As long as there are two parents together, they pretty much take care of each other,” said Francine Russo, author of They’re Your Parents Too!

Married couples can also take advantage of economies of scale when it comes to things like housing or insurance. Single seniors, on the other hand, lack both the emotional and financial support a spouse can provide.

See Also: AARP Caregiving Resource Center >> 

According to Susan Brown, a Bowling Green sociology professor, unmarried older adults are “much more economically vulnerable” than married counterparts.

They’re more likely to be poor and to be using public assistance, and they’re less likely to have health insurance but more likely to have a disability,” Brown told Reuters.

When multiple marriages are involved, the situation could get even more tricky. Adult children may be called on to help care for stepparents as well as biological parents (and if both parents remarried and all parents and stepparents are still living, that’s quadruple the caregiving!). Or they may have to share tough caregiving decisions with stepsiblings they hardly know or trust.

See Also: When Parents Move In With Kids >> 

Such issues will only multiply in the coming years. While there are obviously many boomers whose parents are divorced, the numbers are nothing compared with the number of divorced boomers themselves.

Since 1990, the divorce rate of those over 50 has doubled,” says Brown. “In 2010, the number of 50-plus divorcees was around 643,000.”

According to a study published this spring in The Gerontologist, one out of three boomers is currently unmarried, and some 60 percent of unmarried boomers are divorced.

See Also: Why Long-Married Couples Split >> 

“As soon as you have an inkling that a divorced parent might need assistance, it definitely requires a family meeting,” advises Joy Loverde, author of The Complete Eldercare Planner. “Everyone needs to be there, to open up about any concerns, to start sharing responsibilities. Start talking about it right now; do not wait.”

Monday Quick Hits:

 ・Excess carbs linked to cognitive decline. In a three-year study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, high intake of carbohydrates and sugar was associated with higher risk of developing dementia. Lead researcher Rosebud O. Roberts said one reason is the effect of these foods on glucose and insulin in the brain.

 ・New retirement saving limits for 2013. The IRS announced last week that it would raise the contribution limits for IRAs and 401(k) plans slightly. In 2013, workers will be able to put up to $5,500 into an IRA and $17,500 in a 401(k) account. The additional amounts for those over 50 — an extra $1,000 for IRAs and $5,500 for 401(k)s — won’t change.

 ・McCain ’08 to Obama ’12 voters skew older, white and male. Of voters who backed John McCain in 2008 but now support Barack Obama, 55 percent are male, 34 percent are 55 or older and 72 percent are white, according to a new Reuters poll. Defectors to Obama made up a smaller subset of those polled than Obama ’08 voters who now support Romney.

 ・Online learning-sphere expanding. The University of Texas announced last week that its nine universities and six health institutions will soon offer free online courses via edX, the Web-based education initiative launched last spring by Harvard University and MIT.

 ・RIP George McGovern. For McGovern — who died Saturday at age 90 — one spectacular failure belies a lifetime of achievements. Here are five things you might not know about the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee.

Photo: Yellow Dog Productions/Getty Images

Across social media outlets, the presidential election is straining previously friendly digital relationships. According to a survey from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, nearly one-fifth of people admit to blocking, unfriending or hiding someone on social media over political postings. [Only one-fifth???] The biggest complaints were someone posting too frequently about political subjects, posting something a user disagreed with or found offensive and arguing about politics with the user or someone they know.

“In the real world, we navigate these issues all the time,” Aaron Smith, a Pew research associate, told CNN. “We know not to bring up politics around certain friends or family members. We try to avoid people who are constantly looking for an argument or trying to sell us on their pet ideas.”

Since blocking, unfriending, hiding people is the closest social analogue to those real-world examples, it’s not necessarily surprising to see people taking these steps in the virtual space,” he added.

For some, the no-talking-politics mandate carries over from real life to the digital world: 22 percent say they avoid making political comments on social media sites for fear of offending others.

Among the Center’s other findings:

• 38 percent of users said they discovered through friends’ social network postings that their political beliefs were different than they thought.

• The majority of people users’ blocked, unfriended or hid because of politics were “distant friends or acquaintances”  in real life, not close friends, coworkers or family members.

So how about you guys — ever blocked, unfriended or hid a social media friend because of their political posts? And, if so, why?

Monday Quick Hits:

• Democrats, Republicans differ in TV preferences? According to TiVo, they do. A study conducted by the company’s research and analytics division measured the top 20 shows for registered Democrat and Republican viewers — and not one network show appeared on both lists. Two of the top shows for Republicans were PGA golf tournaments and NASCAR, and reality shows were also popular. On the Democrat list, sitcoms and animated comedies scored high.

• Social Security increase for 2013 will be small. The cost-of-living adjustment for next year won’t be made official until tomorrow, but it’s expected to be between 1 and 2 percent — a raise of about $12 to $24 per month for your average retiree. “The COLA continues to be very critical to people in keeping them from falling behind,” says David Certner, AARP’s legislative policy director.

Image via someecards. 

And while it makes sense that booze would take more of a toll on older adults than the younger set — after all, they’ve got quite a few more years of drinking under their proverbial belts — the magnitude of the cost difference is what’s startling: Alcohol-related hospital admissions for 55- to 74-year olds cost 10 times that of 16- to 24-year-olds. The number of older patients admitted for alcohol-related problems was about eight times higher than the number of younger patients admitted.

The report, from the UK’s national agency on alcohol misuse, found that overall alcohol-related hospital admissions cost England nearly £2 billion in 2010-2011.

Agency chief Eric Appleby said it’s a “common perception” in England that young people are responsible for rising alcohol treatment costs, but “our findings show that in reality this is not the case. It is the middle-aged, and often middle-class drinker, regularly drinking above recommended limits, who are actually requiring this complex and expensive NHS care.”

In the most recent study in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that “excessive alcohol consumption” cost the country about $223.5 billion in 2006. This study, however, looked at a range of alcohol-related costs, including the somewhat nebulous cost of “losses in workplace productivity.” Only 11 percent of that total cost figure was from alcohol-related health care expenses.

Friday Quick Hits:

• VP debate brings political drama. Check out a transcript of Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan’s comments on Medicare and Social Security.

• Ready to reassess your Medicare plan? Medicare’s open enrollment period begins October 15 and runs through December 7. During this time, you have the opportunity to make changes for the upcoming year.

Photo: Adermark Media/Getty Images

This type of genetic testing — known as whole genome sequencing — has many useful applications. But medical ethicists worry over how, when and with whom such info may be shared. A report released today by the presidential bioethics commission reveals that many legal issues surrounding genetic privacy have yet to be addressed.

It is not a fantasy to think about how, in the future, without clear baseline privacy protections people could use this in ways that are really detrimental,” Commission Chair Amy Gutmann told the Associated Press.

“The life-saving potential of genome sequencing depends on gathering genetic information from many thousands (perhaps millions) of individuals, most of whom will not directly benefit from the research,” said Guttmann in a press release. ”Those who are willing to share some of the most intimate information about themselves for the sake of medical progress should be assured appropriate confidentiality, for example, about any discovered genetic variations that link to increased likelihood of certain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart disease and schizophrenia.”

At present, only about half of states make “surreptitious commercial testing” illegal. This means that, theoretically, anyone with access to your hair, saliva or snot could have your DNA analyzed, for whatever purpose. Right now, the process costs too much for such abuse to be likely; but with the price of gene-mapping dropping rapidly, it could soon cost less than the cost of many standard diagnostic tests.

Other protections are similarly spotty. For instance, a 2008 federal law prohibits employers or health insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of genetic information — but says nothing about life insurance of long-term care insurance providers.

The commission offered recommendations for “what ethically ought to be done and what legally must be done,” including:

• Improved data security and access to databases
• Integrating whole genome sequence data into health records
• Federal and state laws that ensure “a consistent floor of protections” covering genetic data “regardless of how they were obtained”
• Policies that prohibit unauthorized whole genome sequencing without an individual’s consent

Thursday Quick Hits:

• Who are you calling a tech novice? Forbes columnist Larry Magid complains that it’s “stupid and insulting” to treat boomers as universally tech-challenged. “I’m a baby boomer — and so is Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak and the late Steve Jobs,” writes Magid. “It was my generation that invented personal computers. Many of us used CP/M, DOS or even Unix long before Macs and PCs had graphical user interfaces.”

• RIP, Alex Karras. The former Detroit Lions lineman and TV and film actor died Wednesday at age 77. Karras had kidney disease, heart disease and stomach cancer, according to his family. His most well-known ailment, however, was dementia, which Karras attributed to old football injuries; he was one of the more than 3,500 former NFL players suing the league.

• Aging without children. In a beautiful New York Times essay, Kelly Flynn explains how her inability to have children has both shaped her approach to life and “taken on a different meaning” with age. “Now, as I help my parents navigate the trials and indignities of old age, I can’t help thinking, who will do this for me?” she writes. “Is it too late to cultivate a relationship, so that in my old age, there will be someone to sneak me a beer in the nursing home or care whether my socks match?”

Photo: Hank Morgan/Rainbow/Science Faction/Corbis

News Interest: Overall, older adults expressed greater interest in news. Just 10 percent of boomers and 6 percent of the oldest group (ages 67 and up) said they’re “not really interested” in the news, compared to 23 percent of Gen X and 31 percent of the youngest group.** The percentage of adults in each age group who described themselves as “news junkies” hovered around 12 percent, with men nearly twice as likely as women to put themselves in this category.

News Attention Span: Older adults also seem to pay closer attention when reading the news (online or in print). Though less than half of all respondents either read every word of an article or skim full articles, those 67 and older were more likely than other age groups to do so. And while 11 to 12 percent of Gen X and Y respondents say they read headlines only, just 5 percent of boomers and 2 percent of the oldest respondents said they’re in this habit.

With the expectation being that online news will further displace TV over time, incorporating online news consumers’ habits and predilections into reporting will be increasingly important,” said Jill Gress, vice president of Harris Poll Insights.

“This means concise reporting, given online news consumers’ stronger tendency to read articles more selectively,” she continued, “and increased use of supporting data, as online news consumers are much more interested in this than those preferring TV.”

News Mode: Of all respondents, 36 percent said they preferred online news, 50 percent preferred TV news and just 10 percent preferred print news (alas!). Respondents 67 and up were most likely to choose print as a preferred news source (22 percent versus 13 percent of boomers, 7 percent of Gen X and 5 percent of Gen Y).

News Bait: Asked what enticed them to read an online or print article, 54 percent of respondents said a catchy headline does it; 44 percent said an interesting picture, 43 percent “interesting data or research,” 28 percent “an interesting infographic,” and 13 percent “who the author is.” The oldest respondents were most likely to be drawn in by pictures and data or research; the youngest group was most likely to be drawn in by infographics.

** Harris called the youngest group “Echo Boomers,” though this generation is more commonly known as the Millennials or Gen Y, which are the terms I’ve used. The age breakdowns Harris used for the youngest two generations are also atypical, with 18- to 35-year-olds considered Gen Y and 36- to 47-year-olds considered Gen X.

Wednesday Quick Hits:

• Don’t call it a commune. Cohousing is gaining popularity among retirees, but the movement is only tangentially related to hippie-era communal living. Cohousing emphasizes privacy but with social contact among members, advocates say. Residents live in private homes but share certain facilities (gardens, courtyards) and often weekly meals. “What’s the best thing about cohousing? We know our neighbors really, really well,” said Joani Blank, 75, a former board member of the Cohousing Association of the United States. “What’s the worst thing? We know our neighbors really, really well.”

• Boomers driving up urban rents? Yes, say some experts — though boomers aren’t alone in the blame. The trend among both recent retirees and recent college graduates toward renting over buying and urban over suburban living is pushing up city rents, they say.

Photo: Stephanie White/Getty Images

Why? For starters, the scope of this study only included tests for expired drugs’ potency — not their safety.

“When the average reader reads this, the take-home message is not, ‘€˜Your expired medications are safe to take,’” warned lead study author Lee Cantrell.

What’s more, just because some ’expired’ meds may still be effective doesn’t mean yours necessarily are. All of the drugs tested in the study were in bottles that had never been opened. And the types studied — mostly painkillers and sedatives — are obviously quite different than, say, cholesterol medicine or antidepressants. While neither are likely to become toxic over time, they can become ineffective and ineffective medications can be just as dangerous if you rely on them for treatment.

But the study results could convince policy makers and/or drug makers that it’s time to take another look at certain drug expiration dates. Of the 14 compounds the researchers analyzed, 12 still fulfilled government requirements for potency, although they had officially expired 28 to 40 years earlier (the exceptions were aspirin and amphetamine).

“If manufacturers were required to do longer-term stability tests, it could be an enormous cost-saver for consumers,” said Cantrell.

Tuesday Quick Hits:

Disappointing Alzheimer’s drug may have some memory benefits. In clinical trials this year, Eli Lilly & Co.’s solanezumab missed major targets of slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease or improving daily functioning. But further analysis show it may be helpful for patients with mild cognitive decline.

Fake pet, real companionship. Remote-controlled critters could soon provide isolated or ill seniors with a constant companion, reports Bloomberg. Company GeriJoy Technologies will introduce software that allows users to communicate vocally with an electronic dog named Buddy on their computer, phone or tablet screens.

Sixty-eight-year-old Barbara Miller Elegbede is one such full-time “couchsurfer.” After retiring from teaching and secretarial work, Elegbede began traveling the world, interspersing stays in hostels and hotels with free sojourns in strangers’ guest quarters. She finds the latter on couchsurfing.org, a web community with at least 160,000 members over 50. Notes Reuters:

Accommodations can range from a weathered futon in someone’s living room to a yacht bunk or a Maui tree house. Typical stays last two to three days but can also last several months. While you can reciprocate and offer your own couch when your host travels, there’s no requirement that you do so.

See Also: 16 Ways to Travel Cheap >> 

Compared to that mode of travel, crossing the country in a mobile home seems downright quaint, doesn’t it? RV living has been a popular retirement pursuit for decades, of course, but industry insiders say it shows no signs of slowing down — despite rising gas prices. Data from the Escapees RV Club and the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association indicate that about 25,000 U.S. retirees live in RVs year-round, according to Reuters.

See Also: 12 Things You Should Know Before Hitting the Road in an RV >> 

Jaimie Hall Bruzenak, co-author of Retire to an RV: The Roadmap to Affordable Retirement, told Reuters that RV costs can vary widely. Depending on style and amenities, an RV may cost as little as $5,000 used or upwards of $150,000. Other expenses include campsite fees, insurance and fuel.

Fran Reisner, 52, paid $92,000 for a 35-ft. Winnebago Adventurer. Her rolling home, which logged 18,000 miles across 27 states last year, has a king-size bed, a double-wide fridge and a washer-dryer.

Monday Quick Hits:

• Kenny Rogers connects the dots. In a new memoir, Luck or Something Like It, the entertainer traces his path from public housing in Texas to international solo star.

• The big 10. No, not that big 10 — we’re talking the 10 states where public pension fights are fiercest. According to the Associated Press, 10 states are attempting to address unfunded pension liabilities by reducing retiree benefits.

Photo: Christinne Muschi/Reuters

President Barack Obama

See Also: AARP Bulletin’s interviews with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney >> 

Medicare & Social Security: Obama started the entitlements debate by telling a story about his grandmother. ”The reason she could be independent was because of Social Security and Medicare,” he said. “She had worked all her life, put in this money, and understood that there was a basic guarantee, a floor under which she could not go. And that’s the perspective I bring when I think about what’s called entitlements.” He followed by stating that “the way for us to deal with Medicare in particular is to lower health care costs.” As for Social Security, he said the basic structure was sound, it just needed a few tweaks.

Romney started by stating that “neither the president nor I are proposing any changes for any current retirees or near retirees, either to Social Security or Medicare. So if you’re 60 or around 60 or older, you don’t need to listen any further.” He went on to criticize Obama’s stance on Medicare reform and note that “with regards to young people coming along, I’ve got proposals to make sure Medicare and Social Security are there for them without any question.”

This was followed by several rounds of back-and-forth between the men over the idea of a voucher system in Medicare, which Romney supports and Obama does not. Obama mentioned AARP twice during this segment, telling Romney ”when you move to a voucher system, you are putting seniors at the mercy of those insurance companies. And over time, if traditional Medicare has decayed or fallen apart, then they’re stuck … And this is the reason why AARP has said that your plan would weaken Medicare substantially. And that’s why they were supportive of the approach that we took.”

In a statement about the debates, AARP Senior Vice President John Hishta said:

“While we respect the rights of each campaign to make its case to voters, AARP has never consented to the use of its name by any candidate or political campaign. AARP is a nonpartisan organization and we do not endorse political candidates nor coordinate with any candidate or political party. We remain focused on providing voters with balanced information on where candidates stand on the key issues, so they can make their own decisions on Election Day. For more information on where the candidates stand on premium support and other Medicare topics discussed tonight, see AARP’s Voters’ Guides.”

See clips of the two candidates talking about Medicare and Social Security >>

Medicaid: Obama said that Romney’s plan of “shifting Medicaid to states” would result in a 30 percent cut in Medicaid over time. “That may not seem like a big deal when it just is, you know, numbers on a sheet of paper, but if we’re talking about a family who’s got an autistic kid and is depending on Medicaid, that’s a big problem.”

Romney responded that all he wanted was “to take the Medicaid dollars that go to states and say to a state, you’re going to get what you got last year, plus inflation, plus 1 percent, and then you’re going to manage your care for your poor in the way you think best … the right approach is one which relies on the brilliance of our people and states, not the federal government.” See clips of the two candidates talking Medicaid >>

Health Care Reform: Romney said that as far as cutting spending, “Obamacare” was on his list — then quickly added:

ROMNEY: I apologize, Mr. President. I use that term with all respect, by the way.

OBAMA: I like it.

ROMNEY: Good. OK, good. So I’ll get rid of that.

Romney went on to detail the reasons he would repeal the Affordable Care Act, finishing by saying that “the best course for health care is to do what we did in my state: craft a plan at the state level that fits the needs of the state.” Obama, of course, defended the health care law.

“If you’ve got health insurance, it doesn’t mean a government takeover. You keep your own insurance. You keep your own doctor. But it does say insurance companies can’t jerk you around,” he said.

This was followed by several minutes of back-and-forth about the existing health care law specifically and philosophies of health care reform more broadly. See clips of the two candidates talking health care reform >>

Pop Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Presidential Debates?

The next presidential debate will be held Oct. 16, in a town-hall style format at New York’s Hofstra University. The final debate, covering foreign affairs, will take place Oct. 22 in Boca Raton, Fla.

Wanna know what the pundits thought? Check out Lori Montgomery at the Washington Post, MacKenzie Weinger at Politico, Jim Tankersley at the National Journal, Ezra Klein at Bloomberg, Nicholas Kristof at the New York Times, James Poniewozik at Time and Mark Sanford at Fox News for diverse takes on last night’s debate. [Or you could skip all that and just check out CNN's roundup of "the 25 funniest tweets" about the debate.]

“The telomere finding is provocative in that it suggests the possibility that a nutritional supplement might actually make a difference in aging,” said Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, a professor at Ohio State and lead author of the study.

All of the study participants — average age 51 — were relatively healthy, despite being either overweight or obese and living sedentary lives (people on mood, cholesterol or blood pressure medication were excluded, as well as regular fish oil users, people who exercised regularly, diabetics, smokers, vegetarians and those with a body mass index below 22.5 or above 40). For four months, those in the noncontrol group took either 2.5 grams or 1.25 grams of omega-3 fatty acids, which are considered “good fats.” The control group got pills containing a mix of fatty acids representing a typical American’s daily intake.

At the end of the study, the group taking omega-3 supplements showed significant telomere lengthening. They also showed 15 percent reduction in oxidative stress in their blood (a process linked to everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease) along with decreased inflammation.

“Inflammation in particular is at the heart of so many health problems,” said Kiecolt-Glaser. “Anything that reduces inflammation has a lot of potentially good spinoffs among older adults.”

Wednesday Quick Hits:

• Joe Biden, sex symbol? According to Politico, older women tend to swoon for the 70-year-old vice president during campaign stops. “Joe Biden’s bringing sexy back — to the Medicare-eligible set,” writes Jonathan Allen. The Obama campaign declined to comment for the story.

• 10 things you may not know about older people. The Huffington Post rounds up some of the more surprising or interesting tidbits from the United Nation’s global aging report, released Monday. Did you know that in 1910, life expectancy for the average Chilean female was just 33 years? Today it’s 82 years.

Photo: Neville Mountford-Hoare/PhotoAlto/Getty Images

As a physician and professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Coleman, 47, became concerned by the steady stream of patients who were discharged only to be readmitted soon after. Such readmissions are both costly and dangerous — yet according to a 2009 study, one in five Medicare patients returns to the hospital within 30 days of discharge.

“A lot of patients assume that health care professionals are communicating with one another and that there’s this whole elaborate way of ensuring continuity across care settings,” Coleman told the AARP Bulletin in 2009. “The reality is that health care is very fragmented, with very little interaction between hospitals, primary care doctors, and other providers.”

The problem inspired Coleman to develop the Care Transitions Program, which trains nurses and social workers to help patients and/or caregivers effectively manage medications, appointments and other follow-up care. Such interventions have been shown to reduce hospital readmissions by 20 to 50 percent.

The Care Transitions Program also aims to influence national health policy in ways that will encourage continuity of care. In a recent interview with the Commonwealth Fund, Coleman detailed some of the program’s policy efforts.

Other 2012 MacArthur fellows include write Juno Diaz, neurobiologist Elissa Hallem, Washington Post reporter David Finkel, flutist Claire Chase, public economist Raj Chetty and photographer Uta Barth.

Tuesday Quick hits:

• People with dementia have lower antioxidant levels. In a new study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers found concentrations of the antioxidants vitamin C and beta-carotene were much lower in patients with dementia than those in a control group.

• Young Israelis honor elders with Holocaust tattoos. Some descendants of Auschwitz survivors are “memorializing the darkest days of history on their own bodies” by replicating the numbers that were tattooed on family members arms by the Nazis. “I decided to do it to remind my generation,” Eli Sagir, 21, told the New York Times. “I want to tell them my grandfather’s story and the Holocaust story.”

• Night camp for dementia patients lets caregivers rest. Sleeplessness is one of the many symptoms of Alzheimer’s and dementia. A new overnight camp for dementia patients provides patients with structured activities (sing-alongs, crafts) and therapy sessions from 10 p.m. until dawn — and provides caregivers with a much-needed rest. “Without this program, my father would be lost, and I would be crazy,” said Robert Garcia, whose 82-year-old father is in the program. “He doesn’t sleep. At night he’s wide awake, and he needs activity.”

• USPS employees get retirement incentive. Full-time postal service employees with 20+ years tenure are eligible for a $15,000 buyout under an agreement between the USPS and the American Postal Workers Union. The agreement comes after months of negotiations.

• Most online pharmacies fake. In a recent study of more than 10,000 online pharmacies, 97 percent violated state or federal laws and/or safety standards. Many look like legitimate pharmacies and claim to be located in the United States or Canada but aren’t, warns the FDA.

Photo: Courtesy of the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation