to music.

From an academic standpoint, this is a fascinating study. According to the researchers, this may be the first study to show that an abstract reward such as listening to music - as opposed to a tangible reward such as eating and sleeping - releases dopamine. We've traditionally considered abstract rewards to be processed on a more cognitive level, but this study shows that our ancient reward circuits can be involved.

Additionally, it points to a shared neural network involving tangible and abstract rewards. We already know that skills such as speech production use shared neural networks to those used to sing. This study shows a similar relationship, demonstrating shared neural circuitry involving how our reward circuits process tangible and abstract rewards.

From a practical standpoint, this will not affect your average day-to-day listening. Just know that, when you experience an emotion while listening to music, ancient reward circuits are flooding your brain with a chemical designed to make you feel good.

Health Benefits of Music

Multiple scientific researchers have also proved that music can do more for you than just lift your spirits. It is absolutely clear that it has plenty of health benefits. For example, a fresh research from Austria has found that listening to music can help patients with chronic back pain. Another recent survey by Mind - the mental health charity - found that after counseling, patients found group therapy such as art and music therapy, the most useful.

Here, we are going to review several proven ways on how listening music may positively affect your health and general wellbeing.

1. Effective Therapy for Pain

Overall, music does have positive effects on pain management. Music can help reduce both the sensation and distress of both chronic pain and postoperative pain. Listening to music can reduce chronic pain from a range of painful conditions, including osteoarthritis, disc problems and rheumatoid arthritis, by up to 21% and depression by up to 25%, according to a paper in the latest UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Music therapy is increasingly used in hospitals to reduce the need for medication during childbirth, to decrease postoperative pain and complement the use of anesthesia during surgery.

There are several theories about how music positively affects perceived pain:

· Music serves as a distracter.
· Music may give the patient a sense of control.
· Music causes the body to release endorphins to counteract pain.
· Slow music relaxes person by slowing their breathing and heartbeat.

One of the popular theories elaborates that music works on the autonomic nervous system - the part of the nervous system responsible for controlling our blood pressure, heartbeat and brain function - and also the limbic system - the part of the brain that controls feelings and emotions. According to one piece of research, both these systems react sensitively to music.

When slow rhythms are played, our blood pressure and heartbeat slow down which helps us breathe more slowly, thus reducing muscle tension in our neck, shoulders, stomach and back. And experts say that apart from physical tension, music also reduces psychological tension in our mind.

In other words when we feel pain, we become frightened, frustrated and angry which makes us tense up hundreds of muscles in our back. Listening to music on a regular basis helps our bodies relax physically and mentally, thus helping to relieve - and prevent – for example, back pain.

Clinical psychologist Franz Wendtner who led one of the related recent studies in Austria's General Hospital of Salzburg says: “Music is an important part of our physical and emotional wellbeing - ever since we were babies in our mother's womb listening to her heartbeat and breathing rhythms. Listening to music for about 25 minutes every day for at least ten days can help prevent back pain and also make you sleep better.”

Which type of music is best? Experts believe any type of classical music such as Mozart or Beethoven can help relieve muscle pain. Calm, slow music is also thought to help.

2. Reducing blood pressure

By playing recordings of relaxing music every morning and evening, people with high blood pressure can train themselves to lower their blood pressure - and keep it low. According to research reported at the American Society of Hypertension meeting in New Orleans, listening to just 30 minutes of classical, Celtic or raga music every day may significantly reduce high blood pressure.

3. Medicine for the heart

Music is good for your heart. Research shows that it is musical tempo, rather than style. Italian and British researchers recruited young men and women, half of whom were trained musicians. The participants slipped on head phones and listened to six styles of music, including rap and classical pieces, with random two-minute pauses. As the participants kicked back and listened, the researchers monitored their breathing, heart rates and blood pressure. The participants had faster heart and breathing rates when they listened to lively music. When the musical slowed, so did their heart and breathing rates. Some results were surprising. During the musical pauses, heart and breathing rates normalized or reached more optimal levels. Whether or not a person liked the style of music did not matter. The tempo, or pace, of the music had the greatest effect on relaxation.

Research presented at the 2009 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona, Spain suggests that music therapy is effective not only at treating, but also preventing the heart-related events, including the lethal cases of sudden death. All of the patients in the study had heart issues serious enough to necessitate revascularization, a surgical procedure designed to restore blood flow where it has been compromised or limited. That meant they were at risk for a future coronary event not only because of their heart health status, but also because the fear of a potential repeat surgery likely increased their stress and anxiety, which is never good for the heart.

And what type of music did the patients listen to during the study? Classical music appeared to be the general preference, but the lead author of the study emphasizes that music therapy may actually have a negative effect if patients are forced to listen to music they don’t like, suggesting that the type of music (within reason) is not as important as whether you enjoy listening to it and how it affects your overall mood and stress levels.

4. Speeds Post-Stroke Recovery

A daily dose of one's favorite pop melodies, classical music or jazz can speed recovery from debilitating strokes, according to the latest research. When stroke patients in Finland listened to music for a couple of hours each day, verbal memory and attention span improved significantly compared to patients who received no musical stimulation, or who listened only to stories read out loud, the study reports.

5. Chronic headaches & migraine remedy

Music can help migraine and chronic headache sufferers reduce the intensity, frequency, and duration of the headaches.

6. Music boosts immunity

Music can boost the immune function. Scientists explain that a particular type of music can create a positive and profound emotional experience, which leads to secretion of immune-boosting hormones. This helps contribute to a reduction in the factors responsible for illness. Listening to music or singing can also decrease levels of stress-related hormone cortisol. Higher levels of cortisol can lead to a decreased immune response.

7. Music improves memory performance

The power of music to affect memory is quite intriguing. Mozart's music and baroque music, with a 60 beats per minute beat pattern, activates the left and right brain. The simultaneous left and right brain action maximizes learning and retention of information. The information being studied activates the left brain while the music activates the right brain. Also, activities which engage both sides of the brain at the same time, such as playing an instrument or singing, cause the brain to be more capable of processing information.

Listening to music facilitates the recall of information. Researchers have shown that certain types of music are a great "keys" for recalling memories. Information learned while listening to a particular song can often be recalled simply by "playing" the songs mentally.

That is why, music listening especially is helpful for medical conditions, associated with memory loss and impairment. For many people suffering from memory loss the spoken language has become meaningless. Music can help patients remember tunes or songs and get in touch with their history. This is because the part of the brain which processes music is located next to memory.

Researchers from Norway's Sogn Og Fjordane College compared the effects of live, taped and no music on three different groups of people suffering from post traumatic amnesia - or memory loss. The patients were exposed to all three conditions, twice over six consecutive days. Results showed that when patients listened to live or taped music, two thirds of them showed significantly reduced symptoms of anxiety and enhanced orientation, compared to the group that didn't listen to music.

8. Music improves concentration and attention

Easy listening music or relaxing classics improves the duration and intensity of concentration in all age groups and ability levels. It's not clear what type of music is better, or what kind of musical structure is necessary to help, but many studies have shown significant effects.

9. Music improves physical exercises effectiveness

Experts say listening to music during exercise can give you a better workout in several ways. Scientists claim it can increase your endurance, boost your mood and can distract you from any discomfort experienced during your workout.

The research: Dr Robert Herdegen of America's Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, looked at the effects of 12 men riding a bicycle for ten minutes while listening to music on one day. He compared it to the same men riding bicycles without music for ten minutes the following day. On the days that the men exercised listening to music, they travelled 11 per cent further - compared to the days they didn't listen to music. Researchers also found that the men's levels of exertion were at their lowest when listening to music.

Other studies show that listening to music releases endorphins - our natural 'feel good' hormones that lift our mood and give us motivation to carry on longer with exercise. The best type of music for exercise is thought to be high energy, high tempo music such as hip hop or dance music.

10. Music improves body movement and coordination

Music reduces muscle tension and improves body movement and coordination. Music may play an important role in developing, maintaining and restoring physical functioning in the rehabilitation of persons with movement disorders.

11. Fatigue fighter

Listening to upbeat music can be a great way to find some extra energy. Music can effectively eliminate exercise-induced fatigue and fatigue symptoms caused by monotonous work or household related activities.

Keep in mind that listening to too much pop and hard rock music can make you more jittery than energized. Vary what you listen to and find out what type of music is most beneficial for you. You could try classical music one day, pop the next day and jazz the third.

12. Relaxing music induces sleep

Relaxing classical music is safe, cheap and easy way to beat insomnia. Many people who suffer from insomnia find that Bach music helps them. Relaxing music reduces sympathetic nervous system activity, decreases anxiety, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate and may have positive effects on sleep via muscle relaxation and distraction from thoughts.

Researchers have shown just 45 minutes of relaxing music before bedtime can make for a restful night. The Taiwanese researchers studied the sleeping patterns of 60 elderly people with sleep problems. They told the Journal of Advanced Nursing, how the technique was easy to learn and lacked the side-effects of other treatments. The study participants were either given a choice of music to listen to before going to sleep or nothing at all. The music group were able to choose from six tapes that featured soft, slow music - around 60-80 beats per minute - such as jazz, folk or orchestral pieces. Listening to music caused physical changes that aided restful sleep, including a lower heart and respiratory rate, the researchers found. The people in the music group reported a 35% improvement in their sleep, including better and longer night-time sleep and less dysfunction during the day.

According to another study from University of Toronto, Canada, a wide range of classical music assists insomniacs to sleep. Handel's "Water Music," Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," Brahms "Lullaby," Mozart's "Baroque Music," Debussy's "Arabesque #1" and Strauss's "Waltzes" are among the most successful pieces used in the treatment of insomnia. However, J.S. Bach's "Cello Suites" or his "Goldberg Variations," the latter literally written for a nobleman who had difficulty sleeping, are perhaps the apex of serene and soporific melodies.

There's even a CD of violin and harp music by Gidon Kramer and Yaoko Noshino called "Insomnia." Released by Philips in 2000, this recording contains tunes by Satie, Strauss and Cage, among others, all designed to lure the insomniac into sweet dreamland.

13. Music reduces stress and aids relaxation

Listening to slow, quiet classical music, is proven to reduce stress. Countless studies have shown that music's relaxing effects can be seen on anyone, including newborns. One of the great benefits of music as a stress reliever is that it can be used while you do your usual deeds so that it really doesn't take time.

How does music reduce stress?

· Physical relaxation. Music can promote relaxation of tense muscles, enabling you to easily release some of the tension you carry from a stressful day.

· Aids in stress relief activities. Music can help you get "into the zone" when practicing yoga, self hypnosis or guided imagery, can help you feel energized when exercising and recover after exercising, help dissolve the stress when you're soaking in the tub.

· Reduces negative emotions. Music, especially upbeat tunes, can take your mind off what stresses you, and help you feel more optimistic and positive. This helps release stress and can even help you keep from getting as stressed over life's little frustrations in the future. Researchers discovered that music can decrease the amount of the cortisol, a stress-related hormone produced by the body in response to stress.

14. Music improves mood and decreases depression

Music is one of the best relaxation therapies in today’s times of depression. The stress-buster effects of soothing music are well known but in many cases it has also been observed that the time taken in healing process reduces miraculously due to music.

If you are in a sad-depressed mood and you listen to a sad song, the feeling is bound to get on your nerves and you are bound to either feel better or start feeling bad. The mood swings are also affected to a good extent with the musical effects. Ask a person in love how he/she feels while listen to a sweet romantic song and you would get ample indication about the magic effects of music. It is an excellent way to lift the spirit, to reduce anxiety, develop a sense of well being and to promote a feeling of peacefulness. Also whenever our mind is tense and body tired up, music acts as a perfect method to calm down the state of mind and relax.

Music's ability to "heal the soul" is the stuff of legend in every culture. Many people find that music lifts their spirits. Modern research tends to confirm music's psychotherapeutic benefits. Bright, cheerful music (e.g. Mozart, Vivaldi, bluegrass, Klezmer, Salsa, reggae) is the most obvious prescription for the blues.

As it turns out, performing music can be relaxing and can create a distraction from withdrawal symptoms; songwriting can help patients confront impulse control and self-deception and allows an output for negative emotions; hence the entire songbook of Raffi.

15. Music helps to fight addiction

It has even been found that listening to music can help aid the detox stage of recovery from drug addiction, and if applied frequently could cut down on the number of pain-killers patients need.

Music directly affects chemicals called neurotransmitters which relay information in our head. Drugs work in a similar way, except they make your brain lazy and convince it to stop making its own chemicals. But when you stop taking drugs, your brain isn't making enough chemicals and it doesn't know why because it relies on those drugs to get enough, so your body fails to function correctly. Introducing music can increase levels of some chemicals associated with heavy addictions, like dopamine and norepinephrine.

Sources and Additional Information:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-137116/Why-listening-music-key-good-health.html

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-musical-self/201101/why-music-listening-makes-us-feel-good

http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml

http://waynejoseph.wordpress.com/2010/03/04/listen-to-music-for-good-heart-health/

http://catherineowen.suite101.com/how-classical-music-helps-cure-insomnia-a83634

http://www.healthcareveda.com/post/Health-Benefits-of-Listening-to-Music.aspx

http://www.cracked.com/article_18405_7-insane-ways-music-affects-body-according-to-science.html

Health Benefits of Cold Showers

2011-11-24T21:57:00.001-08:00

We all look for miracles. We all want to live and die healthy. We know that alternative medicine exists, but we do not trust it. When we are sick we go to the doctor.

But, there are sometimes amazing findings that can change your life with simple, easy to do, and powerful tricks. All people are different, and there are no solutions, which fit all. But if you are open to new discoveries, and you try, eventually you will find your keys to the happy and healthy life.

Gwendolyn Witherspoon, 54, of Baltimore, came across her stay-healthy secret—an icy shower—during a power outage. “I felt great afterward,” she says. A year later, she says her chilly regimen keeps her cold-free, her skin glowing, and her energy level higher than ever.

Surprise-Surprise

I am not sure how about you, but cold showers for me were associated with lack of the proper industrial infrastructure in one of the socialist countries I was born, when frequently during the winter, the hot water supply has been interrupted, and taking a shower became a problem.

While we are considering the older people well-being, cold is considered as enemy with no significant relation in what country they live.

British professor Keatinge has for many years been studying the increase in deaths in UK during the winter. He has shown that some 30,000 people in Britain die each winter as a result of exposure to cold. These are mostly older people who go outdoors wearing insufficient clothing during cold weather when they may, for example, have to wait in the cold at a bus stop.

So, what we are talking about? Voluntary taking unpleasant and dangerous for health cold showers for the elderly people? Yes, to my surprise, there is significant amount of the data, suggesting that the cold showers can be considered as one of the best anti-aging solutions, which came to the modern people through the ages. As you understand, the history of the heated water in the humankind scale is quite short.

Recent History

In the 1820s, a German farmer named Vincenz Priessnitz started touting a new medical treatment called “hydrotherapy,” which used cold water to cure everything from broken bones to erectile dysfunction. He turned his family’s homestead into a sanitarium, and patients flocked to it in the hope that his cold water cure could help them. Among his clientele were dukes, duchesses, counts, countesses, and a few princesses to boot.

Priessnitz’s hydrotherapy soon spread to the rest of Europe and eventually to the United States. Celebrities and other famous folks took to it, like, well, a duck to water and helped popularize the cold water cure with the masses. For example, Charles Darwin was a huge proponent of hydrotherapy. The first hydrotherapy facility opened up in the U.S in 1843, right when the sanitarium craze hit America. By the end of the 19th century, over 200 hydrotherapy/sanitarium resorts existed in the U.S., the most famous being the Battle Creek Sanitarium founded by John Harvey Kellogg.

The popularity of hydrotherapy began to decline in the 20th century as many in the medical field moved to drugs to treat illnesses. As doctors concentrated on conventional medicine, more holistic methods began to be seen as quackery. While hydrotherapy was prescribed less and less to cure illnesses, doctors continued to use it to treat injuries such as strained muscles and broken bones. You’ll find athletes today taking ice baths to speed their recovery from injuries and intense workouts.

How it works?

As the temperature of a human body drops below the level required for health, various reactions occur to protect the core--that is, the abdominal organs and brain--from damage, even at the expense of the extremities. The brain is literally insulated against extreme cold, and it will begin to suffer symptoms of damage only at the point of advanced hypothermia, long after muscular symptoms such as shivering first appear. This assumes that the core temperature is not dropping very rapidly, as when a person is submerged in cold water.

The average healthy temperature of a human body is 36.1 to 37.5° C, or 96.9 to 99.5° F. Hypothermia is defined as any temperature below 35° C or 96° F. This is the beginning of stage 1 hypothermia. Brain function becomes noticeably impaired only during stage 2, which begins at around 33°C or 93°F. The person may exhibit confusion. Many of the symptoms, which may appear as potentially neurological (including lack of coordination, stumbling and labored speech) are in fact muscular in nature. As part of the body's effort to protect the internal organs, the vasomotor response constricts blood vessels in and near the skin. Consequently, the individual’s hands, face, and legs lose function, although the brain is largely unaffected.

Temperature jolts to brain may have a similar effect as the phenomenon of homeopathy, whereby small doses of something harmful may actually promote healing by stimulating the body’s repair and recovery systems.

Therapeutic benefits of Cold Showers

Based on the multiple studies results, cold showers tout an impressive list of benefits, including:

Enhanced Immune Function. According to a study done in 1993 by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England, individuals who took daily cold showers saw an increase in the number of virus fighting white blood cells compared to individuals who took hot showers. Researchers believe that the increased metabolic rate, which results from the body’s attempt to warm itself up, activates the immune system and releases more white blood cells in response. Cold water therapy has been shown to increase levels not only white blood cells but also cytokines in the body - two key players for fighting disease, infection, and inflammation.
Improved Mood. Your skin has far more cold receptors than it does heat receptors. So when doused with cold water, your brain receives a surge of impulses so strong, that many scientists liken it to old-school electroshock therapy. This, in turn, triggers a release of mood-lifting endorphins, including noradrenaline, a neurotransmitter considered crucial for battling depression. Aside from boosting your mood and energy, cold showers are said to clear the aura, revitalize one’s chakras, and were used by samurai warriors to cleanse the spirit.
Rejuvenated Skin. Unlike hot water, cold water preserves your body’s natural oils, preventing dryness, protecting your skin, and helping your body regulate oil production. Cool water also closes and tightens your pores, constricts capillaries to reduce under-eye bags, and reduces inflammation. Finally, a free anti-aging technique!
Benefits Hair. Cold water seals your hair’s cuticles, making it stronger and shinier.
Increased Fertility in Men. We know that keeping the testes cool is crucial for fertility – that’s why testicles are located outside of the body. Not surprisingly, research shows that switching from hot showers to cool dramatically increases sperm count and mobility. Cold showers are also said to increase testosterone production in men.
Better Circulation. By increasing blood flow throughout the body, cold showers boost oxygenation of vital organs, work to strengthen the vascular system, and encourage detoxification.

Detoxification. Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.
Strengthening membranes. Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.

Precautions and Guidelines

As for all therapies, the precondition is “first, do no harm”. Following these guidelines will help you receive maximal benefit from cold water therapy and avoid adverse effects. If you have specific health conditions, please consult with your primary physician to ensure safe application of the new procedure.

When you exercise, you probably notice a point where you feel satisfied with your workout. Up to a point, exercising leaves us feeling energized throughout the day. But if overdone, it can cause persistent feelings of exhaustion and lethargy. Cold showers are the same way; a quick, cold shower should leave you feeling invigorated. But, too long and cold of a shower can leave one feeling chilled and sluggish. Always calibrate your application to invigorate, but not freeze yourself. Never force yourself to continue the procedure, if your body does not feel like it. In this case, longer does not mean more health benefits.
You do not want to overstress your system with excessively cold water. Sebastion Kneipp, one of the founders of naturopathic medicine, utilized water anywhere from 50 °F to 68 °F. However, note that a shower can feel colder than its actual temperature.
The proposed treatment procedure would last several weeks to several months. It would consist of one or two cold showers a day at 20 ° C (68 ° F) for 2 to 3 minutes, proceeded by a 5 minute gradual adaptation to lessen the shock.
Many practitioners recommend 2 or more cold showers a day. This is particularly essential if you are working on shifting a physical or emotional problem. The majority recommend at least 3 a day. First thing in the morning, when you get home from work and before you go to bed. Other therapists suggest that for some people cold shower and other water procedures y not be suitable immediately before bedtime and just after awakening. For these people, they are commended during the day, when the body is active. The reason is that cold water quickly affects the central nervous system, eliminating fatigue so these people will have difficulties to fall asleep.
Shower in cold water until your body temperature rises and no longer feels cold, but toasty and warm. Make sure the bathroom is heated. Never get out of a cold shower into a cold room.
If you find it difficult to start with the recommended procedure, start small and gradually work up to the recommended procedure duration of 2 minutes. Start with 15 – 30 seconds, and begin with your feet then move to your knees and legs. Gradually introduce the cold water to all parts of your body. Some practitioners say it’s not absolutely necessary to get your head wet, just your face and back of neck (an important energy location).
Little and often is far more effective than eight minutes at once. Be mindful if you are feeling weak, listen to your body and start with small steps.
If you are not healthy, try progressively splashing water onto the body, or just applying cold water to one body part. Those susceptible to heart attacks should know that cold water can exacerbate stress on the heart, much like heavy exercise, and could potentially trigger heart attack or stroke. Only a doctor can say whether cold showers are compatible with your particular physiology.

Cold showers are not recommended for men immediately after ejaculation. At the moment, the male body is focused on making new sperm cells and semen, so cold showers can be a bit too stressful.
One more potential restriction is related to the people with eating disorders and substantially underweight. This usually goes along with having a low body temperature and a general metabolic weakness which might prevent your body from generating enough heat to withstand the cold temperatures.
Cold showers may be dangerous immediately after a vigorous workout. It is better to start with hot and finish with cold to avoid muscle cramping.
If you use contrast shower (cold-warm-cold-warm…), always finish with cold water. In general, take shorter applications of colder water, and longer applications of warmer water. Again, use your body’s response as your gauge. You may need to work your way up to longer applications if just starting out. You can also adjust the duration to compensate for seasonal fluctuations in water temperature.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.naturecuresclinic.com/2011/09/the-health-benefits-of-cold-showers/

http://depressivedisorder.blogspot.com/2011/11/cold-showers-as-efficient-therapy-for.html

http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20411347,00.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/cold-showers-are-good-for-you--official-738026.html

http://www.cold-showers.com/precautions-and-guidelines/

Free Radical Theory of Aging

2011-11-15T20:18:00.001-08:00

"The perpetual but futile struggle of individual cells to stay alive and function normally, in the face of chemical disintegration - is the genesis of aging and all its consequences...Indeed, the free radical theory of aging is so big it encompasses virtually every disease you can think of that comes with increasing age. That, then, makes aging the primary and only disease most of us ever have to worry about. As Dr. Harman notes, we have pressed the life span about as far as it will go without attacking aging at its origin... Degenerative diseases such as cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and Alzheimer's are not separate and distinguishable entities. They are merely different forms of expression, influenced by genetics and environment, of the free radical aging process that has caught up with us. " ( Jean Carper, 1995).

What is Free Radical Theory of Aging?

The free-radical theory of aging (FRTA) states that organisms age because cells accumulate free radical damage over time. A free radical is any atom or molecule that has a single unpaired electron in an outer shell. While a few free radicals such as melanin are not chemically reactive, most biologically-relevant free radicals are highly reactive. For most biological structures, free radical damage is closely associated with oxidative damage. Antioxidants are reducing agents, and limit oxidative damage to biological structures by passivating free radicals.

History

This now very famous theory of aging was developed by Denham Harman MD at the University of Nebraska in 1956, when prevailing scientific opinion held that free radicals were too unstable to exist in biological systems, and before anybody had invoked free radicals as a cause of degenerative diseases. Two sources inspired Harman: 1) the rate of living theory, which holds that lifespan is an inverse function of metabolic rate. In turn, this is proportional to oxygen consumption, and 2) Rebbeca Gershman's observation that hyperbaric oxygen toxicity and radiation toxicity could be explained by the same underlying phenomenon: oxygen free radicals. Noting that radiation causes "mutation, cancer and aging" Harman argued that oxygen free radicals produced during normal respiration would cause cumulative damage which would eventually lead to loss of functionality of the organism, and ultimately death. In later years, the free radical theory was expanded to include not only aging per se, but also age related diseases.

How it Works?

The term free radical describes any molecule that has a free electron, and this property makes it react with healthy molecules in a destructive way. Because the free radical molecule has an extra electron it creates an extra negative charge. This unbalanced energy makes the free radical bind itself to another balanced molecule as it tries to steal electrons. In so doing, the balanced molecule becomes unbalanced and thus a free radical itself.

In biochemistry, the free radicals of interest are often referred to as reactive oxygen species (ROS) because the most biologically significant free radicals are oxygen-centered. But not all free radicals are ROS and not all ROS are free radicals. For example, the free radicals superoxide and hydroxyl radical are ROS, but the ROS hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is not a free radical species, however the term "free radical theory of aging" usually refers to these compounds as well.

It is known that diet, lifestyle, drugs (e.g. tobacco and alcohol) and radiation etc., are all accelerators of free radical production within the body.

However, there is also natural production of free-radicals within the body. This is the result of the production of energy, particularly from the mitochondria. The simple process of eating, drinking and breathing forms free-radicals from the energy production cycles, as the body produces the universal energy molecule Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). Note that oxygen is a potent free-radical producer.

Free radicals are known to attack the structure of cell membranes, which then create metabolic waste products. Such toxic accumulations interfere with cell communication, disturb DNA, RNA and protein synthesis, lower energy levels and generally impede vital chemical processes.

Yet we do not want to destroy all free radicals in our body as they are necessary for life. The body's ability to turn air and food into chemical energy depends on a chain reaction of free radicals. Free radicals are also a crucial part of the immune system, floating through the veins and attacking foreign invaders.

Hydrogen peroxide is a prime example of a free radical. Your blood actually contains trace amounts of hydrogen peroxide, an internal germ fighter. In fact, you could not fight bacteria without free radicals.

Antioxidants

Free radicals can however be transformed by free-radical scavengers (otherwise known as anti-oxidants). Particular anti-oxidants will bind to particular free radicals and help to stabilize them.

Actually, the human body produces essential antioxidant defenses internally. Enzymes that control free radicals include superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase, as well as other molecules such as cholesterol, steroid hormones and sulfur-containing amino acids that neutralize free radicals. It is also possible to choose many nutrients in both foods and supplements that help fight free radicals.

Free radicals come in a hierarchy (according to their potential for damage) with the hydroxyl-radical and the superoxide-radical at the top of the list. It is therefore necessary to take a cross-section of anti-oxidants in order for the process of elimination of the free radicals to occur, otherwise higher damage free radicals may be converted into a greater number of lower damage free radicals.

Most free radical protection involves eating a better diet, exercising, maintaining a clean environment both internally and externally, and reducing stress, in addition to taking dietary supplements.

Eating better means eating whole, organic foods whenever possible and avoiding processed foods and artificial chemicals used for preservation, coloring and flavoring. Exercising increases production of free radical-scavenging enzymes, which protect the body from the increased oxygen-related stress associated with a higher respiratory rate. A clean environment means avoiding excessive exposures to toxic air pollution, chemicals such as solvents and industrial waste that leach into water supplies, harsh cleaning and cosmetic chemicals, heavy metals, unnecessary medications, and pesticides. Pesticides can generate free radicals, and many also mimic hormones and can disrupt the normal hormonal balance. Stress increases the metabolic rate and alters hormonal balance, which also generates free radicals.

You can start taking dietary supplements, including powerful anti-oxidants as beta carotene, vitamin C, grape seed extract, vitamin E and possibly also stronger substances such as Hydergine, Melatonin and Vinpocetine. However, one of the main problems with the free radical theory is the failure of antioxidants administered as dietary supplements, like vitamins E and C, to significantly increase maximum lifespan. Proponents of the radical theory believe that dietary antioxidants, unlike natural antioxidants produced by cells, do not reach mitochondrial DNA, leaving this site susceptible to radical attack. Interestingly, even though supplemental antioxidants fail to increase maximum lifespan, they do increase the chances of living to the maximum lifespan. This may be due to antioxidant protection of other parts of the cell, like cellular proteins and membranes, from radical damage.

More than that, some recent studies tend to show that antioxidant therapy have no effect and can even increase mortality. Proponents of the theory claim that this phenomenon can be explained by hormesis: The addition of antioxidants can lead to a decrease of normal biological response to free radicals and lead to a more sensitive environment to oxidation. Furthermore, a recent study tracking the eating habits of 478,000 Europeans suggests that consuming lots of fruits and vegetables has little if any effect on preventing cancer.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.antiaging-systems.com/articles/160-theories-of-aging

http://www.stopagingnow.com/news/what_is_the_free_radical_theory

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-radical_theory

http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Free_Radical_Theory_of_Aging.html

http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/~wilkins/writing/Samples/shortmed/nelson/radicals.html

http://www.livescience.com/720-vitamin-mania-truth-antioxidants.html

Brian Walker Job Application

2011-11-06T01:31:00.000-07:00

There is no official confirmation on the facts, but there is still a god chance that the following story is a true one. The confidential document has leaked to Internet, most likely through one of the WikiLeaks channels. This job application was submitted by an elderly retired gentleman aged 74, to a national DIY retailer in Ipswich, Suffolk, UK. Word is that they have employed him. I would personally hire the guy for his fresh insight, non-traditional approach, and honesty.

The document is published as is, but the name of the applicant has been changed to protect the guy’s identity. I hope you do not mind. If you are a hiring manager, and would like to have this guy on board, do not bother, as he has been already hired.

NAME:

Brian Walker.

DESIRED POSITION:

Company's Chief Executive or Managing Director. But seriously, whatever's available. If I was in a position to be picky, I wouldn't be applying in the first place - would I?

DESIRED SALARY:

£150,000 [$295,000 USD] a year plus share options and a Tony Blair style redundancy package. If that's not possible, make an offer and we can haggle.

EDUCATION:

Yes.

LAST POSITION HELD:

Target for middle management hostility.

PREVIOUS SALARY:

A lot less than I'm worth.

MOST NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENT:

My incredible collection of stolen pens and post-it notes.

REASON FOR LEAVING:

It was a crap job.

HOURS AVAILABLE TO WORK:

Any.

PREFERRED HOURS:

1:30-3:30 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

DO YOU HAVE ANY SPECIAL SKILLS?:

Yes, but they're better suited to a more intimate environment.

MAY WE CONTACT YOUR CURRENT EMPLOYER?:

If I had one, would I be here?

DO YOU HAVE ANY PHYSICAL CONDITIONS THAT WOULD PROHIBIT YOU FROM LIFTING UP TO 50 lbs.?:

Of what?

DO YOU HAVE A CAR?:

I think the more appropriate question here would be 'Do you have a car that runs?'

HAVE YOU RECEIVED ANY SPECIAL AWARDS OR RECOGNITION?:

I may already be a winner of the Reader's Digest Timeshare Free Holiday Offer, so they tell me.

DO YOU SMOKE?:

On the job - no! On my breaks - yes!

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE DOING IN FIVE YEARS?:

Living in the Bahamas with a fabulously wealthy Swedish supermodel who thinks I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. Actually, I'd like to be doing that now.

NEAREST RELATIVE:

....7 miles

DO YOU CERTIFY THAT THE ABOVE IS TRUE AND COMPLETE TO THE BEST OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE?:

Oh yes, absolutely.

The Retirement Syndrome: The Psychology of Letting it Go

2011-10-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

This article by Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries analyzes a problem that can be described as the retirement syndrome. In exploring the difficulties many leaders face in letting go at the end of a full career, it reviews a number of the barriers to exit: financial, social, and psychological. It looks at the physical and psychological effects of aging, in the context of retirement; examines the experience of nothingness that single-minded careerists often feel after retirement; describes the talion principle, a subliminal fear of reprisals; and discusses the "edifice complex", the wish to leave behind a legacy. The article concludes with suggestions as to how individuals and organizations can develop more effective and humane disengagement strategies.

About Author

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership
and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Bringing to bear his knowledge and
experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, M.B.A., and
D.B.A., Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (Canadian Psychoanalytic
Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association), he scrutinizes the interface between
international management, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and dynamic psychiatry.

The Retirement Syndrom: The Psychology of Letting it Go

Why Choosing Biking as Retirement Hobby?

2011-10-17T22:48:00.000-07:00

Retirement should not be a stage in your life, when you disengage from all activities and slow down your lifestyle. An opposite, the time you spent in your office and other job place, you should use productively for emotional and physical self-growth and enjoyment. For those who are on the brink or those who have recently retired, retirement offers you the option of becoming fit and healthy through various outdoor activities such as hiking, running, biking and similar. Among those mentioned, biking offers one of the greatest chances of exploring simply because of the greater distance you can cover. You may already enjoy biking before the retirement, or you may discover it just with this transition.

While your most ambitious dreams to become a world-wide champion may not exactly come to fruition, you may still take up biking as a recreational activity to keep you up and going every single day. There are many Senior Olympic programs too…

Benefits of Biking

There are many health benefits that are associated with cycling. Let's look at a few of the major benefits:

Cycling is one of the easiest ways to exercise. You can ride a bicycle almost anywhere, at any time of the year, and without spending a fortune. Many people are put off doing certain sports because of the high level of skill that seems to be required, or perhaps because they can’t commit to a team sport due to time pressures. Most of us know how to cycle and once you have learned you don’t forget. All you need is a bike, a half an hour here or there when it suits, and a bit of confidence.
Cycling builds strength and muscle tone. Contrary to normal perceptions, cycling is not a fitness activity that solely involves the legs. Cycling builds strength in a holistic manner since every single part of the body is involved in cycling.
Cycling increases muscle tone. Cycling improves general muscle function gradually, with little risk of over exercise or strain. Regular cycling strengthens leg muscles and is great for the mobility of hip and knee joints. You will gradually begin to see an improvement in the muscle tone of your legs, thighs, rear end and hips.
Cycling builds stamina. Cycling is a good way to build stamina. It is very effective in doing so,
because people enjoy cycling and they wouldn’t really notice that they have gone farther the last time they went cycling.
Cycling improves cardio-vascular fitness. Cycling makes the heart pound in a steady manner and helps improve cardio-vascular fitness. Studies have shown that cycling to work will increase cardiovascular fitness by 3-7%. Cycling uses the largest muscle groups the legs, raising heart rate to benefit stamina and fitness.
Cycling eats up calories. Cycling is a good way to lose those unwanted pounds. Steady cycling burns approximately 300 calories per hour. If you cycle for 30 minutes every day you would burn 11 pounds of fat in a year. Since it helps build muscle, cycling will also boost your metabolic rate long after you’ve finished your ride.
Cycling improves heart health. According to the British Medical Association, cycling just 20 miles a week can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease by 50%. A major study of 10,000 civil servants suggested that those who cycled 20 miles over the period of a week were half as likely to suffer heart disease as their non-cycling colleagues.
Cycling improves coordination. Cycling is an activity that involves the whole body. Therefore, arm-to-leg, feet-to-hands and body-to-eye coordination are improved.
Cycling reduces stress. Any regular exercise can reduce stress and depression and improve well being and self esteem. Cycling outdoors is also a good way to be one with nature and to feel the breath of the earth. It takes one’s mind out of everyday-life stress and rejuvenates his soul.

Warnings

Many older people have impairments, such as reduced sight or hearing. Seniors are also more prone to suffer injuries in a fall, due to their brittle bones. Some have reduced cognitive skills, slower reaction times, balance problems or less physical strength and endurance. That is a sad reality, but knowing your limitations and playing around them you may enjoy riding bicycles for long and happy years.

Getting Started

To start off, you need to determine where your most likely route will be. Is it going to be on paved roads around town or national roads? Or are you still up to a challenge of a nature trail? Knowing what you want will help you determine the next step which is buying a bike for your chosen route.

In addition to choosing a bike, you must also take care to have the necessary biking gear. Although you can wear any comfortable clothes for biking, you may opt to take the next step and buy biking apparel should you want to become more aerodynamic. In addition, one gear you definitely must have is a helmet to protect your head should there be any accident. Next to a helmet, the second most important gears are the knee and elbow caps. This protects your joints from sustaining a greater damage in the incident of a bad fall. As for the other gears, it is up to you if you want to invest in more or stick with the basics.

When incorporating cycling into an over-all fitness program, there are many aspects to consider. Here are some important things to remember:

Consult your doctor. Most people can do cycling. However, it is still best to consult your doctor when thinking about incorporating a cycling activity into an overall fitness program. They shall advise you regarding your limits and capacities and what you should avoid doing. It is especially important if you have any known health issues, which can potentially get worse with this physical activity.
Cycling is a base training activity. Let’s say that the doctor says that there is nothing wrong with you engaging into cycling as a part of your overall fitness program, what do you do next? Remember that cycling should be considered as a base training activity. Base training activities are those, which provide endurance and aerobic training at the same time. Re-align your fitness program such that biking becomes the starting activity for the week. Other activities such as circuit training should be done so as to complement the benefits of cycling.
Start slowly and then gradually increase your cycling. As beginner, you should employ a program wherein cycling is done three times a week. Doing it two times a week is also fine, but this depends on the capabilities of the person undergoing the training. If you feel, that the intensity is higher than you can handle, do not force yourself, and cut back to the acceptable level. Eventually, when you get more fit, you may be able increase your complexity and intensity level with no negative health consequences.
Increase speeds gradually. Gradual increase in speeds is an important aspect of fitness cycling. Cycling can also be strenuous to the body and the key towards successful fitness cycling is to be patient and not hurry in increasing your limits.
Better safe than sorry. Cycling is great fun but it is important to get the right equipment for the activity. Head gear, kneepads, elbow pads should all be in place when cycling. Check out carefully your bike before each and every ride. Make sure that all movable parts are well lubed. Tires should be aired up properly. Adjust your seat. This is very important for a comfortable ride. Check your mirrors. Make sure that you have reflectors that can be seen. If you ride at night, make sure you have a tail reflector and good headlight.
Know where you go. When you set up a route, check it out. Look for unseen problems. Chuck holes, lose gravel, unrestrained dogs, and heavy automobile traffic are just a few of the things to look for.
Pick the best time of the day. Since you have better availabilities to manage your time at retirement, stay away from rush hour traffic, as much as possible. Check the weather forecast. The last thing that you want is to be on a wet street. Let individuals know your route or where you will be biking at. Have a charged mobile phone and/or walkie-talkie on your route to be able calling for assistance in case of a breakdown or accident.
Ride with a partner. It is safer and more enjoyable to be with someone. You can help encourage each other to continue as well.
Stay away from steep hills and inclines. A few small hills are fine but, the larger ones might mean more walking and pushing your bike that climbing, at least at the first steps. Pedaling on a hill can triple the use of your heart, and this load is probably not the one, your heart will enjoy.
Explore trails or paths. While that is a preference of the individual, you may want to find nice trails out of the major roads. They are located all over the country side. Find one to your liking. They usually have great views, no automobile traffic, and plenty of other riders to enjoy company with as you go. Or you can choose one of the many biking trails near the river bank or ocean shore.
Have water and safety food with you. If you plan to slow ride a great distance, have some liquid refreshment and a power bar or two with you. Extra liquid and energy is always needed. It is very individual to get dehydrated rather quickly on a warm day, even going a short distance.

Bicycling Organizations and Links

You can find a lot more information about biking from these other biking organizations and biking links. There are also many -- too many to list here -- local biking organizations and associations that you can find on your own. We will list several major addresses to start with:

Adventure Cycling Association. Designed to inspire people to travel by bike for fitness, fun, and self-discovery. Becoming a member offers all sorts of benefits, including bike tours, bike routes and maps, and much more.
BicycleSafe.com. The name says it all. This site is a fantastic resource for learning how not to get hit by passing cars. Too many cyclists cut through traffic or pull alongside cars at intersections rather than behind vehicles. Learn safe biking.
Bicycle Universe. Provides links to just about everything related to biking. In fact, calls itself the kitchen sink of bicycles and transportation. Good resources.
bicyclinginfo.org. From the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC), a national clearinghouse for information about health and safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility for pedestrians (including transit users) and bicyclists.
Bicycling Life. An interesting site for "everyday" bicyclists whose mission is to "promote bicycling by demonstrating that legal cycling on streets, roads, and highways is safe, clean, healthy, enjoyable, economical, and beneficial to society, and to provide bike riders with the information and encouragement they need to become vehicular cyclists."

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.retirement-online.com/retirement-hobbies-biking.html

http://www.adultbicycling.com/component/content/article/9-bicycling-basics/37-health-benefits-of-cycling-ii.html

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/703855/exercise_for_the_elderly_biking_for.html?cat=12

http://www.livestrong.com/article/91456-bicycle-safety-seniors/

http://www.randallshansen.com/biking-primer.html

Longevity insurance: Lifetime income if you live long enough

2011-09-29T22:43:00.000-07:00

Odds are growing that you'll live past 85. But will your money last that long? What if you make it to 100? Indeed, as life expectancies rise, a growing number of Americans are spending more years in retirement than they counted on -- a positive trend overall, but one that also puts them at risk of outliving their assets. In financial jargon, it's called longevity risk.

"Running out of money in retirement is going to be an increasing problem since a lot of people who used to have pension plans with lifetime income now only have defined contribution plans, like a 401(k). So they've got this lump of savings that they have to try and figure out how to make last," says Joseph Tomlinson, a Certified Financial Planner in Greenville, Maine.

With life spans lengthening, those nearing retirement may want to consider financial protection against the possibility of outliving their cash. It is now increasingly available in the form of longevity insurance, which usually involves giving a sum of money to an insurer when you are in your 60s in exchange for monthly payments that start at 80 or 85 and continue for the rest of your life.

New York Life Insurance Co. began offering a policy in July, joining MetLife, Symetra Financial, and the Hartford, among others.

But it is not just about insurance companies looking to make money off aging baby boomers. Retirement experts and some financial advisers say it can make a lot of sense for those who have enough savings to be able to spare a small portion in exchange for a future monthly income they cannot outlive.

"This is something that people ought to be thinking about as they approach retirement," said Anthony Webb, research economist for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.

Longevity insurance is the relatively new term for an annuity designed to cover the latter years of retirement. An annuity is an investment product in which you typically pay an insurance company a lump sum and get back a stream of payments for life.

Certain annuities have sullied the category name for being complex and loaded with fees - mostly variable annuities, in which the value can sink with stock market declines. But more financial advisers are touting annuities as a way to receive the guaranteed lifetime income pensions once provided.

With a longevity annuity, income is fixed and starts at a specified age, frequently 85.

Under MetLife's "maximum income" version, for example, a woman who buys longevity insurance with a $100,000 lump sum at age 65 could receive annual income of $59,010 starting at 85. That would not be enough to cover a year of nursing-home care, but as supplementary income it would go a long way toward covering living expenses. Payouts are higher for men because of shorter average life spans. A 65-year-old man purchasing $100,000 of insurance would get $73,580 annually from MetLife at age 85.

If you die before payments start, the money you gave the insurance company is gone.

Insurers do offer alternative versions that guarantee death benefits to heirs, allow clients to start collecting income whenever they need it, or even let them out of the contract. But those conditions can double the price paid.

Buying this protection serves dual purposes. It ensures a predictable stream of income for your later years. And defining the exact time period that savings have to cover - say, from age 65 to 85 - allows retirees to spend more confidently and invest more aggressively without fear of running out later.

"If you have one of these that kicks in at 85, it becomes a much simpler problem of how to spend down one's wealth," Webb said.

Demand for this insurance is low so far. But rising life expectancy should help it grow. After all, for a reasonably healthy 65-year-old couple, chances are 63 percent that one of them will live until 90, 36 percent that one will make it to 95, and 14 percent that one will reach 100, the Society of Actuaries said.

Jason Scott, managing director of the Financial Engines Retiree Research Center, calls longevity insurance an efficient way of handling the risk. "It's really expensive for an individual to plan for a life that might last to 100," he said.

Longevity insurance doesn't make sense for the very rich or the poor, who have no wealth to spare. But it should interest those of somewhat above-average income, said Webb, who also suggests buying some form of inflation protection.

But even those who find it a good fit for their finances are not advised to spend any more than 20 percent of their assets. And though the price is lower if you buy it younger, most experts do not recommend getting coverage until you're in your 60s. However, before you decide that this type of investment is right for you, consider carefully all the advantages and disadvantages.

What are the Advantages of Longevity Insurance Annuities?

Some of the advantages include:

Longevity insurance may give a guaranteed income later in life when retirement funds may get stretched or start to run out.
This retirement planning solution can give a useful income boost at an age when expenses (i.e. medical and care costs) may be getting more expensive.
These options can be set up later in life which may suit those whose planning has started late or that may not have built up enough income for a long retirement.
These annuities are often cheaper to buy and give better returns than standard products.
Some can be set up to pay death benefits if the individual dies before their annuity matures.
Some products can give earlier payout dates if the individual wishes.

What are the Disadvantages of Longevity Insurance?

Some of the downsides to longevity insurance include:

Standard longevity annuities will only pay out if the individual reaches the age of maturity and may give no payment at all if they die before that date.
Arranging for the annuity to mature at an earlier age may increase the cost of buying the product and decrease the guaranteed income that is paid out.
Setting up a death benefit option can make these annuities more expensive to buy.
Many options will pay a fixed amount that will not rise with inflation so payouts may be worth less in the future.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://articles.philly.com/2011-09-18/business/30172261_1_lifetime-income-longevity-insurance-lump-sum

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/retirement/is-longevity-insurance-right-for-you-1.aspx

http://carolfinch.suite101.com/the-advantages--disadvantages-of-longevity-insurance-annuities-a222984

http://badmoneyadvice.com/2010/11/longevity-insurance.html

http://moneyover55.about.com/od/insuranceknowhow/a/howtouselongevityinsurance.htm

Retirement to Australia: Not for Everyone

2011-09-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

As the baby boomers start to consider retirement, they are looking to destinations at home and abroad. No longer are they content to stay in the same state where they lived working and raising children. With more disposable income than generations before, many soon-to-be retirees are seeking a warm climate and a lower cost-of-living, mixed with a little adventure. For many, Australia fits the bill, with its excellent bargains, top-notch health care and breathtaking scenery.

It may seem far away, but with the internet today, a computer and a modem connects you to the rest of the world. All of Australia's major cities are within an hour or two by plane. The infrastructure is sound, and the government is stable. There are plenty of bank and loan services in Australia so you will never be lost in that department. There is shopping, cable TV and plentiful recreation. You'll also find an abundance of space, lots of social clubs to join if you choose and “livability" not found in other places. The Australian people are warm and generous, and a nice perk is that they adore North Americans! The Gold Coast in particular, located on the southeast coast of Queensland, attracts thousands of retirees as it offers warm temperatures and plenty to do and see.

Clean, fresh, green, not crowded and reminiscent of a time when things cost less, the pace of life was slower, and people seemed friendlier to one another. And for American English speakers it will much easier to learn speaking Australian English than any other foreign language!

Climate

Australia is roughly the size of the continental United States and has a variety of climates, but it has no snow! It is a coastal country, thanks to the dryness of much of its interior, with most of its population living within 20km of the coast between southern Queensland and Adelaide. This vast continent boasts a sunny climate and its people have a healthy love of the outdoors.

In South Australia, Adelaide enjoys a Mediterranean climate with warm summers and cool winters. In Mebourne, located in the state of Victoria, the climate is cool but without snow. Temperatures range from 40 degrees to 55 degrees in the winter and from 70 degrees to 90 degrees in the summer. In Sydney, located on the southeast end of the continent, the weather is humid but with a temperate climate.

Cost of Living

In general, the cost-of-living in Australia is half of what it is in the U.S. The American dollar today buys twice as much as it does in the States, and there are terrific opportunities for buying real estate and investing in the Australian stock market. And even from Australia, trading on the New York Stock Exchange is made possible by the internet.

Housing to fit all budgets can be found here. As with most countries, housing in the major cities is generally expensive (Sydney is the priciest city for real estate), but once you are outside the large urban areas, accommodations can be had at reasonable prices. The cities which frequently appear as offering a low cost of living comparative to the quality of life on offer are Adelaide, Brisbane and Melbourne.

Most new homes are made of brick and built to the same standards as U.S. homes. Currently, mortgage rates are about 5%. And if you sell your home here, you will not pay any capital gains tax!

Healthcare

Life expectancy in Australia is high and the health and social care facilities on offer are of a very good quality. However, retirees should always bear in mind the fact that they will not be entitled to any government or medical benefits during their retirement in Australia and will need to secure their own fully-comprehensive insurance policy from an Australian company.

Infrastructure

Australia has a highly developed and sophisticated infrastructure and the standard of communications, transportation and public services on offer here is on par to that available in other developed nations.

Investor Retirement Visas to Australia

While the Cost of Living in Australia is reasonable for the retirees, getting there might not be so affordable for some baby boomers, who dreams about relocating to Australia for retirement.

The Investor Retirement Visa Program enables people over 55 years of age who are able to support themselves financially to spend some retirement years in Australia. The Investor Retirement visa provides you with the opportunity to work part-time and enjoy a relaxed and rewarding lifestyle in Australia.

To be eligible for an Investor Retirement visa, you must be over 55 years of age, be sponsored by an Australian State or Territory and have no dependent family members (other than your spouse). You must have sufficient assets to enable you to be financially self-sufficient in Australia, without relying on the public healthcare system or social security benefits. In fact, you must agree to take out comprehensive health insurance with an Australian company to cover any medical costs.

Who is eligible?

The Investor Retirement visa gives temporary residence in Australia. It requires sponsorship from a State or Territory government in Australia, in addition to an investment to be made in that sponsoring State or Territory government Treasury bond.

The primary applicant must be at least 55 years of age and there must be no other dependants except a spouse;
There must be sufficient assets to ensure self support in Australia;
Maintenance of private health insurance as acceptable to the Minister for the duration of their visa;
Limited work rights of no more than 20 hours a week; and
Initial and further stay period of 4 years.

Financial requirements

To ensure that people who apply for an Investor Retirement visa are fully self-supporting, the financial requirements are:

for the initial and all subsequent visa applications, payment of a second visa application charge of $8,700 per person per visa application to offset the possible cost of some applicants accessing aged care/nursing home services at a future time (not refundable, regardless of whether care is utilized during the life of the visa);
for the initial and all subsequent visa applications main applicant to be sponsored by a State/Territory Government with sponsorship being maintained for the entire period of the applicant's stay in Australia;
for the initial and all subsequent visa applications, main applicant to make a minimum designated investment (DI) (depending on whether they nominate a regional/low growth area or a non-regional/non-low growth area)in a State or Territory Treasury bond of:

A$750,000 for the initial visa, if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a non-regional or non-low growth area; or
A$500,000 for the initial visa, if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a regional or low growth area; or
A$500,000 for a second or further visa, if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a non-regional or non-low growth area; or
A$250,000 for a second or further visa, if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a regional or low growth area;

In addition to the DI, and for grant of the initial visa only, main applicant to provide evidence of assets that can be used to establish a lifestyle in Australia, with those assets allowed to be combined with those of the spouse, of a minimum of:

A$750,000 if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a non-regional or non-low growth area; or
A$500,000 if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they are going to live in a regional or low growth area;

For the initial and all subsequent visa applications:

The main applicant to provide evidence of an annual income stream, with that income stream allowed to be combined with income stream of their spouse, of a minimum of;

$65,000 if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they will live in a non-regional or non-low growth area; or
$50,000 if the main applicant has indicated to the State or Territory Government sponsor that they will live in a regional or low growth area.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.australiaadventure.com/retirement-in-australia.htm

http://www.liveinaustralia.com/retirement-visa/

http://www.australia-migration.com/page/Retirement_Visa_Investor_retirement_visa/90

http://www.expatinfodesk.com/expat-guide/retiring-abroad/best-places/australia-as-a-retirement-destination/

Neuroendocrine Theory of Aging

2011-09-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

The Neuroendocrine Theory of Aging was first proposed by Russian Professor Vladimir Dilman and strongly supported by Ward Dean MD about 30 years ago. This theory elaborates on wear and tear of the human organism by focusing on its neuroendocrine system.

The neuroendocrine system represents a complicated network of biochemicals, managing the release of hormones which are altered by the hypothalamus – a walnut sized gland located in the brain. The hypothalamus controls various chain-reactions to instruct other organs and glands to release their hormones etc. The hypothalamus also responds to the body hormone levels as a guide to the overall hormonal activity. These hormones influence growth, sexual functions and other vital body functions.

The Hypothalamus

The hypothalamus is a region of the brain that controls most of our metabolisms and bodily functions. It is located in the middle of the base of the brain. The main function of the hypothalamus is homeostasis, or maintaining the body's status quo. Factors such as energy, blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance, and body weight are held to a precise value called the set-point.

Ultimately the hypothalamus along with its two principal allies the pituitary and the pineal glands, is responsible for regulation of all physiological metabolisms. These metabolisms include the endocrine system, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the cardiovascular system and the digestive system with its assimilation, absorption and elimination functions.

The hypothalamus and its allies “the glands” are so important that they have gained the reputation of being “the guardian of health”.

Thus, the hypothalamus operates by a chain reaction that releases the hormones that regulate other hormones. For instance, the hypothalamus releases Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormones (LH) which influence the secretion of estrogen and progesterone from the ovaries. These hormones regulate the female reproductive system. The level of these reproductive hormones decline with age as the woman experiences menopause. Menopause is a major age related change that occurs in females and is under the influence of neuroendocrine hormones. The hypothalamus responds to the body’s hormone levels and uses it as a guide to regulate hormonal activity. Hormone levels are high during younger years which accounts for menstruation in women and high sex drive in both sexes.

Aging

But as we grow older the hypothalamus loses it precision regulatory ability and the receptors which uptake individual hormones become less sensitive to them. Accordingly, as we age the secretion of many hormones declines and their effectiveness (compared unit to unit) is also reduced due to the receptors down-grading. One theory for the hypothalamus loss of regulation is that it is damaged by the hormone cortisol. Cortisol is produced from the adrenal glands (located on the kidneys) and cortisol is considered to be a dark-hormone responsible for stress. It is known to be one of the few hormones that increase with age.

If cortisol damages the hypothalamus, then over time it becomes a vicious cycle of continued hypothalamic damage, leading to an ever increasing degree of cortisol production and thus more hypothalamic damage. This damage could then lead to hormonal imbalance as the hypothalamus loses its ability to control the system. Such an argument demands the use of cortisol adjusters to help slow down the cortisol accumulation.

Human Growth Hormone

Another hormone that confirms the accuracy of the neuroendocrine phenomenon is the human growth hormone (HGH). This hormone level is high during infancy and starts to decline by mid 30’s. HGH controls physiological growth and is responsible for our growth from birth to old age. It stimulates sex drive and metabolic processes as well as associated with youthfulness, maintenance of the skin, increased muscle mass and vitality. With advance age there is a decreased production of HGH which results in reduced sex drive, decreased metabolism and changes in the appearances of the skin. Other hormone secretion also declines with advanced age which affects how the body functions. For example, decreased testosterone affects the sex drive and male vitality while decreased estrogen production is associated with menopause in women. Decline in thyroid hormone will affect the body’s metabolic rate.

Solution to Aging

A decrease in hormone levels stimulates the body to adjust by slowing down its functions. The body literally starts to slow down and other organs also start to release low levels of hormones in response to support the change. Some people do not deal with this change very well. They feel a sense of loss of youthfulness. This is why hormone replacement therapy is recommended which can reignite the interest in life and increase human vitality. HGH is frequently used as an anti-aging therapy because it stimulates sex drive and rejuvenates youthful appearance. It promotes lean body mass and completely reverse the effects of aging. Hormone replacement therapy is a frequent component of anti-aging treatment and it helps to reset the body’s hormonal clock. This allows the signs of aging to be reversed or even delay the effects of aging.

Benefits of the Human Growth Hormone replacement therapy:

• Increase bone density

• Increase muscle mass

• Decrease body fat

• Increase exercise capacity

• Human growth hormone is also approved to treat AIDS- or HIV-related muscle wasting.

However, there are possible negative side effects you should be aware of:

• Swelling in arms and legs

• Joint pain

• Muscle pain

• For men, enlargement of breast tissue

Dr. Dean also believes that the next-generation of hormone replacement therapy is the hypothalamus hormones (expected to be commercially available soon). These types of natural supplements could present a whole new approach and concept to endocrine balance, control and improvement.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.anti-aging-today.org/aging/theory/dna-genetic.htm

http://alex-zander.hubpages.com/hub/Hormones-and-Aging

http://www.thebestpartblog.com/aging-theory-brenda-rusnak

http://www.themagicisbac.com/page4-15.html

Government and Local Grants for Retired People

2011-08-31T20:32:00.000-07:00

Several government agencies provide grants to retired people to help pay for housing, food and employment training programs. Government grant programs for the retired are for people aged 55 and over. Seniors also must meet the low-income limit level requirement to qualify for help. You can contact the local area agency on aging office to find nonprofit organizations that may offer additional programs.

Based on your individual situation (how old you are, location, financial worth, and so on), you may have use of several various kinds of assistance. Listed here are only a couple of kinds of aid that you simply or a family member may be eligible for a:

- Food and diet
- Housing
- Housing repairs
- Earnings security
- Social services
- Transportation
- Health

Note that in the past, these grants were focused primarily on sustenance issues; in the present day, especially with the increasing number of those in the baby boomer generation joining the senior citizen demographic, the funds issued to senior citizens by these grants are destined towards a wider spectrum of activities.

Housing

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development provides a rental subsidy to low-income seniors who need help to pay for housing. Senior Public Housing programs allow seniors aged 62 or older to pay 30 percent of their income toward rent. The senior's income cannot exceed 80 percent of the area's median income to qualify for a senior affordable-housing unit. Seniors with incomes at or below 30 percent of the area's median income are given a priority during the admission process. They are admitted into the affordable housing program before seniors in a higher income bracket. You can contact the local housing authority to find out which senior complexes in your area offer a rental subsidy.

Home Energy Assistance

This grant for senior citizens is essential to protect the health and safety of our senior population. Most of the income eligible people are living on fixed incomes and are vulnerable to the impact of rising energy costs.

Food Assistance

The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides funding for the Emergency Food Assistance Program. Seniors with incomes between 100 and 155 percent of the federal poverty level can benefit from the food from a local nonprofit agency that administers the program. Seniors can get canned and dried fruits, meat, poultry, fish, peanut butter, rice, beans and cereal. Food goods are distributed through local food banks, food or church pantries, and other local charities.

Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage

If you are 65 years of age or older, and you meet income guidelines, the EPIC Program may save you money on your prescription needs. This cost-sharing program applies to low-to-moderate income seniors. The program is funded by a state grant.

Transportation Assistance

Department of Transportation provides financial assistance in meeting the transportation needs of elderly persons and persons with disabilities where public transportation services are unavailable, insufficient or inappropriate.

Community Services Program

The U.S. Employment and Training Administration's Senior Community Service Employment Program provides grants for training and employment for seniors aged 55 and older. Seniors who participate in the program work an average of 20 hours a week. Seniors are placed at daycare centers, seniors centers, schools and hospitals for their training assignments. The senior must be unemployed and his total household income cannot exceed 125 percent of the federal poverty level to qualify for the program. Seniors earn the highest of federal, state or local minimum wage.

Foster Grandparent Program

The Foster Grandparent Program is designed to promote volunteer service by persons 60 or older who have limited incomes. Funds are available to support volunteer programs which provide personalized service to children with exceptional or special needs.

Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind

The Department of Education provides funding for the Independent Living Services for Older Individuals Who Are Blind program. Seniors aged 55 and older with a severe visual impairment are eligible for independent living services. Services such as case management, transportation, therapy and money management help seniors live on their own. State vocational rehabilitation agencies administer this program to the community. States are required to match every $9 in federal grant money, with $1 from their own resources.

Ways to Find the Senior Grant You Need

Senior grants fall into several different categories, such as housing assistance, debt assistance, educational, and money to help start a business to name only a few of the senior grants available. The first step for you to take for finding the perfect grant for you is to take some time and look into the CFDA - Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance.

This is a list of all the grant offers made by specialized agencies and companies in the USA. You can access the catalog online and download its readable PDF version (available on the web page of the government), or order it by mail.

The Requirements You Have to Meet For a Senior Grant

From the very beginning you should know that not all seniors applying for such a grant get it; however, most of them do. You will be surprised to find out that many senior grants remain unused and all the money involved is turned back into the general fund after the offering period is over.

A very important thing you should remember about government grants, senior grants included is that this is money you can get from the US government without ever having to pay it back. If you get the grant money, you can use it for the purpose you have specified you will.

In this case, you eligibility greatly depends on which grant you apply for, because the requirements are different for every grant offered by the government. Thus, some of them take your income into account (you can get a grant if your income is low), while others don't.

The only requirement all government grants have in common is your nationality; you have to be a US citizen (either by birth or by naturalization) and actually live in the US.

Local Senior Citizen Grants

Federal Government Grants are not the only sources of grant money for seniors. There are many state and local grants as well as money available from local organizations.

Here are some tips for finding local Senior Citizen Grants:

Call your local Office of the Aging. Identify yourself and try to set up an appointment with someone who could tell you what sorts of grant money might be available in your region. The person on the phone may want to know what you want the money for and it could be that they will know right off hand that there is a program available and how to apply to it. BUT even if they say, "There are not grants for that" do try to get a face to face appointment with someone. Explain that you know that they know more about organizations that serve senior citizens and that you would like to talk to someone face-to-face to see if they might have ANY suggestions as to how you might proceed. State that you only want a short consult. Do your best to see someone since actually meeting a person face-to-face often elicits leads or suggestions that would seldom be mentioned in a phone conversation.
If you are disabled, contact your local office for the disabled. If you do not know where it is, contact your local representative in the State Assembly or Senate. Someone in that office ought to be able to give you a phone number and a contact name. (If they do not offer a name, ask if they could suggest who to ask for. Remember have the name of a specific person and being able to say that Representative or Senator’s X office gave you their name, is a much stronger opening than just a 'phone call out of the blue'.
Another local resource are the religious organization in your area. Leaders of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples have wide contacts and might be able to put you in touch with someone willing to fund or assist with your project. Again, it is worth getting a face to face meeting. Calling and identifying yourself by name and asking for a short appointment with [NAME} should do it. If the secretary asks the nature of your business, just say, "It is personal". Most will respect that. Again, it is the face to face meeting that you want. It is far more likely to get you a lead. At the appointment identify yourself by name. State that you are a senior citizen and you are looking for a grant or some sort of funding for [and summarize your project in no more than 2 sentences] Explain that you know that religious leaders often have knowledge of who in the community might be willing to help with such things and that you are hoping that he/she will be able to suggest some lead. If they say, "I do not know of any individual or group", then ask if they might have any suggestions as to who you could approach that might possible know such things. Again, keep the meeting short. On leaving ask that if they hear of anything, they would give you a call....and of course, leave your contact information.
This same approach can be used on local civic and charitable organizations. If all else fails, do consider a short letter to the editor of a local paper. Eg. Does anyone know where I senior citizen can get a grant to insulate her home? or to install a ramp? or to take a course in XXXXX? or Does anyone know where a senior citizen can get help starting up a home business?

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.ehow.com/info_10014988_government-grants-retired-people.html

http://www.federalgrantswire.com/senior-citizens-federal-grants.html

http://us-government-grants.org/senior-citizens-government-grants/

http://www.anti-aging-information.net/grants-for-senior-citizens.html

http://www.anti-aging-articles.com/Senior-Citizen-Grants.html

http://www.governmentgrantlist.org/senior-citizen-grants.html

ExecPlan Express – Personal Financial Planning and Retirement Planning Software

2011-08-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

ExecPlan Express is an easy to use fully integrated financial planning software system designed to create powerful and effective financial and tax planning solutions. It enables you to create comprehensive financial plans and analyze an individual's personal finance over the entire life expectancy in any level of detail you desire. Within minutes you will be able to print a variety of professionally formatted reports supported with customized charts, graphs and schedules. Its intuitive design allows both a financial novice or a financial service professional the ability to appreciate its usefulness for quickly and efficiently analyzing alternative retirement planning scenarios, evaluating life insurance needs , assessing estate tax liabilities, reviewing investment planning strategies, incorporating asset allocation strategies, or managing income taxes before deciding on a personal financial planning strategy. Whether using it for a comprehensive retirement planning strategy, implementing an income tax planning objective, or building a simple cash flow analysis, the combination of its design, analytical capabilities, automated tax computations and powerful presentations will make it one of your most widely used software tools.

Main Features

Comprehensive analytical financial & estate planning capabilities
Seamlessly integrated data that flows through all components of the plan
Exceptionally detailed retirement planning capabilities with spans up to 99 years
Interactive investment, cash flow, income tax and estate analysis
Integrated analysis for children's education funding and investment planning
Federal & State income tax analysis including AMT
Year by year reporting with detailed Balance Sheet, Income & Cash Flow Statements
Provides Capital Needs Analysis in easy to understand text and graphic formats
Automatically generates death and disability scenarios for each spouse
Prepares Estate related reports and flow charts for any year of your planning horizon
Simple and intuitive design that is easy to understand and use
Accommodates data entry in any magnitude of detail you desire
A personal financial profile report that can be created from a variety of text, graphs & charts
Versatile tool that provides a quick what-if scenario analyzer
All data, assumptions and details can be customized based on specifics of a plan

Easy To Use Application

Retirement Planning Software made easy, with a fully integrated intuitive design
Easy step by step data entry through a simple tab structure
Automatic projection and consolidation of all data entered at any time
Automated calculations for Required Minimum Distributions (RMD) for qualified plans
Automated cash management simulation option with purchases and/or liquidations overrides
Input data verification and validation to ensure no errors in creating a retirement strategy
Data entry help screens for assets, liabilities, income, expenses, insurance
Automated modification of data for Retirement, Death or Disability of either spouse
Extensive context sensitive help screens for data items
Online tutorials designed to guide the professional financial advisor in the right direction
Intuitive screens and easy to use tabs showing magnitude of plan being built
The easiest financial planning software to learn in minutes with easy to follow tutorial
Build a comprehensive retirement projections with up to a 99 year planning period
Create a financial plan by entering detailed data or a single summary amount
Enter only the data applicable in a case or scenario and skip the rest
Self formatting reports that can be customized to meet the needs of any professional advisor
Create a truly personal financial analysis by printing any or all the reports you want
Text reporting into MS Word for an easy to generate professional planning presentations
Reports that can be printed or saved to MS Excel for modification or for client editing
Easy to use and understand graphing and charting capabilities

Versatile

Extensive capabilities to increase your productivity and accuracy
Data entry needed only once to reflect an item or information
Versatile tool to analyze what-if scenarios for financial alternatives
Dynamic integration to analyze the full effects of a data change
Automatically generates planning options for retirement, death & disability
Simple one click change between scenarios
Estate reports reflect both scenarios when either spouse predeceases the other
Income tax computations and accounting rules are automatically applied
All States and Local taxes are built-in
Automatic Cash Management simulation, Retirement and Capital Needs Analysis
Unlimited number of entries for expenses, assets, liabilities, insurance, or income
Annual adjustment for valuation and premiums on Cash value life insurance policies
Ability to link an annual cash distributions to a Cash value life insurance policies
User defined rate of return for investing excess cash flow
Buy or sell any asset at any time to create a truly personal financial planning solution
Structure a Long Term Care analysis at any point during the retirement period
LTC policies can be modeled with varying benefits or expenses
Tremendous range of built-in information and computations
Federal taxes are built-in and regularly updated for advance tax planning objectives
User ability to sunset 2001/2003 tax act or to override it
Ability to plan for retirees with lifetime dependent children
Financial assessments for divorced spouses
Variety of reports and supporting schedules
Life insurance analysis for both client and spouse
Disability needs analysis for both client and spouse

Powerful, Features Rich Application

Comprehensive design that can accommodate any budgeting scenarios
Totally integrated financial profiles that span full lives of the client and spouse
A personal finance software with integrated education planning illustrations
Fully integrated Income Tax Planning, Estate Tax Planning & Life Insurance Needs Analysis
Year by year control on data valuations for investments, sources of funds, and uses of funds.
Model various sources of income including self employed income, social security exempt
wages, investment income, tax free income and Social Security income
Automatic reduction of benefit and taxation on Social Security income.
Automatic tax calculations for self employment income
User defined inflation for income, expenses and tax related calculations
Ability to model numerous types of investments and business interests
Model any amortized loan (personal, mortgage or investment) at any point during retirement
Special data formatting for rental properties, 529 Plans, Roth IRAs & other qualified plans
Accommodate gifting or charitable objectives or evaluate a Roth IRA conversions
Project the impact of a home refinancing or downsizing your primary residence
Evaluate the benefits of downsizing your primary residence in your retirement
Provide detailed budgeting reports on year by year expenses
Create a reverse mortgage to fund retirement needs
Provide detailed reporting on a diversified investment portfolio
Reposition assets at any time to minimize investment risk or provide investment liquidity
Review the suitability to fund cash value life insurance for a specific financial goal
Integrate corporate, municipal, or government bonds into your investment portfolio
Capture the appropriate tax consequences from any investment reallocation strategy
Compare different investment allocation for long term net worth and income tax objectives
Evaluate 'real' net rate of return, the rate of return less actual tax liability, for any asset
Assess the financial liability for buying, or selling an investment property or business interest
Compare different tax and investment planning strategies for different personal risk tolerances
Integrated Federal, State and Local income tax calculations
Personalized year by year Income, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow statements
Summary report that organizes income, retirement, and life insurance needs on one report
Automated 401k, IRA contributions and Required Minimum Distributions on a yearly basis
More advance calculations for IRAs and 401k such as Catch-Up contributions
Detailed income tax analysis including AMT, Charitable and medical expense limitations
Automatic phase out calculation for qualified dividend tax rates
Capital Needs Analysis in easy to understand text and graphical illustration for all scenarios
Prepares estate related reports and flow charts for any year of your planning horizon
Estate projections for Simple Wills, UTC Wills, A/B Wills, and Optimized Wills
Retirement planning software that can integrate advanced estate planning capabilities
including ILTs, QPRTs, CRATs, GRATs
User defined graphs for creating custom and personalized financial reports
Text Reports that are generated to Microsoft Word
Income Statements, Balance Sheets, Estate Reports that can be saved to Microsoft Excel

Pricing: 1-User License with 3 months of maintenance and support - $299

Free Trial: You can use the full-featured trial software version for 30 days from the day you install the package.

System requirements: Windows 98 or higher, 64 MB RAM, and 100 MB Hard drive space.

Website: http://www.execplanexpress.com/

Direct Downloading Link: http://www.execplanexpress.com/assets/setup.exe

Do you have Retirement Anxiety Disorder?

2011-07-30T00:47:00.000-07:00

Overview

Retirement often sounds like a positive prospect until it's just a year or two away. You might start to feel anxious as this major life transition looms just ahead. This feeling is normal, but it can interfere with your everyday enjoyment if you let it continue. You can find ways to relieve your worry and find meaning in this new life phase.

Definition

Anxiety is a normal feeling triggered by difficult or intimidating situations. The mind and body gear up to handle the pressure. Anxiety is usually linked to something immediate, like a family conflict, a meeting with the boss or having to find an unfamiliar destination. It can also be caused by a future situation, like pending retirement. Change makes many people uncomfortable. Retirement marks a major life transition from the working world to leisure and altered finances.

Time Frame

Retirement anxiety often starts a year or two before you actually leave your job. The initial anxiety is triggered by the idea of leaving your employer, especially if you've worked at the same place for many years. You may also feel nervous about your finances if your income will be sharply cut after retirement. A survey by the financial firm Merrill Lynch identified money as a top concern. The stress will continue through your actual retirement date and the adjustment period afterward.

Causes

Retirement anxiety has many causes in addition to leaving a long-time job and having an income cut. You may worry about existing or future health problems and how to occupy your extra time. You may also feel depressed about your age and a feeling that most of your life is over. You may lack a sense of purpose that makes it more difficult to find new ways to fill your days. Your motivation may be sapped because you no longer have to adhere to a work schedule.

Finances

In term of the financial independence at retirement, a large majority of Americans are concerned about retirement, and 84 percent of people polled by the National Institute on Retirement Security say the economy is impacting their ability to achieve their long-term goals. The public opinion research report, titled “Pensions and Retirement Security 2011: A Roadmap for Policymakers,” provides evidence that the nation’s retirement infrastructure is declining and that the unpredictability of the stock market makes it difficult to save for life after work.

The study, released in March 2011, also indicated that many view retirement as only surviving, while others think politicians don’t understand their anxiety.

In detail, the study showed that:

• Eighty-four percent of people polled are concerned about their retirement security, a percentage that is on the rise.

• Americans have low retirement expectations: Only 11 percent expect retirement to include leisure, travel, dining out or indulging in hobbies. Most will try to pay down debt or simply survive in retirement, or may delay retirement altogether.

• Nearly nine out of 10 Americans believe the U.S. retirement system is in need of reform.

• About three in four believe the ups and downs of Wall Street make it impossible to accurately plan for retirement.

• A like percentage of people say the disappearance of pensions for many workers has eroded the “American Dream.”

The report indicates that the median U.S. household headed by a person aged 60-62 with a 401(k) account has less than one-quarter of what is needed to maintain its standard of living after its members stop working.

Symptoms

Retirement anxiety has many physical and emotional symptoms. You will feel a continual sense of dread as your final work day approaches. You will have trouble concentrating because your mind will keep focusing on worry about your future. You'll feel restless and jumpy, and you may focus on worst-case scenarios, like failing health, being unable to afford your bills or losing your spouse. Physically, you'll be keyed up. You might have tense muscles and an upset stomach. You may also experience headaches and tremors. You'll have insomnia and feel fatigued due to the lack of rest.

Solution

Anxiety is created because of the unknown. Your financial future is one of the biggest unknowns so it’s no wonder why we worry about retirement. For those, who are just approaching retiring age, the cure for retirement anxiety is simple: Start planning for the future. Many studies have suggested that any people just have no plans for retirement. Are you one of those people? It’s no wonder there is so much retirement anxiety out there. If you think about the word planning it simply means looking into the future to make your future as predictable as you possibly can. It’s all about figuring out where you stand, where you need to be and how to get there. Planning is the start of reducing retirement anxiety.

There is no universal definition of what retirement means. Retirement can be anything you want it to be. You simply need to figure out what you want it to be. Figuring out how much is enough should not be intimidating.

While you are already at retirement, you can successfully fight anxiety by finding meaningful things to do. Become a volunteer for a worthwhile cause, take a class or sign up for lessons to learn a new activity. An Allstate Study identified popular options like travel, gardening, fishing, home improvement and exercising. Get a part-time job if your anxiety is triggered by both boredom and financial worries. You can come up with ideas and plans in the year before you actually stop working. This will provide a useful channel for your anxiety.

Talk to your doctor about counseling or medication if self-help does not sufficiently relieve your anxious feelings, the Help Guide recommends. Talk therapy provides a safe outlet in which to vent your feelings and explore possible solutions. Medication relieves physical and emotional symptoms.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/140836-retirement-anxiety

http://perspective.opers.org/pension-reform/report-retirement-anxiety-at-high-level/

http://www.creditcardscanada.ca/blog/personal-finance/how-to-cure-retirement-anxiety/

Human Ageing and Immune System Deterioration

2011-07-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

Immunogerontology

Immunogerontology, the study of the immune system in the elderly, is a relatively new field, and large amounts of data are not yet available on some key components of the immune system as it ages. Conclusions drawn from animal studies, tissue culture studies and human studies investigating the same topic often suggest conflicting conclusions, but these discrepancies will probably be resolved once more data become available. Controversy arises in part because gerontologists have not created commonly accepted definitions of when the aging process begins or at what point an individual is considered "aged." Traditional aging studies merely compared a population of "young" individuals against a population of "old" individuals without attempting to define "young" and "old." Without a clear definition of these terms it is difficult to determine whether immunological differences observed in the aged group result from age only or are instead the results of age-related disease. To work around this problem and develop a definition of what normal aging is for a healthy older population, several studies have focused exclusively on centenarians under the assumption that an individual who lives to be 100 must be exceptionally healthy. Even though this population is extremely limited, the conclusions from these studies have helped to lay the groundwork for broader studies that include a younger elderly population.

It is well-documented that immunocompetence declines with age; that is, as people age, the immune system begins to lose some of its functions and cannot respond as quickly or as efficiently to stimuli. Age-related changes in the immune system have been observed at all levels ranging from chemical changes within the cells, to differences in the kinds of proteins found on the cell surface, and even to alterations in entire organs. Studied separately, some of these changes may seem trivial, but when all of the changes are added up, they radically affect the overall health of the individual.

Thymus Gland Deterioration

One major change that occurs as the body ages is a process termed "thymic involution." The thymus, located above the heart behind the breast bone, is the organ where T cells mature. T cells are an extremely important, highly-specialized population of lymphocytes that have many functions ranging from killing bacteria to assisting other cell types of the immune system. As humans age, the thymus naturally atrophies. The volume of thymic tissue in a 60-year-old adult is less that 5% that of a newborn, and it is postulated that if humans lived to be more than 120, the thymus would disappear altogether. Although T cells are produced continuously throughout life, over time this progressive decay of the thymus causes a sharp decrease in the number and type of T cells produced.

It is not known why the thymus deteriorates in this fashion. The prevailing theory is that the thymus is an extremely energy-expensive organ that is most needed in the early stages of life when the body has not had time to develop resistance to foreign antigens. Once the immune system fully develops and can protect the host against a myriad of antigens, the thymus may be too costly to maintain, so it is evolutionarily advantageous to decrease the amount of thymic tissue and use the energy that would have supported the thymus for other purposes. However, because T cells play such a prominent role in immunity, longer-lived individuals still need a continuous supply of "fresh" T cells to protect against newly-encountered antigens, and this slow but progressive loss of thymic tissue has profound effects on the entire immune system of the aged.

Aging affects the functions of T cells in a myriad of ways. Several subpopulations of T cells are found in the thymus and in the blood circulation, among them, naive T cells and memory T cells. Naive T cells are quiescent T cells that have never been exposed to any foreign antigen, while memory T cells are long-lived antigen-activated cells that rapidly respond to a second exposure to the same antigen. When encountering a foreign antigen, naive T cells become activated, stimulate the immune system to eliminate the foreign antigens from the body, and convert into memory T cells. The memory T cells then become dormant and are only reactivated upon a subsequent exposure to that same antigen. A marked difference has been observed between young and old subjects in the subpopulations of naive and memory T cells. In newborns, the ratio of naive to memory T cells is quite high; in adults the ratio is reversed because most of the naive T cells have been exposed to antigen, and hence converted to memory cells. The elderly have almost no naive T cells at all, since as the thymus progressively deteriorates with age, fewer T cells are produced, and the naive T cell subpopulation is not replenished. Consequently, the stock of naive T cells becomes depleted and the aged immune system cannot respond as well as a young person to a "new" antigen.

In addition to the decline of certain subpopulations of T cells, important changes occur at the cell surface of all T cells. When a T cell, using T cell receptor proteins found on the cell surface, binds to an antigen, that environmental stimulus must be communicated to the interior of the T cell. Many molecules are involved in "signal transduction," the process of transmitting the antigen-binding signal across the cell membrane into the cell. Signal transduction is a cascade of chemical reactions, each dependent upon the preceding event. Aged T cells do not display the CD28 antigen, a molecule critical for signal transduction and T cell activation, on the cell surface. Without this protein, T cells remain quiescent and do not respond to foreign pathogens. One indication of a malfunctioning signal transduction pathway in T cells is that the presence of CD69 antigen on the cell surface is lower in elderly individuals. T cells are induced to display CD69 antigen only after antigen binds to the T cell receptor. If the antigen-binding signal is not transmitted to the interior of the T cell, CD69 antigen will not appear on the cell surface, and is an indication that in older people, less signal transduction is occurring.

Another defect of T cell activation among the elderly is characterized by a decrease in calcium. Calcium is a vital element that is absolutely crucial for many biochemical reactions, including signal transduction. A calcium deficiency in T cells effectively halts signal transduction by failing to stimulate enzymes, including protein kinase C, MAPK and MEK, that require calcium for proper function. Decreased amounts of calcium can also inhibit production of cytokines, proteins responsible for coordinating the interaction with antigen and amplifying the immune response.

Ageing and Infectious Diseases

Aging brings on an increased vulnerability to infectious diseases. Central nervous system (CNS) inflammation is associated with various disease processes and neurotrauma. Burns and Goodwin (1997) state "Aging is associated with decline in multiple areas of immune function, but to date no single mechanism has emerged as being responsible for all the observed changes…. It is being increasingly acknowledged that autoimmune processes play a proinflammatory role in the development of many pathological conditions….". Erschler, in an article in Experimental Gerontology (1998), suggests that healthy individuals evidence age-related increases in plasma Interleukin-6 levels, a cytokine, which parallel the vulnerability of the central nervous system to injury. Cytokines are intercellular communicating proteins in the immune system and their measurement may provide a sensitive index of inflammatory processes.

Increased serum levels of cytokines are commonly found in infections. In some way activated cells in the aged CNS are primed to be more hypersensitive to infection and at the same time may be too damaged to react normally to invading pathogens. The damage (hypersensitivity) may be the result of free radical involvement with cell membranes.

Free radical damage to immune cell membrane lipids may ultimately impair the ability of immune cells to respond normally to challenge. Cells have to maintain general conditions necessary for life’s chemistry, insulating them from the local environment. The lipid membrane plays this role. It is equipped with pumps and transporters that manage the transportation of molecules in and out of the cell. The cell membrane has surface receptors conducive to chemical reactions.

Normally, oxidation involves the transfer of a pair of electrons from one atom to another. When an unpaired electron escapes, called a free radical, it can cause damage to the molecules in nearby cell membrane. These single electrons, the free radicals, are highly reactive, seeking to capture another electron to complete a pair and in doing so they damage or destroy the function of another molecule. This type of damage could be a major contributing factor to aging and to infectious diseases.

Free radical damage is cumulative, building up with age. The cell membrane lipids, an important role player in nerve function, are oxidized, resulting in impaired cell-to-cell communication and transmission. The immune alert systems are slow to react and the memory to deal with the invading pathogen is impaired. Vulnerability to infections occurs.

This oxidative damage changes the local cellular environment, disrupts cellular signals, changes metabolic pathways, and interferes with immunological functions, with resulting potential for infection. A struggle results, with the body repair system trying to repair the damage. The strength of this repair system is compromised with age and the infection takes over.

Oxidative damage has stimulated interest in antioxidants in preventing the development of infectious diseases. Many healthy individuals are now taking vitamins and other supplements for their "protective effect". Maxwell (1999), in a review of the literature states: "a number of long term, prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled trials examining the protective effect of antioxidant supplements have now been completed. The results have been generally disappointing and have provided little evidence of efficacy." He also goes on to warn that certain antioxidants, namely beta-carotine, might increase the risk of cancer in those individuals who are at high risk for developing this disease.

Another substance that has been implicated in immune system deterioration is DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), the most abundant adrenal steroid in young healthy individuals. It is released from the zona reticularus of the adrenals after birth, increasing throughout puberty until maximum serum levels are reached in the third decade of life. Then a slow, steady decline commences of about 2% per year in circulating blood levels. By the time one reaches the eighth decade of life, the levels are at 10-15% of the maximum. This information is arrived at by doing a challenge test (adrenocorticotropic hormone challenge test) on different age groups which indicates that the decline is not the result of a change in the metabolism of DHEA, but instead appears to be affected by a diminished adrenal secretory rate. This is contrasted with the cortisol secretion, which is maintained throughout life. The resulting increase in cortisol/DHEA ratio in the blood may be another culprit partially responsible for the vulnerability that develops during aging. This is further confounded by the loss of receptors for DHEA that arise with aging such that there is an irreversible process rapidly overcoming any attempts to enhance the immune system.

The Center for Disease Control reports that infections are the fifth most common cause of death in the elderly. Most common infections are viral and bacterial. This vulnerability is most likely linked to deterioration in the immune system called immunosenescence. ("Immunosenescence is a complex remodeling of the immune system which may contribute significantly to the morbidity and mortality in the elderly. Immunosenescence due to the accumulation of chromosomal damage and induction of gene products that inhibit cell-cycle progression." (Ginaldi, 1999).

Our protective immunity system shows declines in the formation of affinity antibodies, the generation of long-lasting memory immune responses after vaccination and the expression of delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction to antigens initially encountered earlier in life. Virtually every human being that survives into advanced age expresses this immunodeficiency (immunosenescence) to some extent. The goal now is to map underlying cellular and molecular changes and develop ways to stop the deterioration of the immune system or to beef up this system so that deterioration does not take place.

Antioxidants are not the final answer, but may have a part in immune stimulation, increasing the body's capacity to respond to antigens. DHEA may play a functional role in the maintenance of an immune competent state, reversing some aspects of immunosenescence. In some cases, this may be enough to beef-up the effects of vaccinations. No robust evidence of either role exists in the literature. More research is needed to develop appropriate and effective prevention and intervention protocols to reduce the incidence of infectious disease. This calls for long term prospective studies that are not the "fashionable" studies funded in our society, but are valuable because they can supply answers to the challenge of prevention of infectious diseases and give us insight into reversing the process of aging.

Vaccination

It is well-documented that the elderly do not respond as well to vaccinations as young people. The purpose of a vaccine is to "educate" the immune system against an infectious agent. Vaccines provide a non-infectious substance containing the same antigens as the foreign pathogen to teach the immune system to recognize that foreign pathogen by creating populations of memory T cells and antibody-producing B cells and thus prevent future infection. Some vaccines, like the vaccine for smallpox, only need to be administered once to confer lifetime immunity. Other vaccines, such as vaccines for influenza, need to be administered annually because there are multiple strains of influenza virus and the dominant strain changes each year. Influenza and pneumonia are two diseases that particularly affect the elderly, and providing vaccinations is a high priority in eldercare.

However, there are special challenges involved in developing vaccines targeted for older adults. In the elderly, antibody responses to vaccines are slower, and not as strong as in younger people, and T cell subpopulations are not very responsive to vaccines. For reasons that are not yet clear, memory T cells from aged individuals do not react as quickly or for as great a duration as cells from younger subjects. Numerous studies have examined means of improving the efficacy of vaccines for the aged. Novel types of vaccine delivery using, for example, liposomes or naked DNA to create a more powerful immune response, are being developed. Alternative adjuvants such as IL-2 are being tested to boost vaccine efficacy. New methods of vaccination, like using nasal sprays or oral vaccines to stimulate mucosal immunity, instead of the traditional injections, are also being explored.

Nutrition

Nutrition plays a prominent role in immune response, and the elderly often suffer from malnutrition. Reduced caloric intake is known to slow the aging process and help maintain higher numbers of naive T cells and levels of IL-2. Vitamin E and zinc in particular are important nutrients for the proper functioning of the immune system. Long-term zinc deficiency in the elderly causes a decrease in cytokine production and impaired regulation of helper T cell activity. Vitamin E has recently been in the news as a possible treatment for Alzheimer's disease, and it seems that vitamin E supplements may also boost the immune system. In both mice and humans, a daily dose of vitamin E significantly higher than the U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance improved T cell function in cell-mediated immunity. Vitamin E is also an antioxidant that can protect lymphocytes, the brain, and other tissues from destructive free radicals.

Cheese –common food found in many households – was proved to act as a carrier for probiotic bacteria, which can aid in restoring your immune system’s power. The latest Finnish research confirmed that cheese significantly enhances the immunity and defensive system of an elderly, and offered data that consuming the probiotics from cheese on a daily basis can help one cope up and tackle age related changes in one’s immune system.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.therubins.com/aging/proc8inf.htm

http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/archives/immune-aging.php

http://www.innovitaresearch.org/news/09080601.html

http://stomachbacteria.net/probiotics-and-aging-how-a-common-food-boosts-up-your-immune-system/

http://www.healthmegamall.com/Articles/BabeskinArticle194.pdf

Best Restaurant for All Ages

2011-07-07T23:30:00.000-07:00

A group of 40 year old buddies discuss where they should meet for dinner. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen restaurant because the waitress's there have low cut blouses and nice breasts.

10 years later, at 50 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the food there is very good and the wine selection is good also.

10 years later at 60 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because they can eat there in peace and quiet and the restaurant is smoke free.

10 years later, at 70 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the restaurant is wheel chair accessible and they even have an elevator.

10 years later, at 80 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because that would be a great idea because they have never been there before.

Life expectancy and lifespan: How to increase longevity?

2011-06-26T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today there are more and more people living to be centenarians in the United States. In 1986 there was one centenarian per 10,000 elderly (defined as over 65 years of age) and by the year 2080 that number is expected to be 250 per 10,000. The 1990 census reported 35,800 Americans over 100 years old and 28,000 of them were women. In addition, it was predicted by the Census Bureau that the number of Americans over 100 years old will more than double to 80,000 by the year 2000. In fact, the most rapidly growing segment of the population is the 85 and older group. Between 1960 and 1980, that group increased by over 141%.

Mariam Amash, 120, Israel

Although there are more centenarians today than ever before, and thus our life expectancy is gaining tremendous grounds, our potential lifespan has not changed. Life expectancy is the age at which an individual born into a particular cohort is expected to die, as a child born in 1900 had an average life expectancy of 48 years. If born today, your life expectancy would be 75 years for a man and 80 years for a woman. In this past century alone, the average life expectancy in the United States has increased by almost 40 years which is a greater gain than made during all of human history. The most important contributing factors to this increase in life expectancy were improvements in public health and the discovery and use of antibiotics.

But how long can human beings live? Lifespan or "the maximum age that could be attained if an individual were able to avoid or be successfully treated for all illnesses and accidents" is generally agreed to be 110-120 years. Interestingly, our potential lifespan has not changed in over one hundred thousand years, so the amazing increase in life expectancy does not reflect any reduction of the basic aging process itself.

One hundred and twenty years is considered the ideal human life-span, as stated in Genesis (6:3): “G-d said: ‘My spirit shall not abide in a human forever, since a person is also flesh; therefore a person’s days will be 120 years.’”

Adam, the first man, lived 930 years. And Methusalah, seven generations later, is renowned for his extraordinary longevity: 969 years. But by the era of the patriarchs, the normal human life-span had apparently dropped closer to a biblical life-span of 120 years. (Abraham lived 175 years, Sarah lived 127 years, Joseph lived 110 years, etc).

Only one person in the Torah lived exactly 120 years--to the day. According to the Midrash, Moses was born and died on the 7th day of Adar (which is today). Many understand the significance of his death at precisely 120 years to be a statement attesting to the fact that he had, without question, completed his life’s work.

Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, 114, Holland

But, in our times, there are quite few people who can reach 120 life mark. Walford writes that two persons have lived to 113 and one to 119 years. However, Georgakas states that Delina Filkins, 113, of New York is thus far the best documented centenarian (May 4, 1815-December 4, 1928). Currently, there is a woman living in England who is counting the minutes since she turned a documented 120 years. Many have claimed lifespans greater than 113 years and some up to 170 years, but Georgakas research has not borne these claims out.

The best-documented oldest living human being was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, born on February 21, 1875. She lived to be 122 years old, dying in 1998. Ms. Calment came from good genetic stock–her father lived to 94, and her mother to 86. Defying conventional wisdom, she smoked until 1995, only giving up the habit out of pride at not being able to light her own cigarettes. Her sense of humor always remained, however (when asked about her vision of the future, she replied “very brief”).

Why, if life expectancy has increased so impressively, has not the human lifespan? Leonard Hayflick, professor of anatomy at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and a "dinosaur" specialist on aging, states that nature did not design us for great longevity. The goal is survival of the species which translates to getting offspring to sexual maturation and independence. Therefore, by age 30 we are coasting on our reserves. Hayflick states that our life expectancy would increase to about 91 (from 75) if cancer, heart disease and strokes were cured, but it would add no more than 3 years to our lifespan. Why? Because at around 100 years of age, all of our organs functional abilities have dramatically declined, so our only hope of an intervention is to first discover the cause of aging. Currently, our chances for living to our maximal lifespan, approximately 115 years, are 1 in 4 billion!

Besse Berry Cooper, 114, USA

Predictors of longevity

What will increase your odds of being the 1 in 4 billion who lives to actualize your lifespan potential? The Roman historian and philosopher, Lucius Auraeus Seneca (4 B.C.-A.D. 65), thought he knew: "It is not the rich and the great, not those who depend on medicine, who become old; but such as use much exercise, are exposed to fresh air, and whose food is plain and moderate, as farmers, gardeners, fishermen, laborers, soldiers; and such men as perhaps never employed their thoughts on the means which have been used to promote longevity. It is among these people, chiefly, that the most astonishing instances of it are observed. Sometimes in these situations, man still attains to the amazing age of 150 years, and upward".

Although Seneca’s belief of a 150 year old in Roman times was a definite exaggeration (life expectancy was 22 years!), his "formula" for the longest living persons was probably fairly accurate.

Several others have formulated profiles that constitute predictors of the longevous. Dr. G. M. Humphry, professor of surgery at Cambridge, examined 900 patients who were at least 90 years old and approximately 52 were centenarians. The 100 year olds consisted of 36 women and 16 men. The following data was compiled:

-The majority were light to moderate eaters and consumed very little meat.

-Most awakened early and enjoyed outdoor work.

-40 of the 52 drank alcohol.

-Few reported having had many illnesses.

-44 said they were excellent sleepers, most of them averaging over 8 hours a night.

-A large number stated they were from long lived families, but long lived was not well defined.

-12 were first born children

-Over 2/3 of the women had been married and raised large families.

-10 out of the 11 who were over 102 years old were female, the oldest being 105 years.

One of the most famous studies designed to isolate the best predictors of life expectancy was the Duke Longitudinal Study of Aging. Based on this study of 270 volunteer men and women between the ages of 60-94, Palmore, developed a mathematical model that helped predict direct and indirect variables that influence life expectancy. The strongest predictors of longevity were:

-Only the father’s age at death was significant in predicting a child’s longevity.

-Intelligence predictors were significant.

-Three socioeconomic predictors, education, finances, and occupation were positively correlated with longevity.

-The following activity factors were significant:

Locomotor activities (physical mobility)
Secondary activity (number of organizations the person was a member of, time spent reading, number of meetings attended, leisure activities)
Nongroup activity (daily hobbies)

-Three sexual relations indicators were significant, including the frequency: of intercourse per week, the past enjoyment of intercourse in younger years, and the current pleasure of intercourse.

-Tobacco use was a significant negative predictor.

-Work satisfaction, religious satisfaction, usefulness and happiness were all positively correlated with a long life.

-Three health predictors were significantly linked to longevity:

Physical functions rating based on objective health indices, i.e. ECG, audiogram, physical exam, etc.
Self rating of the person’s own health status
Health Satisfaction Score based on agreement/disagreement with 6 statements

Hryhory Nestor, 114, Ukraine

Other studies are currently underway which are reporting amazing results in increasing, and in some cases, doubling the longevity of animals in experimental environments. For instance, rats that have had their food intake cut by 40% can live a very long life, even doubling their average life expectancy. To top this off, these animals are amazingly free of diabetes, cancer, and heart disease! When they do get these diseases, they are much delayed when compared to animals who eat all they want. Human studies are currently underway. In fact, the noted anti-aging expert Dr. Walford is a strong proponent of calorie restriction as a method to increasing human life.

Another promising experiment which has been popular with the public was the Biosphere Project. From 1991 to 1993, 8 men and women were locked way from the rest of the world, having to grow every bite of food, generate their own air supply and recycle all their water in this environment. Problems arose when they ran low on food. As the Biosphere team members ate less, their body statistics changed. The men lost an average of 18 percent body weight, the women 10 percent. Blood pressure fell on the average by 20%. Indicators for diabetes, such as blood sugar and insulin levels, decreased by 30 percent on average. Cholesterol level also dropped. These statistics are interesting because they are numbers associated with much younger persons than were the members of the Biosphere team.

It looks like, it is almost impossible to reach and bypass the pre-set lifespan for humans of 120 years, however, you have a chance to get closer to the magic age. We are not only getting the longevity predisposition with our genes from our parents, but we have certain power to affect it by our lifestyle habits. It does make sense that living healthy and happy life helps to extend our years on the Earth.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.healthlinks.net/archive/aging.html

http://www.drlam.com/book/chapter1.asp

http://www.doctoryourself.com/lifespan.html

http://www.jewishtreats.org/2009/03/until-120.html

Why Life Expectancy Increased Around the World?

2011-06-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

After remaining fairly constant for most of human history, life expectancy (the average number of years a person can expect to live) has nearly doubled in the past century. There is little disagreement over these facts. Scholarly opinion diverges, however, as to whether these increases will continue or whether human longevity is approaching its limit.

Looking to the United States as example, it can be noticed that through the first half of the 20th century, improved nutrition and the control of infectious diseases drastically reduced child and infant mortality—developments that produced astonishing advances in life expectancy.

By 1950, penicillin and sulfa drugs had yielded the first substantial decrease in U.S. adult mortality. In the latter part of the century, continued improvements in living standards, health behaviors, and medical care also lowered mortality from chronic diseases, especially heart disease and stroke. This trend was also mirrored in all industrial nations.

Medical Reasons for Mortality Decrease

As was mentioned earlier, the main reasons for the increased life expectancy are linked to the success of the clinical medicine, helping people to live longer and in better health. Among them:

1. Infectious disease mortality:

* Better control of the spread of infection (sanitation, water, quarantine).
* Better personal hygiene (cleanliness, no close contact with sick persons).
* Anti‐bacterial drugs (sulfonamides, antibiotics).

2. Cardiovascular Disease Mortality:

* Decline in tobacco smoking.
* Changes in diet, reduction in consumption of saturated fat, cholesterol.
* Better control for high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
* Better diagnosis and treatment of heart disease and stroke.
* More and better coronary‐care units and emergency services.

3. Decrease in Cancer Mortality:

* Better control of infection (H. pylori, human papilloma virus, hepatitis).
* Decline in cigarette smoking.
* Improved treatment (surgery, chemotherapy).
* Better screening and earlier treatment.

Factors influencing Life Expectancy

The main social cause of the life expectancy increase is considered income increase and all issues associated with it like ability to afford medical treatment, better housing and nutrition. That is understandable, and the related studies confirmed that people with better education, income, and social status have noticeable life expectancy advantages over those in lower socioeconomic statuses.

Principal factors that influence life expectancy are technology, education, disposable income, urbanization, inequality, healthcare, and health risks/epidemics. Basic technology consists of inventions that reach to most places in the world and permeate the developed countries. Since these inventions are usually relatively old, they are both ubiquitous and inexpensive or, if expensive, they are supplied by most governments. Advanced technology, which should also have a positive effect on life expectancy, consists of recent inventions, many of which are not widely distributed worldwide mostly due to high costs and interface issues. GDP per capita is expected, among other effects, to influence the effects of advanced technology on life expectancy.

Education is having a positive effect on life expectancy because as education increases so does the knowledge of how to lead a healthier life. This knowledge might, for example, take the form of improved nutrition or reduced exposure to various health risks, such as indoor pollution exposures.

Disposable income is positively related to life expectancy for diverse reasons. As disposable income increases people have more resources for better shelter, food, and medical care.

Urbanization might seem to have a positive effect on life expectancy because as urbanization increases so does the accessibility, other things equal, to life-extending resources such as doctors, medicine, and education. However, urbanization also exerts negative effects such as stress, pollution, and congestion (with more rapid spread of infectious disease).

As the quality of healthcare increases, so should the average life expectancy. This factor is partially reflected in income, education, and perhaps urbanization.

People engage in many risky behaviors that compromise their health status and longevity. One of the foremost health risks today is tobacco smoking, so for the countries where the tobacco smoking is more socially accepted, the negative impact on life expectancy is expected. A second risky behavior with potentially enormous implications for life expectancy is that of unprotected sex in the presence of the AIDS virus. This variable is of particular importance in that it strikes predominantly people in the younger age groups that would not otherwise be likely to die for many years. This is in contrast to the chronic diseases of aging, such as heart disease and cancer, whose cures would not dramatically affect overall life expectancy.

Life Expectancy per Country

Based on this observation, the countries with higher income per capita should enjoy the better longevity for its residents. General trend is obvious, but some deviation from the general trend can be seen:

As you can see from the chart, more developed countries generally have higher life expectancies than less developed countries. However, some countries like Saudi Arabia have very high GNP per capita but don't have high life expectancies. Alternatively, there are countries, like China and Cuba, that have low GNP per capita, have reasonably high life expectancies.

Currently, microstates Monaco, Macau, San Marino, and Andorra, along with Japan have the world's highest life expectancies (89.73, 84.41, 83.01, 82.43, and 82.25, respectively).

Unfortunately, AIDS has taken its toll in Africa, Asia and even Latin America by reducing life expectancy in 34 different countries (26 of them in Africa). Africa is home to the world's lowest life expectancies with Swaziland (31.88 years), Angola (38.2 years) and Zambia (38.63 years) rounding out the bottom.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.prb.org/pdf06/nia_futureoflifeexpectancy.pdf

http://www.ipss.go.jp/seminar/j/seminar14/program/john.pdf

http://medicine.jrank.org/pages/1046/Longevity-Social-Aspects.html

http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/a/lifeexpectancy.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

http://spot.colorado.edu/~gravesp/WPLifeExpectancy6-6-02.htm

Historical increase in human longevity

2011-06-07T23:29:00.000-07:00

The word "longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for "life expectancy" in demography or to connote "long life". Reflections on longevity have usually gone beyond acknowledging the brevity of human life and have included thinking about methods to extend life.

Life expectancy during much of pre-modern history averaged just below 30 years. Part of the reason for such a low figure is that many children died at a very young age, pulling down the average life expectancy. Those who didn’t die young had a good chance of surviving to what we now call “middle age”.

After the Industrial Revolution many more children survived into adulthood and by the beginning of the 20th century average life expectancy in the developed world was close to 50, whereas for the world as a whole it was only around 40 years. The figures now are 78 and 67 respectively.

Let’s review the numbers in more details. Average lifespan at birth:

· Neanderthals (30,000 years ago) – 30 years.

· Neolithic (8,500 BC to 3,500 BC) – 38 years.

· Classic Greece and Rome (500 BC to 500 AD) – 35 years.

· Early Medieval – 48 years.

· Late Medieval – 38 years.

· Sweden, 1750 – 36 years.

· General Victorian (1850 – 1900) – 40 years.

· India, 1880 – 25 years.

· USA, 1900 – 48 years.

· France, 1950 – 66 years.

· Japan, 2007 – 83 years.

As you see, from the beginning of the human race, the life expectance significantly improved, however, the substantial changes occurred only recently. This graph shows the rapid and sudden improvement after centuries of stagnation:

The reason for this sudden improvement during and after the industrial revolution is a combination of improved medical technology and higher wealth.

The historical perspective

Demographers who look at life expectancy trends over time, and give considerable weight to the findings from historical study, expect there to be continued improvements to life expectancy. Historical analysis undertaken collaboratively in the Department of Geography in Cambridge and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany, has focused on life expectancy by looking at records dating back to the 1840s in a large number of countries for which estimates can be made. These data have been used to chart trends over a period from 1840 to the present day.

In 1840, life expectancy was highest among Swedish women, who lived on average 45 years. Today, as mentioned earlier, the longest life expectancy is to be found among Japanese women, whose lives on average exceed 85 years. This improvement appears to have been steady, with an average increase in life expectancy of three months every year until the present day. Record male longevity has risen rather more slowly yet still shows the same linear rise, with Japanese men now holding the record for the longest male survivors at an average age of just over 78 years.

In England, female adult mortality has been estimated from Anglican parish registers and genealogies relating to the Peerage, which reveal an increase in adult survivorship that began as early as 1700. Interestingly, this rise was experienced by both high- and low-income members of society, suggesting that at least initially the process derived from health-related changes rather than from a rise in economic well-being.

Future longevity

Historical demographic analysis has exposed a line of challenging enquiry: will life expectancy continue to rise, as predicted from the previous trends, or are we reaching a biologically determined ceiling? It would be rash on the basis of the historical trends to promote the idea of the attainment of eternity among humans or even an untrammelled route to a life expectancy at birth of 100 years by 2060, as some enthusiasts have done. Nonetheless, it is certain that centenarians will soon become commonplace individuals in our midst.

A significant part of the improvement in average life expectancy, certainly before 1950, was achieved by improvements in survivorship among the youngest age group; behavioral changes associated with health enhancement, such as a reduction in smoking, will also have contributed in recent decades. However, looking to the future, a fundamental finding of the historical analysis is that there is no sign of a leveling off of rates of improvement at the oldest ages. In fact, these rates of improvement would appear to be rising rather than leveling. It is perhaps noteworthy that, following a sequence of years when they had to raise their maximum life expectancy repeatedly, the United Nations has at last abandoned the practice of imposing such limits in their population projections.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/human-rights-facts-148-life-expectancy-throughout-history/

http://www.ipss.go.jp/seminar/j/seminar14/program/john.pdf

http://www.research-horizons.cam.ac.uk/spotlight/a-brief-history-of-ageing.aspx

Are you psychologically ready for early retirement?

2011-06-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

The thought of early retirement probably sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Especially if you’ve had another harried day at the office or a grinding day of physical labor. Endless sunny days of golf, travel, gardening, reading, visiting the kids and grandkids. But early retirement may not be all that it’s cracked up to be, caution many financial planners. And it’s not the money they’re talking about; it’s the whole psychology of early retirement.

Let’s assume, for the moment, that you have sufficient and reasonably dependable financial resources to see you through an early retirement. (Roughly half of all workers retire by age 62, according to the Social Security Administration.) Building sufficient financial resources to retire early is no easy task, but properly planned, many people can do it.

An equally challenging question—one that’s often overlooked—is whether you are psychologically ready to retire early. Here are some of the major psychological issues to consider before taking the plunge.

Boredom

Perhaps the number one complaint in retirement. Daily rounds of golf can get old quickly, particularly if all your regular golfing buddies still hold jobs. Boredom can be a problem in retirement at any age, but it is especially a challenge in early retirement because you’re looking at potentially many more years to fill with something meaningful. A good indication that this might be a problem is if you don’t currently have outside interests, if work is your life.

Lack of job stress

Lack of job stress sounds like a benefit of retirement, and for many it is. But while someone age 65 or 70 might be ready for a less hectic life, that’s not necessarily the case for someone who’s 50 or 55 and at the peak of their career.

Lack of social contact

Work is a major source of social contact. Losing touch with co-workers can be difficult under normal retirement circumstances, but early retirement exacerbates the problem.

Differing retirement dates

It’s common with early retirement for only one person in a marriage to be retiring early. The other may not have that luxury, or may not want to. That can cause friction. The working spouse may expect the retired spouse to keep house, or may resent watching the spouse sleep in while he or she trudges off to work. The retired spouse may be antsy to travel or move, but the working spouse can’t. The friction is most common when the husband retires before the wife retires, according to a Cornell University study.

Forced early retirement

In a sluggish economy, many people are being laid off, and some are taking early retirement packages. The problem here is, up to this point they may not have thought about or planned for retiring early. The early retirement package may sound good, but it takes time to adjust to the idea of sudden, early retirement.

Worries about money

Ideally, you’ve determined, perhaps with the help of a financial planner, that you have enough money for early retirement. Still, it’s not uncommon to worry financially at times, particularly if there are unexpected expenses or a bear market. The worry can be worse for early retirees because they’re funding a longer retirement period—perhaps 10 or 15 years longer. And it can be emotionally deflating to be forced back to work.

How do you avoid or minimize these psychological hurdles of early retirement?

Here are several ideas from CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professionals:

· Be certain you are in good financial shape.

· Prepare for early retirement starting now, regardless of your age. Envision what you truly want to do and how you’ll handle these psychological hurdles. And you’ll need to start planning as soon as possible to make it work financially.

· Don’t retire from work, retire to something. Simply quitting work may not necessarily create a fulfilling, enjoyable retirement.

· “Practice” your retirement before you retire—hobbies, vacation spots and the other aspects of your vision. Be flexible before settling on long-term commitments such as buying a home in a new location.

· Talk it over carefully with your spouse, so you both agree on expectations such as travel and housework.

· Consider semi-retirement. Work part time or only a few months out of the year in a job you like but that is perhaps less stressful. This provides a great psychological transition into full retirement, as well as financial benefits.

Source: http://www.practicalplanner.com/financial_articles/Are_You_Psychologically_Ready_to_Retire_Early.pdf

Telomerase Theory of Biological Aging

2011-05-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

In one of the previous posts we reviewed the cornerstone Genetic Theory of Aging - Planned Obsolescence Theory, focused upon the encoded programming within our DNA. But recent scientific development gave a road to other approaches linking human genetics with biological aging.

One of the most recent theories based on the gene damage has been the Telomerase Theory of Aging. This theory was born from the surge of technological breakthroughs in genetics and genetic engineering. First discovered by a group of scientists at the Geron Corporation in Menlo Park, California, telomeres are sequences of nucleic acids extending from the ends of chromosomes.

Telomeres

Telomeres are sequences at the ends of chromosomes. Though they are written in the 'alphabet' of the genes, telomeres do not contain the codes for proteins. So telomeres are not themselves genes, but neither are they meaningless junk. Instead these repetitive sequences protect the ends of the chromosome from damage, and prevent the chromosomes from fusing into rings, or binding haphazardly to other DNA in the cell nucleus.

When a cell divides, the chromosomes are copied by enzyme molecules. These molecules faithfully transcribe the genetic information on each chromosome, producing mirror images of both of the two original strands (which themselves were mirror images of each other). But the enzyme molecules that do the duplicating are unable to completely reproduce the tips of the chromosomes, much as a tape recorder cannot play the last few centimeters of tape in a cassette. As a result, the duplicate chromosome is necessarily slightly shorter than the original, lacking a small amount of the original telomere sequence. The missing DNA does not measurably affect cellular functioning until enough cell divisions have occurred that the telomeres on at least one of the chromosomes in the cell become critically short.

Cells with critically short telomeres alter their character by transcribing a partly distinct set of genes. They also become unresponsive to triggers that would normally stimulate them to divide. Though these growth arrested cells can live on in the body for years, once they have reached this state, they do not under normal circumstances, replicate themselves. They are said to have reached their Hayflick limit (named for the discoverer of the arrested state). Most cells can replicate about 50 times before the telomeres are too short.

Telomerase

Because sperm and egg cells are themselves descended from progenitor cells, if there were no mechanism for replacing lost telomere, then all organisms with linier chromosomes (eukaryotes) would be condemned to quick extinction due to Hayflick limits in their reproductive tissues. Clearly, that's not the case. Instead, there are a number of mechanisms in nature that counteract the natural tendency of telomeres to erode over time.

Scientists discovered that the key element in rebuilding our disappearing telomeres is the "immortalizing" enzyme telomerase, an enzyme found only in germ cells and cancer cells. Telomerase appears to repair and replace telomeres manipulating the "clocking" mechanism that controls the life span of dividing cells. Future development of telomerase inhibitor may be able to stop cancer cells from dividing and presumably may convert them back into normal cells.

This hybrid molecule, part protein, part RNA, is capable of slowing telomere erosion, halting erosion altogether, or lengthening telomeres beyond those in the parent cell. The genes that produce telomerase are found in every potentially replicating cell in the body, including cells at their Hayflick limits, but the genes that produce telomerase are inactive in the great majority of our cells, for the vast bulk of our lives. Those genes are active across the body only in early fetal development. After that point, telomerase is only found in a few special tissues such as antibody producing immune cells, cells that replenish the gut lining, and sperm producing cells.

Further recent research by Don Kleinsek Ph.D., of GeriGene Inc. (one of the few genealogists looking for the genes involved with aging), indicates that telomeres can be repaired by the introduction of the relevant hormone. In other words telomeres and their subsequent processes affect each other. It may be possible, (once we know what each telomere is responsible for), to precisely introduce the necessary hormone and aid genetic repair, as well as the hormonal balance etc.

Evidence in support of the telomerase hypothesis of aging

Telomerase are shorter in most tissues from older individuals compared to younger individuals.
Children born with progeria (early aging syndrome) have shortened Telomerase compared to age-matched controls.
Telomerase in normal cells from young individuals progressively shorten when grown in cell culture.
Experimental elongation of Telomerase extends proliferative capacity of cultured cells.

The role of telomerase in checking aging remained unaddressed, in part because of the cancer-promoting activity of telomerase. In order to circumvent this problem, scientists have successfully tested telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), one of the components of telomerase, in mice and have shown that it could restrain cancer. The test revealed that TERT could improve the fitness of epithelial barriers, particularly the skin and the intestine. It also produced a systemic delay in aging accompanied by extension of the median life span.

Does Telomeres Get Shorter to Everyone?

No — and that’s a big surprise. Researchers in Sweden found out that some people’s telomeres do not necessarily get shorter over time. In fact, they found that some people’s telomeres even get longer. This variation at the individual level was hidden by prior studies that averaged results over large population.

What Does Non-Shortening Telomeres Mean?

In the study, 959 individuals donated blood twice, 9 to 11 years apart. On average, the second samples had shorter telomeres than the first. However, around 33% of the people had either a stable or increasing telomere length over a period of around 10 years. What does this mean? Nobody knows. It could be that those people have an amazing cellular anti-aging mechanism or it could be that they have an early sign of cancer (researchers tried to rule this out) or it could be fairly meaningless. What we do know for sure is that aging is a lot more complicated than simply looking at the shortening of telomeres.

Life Affects Telomeres

There is a full literature on telomere that has lately been published. It seemingly is the reason why diseases become more severe at late-life. As our life goes on, cell senescence, illnesses and disease tend to set a limit to longevity. According to research going beyond 120 years is almost impossible if a methods to maintain telomeres lengths are not found.

It is even possible to verify the length of telomeres. Length of telomere can give an approximate of the biological life span of cells and organisms. It has been found that people who experience oxidative stress and suffer from various diseases have much shorter telomere than controlled groups.

Moreover, recent research shows that children, who have had an emotionally traumatic childhood, being sexually abused or beaten, tend to have shorter telomeres, according to a research by Journal Biological Psychiatry.

Shortening of Telomeres does also offer reliable justification as to why the immune system becomes less responsive to illnesses and infections. The decline in immune functions is caused by the peak of replication of cells. The immune system is unable to reproduce new cells to tackle diseases and infections. For instance, therapies that would increase the telomerase in the human immune cells such as CD4 and CD8 would retard the senescence of cells. The potential benefits would be elevated cell strength to handle stress, deal with diseases such as AIDS and prevent bone loss as well as inducement of inflammatory cytokines.

Telomere theory of aging has direct relations to outcomes such as high blood pressure, psychosocial stress, obesity and a weak lipid statue. This connects the theory to oxidative damage, susceptibility to cardiovascular disease and other theories.

How to Help your Telomeres?

1. Lifestyle

The aim is to maintain appropriate long telomeres. This can be achieved by avoiding all types of stress: physical, environmental and psychological. Lifestyle guides such as proper diets with a proper daily-recommended volume of vitamins and antioxidants are advised. Friendly relationship promoting positive atmosphere and mental attitudes are necessary.

Medical treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy as well as negative life experiences do also shorten the telomere. Some years of your life might be ripped-off through personal crisis as well as the medical treatment mentioned due to their negative effect on cell division and telomere shortening. Lifestyle is, hence, a prerequisite for longevity to be acquired.

2. Food and Medical Supplements

It has been found by a ‘recent study conducted on 586 women’ that daily consumers of multi-vitamins have comparatively longer telomere of leukocyte DNA. The telomere is 5.1 percent longer than average people not taking multi-vitamins. This concludes that antioxidant plays an important role in assuring integrity in cell division through maintaining the telomere length.

Telomere shortening can be caused by oxidative damage as it forces an increase rate of duplication of new cells. Therefore, antioxidants can be effective in tackling both diseases and telomere shortening. For instance, l-carnosine can prove to alter or even avoid the telomere damage, in the culture of human diploid fibroblast. Early studies carried out in 1994, depicts that Carnosine does both retard senescence and encourage the generation of juvenile phenotype in culture of human fibroblasts. This elevates the ‘Hayflick limit’ and makes cell reproduction further possible.

Geron have the patent for TA-65 and TA used to activate telomerase. They claim that a vital substance from astragaloside IV acts as an activator of telomerase and by virtue this substance comes from the astragalus root. It is thought that the substance is cycloastragenol, according to the patent, as the substance has not been mentioned. Astragalus pills have many benefits to our biological system such as improving our immune system. Yet Chinese ginger roots are also being claimed to activate telomerase and hence part of the firewall.

RevGenetics’ Astral Fruit is a supplement that contains astragaloside IV. There is 33 mg in every capsule of it and two per day can be consumed. Astragaloside IV is actually being scrutinized for its anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory cardioprotective and vasodiliation properties. Eventually, its neuro-protective features acts as a defense against ischemia. Yet, there are not any known side effects of the substance but it has not been in the market for long. Little publications have been made about its impact on inducing telomerase.

Cycloastragenol according Geron, 5 mg of cycloastragenol results in equal activation in telomerase as 100 mg of astragaloside IV. However, apart from patent information cycloastragenol there are no published sources about the substance available. Geron patent recommends that at around 50 to 100 mg of astragaloside IV is consumed. However, two capsules of 33 mg are adequate as potential hazard effects are still not yet known.

Other more versatile firewalls are Green Tea, Allicin, curcumin and resveratrol which tend to restrain the inducement of telomerase for cancer cells. These substances have strong anti-cancer benefits as well as other benefits.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.anti-aging-today.org/aging/theory/telomerase.htm

http://www.telomere.net/

http://longevity.about.com/od/whyweage/a/telomere_shortening.htm

http://www.freemeditations.com/benefits-of-meditation-telomerase-anti-aging.html

http://www.immortalhumans.com/telomere-shortening-and-damage/

Impact of Low Vision on Health Care and Personal Care of Elderly

2011-05-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

Health Care Aspects

Low vision affects both the business aspect of health care and the medical aspect of health care for the elderly. While age-related cognitive declines will affect the ability of the elderly to understand the business issues concerning their health care, low vision can seriously impair the ability to understand as well. Medicare and insurance companies send out large amounts of information to the elderly, but most is in small font and is difficult for senior citizens to read without help. In many cases, large print material is available, but many elderly do not know this. Rather than seek assistance, it is common for the elderly to ignore the information sent to them, leaving them frustrated at not understanding their benefits.

Lowered acuity and difficulty reading also affect the business aspect of senior citizens' health care when the elderly are required to complete forms for Medicare, insurance companies, and doctor's offices. Difficulties in accurately reading forms may result in dangerously inaccurate information being given. This is especially true in the case of medical history forms, where doctors may base treatment plans on inaccurate information.

The medical aspect of health care is also impacted by age-related vision loss. Reduced acuity means that the elderly may have a difficult time or a total inability to read medicine labels or treatment directions from doctors. Without being able to read this information, the elderly may set their own dosage or ignore the drugs and treatment recommendations entirely. Senior citizens may also find it difficult to read the pharmacy information given to them with prescription drugs, meaning they may not understand side effects, warnings, or interactions with other substances.

Poor color discrimination makes pill organization a challenge. Many pills come in the same size, color, and shape. While all have markings that make them distinguishable from other pills, these markings are usually etched into the pill (meaning there is no color or luminance contrast) or printed in fine print. In either case, these markings do not serve to help the elderly in distinguishing one pill from another. Even when pills are slightly different colors, the poor color discrimination that comes with age prevents the elderly from being able to distinguish the pills. This can lead to extremely dangerous mismanagement of medications.

Poor color discrimination may also impair senior citizens' ability to notice changes in their bodies. Changes in skin color may be harder for the elderly to detect than for younger people. This can result in bruises, rashes, changed moles, or small lesions that go unnoticed and untreated.

Low-vision also impedes good health care by limiting the driving activities of the elderly. Many senior citizens prefer to ignore recommendations to see medical professionals rather than drive to their appointment or seek alternate transportation.

Personal Self-Care Aspects

Self-care refers to daily living activities, such as, bathing, moving about within the home, eating, dressing, and grooming. Ideally, the elderly would be capable of performing these tasks independently, but these tasks are commonly impaired by normal, age-related vision loss. The self-care task with the highest physical risk involved may be bathing. This risk is compounded by physical impairments that prevent the elderly from functioning safely. Poor depth perception can prevent the elderly from accurately judging the depth of the bathtub. Poor contrast sensitivity can prevent the elderly from accurately judging the edges and the contours of the bathtub. Both of these impairments can cause serious injuries in senior citizens. Young and older people alike have experienced the injuries caused from misjudging the distance of a stair step. For the elderly, this is even more dangerous because the step into a bath tubs typically deeper than the average stair step and also because the bones of the elderly are more brittle and more susceptible to injury. Bathtub transfer benches, walk-in showers, and caregiver assistance can all reduce the risk of injury during bathing.

Mobility within the home is also a major part of self-care and also involves some physical risk. Studies have shown that the elderly are more confident and less likely to fall in the familiarity of the home than in unfamiliar environments, but too many senior citizens still experience falls at home. While these falls often result from physical ailments and disabilities, age-related vision loss can certainly increase the risk. Poor contrast sensitivity and poor color discrimination combine to limit the ability of the elderly to determine edges. Examples of edges that are important to detect are the edges of stair steps or edges between two surface types, like carpet and tile. Detecting edges is important when the elderly are moving about because the individual who can detect a change in the surface they are walking on, such as from carpet to slick tile, can be prepared for the change and continue moving safely.

Poor contrast sensitivity and poor color discrimination can also limit the ability to perceive obstacles in their path. Modifying the environment to meet low-vision senior citizens' needs can reduce these risks.

Senior citizens may also find planning and preparing meals becomes more challenging with older age. Because of age-related health problems, doctors often prescribe special diets that limit substances such as sodium, sugar, and cholesterol. Many elderly may also have food allergies for which they must plan. While the ingredients of food products are required to be printed in a standard format on all product labels, this information can be inaccessible to the elderly with poor acuity. Poor contrast sensitivity affects the ability to read this small print when the labels are printed in low-contrast colors. Glare can also impair senior citizens' ability to read food labels on products with plastic or shiny labels. Unfortunately, the marketing industry produces product labels designed with younger, healthier eyes in mind.

After planning a healthy diet and shopping for the right products, the elderly must face the challenges of low vision while cooking. Acuity and poor contrast sensitivity may impact the ability of the elderly to do their own cooking. For example, stove and oven knobs are often printed in smaller print and sometimes in low contrast. The same is true for cooking instructions on product packaging. Poor color discrimination can make it difficult for the elderly to determine when their food is done. For example, the younger person's may be able to look through the oven glass to see that bread has turned a golden color; older individuals may not be able to discriminate the change between the colors of unbaked bread.

Although senior citizens may be physically capable of dressing independently, choosing clothes that are both attractive to the individual wearing them and socially acceptable can be a challenging. This is the result of poor color discrimination caused by changes in the variable lens. For clothing to appear attractive to the individual the colors should be bright enough and bold enough that the older person wearing them can distinguish the colors. To be socially acceptable, the different pieces of clothing should match. Elderly persons with poor color discrimination may need assistance when choosing clothing to wear outside the home.

Personal grooming, including hair and makeup, can be challenging to senior citizens also. The phrase "blue haired" is not as farfetched as some think. Senior citizens who color their hair may end up with strangely tinted hair, and do not notice it, especially if the hairdresser is also older or if they color their own hair at home. This is because of age-related impairments in color discrimination. The yellowing of the variable lens filters out much of the color information taken in, so the elderly eye sees the tintas gray.

Cosmetics also challenge elderly women when grooming. As the eye ages, it requires more stimulation for a given response. This means that the older eye needs greater intensities of color for perception to occur. This need for increased intensities may mean elderly women will wear too much make-up, because they cannot perceive less make-up or more appropriate colors. Poor color discrimination adds to the problem, because elderly women may choose colors that do not match each other, resulting in an unusual look. Greater amounts of light would normally help in these tasks, but this type of activity in this type of environment make greater amounts of light more harmful than good. For the elderly, large amounts of light should be aimed at the task at hand, not at the eyes, but when the task involves the face, aiming light at the eyes may be difficult to avoid. Extra light aimed at the face will cause glare, which will only make the task harder. Mirrors and porcelain bathtubs and toilets make extra light problematic as well. Reflection of light from mirrors and shiny porcelain surfaces will add to temporarily blinding glare. While blue hair and unusual makeup will not put senior citizens in any physical danger, it can affect the way people interact with them. Poor interactions can only serve to further the social isolation that senior citizens already feel.

While cosmetics and blue hair involve mostly elderly women, elderly men face challenges in grooming as well. Elderly men may shave less frequently than expected because it may be difficult to see the stubble growing on the face, especially if facial hair is a light shade of gray or white on light skin or if facial hair is dark on dark skin. This is due to a number of age-related changes combined, including poor acuity, poor color discrimination, and poor contrast sensitivity.

Source: http://www.laurenscharff.com/research/donia/impact_of_low_vision.htm