MATURE MARKET HEADLINES POSTED 02/06/98
"Financial Power of Attorney Workbook"
Many people fear that they will someday be unable to handle their own financial affairs. Who would pay the bills, make bank deposits, watch over investments? Preparing a financial power of attorney can ease these worries, whether you are in frail health, anticipating major surgery or just planning an extended trip away from home.
A power of attorney is the simplest, least expensive and most reliable way to arrange for a trusted person to make financial decisions if you can't. "The Financial Power of Attorney Workbook" (Nolo Press Self-help Law Books, Berkeley, CA 1998) by attorney Shae Irving shows step-by-step how to create a legally-valid power of attorney. And, depending on your situation, you can choose the right document to implement your wishes. Document options include the following:
- Durable Power of Attorney
This document stays in effect even if you become incapacitated. It lets you avoid potentially expensive and embarrassing court proceedings that would name a conservator to watch over your property and finances.
- Conventional Power of Attorney
This document lets someone handle a specific transaction, or all your financial affairs on a temporary basis.
- Power of Attorney for Real Estate
This document allows someone to buy or sell real estate for you, or to manage your property in your absence.
- Power of Attorney for Child Care
This document lets you choose someone to pay for your child's needs while you're away, and to make school-related, medical or other decisions for your child.
These documents give the appointed person as much or as little power as you wish.
"The Financial Power of Attorney Workbook" is available beginning this February at stores nationwide, or by calling 1-800-992-6656.
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Surgeon Has Gut Feeling About Ulcer Origin
With the discovery of Heliobacter pylori as a leading cause of ulcers, has come the misconception that this bacteria is to blame for all ulcer problems. Not so say Drs. Thomas Miller, M.D. and Gregory Smith, PhD, researchers at the Saint Louis University Surgical Research Institute (SLUSRI). According to the researchers, Heliobacter pylori accounts for only one piece of the ulcer puzzle.
There is still a whole group of people who get ulcers and damage to their stomach from factors totally unrelated to Heliobacter pylori, such as damage from anti-inflammatory drugs and alcohol. "Of 100 people with ulcer problems, about 30-40 percent of them have ulcers for reasons other than Heliobacter pylori", says Dr. Miller. Studies of ulcers up to this point have not revealed an underlying common denominator that would tie together the cause of the 30-40 percent of unresolved ulcers.
Miller and Smith are hoping to find a common denominator by answering the fundamental question of why an ulcer occurs. They plan to look for answers at the cellular level because any progress made in understanding other diseases such as cancer and diabetes have depended on cellular level research.
So far, the major focus of the SLUSRI study has been the identification of "prostaglandins" that may serve to protect against ulcers. Prostaglandins are fatty acids that can be found in every cell of the body. There are about 30 kinds of prostaglandins that differ in just a few chemical bonds. In ulcer disease, the "E" variety or the "I" variety protect the cell against injury.
Researchers found that they could prevent ulcers from occurring by giving prostaglandins before exposure to ulcer-causing agents. As a result, there are now synthetic prostaglandins available as a prescription drug called Cytotec that can be taken orally to protect against ulcers. Miller and Smith must be on the right track because the National Institute of Health has funded their research efforts to the tune of $1 million.
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Doc Offers Golfers Holistic Therapy
Here in Florida, the land of a thousand golf courses, just about everyone and their grandmother has a few golf tips up their sleeve. But those tips generally focus on the physicality of golf such as stance, club grip, or the position of one's swing. That's well and good. But a New Jersey doctor has another strategy that involves the mind. You might call it an holistic approach.
"You can improve your golf game if you can picture in your mind where you want your ball to go," says Paul Berman, O.D. Whether it's a tee or approach shot or putt, a golfer's eyes must concentrate on the ball but his brain needs to visualize the ball's destination.
"If you're thinking about the sand trap you want to avoid, your brain is likely to direct your body to hit the ball right into the trap. Instead, picture your ball landing on a particular spot on the fairway or green", says Berman who calls the process visualization ... a process that improves with practice.
"At home, close your eyes and visualize how you would hit a particular shot on a familiar golf course. Then do this with your eyes open, and finally do it again while you practice lining up the shot. Eventually, it will become second nature". I thought the doc's holistic approach sounded like psycho-cybernetics, where you visualize an event, concentrate real hard, and eventually your visualization becomes reality.
In effect, your mind send things where you'd like them to go. If this approach sends golf balls where you want them to go, wouldn't it be great if it worked with people ... like dinner guests who'd over-stayed their welcome, that annoying slob at the office, or the driver of that car who just stole your parking space?
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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7-Eleven is on a Roll into Healthcare
Just when you think you've seen everything, good ol' American ingenuity creates a wake-up call. Southland Corporation's recent leap into the healthcare market is, in my opinion, one of the most creative moves to hit the mature market in decades.
Marrying its 17,200 retail outlet delivery system with the healthcare needs of 75 million Americans, Southland's 7-Eleven stores now offer a "Rx Benefit Card" that entitles the user to discounts on prescription drugs, vision, hearing, and vitamin products. That's good news for the millions of Americans who do not have or cannot afford major medical coverage and do not have access to prescription drug, vision, hearing, and other healthcare products.
The Rx Benefit Card costs $9.95 and can be used for 90 days by the card-holder to save up to 40 percent on brand-name prescription drugs, up to 65 percent on generic prescription drugs, up to 60 percent on eyeglasses, contact lenses, and sunglasses, and up to 60 percent savings on hearing aids. The card has no maximums on usage, offers a 30-day, money-back, guarantee and may be purchased every 90 days to maintain access to continuous benefits.
The card is honored nationally at more than 45,000 pharmacies and more than 8,000 vision retailers. As for the vitamins and hearing aids, they are available at significant savings through the card's mail order program. No exclusivity here. "Everyone qualifies", says 7-Eleven product manager George Boyer, "so there's no paperwork to complete or worries about pre-existing conditions."
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Is Retirement a Dead End?
As life expectancy increases, more pre-retirees are asking themselves some hard questions. Should I retire or not? Is it a time of new beginnings or just a dead end? This is how film maker Marian Marzynski begins a journey to Miami Beach's world of retirement condos and the American way of growing old. In "My Retirement Dreams", airing Tuesday, February 3 at 9 PM on PBS, FRONTLINE's Marian Marzynski wonders what is the American dream for many of its elder citizens.
Some elders have found new freedom to explore interests and talents that have been dormant for decades. Other elders despair as an ocean of opportunities surrounding them provide only torment as aged bodies, too frail and tired, deny their heart's desires.
Viewers will be taken on a trip to another world that captures life that many know little about. Calling himself trapped somewhere between a baby boomer and a geezer, the reporter explores what may lie ahead in life's final chapter.
Marian seems to conclude that it is not the active or passive retirement that holds the key to a meaningful late life existence. It is the integration of young and old, living and learning together, in a community of generations far from today's retirement dream which creates our current feudal system of isolation.
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Healthy Habits Delay Disability by 8 Years
"If you don't smoke, maintain a reasonable body weight and do regular aerobic exercise about four hours a week, you will delay disability from any disease by eight years compared with older people who don't do those three things", says Stanford University Professor of Medicine, James Fries, M.D. in the February issue of "New Choices: Living Even Better after 50" (Reader's Digest Publications).
According to Dr. Fries, the fear of osteoporosis is over-rated. Some loss to bone density after age 50 years, called osteopenia, is normal in both men and women. The hip-fractures commonly associated with aging don't occur until the average age of 80. Even then, says the professor, most women (85%) will never break a hip.
Rather than bone density, it was lifestyle that placed women at risk to hip fracture. For example, women who broke their hips fell, an event that could have been prevented by lifestyle. Lifestyle includes such factors as proper exercise to maintain strength in the legs, and regular eye exams to identify hazards created by presbyopia, age-related changes to the eye.
Presbyopia erodes visual acuity, depth perception, and color contrast. All of which can lead to a nasty fall if not adjusted by corrective lenses. The article also notes other misconceptions about women's health. For example, while breast cancer is greatly feared, it is heart disease that kills ten times more postmenopausal women each year than does breast cancer.
Arthritis was identified as the leading cause of disability, and diabetes the most undiagnosed major cause of women's death. "A truly thought-provoking analysis of common misconceptions about human aging and disease" (AgeVenture News Service).
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Dr. David Demko, Editor
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