It levels the playing field as much as anything does and all of us either are or will face it: it's old age. Frederica reflects on this inevitable fact of life.

Engaging in multiple types of memory training exercises- as opposed to repetitive tasks- helps older adults improve their working memory.

Engaging in multiple types of memory training exercises- as opposed to repetitive tasks- helps older adults improve their working memory.

This research was undertaken by Stuart Fordyce as part of an MSc in Integrated Service Improvement (Health and Social Care) at the University of Edinburgh. It considers the impact of a rapidly ageing population on a Scottish local authority and its attempt to shift the focus to a more contemporary service provision. The aim is to explore what factors are inhibiting the effectiveness of enablement. Using a case study approach the research explored whether: (i) enablement is wholly effective in addressing the increase in current service demands; (ii) the approach adopted by the local authority is undermined as services are now over extended and are attempting to address competing objectives, and; (iii) the paradigmatic change across the sector in the future will materialise if organisations cannot create the capacity and infrastructure to enable change to occur

Title: Midlife Fitness May Mean Healthier Old Age, Study Finds
Category: Health News
Created: 8/27/2012 6:05:00 PM
Last Editorial Review: 8/28/2012 12:00:00 AM

Title: Healthy Living in Old Age Can Add 6 Years to Life
Category: Health News
Created: 8/31/2012 11:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 8/31/2012 12:00:00 AM

Nurturing growth and maintaining the health of decades-old shrubs is a beloved hobby for many. Now, recent research highlights that gardening can also keep the brain healthy in old age (!--ref1--).

New York; Oxford : Berghahn Books, [2020]

[s.l.] : transcript Verlag, 2023.

London : Oneworld, 2014.

Recent reforms of pension systems have helped to contain the rise in future costs resulting from ageing populations and increasing life expectancy. Governments now need to do more to encourage people to work longer and save more for their retirement to ensure that benefits are adequate enough to maintain standards of living into old-age.

Why do some people want to live a very long time, while others would prefer to die relatively young? In a latest study, a team of researchers including Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center, investigated how long young and middle-aged adults in the United States say they want to live in relation to a number of personal characteristics. The results showed that more than one out of six people would prefer to die younger than age 80, before reaching average life expectancy. There was no indication that the relationship between preferring a life shorter or longer than average life expectancy depended on age, gender or education.

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Frances Fuller has followed up her award winning book about Lebanon, In Borrowed Houses, with a new book that helps us face a challenge each and every one of us must someday face.

Police have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of the murder of an 89-year-old woman in an old age home in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape.

There's a crisis in old age care - not just in the UK, around the world, as population demographics shift, and the proportion of older people increase - there's a worry about who's going to look after them, and how much is it going to cost? However, a new analysis on bmj.com says this picture need not be so gloomy - they say that encouraging...

The next seminar in the 2017–18 History of Pre-Modern Medicine seminar series takes place on Tuesday 16 January. Speaker: Dr Catherine Rider (University of Exeter) Medieval Ideas about Infertility and Old Age Abstract: When they discussed fertility and reproductive disorders it was common… Continue reading

[News24Wire] Police have launched a manhunt for the perpetrators of the murder of an 89-year-old woman in an old age home in Queenstown in the Eastern Cape.

Title: Heavy Drinking Into Old Age Ups Health Risks: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 4/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

Your mother gets more and more confused these days. She forgets names, does not recognise usually familiar faces and often starts speaking only to forget the rest of the sentence. She gets tired easily and slumbers a lot. Sometimes she drools like a baby while asleep on the easy chair. You feel a little sadness inside: she is 73, poor thing.

Old age sucks.

Your father, who ran marathons and stayed fit all his life, can hardly take a reliable step any more. His gait is unsteady, he seems wobbly and you constantly fear that he will fall. He has taken a couple of tumbles already and been injured. Poor man, he is 79.

This is how the end begins, you think, with halting steps and frequent falls. It will lead, you suppose, to dementia, forgetfulness, perhaps Alzheimer's, dignity pads, nannies and probably finally pneumonia through too much food going down the wrong way.

You realise both of them will need more care and probably more of your time. One day you might notice a tremor in his hand which makes it impossible for him to feed himself — and an ayah will be hired for the job. This will only get worse, you tell yourself, until the day they find release through death. With any luck, it will not be a lingering, painful one.

This, you tell yourself, is what ageing and senility look like. You don't look forward to the day it will come to you.

My mind has been on the elderly in our lives ever since COVID-19 entered our world. It has a particular appetite for taking away our senior citizens, particularly those over 60, we are told, and more especially if they have underlying conditions. No matter who you are, how young you are, you will one day watch a beloved parent or senior relative decline — and like the overwhelming majority of us, you will dismiss it as creeping old age.

What if you were very very wrong about the signs of old age? What if all the things we call ageing are the result of a single missing vitamin called B12?

My digging began around 2010 when my mother started falling forward every time she stood up. Her hands were unsteady, her once 20-20 vision was blurry, she misheard things, spoke disjointedly, frequently forgot names and faces and frequently dozed off while watching TV. She was then 77, and I thought — she's getting old.

I began reading and googling, meanwhile, and one day, I made a list of all the behaviours and symptoms that I naturally assumed were a part of normal ageing.

Clumsiness
Irregular gait, stumbling
Frequent falls
Forgetfulness
Depression and moodiness
Deteriorating vision
Disorganised speech
Tangential or incoherent thinking
Easily tired, needing more sleep
Being feeble, anaemic
Trembling
Being incontinent (not being able to hold pee in)

Guess what? Every one of these is a symptom of a deficiency of vitamin B12, otherwise known as cobalamin. It is one of the most complex vitamins, with a single cobalt atom in the centre, and the only one that your body does not synthesise. Vegetarians and vegans must get it through dairy or soy products. Eating meat and animal products like dairy products, milk and cheese provide your body with the 2.4 or so micrograms you need every day.

That microscopic amount, it seems, is all your body requires to maintain a healthy central nervous system, produce healthy DNA and make red blood cells.

And then old age starts creeping up on you. Unknown to you, your stomach starts producing less gastric juices, and this directly affects your body's ability to synthesise vitamin B12 from the food you eat. Some people turn into belch and fart factories as they age, struggling with acid reflux at night, popping proton pump inhibitors and antacids. These pills make it even harder for your body to synthesise and absorb vitamin B12.

Your near and dear see what they suppose are signs of senility but they're actually the first signs of a developing B12 deficiency in your ageing parents — weakness, fatigue, shakiness, unsteady gait, incontinence, low blood pressure, depression and other mood disorders, and cognitive problems like poor memory. Since B12 is water-soluble and stored by the body in the liver along with other B vitamins, the deficiency cannot be detected in a blood test until the level drops below 250 picograms per millilitre of blood serum.

There is no good estimate of how many senior citizens we label as aged without checking if they are actually only displaying signs of vitamin B12 deficit. Once detected, it can often be fixed with a single injection once or twice a year.

My mother did have a vitamin B12 deficiency. Injections restored her to a semblance of a more normal life for some years till she died of other causes.

Here, viewed from there. C Y Gopinath, in Bangkok, throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai, the city that raised him. You can reach him at cygopi@gmail.com
Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper

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New York: Maintaining strong social networks with positive, warm and trusting friendships in old age might be key to slowing down age-related decline in memory and brain functioning, researchers say.

Representational picture

The findings showed that superagers -- who are 80 years and older -- who have the cognitive ability at least as good as people in their 50s or 60s can have more satisfying, high-quality relationships compared to their cognitively average, same-age peers.

"This study supports the theory that maintaining strong social networks seems to be linked to slower cognitive decline," said Emily Rogalski, Associate Professor at the Northwestern University in the US.

"The study is particularly exciting as a step toward understanding what factors underlie the preservation of cognitive ability in advanced age, particularly those that may be modifiable," added Amanda Cook, doctoral student at the varsity.

Previous studies have shown psychological well-being in older age to be associated with reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia.

"It's not as simple as saying if you have a strong social network, you'll never get Alzheimer's disease," Rogalski said.

"But if there is a list of healthy choices one can make, such as eating a certain diet and not smoking, maintaining strong social networks may be an important one on that list," Rogalski noted.

For the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, the participants answered a 42-item questionnaire called the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, which is a widely used to measure of psychological well-being.

The scale examines six aspects of psychological well-being: autonomy, positive relations with others, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life and self-acceptance.

Superagers scored a median overall score of 40 in positive relations with others while the control group scored 36 -- a significant difference, Rogalski said.

Anna Sakidon's biological age was nearer to 80 and she weighed just 17lbs when she died in Ukraine. She suffered from Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome which only affects 160 people.

The senior citizens of Chingrajpara slum in Bilaspur are unable to benefit from the largesse of the many government departments in New Delhi. In this fifth article in our SLUM DIARIES series, Ashima Sood notes that they go begging in the alleys of the slum, depending instead on their more reliable humble neighbours.

For the findings, published in the journal eLife, researchers analysed data on 666,333 Danish men born between 1939 and 1959, including 70,608 brothers and 7,388 twins, from Danish national registries.

Online Resource

Weale, R. A. (Robert Alexander)

Hayden Library - RC440.82.W68 2018

Whether you have to handle a CPP or OAS claim, calculate and remit withholdings on employee compensation, or ascertain the employment status of a contractor, Annotated Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Act, 14th Edition, 2015 is for you. This handy work is the only portable, one-stop resource in this area for professionals on the go.

The section-by-section annotations and exhaustive cross sections throughout give you expert commentary and explanations of the legislative provisions, the regulations, and court and tribunal decisions regarding CPP and OAS issues. The book also offers up-to-date coverage of pending legislation and new cases, as well as key decisions of the Pension Appeals Board.

Highlights of new information in the 14th Edition include:

• Amendments implemented by the Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act (Bill C-38), including a summary of the new appeal regime and annotations to the provisions creating the Social Security Tribunal
• All significant Federal Court of Appeal decisions on vital issues such as whether a per diem compensation rate is ‘‘fixed and ascertainable’’ (MNR (Canada) v. Ontario); right to appeal on CPP matters from the Tax Court of Canada (Davitt); online accessibility for claimants (Jodhan); interest award where erroneous information given by the Minister (Bartlett); approach of tribunal where claimant doesn’t appear (Evans); need to refer to every piece of evidence (Simpson and Brennan); motions in the Federal Court of Appeal (McMeekin); evidence on judicial review (McLaughlin); and extension of time (Daoud).
• Important Federal Court decisions, including new authority on when written reasons for granting leave to appeal to the PAB are mandatory
• Updated dollar amounts for YBE (for general and disability claims), YMPE and other statistics throughout;
• New types of disability claims.

The Honourable Gordon Killeen, Q.C., is an active member of the Pension Appeal Board and retired justice of the Ontario Superior Court. His conference lectures in recent years have been influential in the evolution of CPP disability law.

Andrew James is a legal writer. He is the co-author of Ontario Superior Court Practice (with Mr. Justice Todd Archibald, The Honourable Gordon Killeen, Q.C. and James Morton), and Ontario Family Law Practice (with Justice David Steinberg, Justice Craig Perkins and Esther Lenkinski).

If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here.

The essential publication for anyone dealing with CPP or OAS issues.

Dealing with CPP or OAS questions and concerns can be difficult because of the procedural, evidentiary and substantive issues that inevitably arise. But, when you have your copy of the Annotated Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Act, 10th Edition, 2011 handy, dealing with these issues becomes much faster and easier.

The section-by-section annotations provide you with expert commentary, opinions and explanations of the legislative provisions, regulations and court decisions concerning CPP and OAS issues. It also covers pending legislation and new scases, plus the decisions of the Pension Appeals Board and the Review Tribunal.

The Honourable Gordon Killeen, Q.C., of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, is an active member of the Pension Appeal Board. His conference lectures in recent years have been influential in the evolution of CPP disability law.

Andrew James is a legal writer. He is the co-author of Ontario Superior Court Practice (with Mr. Justice Todd Archibald, The Honorable Gordon Killeen, Q.C. and James Morton), and Ontario Family Law Practice (with Justice Craig Perkins and Esther Lenkinski).

If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here.

The essential publication for anyone dealing with CPP or OAS issues.

• Coming into force of amendments reducing the contributory requirements for disability benefits for contributors with at least 25 years of contributions
  
• Streamlining of standard of review rules by Supreme Court of Canada
  
  
• Ground-breaking new Federal Court of Appeal decisions on issues such as:
  - capacity to apply for benefits
  - right of Government to be heard on a motion to rescind a final and binding decision
  - admissibility of new medical evidence

• The latest Pension Appeal Board decisions on CPP claims and Review Tribunal decisions on OAS claims, as selected by the experts

If you would like more details about this product, or would like to order a copy online, please click here.