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Ageism Self-fulfilling Prophecy For Elders
"Perception is reality". Put another way, reality is created in the eyes of the beholder. And, for many elder Americans, that's not good news. Because in the eyes of some elders, the process of aging is nothing but negative. That kind of attitude is referred to as "ageism" ... and ageism can be hazardous to your health.
That's right. In fact, as far back as the 1970's, the National Council on Aging released survey findings that reported widespread ageism (age-prejudice) among older people. Of course, the elders who were interviewed saw themselves as an "exception" ... it was other older people who had all the age-related problems. So pervasive was the national negativism on aging, that it took nearly three decades of a counter-culture campaign to turn things around. Over the last 30 years, public relations agencies have been pumping out "positive images" of aging and older people.
As a result, today's old Americans are, supposedly, more optimistic about later life and growing older. They're mountain-climbing, sky-diving, going back to college, and doing just about anything their aging hearts desire. There's even a new movie coming out called "Space Cowboys" where NASA calls "geriatric astronauts" out of retirement in order to launch them into space to "save the world". Hmmm. Our images of aging and late life couldn't be better. Right? Wrong.
Just when you thought it was safe to "age" again, ageism rears it's ugly face ... again.
According to a new study by Yale researchers, elders are once again encountering negative beliefs or stereotypes about aging in their daily lives. And, these "Close Encounters of the Aging Kind" are damaging the health of elders. Ageism, it seems, causes cardiovascular stress.
"We were able to reduce this cardiovascular stress by introducing positive stereotypes of aging," says Becca Levy, assistant professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale School of Medicine and
lead author of the study. "Previous studies have found that a heightened cardiovascular response to stress contributes to the development of heart disease."
Published in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Gerontology, the study included 54 participants between the ages of 62 and 82, who performed tasks such as recalling the most stressful event in the last five years. After being exposed to positive stereotypes of aging, the group showed a significant decrease in two cardiovascular
measures: systolic and diastolic blood pressure. In contrast, participants who were exposed to negative stereotypes of aging showed a significant increase in these measures, even before they performed the stressful tasks.
"Negative stereotypes of aging are found in many aspects of our culture," Levy says. In China, a country with more positive aging stereotypes than the United States, Levy found in a past study that older persons performed better on certain memory tasks than their American peers. "The study suggests that negative stereotypes of aging may contribute to health problems in the elderly without their awareness," Levy says.
The study also found that the elderly participants who were exposed to positive aging self-stereotypes demonstrated significantly higher self-confidence and higher mathematical performance than those exposed to the negative aging self-stereotypes. Older individuals, says Levy, who mistakenly attribute decline in their health to the inevitability of aging, might reinforce negative stereotypes and ultimately prevent their own successful aging.
Based on the findings, Levy says, future treatments aimed at reducing stress in the elderly should consider including the reduction of negative aging self-stereotypes and the promotion of positive ones. Levy¹s team included Jeanne Y. Wei, M.D., and Jeffrey M. Hausdorff of Harvard Medical School and Rebecca Hencke of Harvard Graduate School of Education.
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Faith Fosters Survival Among Well Elders
"Time on your knees keeps you on your toes". That's the conclusion I reached after reading a new study by Duke University researchers. It's one of the first studies of its kind to document the positive role that religious activity plays in maintaining one's health, wellness, and longevity. And what a fitting state for such a finding to originate. Afterall, if memory serves me well, North Carolina was the state that insisted that freedom of religion be included in the First Amendment before that state would ratify the U.S. Constitution. But that's another story. If you're Interested in hanging around the planet a little longer than most elders, read on, and find out how keeping the faith keeps you fit.
Among America's elderly, the first sign of approaching death is a decline in the inability to perform the Activities of Daily Living (ADL). Examples of ADLs include the ability to feed, bath, and dress oneself. You might say that one of the best ways to live long, improve one's chances of survival, is to preserve one's ability to perform ADLs. But, how? Private moments spent in religious devotion appears to be the answer.
The Duke University researchers found that private devotion positively affects personal health, the ability to perform ADL. Interestingly, one does not have to spend an inordinate amount to time in private devotion. The Duke study also found that the health benefits are equal for those who practice daily devotion and those who only participate in religious activity a few times a month.
Here's the point. Older adults who participate in private religious activity before the onset of ADL impairment appear to have survival advantage over those who do not. This is the finding of a companion study by a group of Duke University researchers. An earlier study looked at religious attendance and survival while current
study looked at the relationship between survival and private religious activity.
The entire study, "Survival of the Religious", is reported in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. Study authors include Hughes M. Helm, Judith C. Hays, Elizabeth P. Flint, Harold G. Koenig and Dan G. Blazer. The Journal of Gerontology is a publication of the Gerontological Society of America, a national organization of professionals in the field of aging.
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Summer Home Schooling Tips for Boomers
Learning never stops. And Summer vacation is the perfect time to continue your child's learning in a fun and practical way. Think of it as an "Edu-Vation". That's what I call an opportunity to educate and vacation at the same time. In fact, the best way to learn is when the learning is most enjoyable. And, learning is most enjoyable when it has an immediate and practical application. So, if you're a Boomer parent who wants to prevent any dust settling on your child's brain cells over Summer vacation, read on.
The late-Howard McClusky, my education professor at the University of Michigan, always talked about his notion of "The Teachable Moment". McClusky said the "Teachable Moment" occurs hundreds of times during every individual's daily routine. Times when a person is most ready to learn, most "teachable". The National Education Association (NEA) has captured these "teachable moments" of your child's day, and offers Boomer parents tips on how to seize these moments when your child is most ready to learn.
For example, a child's reading skills can be enhanced by weaving learning into their daily routine. And the NEA's reading teachers have some practical ... and fun ... ways to weave learning into your Summer vacation by taking advantage of your child's "teachable moments". Here's a few examples.
- Dress Me game.
Entertain small fry -- and teach them, too -- by telling them when they're dressing or undressing, the name of each item of clothing -- shirt, blouse, sweater, sock, sneaker, sandal, shorts, and so on. Then print the words on paper and ask your child to attach the words to the correct clothes in the drawer or closet.
- Snack-Plus:
Cut bread into rectangles, squares, triangles, circles, making at least two of each shape. Ask your child to choose two pieces of the same shape, then to put jam or peanut butter on one piece, topping it with the other. Presto! Your youngster has learned a shape and made his own snack.
- Recycle:
Instead of tossing that junk mail, use it as a learning tool. Have your child go through it to find letters, sight words, spelling words, and reading words.
- The Writing Game:
Have your child pretend to write -- with an unsharpened pencil or his own finger -- on a family member's back. The adult whispers a letter or word and the child writes or spells it on the other person's back. Then the writer and the "writee" trade answers for accuracy.
- Cereal Readers:
At breakfast, read the backs and sides of the cereal box. If there's a game on the box, play it.
- Navigation:
Whether you're traveling by car, bus or subway, your children can help lead the way. Tell them what to look for on exit signs, street signs, and subway stops, then let them be the guide.
- Connection, please:
If your child has a special interest, movie, or television show, look for books, pictures, articles on related topics.
One tip that reading teachers agree on universally: Making reading a regular part of your child's daily routine is as important as homework, dinner, and a nightly bath. Starting early, reading can become a lifelong habit. Some suggestions about titles that you can pick up for your youngsters might include a selection from NEA teachers' top 10 books for children:
- Charlotte's Web by E. B. White (9-12 years)
- The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (4-8 years)
- Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss (4-8 years)
- The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss (4-8 years)
- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (4-8 years)
- Love You Forever by Robert N. Munsch (4-8 years)
- The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein (All ages)
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (Baby-Preschool)
- Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (Young Adult)
- The Mitten by Jan Brett (4-8 years)
For other reading tips as well as the full list of Teachers' Top 100 Books for children, and the Kids' Top 100 Book List, visit www.nea.org/readacross/catalist.html. Other reading information for parents as well as teachers can be found at
www.nea.org/readingmatters/.
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Religious Involvement Promotes Longevity
That old hymn, "Nearer My God to Thee", may be a contradiction in terms. Put another way, those who are actively involved in religion may be further away from death ... live longer. The odds of survival are 29 percent higher for people who highly involved in religion, says psychologist and lead author Michael E. McCullough, Ph.D., of the National Institute for Healthcare Research.
Regular attendance at one's church, synagogue, mosque or Buddhist monastery is related to longer life, according to a meta-analysis of 42 studies. In case you're wondering, "meta-analysis" analyzes the findings of many studies done on the same topic. In this case, the topic is the relationship between religion and longevity.
Public religious involvement is defined by how frequently a person attends church or temple, whether a person is a member of a religious organization (a religious kibbutz) or how much spare time a person spends in church or temple activities. Private religious involvement includes measures such as self-rated religiousness, frequency of private prayer and use of religion as a coping resource. Follow-up results indicated that involvement in public religious activity was particularly important in predicting mortality, according to the study.
Being involved in religion seems to explain a small part of why some people live longer than others, said the authors, but other reasons for longevity include a person's race, age, education, social support and physical health. "Moreover, results seemed to indicate that those people with a high level of religious involvement were also less obese. In part, the effects of religious involvement on physical health variables like obesity appear to explain why religious involvement predicts reduced risk of mortality," said Dr. McCullough.
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Menstrual Cycle Data Bank at Tremin Trust
A 65 year old data bank on the menstrual cycles of more than 6,000 American women, known as The Tremin Trust, now resides at Penn State University and is available to women's health researchers nationally and globally. The Trust data contains in-depth information about the entire menstrual lives of more than 6,000 women from their 20s up until menopause.
Each year, the participants record the first and last day of each monthly period, and annually or biannually complete a health survey form listing events that might have affected their menstrual cycles. Today, the Trust's intergenerational data includes information on women from age 11 to 105. A significant number of the Trust participants are Minnesotans, predominantly Scandinavian.
Currently, women in the Tremin Trust are providing information to a long-standing Midlife Women's Health Survey called "Biodemographic Models of Reproductive Aging" (BIMORA). The BIMORA study is investigating hormonal changes that occur during the menopausal transition. BIMORA is measuring estrogen and
progesterone among the study's participants.
"So many women today are taking hormones either for birth control or for post-menopausal symptoms that doing this type of study again may never be possible. It is becoming nearly impossible to depict the natural course of
menopause" say Penn State researchers.
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Educated Elders vs Late-Life Depression
An good education may be the best defense against depression in later life, says a new study from the American Sociological Association. Individuals with fewer years of education, who tend to have fewer financial and social resources to cope with stress, are known to be more vulnerable to depression. Respondents with 16 years of education were on average able to delay depression for ten years longer than respondents with 10 years of education.
Few studies have examined whether this vulnerability remains static over a lifetime. However, this new study by researchers Richard Allen Miech and Michael J. Shanahan sheds some light on how these coping mechanisms fare in later life. These Johns Hopkins and Penn State researchers found instead that as less educated adults aged, they were increasingly more likely to be depressed than adults with more education--mostly because adults with lower education had more health problems.
The depression gap between more- and less-educated older individuals probably originates early in life, stemming from factors including occupational conditions, exercise and diet habits, and health care access, according to the researchers. "Much of the reason that individuals with higher education are more successful in postponing increases in depression is attributable to their relatively better physical health," said Miech.
Higher education did not make survey respondents immune to depression as they aged. Depression levels rose after middle adulthood for all respondents, but more education appeared to help respondents delay its onset. "To the extent that physical health problems foster depression, they may widen the depression gap with advancing age," he added. The study results appear in the June 2000 issue of the Journal of Health and
Social Behavior, a publication of the American Sociological Association.
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Elders Ignore Signs of Late Life Depression
Thanks to the Internet, medical awareness may be at an all-time high, but that's not necessarily true for emotional disorders among the elderly. Dr. Myron Weiner, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, says he often encounters older patients who have been suffering needlessly from depression for a long time.
"Older folks with emotional disorders seek treatment less often than younger folks do," Weiner says. "Elders in our society grew up with the attitude that feeling depressed is a normal state when you get older." Today, there are many effective medications for depression. Depression symptoms for which
you should seek medical attention include:
- Prolonged feelings of sadness
- Change in appetite (less or greater)
- Change in sleeping pattern (too little or too much)
- Lack of interest in activities you used to love.
"See your family physician or seek a therapist for a professional diagnosis, or ask a family member to assist you in finding professional help, " Weiner says. "You may be missing out on some of the best years of your life."
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Gender Varies Death Rate of Ailing Elders
Elderly women who rate their health as poor are less likely to die than are elderly men who rate their health similarly, according to a new study reported by the Center for the Advancement of Health. The researchers suggest that women may perceive both serious and mild illnesses as evidence of poor health, while men are more likely to focus more exclusively on life-threatening conditions.
The researchers interviewed 830 elderly men and women (average age 73) about their health status and
emotional and physical functioning. "We found that both sexes also rate their health more poorly when experiencing emotional distress, but for men that distress is typically related to a life-threatening illness," says lead author Yael Benyamini, PhD, of Tel-Aviv University. "For women, in contrast, emotional distress may come from a range of factors that may or may not be directly related to their health"
Men’s perceptions of their health turned out to be a better predictor of their risk of death than did women’s. Men who rated their health as fair or poor were nearly 5 times more likely to die than men who rated their health very good or excellent. Among women, in contrast, those who rated their health fair or poor were just 2.2 times more likely to die than were women who rated their health very good or excellent.
Emotional distress in men, came primarily from life-threatening conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
Emotional distress in women came from both life-threatening and non-life-threatening conditions such as arthritis and back pain. Both sexes factor in the emotional distress when assessing their health. But women are more likely than men to base their assessment on a more "global" view. For example, women were not only troubled by their own problems but were also more distressed if their spouse had a serious problem in the previous year. The researchers reported their findings in the May/June issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
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