Seniors | Psych Central

Finding Love after 60

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

During the last few months of her life, my grandmother Ruth, then 93, was too frail for family to adequately care for at home. With much reluctance, she and we all agreed that a nursing ...

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Specialized Geriatric Hospital Units Aid Elderly

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Older people cared for in specialized geriatric hospital units tend to decline at a slower pace than those given conventional hospital care, recent research suggests. Aging brings a certain amount of natural deterioration in cognitive performance, ...

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60 On Up: The Truth About Aging in America

Monday, May 25th, 2009

When I was in graduate school in the mid-1970s, I felt strangely out of sync with my fellow students. Then I happened on Worlds of Pain, a groundbreaking book by Lillian Rubin about working-class life ...

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Coffee May Prevent Dementia

Monday, May 4th, 2009

Further evidence has come to light that drinking coffee may have a protective effect against dementia. Dementia and Alzheimer's disease are common problems in the elderly population. Although research is improving our knowledge of the ...

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Grief, Grandma’s Way

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

By the time she got into her 90s, my grandmother was a wise woman indeed. She was wise about life. She was also wise about death. As the youngest of eight, she had outlived all ...

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Challenges and Benefits for Grandparent Caregivers

Thursday, August 7th, 2008

When my grandfather's mother died in 1900 in rural Maine, it was his aunt who stepped in to raise him and his baby sister. When my friend Jill lost her mother in the 1950s, her ...

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Fairness and Reciprocity in Friendships

Tuesday, June 17th, 2008

My friend Richard shook his head as he told me the story of his latest visit with his mother, Harriet, now in her late 80's. "I'd really like to see Mildred," she said. "So why don't you ...

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Future Planning for Your Intellectually Disabled Adult Child

Wednesday, December 5th, 2007

If you are in your mid to late 50s or older and have an intellectually disabled adult child living at home, you are part of the first generation whose disabled kids may well outlive them. ...

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Grandparenting a Disabled Child

Tuesday, September 11th, 2007

Grandparenting is a delicious second chance for nurturing a child. Chances are you looked forward to using hard-won lessons from your experience as a parent to do it better this time. Chances are you looked ...

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Dating Later in Life

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

"At first, I felt like I was being unfaithful to my late husband," says Paula, a 65-year-old widow who recently began dating again. Sam, a 70-year-old retiree, wants to date, "But my grown kids don't ...

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Coping With Loneliness: Tips for Seniors

Tuesday, August 21st, 2007

On the old television show "The Golden Girls," four, over-60 widows live together, providing each other companionship, friendship and emotional support. Many seniors, however, lack this kind of social network. In fact, loneliness is a ...

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Changing Our Routines and Habits

Friday, February 9th, 2007

Humans are creatures of habit and routine. Just as it takes us 20 years or more to develop our adult personalities, we're also developing behaviors and habits that will stay with us for a lifetime. ...

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Inhaled Anesthetics Bring Alzheimer’s Risk

Thursday, February 8th, 2007

Experts recently have shed light on the link between general anesthetics and cognitive problems. Anesthetics have been thought to cause cognitive dysfunction for a long time — the link was first highlighted in the 1950s. But ...

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Folic Acid Supplements Could Prevent Dementia

Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Folic acid supplementation could effectively prevent dementia in some people, recent research suggests. The possibility that low folic acid is a modifiable risk factor for dementia has been extensively studied. Dementia is linked to the ...

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Emotions and Weight Affect Testosterone Levels

Monday, January 8th, 2007

A recent study suggests men's testosterone levels are significantly affected by their health and lifestyle choices. Testosterone levels reduce by about one percent a year in men over 40. A team from the New England Research ...

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