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What Menopause Patients Want to Know
"What's up, doc?", say female patients who are experiencing symptoms of menopause. Like any responsible patient who desires both an informed and active participation in their healthcare, these women have a great number of questions. What to expect? Treatment options? In other words, they're curious about what they need to know in order to make informed decisions.
Sadly, their queries are met only by the sounds of silence.
According to a study published in the August 17th edition of
the Annals of Internal Medicine, physician guidelines are woefully inadequate in helping physicians counsel women in their decision-making process about whether to take postmenopausal estrogen replacement therapy. Based on their findings, the study's authors say that future guidelines should instruct physicians to incorporate patients' perspectives into the counseling process.
Currently, the American College of Physicians, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force publish guidelines that recommend that caregivers counsel patients
about the risks and benefits of therapy. All recommendations incorporate the best epidemiological evidence for hormone replacement therapy. However, they do not reflect the counseling needs expressed by patients.
For this study, researchers at Harvard Medical School conducted indepth interviews of women who had received a prescription for hormone replacement therapy. The women identified 15 factors as critical to their decision-making. The top four influencing factors are:
- health care provider opinion (96%)
- what media said was important (81%)
- experiences and opinions of friends (77%)
- fear of breast cancer (77%).
"Our findings support several studies that point to a substantial dissatisfaction with the decision-making process," say the researchers. "Greater information about what the patient is thinking may help clinicians structure the time they spend and the materials they provide to patients. It is our hope that future recommendations incorporate the patients' perspective."
The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Consumer Value Stores, Inc.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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Boomers Better Prepared for Menopause
Menopause More Kind To Japanese Women
How to be a Power Patient at Next Doctor Visit
Strengthening Doctor-Patient Relationships
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Boomers Bungle Parental Health Role
There comes a time when a parent performs a time-honored tradition. He takes his adolescent child aside to teach him a thing or two about life. One of those life-lessons is the importance of maintaining one's health. But when it comes to the topic of healthy living, boomer parents have adopted another time-honored tradition, "do as I say, not as I do".
That's right. According to a new study, the boomers are bungling their parental role when it comes to serving as a healthy role model for their kids. It's like boomer parents are saying, "Gee kids, it's time we had a talk about healthy lifestyles. So bring my ashtray over to the kitchen table, and let's talk about nutrition over a pizza and a couple of beers".
Setting a bad example is bad enough. However, the kids appear to be following in their parents' footsteps. Kids, say Iowa State University researchers, tend to model their parents’ behavior in eating, smoking, and practicing healthy and unhealthy lifestyle habits. "Adolescents who are constantly exposed to parents’ health-risk behavior, such as poor eating habits, smoking, and drinking will tend to emulate their parents’ behavior," says Professor Wickrama, head of the Iowa study.
The study found that adolescents not only emulate their parents’ overall health-risk lifestyle but also tend to adopt the same individual good or bad health-related behaviors as their parents.
Adolescents whose parents smoke, tend to smoke; and kids whose parents regularly exercise tend to exercise as well. These findings held true even after the researchers controlled for the family’s social status.
In two-parent households, the effects of parents’ health-risk lifestyles on adolescents seemed to follow along gender lines. "Boys’ health lifestyles more closely resembled their fathers’ lifestyles, and girls were more likely to emulate their mothers’ behavior," says Wickrama.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Boomer Couples Cling to Role Stereotypes
Boomer Dads Powerful Parenting Partners
Lifestyle Study Says Elders Improve With Age
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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More and More Retirees Are Experiencing It ... Poverty
The good news is that your prospects for living a long life have never been better. Both the number and proportion of humans living to 80, 90, and 100 years are increasing at nearly the speed of light. And with each passing decade, life gets longer and longer with seemingly no end in sight. In fact, if life-expectancy were a stock it would be selling like hot cakes. Now the not-so-good news. Just as long life becomes a "sure thing" so does poverty. A new study says that more and more elder Americans are destined to outlive their money.
The study explodes the myth that late-life poverty is an uncommon occurrence. In reality, "it can touch a surprisingly high percentage of Americans", say researchers. "Forty percent of America's elderly population will experience at least one year below the poverty line at some point between the ages of 60 and 90," say authors of a joint study by Washington and Cornell Universities. The study, by Drs. Mark R. Rank and Thomas A. Hirschl, appears in the July 1999 issue of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences.
According to the two researchers, those Americans reaching the age of 60 can expect to live an average of 21 more years. About 30 percent of the 60-year-olds will experience poverty at some point during their final years.
However, some groups will be hit harder than others. For example, poverty, say the researchers, varies dramatically by race, education and marital status. Being Black, having less than 12 years of education, and not being married substantially increase the likelihood of poverty during the elderly years. The study also showed that men and women are equally at risk to live in poverty.
By age 70, about 18 percent of the elderly population will have spent one year below the poverty line, say the researchers. By age 75, nearly a quarter of those elders will have experienced poverty. And the percentage rises as one ages. "What this analysis reveals is that rather than being an event occurring to a small minority of the elderly population, poverty is an experience that can touch a sizable number of elderly Americans at some point during their later years," say Rank and Hirschl.
What sort of boomer trend will this prophetic "kick-in-the-pants" create? Retirement planning services, already phenomenally popular, will become a major growth industry. After all, the boomers aren't about to allow the limits of poverty to cramp their style. Ask any boomer how he plans to experience every last minute of retirement, and he'll probably say, "Just like Frank ... My Way".
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
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Gap Between Retirement Planning and Action
AHCA: Boomers Need LTC Plan ASAP
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Blueberry Antioxidants Slow Aging Process
It's time to clear some counter space in the Anti-Aging aisle to make room for ... of all things ... blueberries.
Blueberries appear to be an effective anti-aging remedy, at least in lab animals. And it doesn't take a mental giant to figure out that human tests aren't far behind. That should make blueberry farmers smile because our age-phobic society can't seem to get enough of anti-aging remedies. Blueberries appear to retard the aging process because of their antioxidant properties. Antioxidants help reduce damage during a cell's digestion of nutrients. If this digestive process occurs too rapidly (rapid oxidation) then the result is oxidative stress, cell damage.
For centuries, people have enjoyed blueberries for their flavor and color. In a new research study, animals fed a blueberry extract diet, rich in naturally-derived antioxidants, showed fewer age-related motor changes and out-performed their study counterparts on memory tests. It appears that blueberries and other foods containing antioxidants may protect the body against age-related damage and a number of neurodegenerative diseases. The National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded the study.
“The exciting finding from this study is the potential reversal of some age-related impairments in both memory and motor coordination, especially with blueberry supplements,” said Molly Wagster, Ph.D., a Health Scientist Administrator with the NIA's Neuroscience and Neurospsychology of Aging Program. “For these animals at least, investigators were able to produce a noticeable improvement within a relatively short period of time. A next important step in the research will be to see if the improvements are long lasting.”
“Whether results found in this study will also prove true for humans remains to be seen,” says Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, Ph.D., who directs the NIA's Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program. “The only way to determine whether particular food ingredients actually work to slow age-related cognitive decline in humans as well is to conduct controlled clinical trials.”
The study was conducted by James Joseph, Ph.D. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, and Paula C. Bickford, Ph.D. of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Denver. The study results appear in the September 15, 1999, issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.*
The National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), located in Bethesda, Maryland, leads the Federal effort supporting basic, clinical, epidemiological and social research on aging and the special needs of older people.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Cataracts May Be Driven By Antioxidants
Solving the Mystery of Human Aging ... the Butler Did It
Urine Test Measures Rate of Aging Process
Gero-technology Creates Anti-aging Cells
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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25 Exciting Adventures ... keep up with the Indiana Jones
Need a break from work? Who doesn't? But where to go? You've done Disney. And those bargain vacation get-aways are about as exciting as watching Quilting Bee re-runs on cable TV. There is an alternative, globe-trotting action-adventures. That's right, bubba. You can do the "Indian Jones" thing. Here's how to get started. National Geographic Adventure (NGA) magazine has compiled a roundup of the world's best action adventures.
The FALL 1999 issue of NGA magazine cuts through the clutter and lists the top 25 international trips from adventure-travel companies with solid track records, interpretive expertise and pull with the locals. The expeditions are classified as Cultural (hmm, sounds like a tax deduction to me), Athletic (muscular but not extreme), Classic (a hall-of-fame place with a twist) and New (just appeared on the adventure-travel radar).
Here's a sample of what Adventure says is hot, new, and adventurous..
- Hike the 2,500-year-old land of Iran.
Thirteen day excursions to northern Iran include a trek through the ruins of the 9th century Castle of Assassins, hike over a mountain pass to the hot springs of Shelef, then down to the tea plantations near the shores of the Caspian Sea. $3,390. Departs from Tehran in April and October 2000. I hear that conditions for hiking in Iran haven't been this good in years. That's because visiting Americans no longer have to wear a blind-fold.
- Dive for a ghost ship in the Arctic.
The HMS Breadalbane was located in 1980 and is almost perfectly preserved in gin-clear water 340 feet deep in Canada's High Artic. Board a submersible, get lowered through the ice, and enjoy the 90-minute tour of the wreck. Includes snowmobile outings (when you're back on land, of course) to nearby polar bear dens. $9,980. Departs from Resolute in March and April 2000.
- Visit a Russian Cosmonaut boot camp (may "the force" be with you, comrade).
Just 19 miles east of Moscow, civilians join cosmonauts preparing for space travel. Wannabe space invaders will don spacesuits and endure gut-busting simulations, tour mission control and learn to navigate by the stars. $14,950. Departs from Moscow from March to June 2000. Sounds great. But I'm going to wait and hope for a tour of the Russian banking system. I hear those guys can make a billion dollars appear in your bank account over night.
- Kayak, snorkel, and hike Galapagos, Ecuador ... Darwin's laboratory of evolution.
Fifteen participants visit eight islands where they hike past steaming fumaroles up the flanks of Volcan Sierra Negra. Mix-it-up with penguins and sea lions, then snorkel in a virtual aquarium. $4,598. Five departures January through March 2000. Don't forget your camera. Galapagos has life-forms you won't even find on the Jerry Springer show.
- Enter the fantasy zone of French Polynesia.
Hike through Tahiti's enormous lava tube to the triple waterfalls of Faarumai. Then fly across the Sea of the Moon for a trek through a tropical hardwood forest. Finish with an exploration through remote Tuamotu Archipelago while sailing in a luxury catamaran. $3,395. Departs from Tahiti in May, June and October 2000.
National Geographic's Adventure magazine can be previewed on the Internet at: www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Boomers Drive Adventure Travel Trend
Hong Kong Wellness Tours for Yuppies and Chuppies
Active Senior Travelers Seek Cultural Experiences
Seniors Tour China And Yangtze River for $200 per Day
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Colleges Confront Campus Gray Matter
When today's graduates reminisce about their "old professors" ... they aren't kidding. Like everything else in Aging America, today's college campuses are getting older. 1-in-3 of the nation's full-time faculty members are 55-plus, compared with 1-in-4 about a decade ago, according to a national survey titled "The American College Teacher".
This campus age-trend is enhanced by the fact that as the proportion of older faculty members increased, the proportion of younger (45-plus) faculty has simultaneously decreased. "The aging of the faculty plays into several trends like the fact that older faculty report being more stressed by information technology even though they aren't using it as much as younger faculty," says UCLA education professor Linda J. Sax.
In support of Professor Sax's observation, 67% of all faculty reported technology as a source of stress, and older professors appeared more stressed than younger faculty. For example, less than half of younger faculty (35 and under) found technology stressful compared to two-thirds of those 45-plus. As a result, older faculty were less likely than their younger counterparts to use e-mail and word-processing.
Age-related concerns such as physical health and care of an elder family member were also expressed with greater frequency by older faculty. For example, forty-eight percent expressed concerns about physical well-being, up ten percent since 1989. Nearly one-in-three expressed concerns about eldercare responsibilities, up from one-in-four in 1989.
AgeVenture News predicts a continuing demand among educators for gerontological services such as pre-retirement planning, retirement counseling, and increasing pressure for elder care benefits such as long term care insurance. Academics are ideal consumers of such services because they are planners and learners accustomed to addressing problems within the context of education and training. In addition, unlike the private sector, academia is a place where retirement can be openly discussed without the traditional fears of being shelved or forced out.
"The American College Teacher" report is available on the Internet from the Higher Education Research Institute at www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
School Still Cool say Boomerang Coeds
Home-Schooling Good for What Ails Elders
Students Advised to Plan for Retirement Career
SAVER Act Promotes Retirement Planning
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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