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MATURE MARKET HEADLINES updated 7/23/99
Retirement Housing Checklist Fosters Saftey & ComfortWhat's the key to choosing the perfect home for your retirement? Attention to detail can make all the difference, says Don Jacobs, consulting architect for Sun City Anthem, a Del Webb retirement community in Las Vegas, Nevada. "You'll be spending more time in this house, so it's important that it be well designed".Here's Jacobs' ladder for reaching a comfortable retirement home. THE BIG PICTURE What follows is a general checklist for an overall evaluation of your retirement home. STEPS Avoid'em if you can by choosing a one-story home. HALLWAYS Wider hallways make it easier to move about in the home. ELECTRICAL Raise electrical outlets, and lower the switches for easy reach. Also, luminous switches in the halls, bedroom and baths are a great help. ENTRIES For openers, choose levers instead of hard to twist door knobs. LIGHTING Design for plenty of natural and artificial light such as skylights and special task lighting in the kitchen and other work areas. ROOM TO PLAY A hobby room for sewing, fly tieing or other craft or computer work is important. TIPS FOR HOME KITCHEN AREAS What follows is a general checklist for an evaluation of your kitchen area. ROOM TO MANEUVER Make sure you have plenty of space to easily open a refrigerator, dishwasher, or oven door. Here's another tip. If there are more than one person in the kitchen, does it look like you're doing the Rumba as you squeeze in and out of each other's way. That's an indication of inadequate space. FLOORING It's best if flooring materials throughout the house are non-skid, but these are especially important in the kitchen and bath. CABINETS Rollout cabinets make life much easier. These days, some upper shelves can be installed with a pull-down feature. MAINTENANCE Ease of maintenance is crucial. Be aware that grout is harder to clean than a solid surface. BATHROOM AREAS What follows is a general checklist for an evaluation of the bath areas of your retirement home. THE BATH A master bath with walk-in shower without steps makes excellent sense as we age. A built-in bench or seat in the shower may also be helpful. Hand-held shower nozzles are a great feature. Grab bars are also a sensible addition because they are helpful, safe, and now come in a variety of decorative designs. So, with a little planning, you can make your retirement housing a lot more safe and comfortable. Del Webb Corporation is a national real estate company headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with home building experience since 1928. The company is primarily involved in the development of active adult communities across the nation for the 55-plus population. BACK TO TOP Liposuction #1 Cosmetic Surgery Among MenThose who seem to be winning the race against aging are indeed taking ... shortcuts. More and more men want to be trim and are turning to cosmetic surgery for a little help. In fact, liposuction continues to be the number one cosmetic surgery procedure among men, according to new statistics released by the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons (ASPRS).A total of 19,789 liposuction procedures were performed last year, more than tripling the figure of 6,138 just seven years earlier. Liposuction is a technique to remove unwanted fat deposits from specific areas of the body. It is not a substitute for weight reduction, but a method of removing localized fat that doesn't respond to dieting and exercise. Statistics show that nine percent of all cosmetic procedures are performed on men. "Women are no longer alone in their desire to look and feel younger," says ASPRS President Paul Schnur, MD. "More and more men are having cosmetic surgery, not only to look and feel younger, but also to sometimes give themselves a competitive edge in the workplace." By the way, just in case you are wondering, eyelid surgery is the second most popular procedure among men. The number of such procedures among men is up 75% in just seven years. BACK TO TOP Patients Lose Patience With Patient CareThere are now two truths in medicine. First, an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Second, the primary physician keeps the specialist away. Seems that a new study reports that managed care patients are complaining that their primary care physician seems to block their access to a medical specialist.Nearly a quarter of the patients in a recent study had difficulty getting referrals from their primary care doctor to specialty care doctors. According to the researchers, that's the very reason why patients may lose trust and confidence in their primary care doctors. The study, "Resolving the Gatekeeper Conundrum: A Study of What Patients Value in Primary Care and Referrals to Specialists," is published in the July 21, 1999 issue of Journal of the American Medical Association. John M. Eisenberg, M. D., AHCPR's administrator, said, "While this study documents that almost all patients in managed care plans highly value their primary care clinician, it also tells us that one of the important roles of a personal physician is to facilitate patients' access to high quality specialists at the right time in the course of an evaluation or treatment." Other findings, 83 percent of patients preferred to seek care first from their primary care physicians, depending on the specific medical problem. However, most patients wanted their primary care physicians to assist in coordinating referrals to specialists when needed. In addition, 85 percent of patients reported that all or most of the time they trusted their primary care physicians to do the best for them. Dr. Grumbach, director of the study, said that "Our study shows that patients value having a primary care physician. But they don't want managed care plans to turn their primary care physician into a rationer of specialty care." Dr. Grumbach added, "Patients want good primary care. They also want their primary care physician to have the freedom to refer them to a specialist when needed. Many managed care plans have financial incentives and other "gatekeeper" policies that may discourage primary care physicians from making referrals." It will be interesting to see how this patient care issue unfolds. Things may get worse before they get better. Note the growing polarization between doctors and patients, some of it by accident and some of it by design. For example, the existence of a patient's bill of rights suggests that not all is well with the doctor-patient relationship. Another example is the growing talk of doctors unionizing. Then there's the managed care agencies and insurance companies who seem to be saying they need more, not less, control over health care decision-making. Finally, there's the increasing role of government. What's bad about that is, government seems to agree that it must play an ever-greater role in the nation's health care system. But just what that role should be, exactly, remains open to considerable debate. No doubt about it. When it comes to American health care, it's the best of times and the worst of times, all at the same time. And that sounds like a climate for change. This decade should be very interesting for health care industry observers. BACK TO TOP Brain's "No Vacancy" Signs Render Bad MemoryFeeling like "the gray matter just ain't what it used to be"? Well, the good news is your memory problems may not be due to your age. It's just that your brain is too small. No kidding. There's less and less room to store information as we age, says a new research report. So the reason you can't recall some things is because the information didn't get stored in the first place.New research suggests that as we age, it is not our memory that fails us, it is the amount of space available in which to store new information that becomes limited. A study published in the July issue of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) journal Developmental Psychology demonstrates that age-related differences in memory are related to a decline in storage capacity, rather than a decline in the ability to process information. Psychologist H. Lee Swanson, Ph.D., examined the "working memory" of 778 individuals, ranging in age from six to 76. One's "working memory" is the ability to activate new information while maintaining old information. Dr. Swanson tested each participant individually to compared age-related differences in two types of "working memory". During each 40-minute exercise, participants were asked to recall a number embedded in a short sentence and organize words into abstract categories to test for verbal working memory. To test for this special type of working memory, participants had to remember a sequence of directions and demonstrate their knowledge on an unmarked map. Dr. Swanson found that younger adults are able to retain new information better than children and older adults. During childhood, working memory steadily increases. It peaks around age 45, then steadily declines. "As we get older, we run out of places to store new information," states Dr. Swanson. "We have a limited amount of space in our memory system, but this is not related to our reading and math abilities." The entire research article, "What Develops in Working Memory? A Life Span Perspective" by Dr. H. Lee Swanson appears in the journal of Developmental Psychology, Volume 34, Number 4. If you're left with the notion that this limited brain space has only a negative side ... well, think again. There must be hundreds of ways to put this new discovery to good use. Here's one. "I didn't really forget our anniversary ... I just ran out of brain space." Hmmm. Just might work. I love science. Don't you? BACK TO TOP Rheumatoid Arthritis Cure Is Just Your Cup of TeaWhat's for dinner tonight? Forget the burgers and pizza. If you've got your compass set on living a longer, healthier life ... then it's Chinese food tonight. And be sure you don't skip the tea, green tea that is, because that just may be the best part of your meal. But don't take my word for it. Take a look at that latest health discovery from America's ivory tower.Green tea may prevent rheumatoid arthritis, according to a study from Case Western Reserve University's (CWRU) School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, swelling, stiffness and loss of function in the joints. There is no cure for the disease. The study examined the effects of green tea polyphenols on collagen-induced arthritis in mice, which is similar to rheumatoid arthritis in humans. Polyphenols are chemicals that occur naturally in certain foods, including green tea, and many work as antioxidants to protect the body from oxidative stress that causes disease. "For many generations, in some parts of the world, including India, China and Japan, green tea has been considered to possess health-promoting potential by preventing many illnesses that cause substantial mortality and morbidity in humans," said lead author Tariq M. Haqqi, associate professor of medicine at CWRU. Extensive research, pioneered at CWRU School of Medicine during the past decade, has shown that antioxidants present in green tea possess cancer-preventing and anti-inflammatory properties. "Perhaps now arthritis can be added to the list. Many polyphenols in green tea possess much more potent antioxidant activity than well-known antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E," said Haqqi. Rheumatoid arthritis has been diagnosed in more than 2 million people. This study suggests that "a slight modification in your lifestyle, adding green tea to your diet, could reduce your risk of this disease," says the study's senior author, Hasan Mukhtar, professor of dermatology. "The extract given to the mice was the equivalent of a human drinking four cups of green tea a day." Who would have thought that a simple beverage like green tea could turn out to be such a miracle drink? These university types are some smart guys. But there's one thing I still can't quite figure out. If these researchers are so smart, how come they live in Cleveland? Hmmm. BACK TO TOP Baby Boomer Brood Boom, Deja Vu All Over Again?If you're one of the unlucky businesses who missed out on the marketing opportunities associated with the Baby Boom, here's your second chance. Yep, those trend-setting Boomers have created yet another trend, a booming brood of boomer kids. This Baby Boomer Brood Boom, second only to the Baby Boomers as a market force, will provide some interesting marketing opportunities for tomorrow's businesses.The number of students enrolled in U.S. elementary and high schools reached 48 million in 1997, just shy of the all-time high of 49 million recorded by the Baby Boom generation in 1970, according to a report released by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. "In the past few years, as the children of Baby Boomers reached school age, elementary and high school enrollments have risen, and this trend is expected to continue for the near future," said Gladys Martinez, one of the report's authors. "This comes on the heels of declining enrollments in the 1970s and early 1980s when there was a general decrease in the 6-17 year old population." Elementary and high school students in 1997 were more racially and ethnically diverse than students of the baby boom generation, the report said. For example, in 1972, when the crest of the baby boom was in elementary and high school, 85 percent of the student population were White, 14 percent, African American and the remaining 1 percent, mostly Asian or other races. In 1997, 78 percent of elementary and high school students were White, 17 percent, African American and 4 percent, Asian. The proportion of students of Hispanic origin (of any race) also increased from about 6 percent in 1972 to 14 percent in 1997. Other significant statistics for in the report:
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