Thursday, September 26, 2013

SENIOR GAMES: FUN AND STIMULATION FOR OLDER PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS

On July 8th I wrote about a new game, Road Tour, that researchers find restores cognitive processing speed and improves field of vision. Peripheral vision evidently shrinks as people age and affects safe driving. Here are details, plus a video, from the UK's Daily Mail on-line: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2317955/New-game-make-brain-years-younger-hours-effects-lasting-year.

Three months later (9/4/13) several publications inform us that the scientific magazine, Nature, is publishing findings that cognitive scientists say: "are a significant development in understanding how to strengthen old brains." (NY Times 9/4/13) plus a snippet: "Cognitive scientists have found that a simple game that forced players to juggle two different tasks, helped players improve the short-term memory and long-term focus of older adults. Researchers said those as old as  80 began to show neurological patterns of people in their 20s." (NY Times 9/9/13.)



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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Aging and Teeth

 Dad valued his teeth; took good care of them. You can imagine my surprise decades later when Dad's tooth broke while he was sitting in his favorite chair watching TV. No theatrics--it just broke. He was in his 90's, wasn't eating anything at the time. The tooth just--unexpectedly--"broke off."


This event replayed itself recently. It happened to another old person. She also took good care of her teeth, was a conscientious dentist-goer and had all her own teeth in her 90's.
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Monday, September 23, 2013

Aging Parents: Feeling Alone in a Crowded Room--plus 2 Addition Reasons They May Not Want to Go Out Any More

 It may all boil down to pride; staying home is safe.

No one likes to feel diminished, whether it's unintentional or not. Yet going someplace where interaction with others is the norm can pose a threat to older people's pride and self-esteem when they have certain aging issues. I think it's safe to say many--if not all-- older people begin to recognize what octogenarian Julia calls "a lessening of oneself," adding "it's not pleasant."

When others no longer pay attention to them and/or or older people don't want others to discover their "lessening," thoughts of being with others away from home can be emotionally troubling. Three issues (you may think of more) that can cause this:


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Sunday, September 8, 2013

Making It Better for Parents in Assisted Living

Is "assisted living" a euphemism for warehousing aging parents in an attractive place where we think they'll be well taken care of? The PBS documentary "Life and Death in Assisted Living" is, I certainly hope, not the norm. But what is the norm (and it's not the fault or responsibility of the administrators of the assisted living facility) may be the often inattentiveness on the part of adult children once their parents are in assisted living.
 

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