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	<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Aging &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>A healthy balance of the mind, body and spirit</description>
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		<title>Health &#38; FamilyCategory: Aging &#124; Health &#38; Family &#124; TIME.com</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com</link>
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		<title>Combining Bone-Building Drugs Key to Making Bones Stronger</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/16/combining-bone-building-drugs-key-to-making-bones-stronger/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/05/16/combining-bone-building-drugs-key-to-making-bones-stronger/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 09:45:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bisphosphonates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bone]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bone density]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[denosumab]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fosamax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[isphosphonate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[osteoporosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[teriparatide]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=86777</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Two drugs used to treat osteoporosis may be better than either alone in maintaining bone density. Dr. Benjamin Leder and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital found that combining teriparatide (Forteo) and denosumab (Prolia) improved bone density tests among a group of post menopausal women with osteoporosis after a year better than any benefits that currently available drugs provide on their own. Maintaining bone strength is about managing the creation and destruction of bone; teriparatide works by both stimulating bone formation and preventing bone decay, while denosumab primarily inhibits bone loss, so the dual actions may have contributed to the combination&#8217;s success. Prior studies that combined the popular bisphosphonates, which include Fosamax, with teriparatide have been unsuccessful, but the researchers, who reported their findings in the journal Lancet, believe that denosumab may work better with teriparatide because it can block teriparatide&#8217;s bone decaying activity more effectively. Bisphosphonates, like denosumab, also blocks the destruction of bone but through a different pathway. (MORE: Kids Who Exercise Are Less Likely to Have Fractures in Old Age) Osteoporosis is more common among women following menopause, since the cells that break down or cause resorption of bone, called osteoclasts, and the cells that form new bone, called osteoblasts, become more active. However, over time, the osteoclasts tend to overtake the bone-building processes, which leads to lower bone density and a higher risk for fractures. In the study, the researchers separated the 94 female study participants into three groups. One received the combined teriparatide  and denosumab therapy while the other two groups took one or the other medication alone. The participants&#8217; had their bone density measured and blood tests conducted at three months, six months and at the end of the year-long study. Those with the combined drug therapy showed a 9.1% increase in bone density of the lumbar spine compared to a 6.2% increase among the teriparatide only group, and a 5.5% increase among the denosumab only group. They also showed similar increases in bone density of the hip. (MORE: 10 Ways to Build Healthy Bones and Keep Them Strong) &#8220;Unlike the combination between bisphosphonate and teriparatide, denosumab is<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=86777&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Medicine</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/155374740.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Kids Who Exercise Are Less Likely to Have Fractures in Old Age</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/25/kids-who-exercise-are-less-likely-to-have-fractures-in-old-age/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/03/25/kids-who-exercise-are-less-likely-to-have-fractures-in-old-age/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:45:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging well]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bone health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bones]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fractures]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[osteoporosis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[physical activity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=82883</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It turns out that strengthening bone to avoid fractures starts at a very young age. Physical activity, such as the exercise children get in school gym classes, is important for fighting obesity, but the latest research suggests it may help to keep bones strong as well. For six years, researchers from Skane University Hospital in Malmo, Sweden, followed 808 boys and girls ages 7 to 9 who were asked to participate in 40 minutes of physical activity daily during school. The scientists recorded the children&#8217;s skeletal development, and documented any reports of fractures and compared these results with those of a similarly aged control group that completed 60 minutes of physical activity over a week. Reporting at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine&#8217;s Specialty Day in Chicago, the researchers found that during the study period, children in the group that exercised daily reported 72 fractures, while those in the control group recorded 143 fractures. Those who were physically active for 40 minutes a day also showed higher bone density in the spine compared with those who did not exercise as much. Bone density is an indication of bone strength, and the denser bone density is early in life, the stronger bones remain decades later, when natural thinning of bones weakens the skeleton and increases the risk of fractures and breaks. (MORE: 10 Ways to Build Healthy Bones and Keep Them Strong) To correlate these results with fracture risk later in life, the researchers also studied 708 former male athletes in their 60s and 70s and compared their fracture rates and bone-density scores with those of healthy men of the same age who had not been trained at an elite level. The former athletes showed a smaller rate of loss in bone density on average than the nonathletes, suggesting that their bones were better able to avoid fractures. &#8220;According to our study, exercise interventions in childhood may be associated with lower fracture risks as people age, due to the increases in peak bone mass that occurs in growing children who perform regular<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=82883&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Exercise</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/diet-fitness/exercise/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/107953967.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">107953967</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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	</item>
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		<title>Can You Hear Me Now? Training the Brain to Hear Better</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/12/can-you-hear-me-now-training-the-brain-to-hear-better/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/12/can-you-hear-me-now-training-the-brain-to-hear-better/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:30:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Maia Szalavitz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Aging well]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[auditory training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[brain training]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hard of hearing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hearing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[losing hearing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=80043</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Improving hearing, especially in a loud environment, is just like any other skill — it takes practice. The din of a loud restaurant or party can make conversation difficult for anyone— but for the elderly, these settings can make it nearly impossible. The mechanics of hearing decline with age, but the latest research focuses on another part of the problem — the slower processing speed of aging brains, which have to work harder to translate sound into intelligible language. Research shows that musicians— despite often working in conditions that can produce hearing loss— are better able to pick out speech from surrounding noise as they age compared to non-musicians.  And a new study of  auditory training with a commercially available brain training program suggests that most people who are hard of hearing can develop the same skills. In a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists showed that people trained for 40 hours over 8 weeks with Posit Science&#8217;s “Brain Fitness” were able to pick out 41% more words from background noise compared to those who watched educational DVD’s and were quizzed on their contents after the same amount of time. The authors, led by Nina Kraus of Northwestern University, received no funding from the makers of the program; the study was funded by the university and the National Institutes of Health. The research included 67 older adults between 55 and 70, with an average age of 63.  The auditory training came in the form of computerized hearing tasks that primed the participants to hear better by requiring them to identify various speech sounds and distinguish between similar sounding syllables, for example, as well as repeating back words and remembering stories. MORE: Creating Music Using Brain Waves: Just for Fun or Clinically Important? Both those who received the training and those who watched the DVDs were tested on short term memory, brain processing speed and the ability to hear speech in noisy settings. All of the participants showed improvement in these three measures, but for the first<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=80043&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">MaiaSzalavitz</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Baby Boomers: Not the &#8216;Healthiest Generation&#8217;</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/05/baby-boomers-not-the-healthiest-generation/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/05/baby-boomers-not-the-healthiest-generation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 13:00:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diabetes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obesity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[baby boomer health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Baby Boomers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=79515</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Every generation likes to think it’s healthier than the one that came before, but baby boomers can’t make that claim. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, researchers found that a sample of the baby boom generation, the 78 million Americans who were born in the post-war birth explosion from 1946 to 1964, were less healthy than many of their parents. Never mind the fact that Baby boomers have been dubbed the Healthiest Generation, since they have the longest life expectancy of any previous generation, and that  they were able to exploit advances in medical care and reap the benefits of public health campaigns highlighting the dangers of smoking and unhealthy diets. That moniker may simply no longer apply, since it turns out that they have higher rates of hypertension, diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol than members of the previous generation. The revelation comes from data in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a national snapshot of health measures and behaviors conducted by the U.S. government. Dr. Dana King, a professor in family medicine at West Virginia University School of Medicine and his colleagues compared baby boomers aged 46 years to 64 years between 2007 and 2010 to similar aged Americans in 1988 to 1994. Overall, only 13% of baby boomers rated their health as ‘excellent’ while nearly three times as many, 32%, of those in the previous generation considered themselves in excellent health. MORE: Are Unrealistic Life Expectations to Blame for Baby Boomer Suicides? King and his team also documented some of the evidence for this difference in health: 7% of the those born in the baby boom use a cane or other device to help them walk, for example, compared to 3% in the previous generation; and 13% of boomers have some limitations in their ability to perform their everyday tasks — such as walk up a flight or stairs or mow the lawn — compared to 8.8% of those in the earlier cohort. “Baby boomers are living longer, so I think there may be<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=79515&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/124205948.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">124205948</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">apark7</media:title>
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		<title>Aspirin Linked to Rare Form of Vision Loss</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/18/aspirin-linked-to-rare-form-of-vision-loss/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/18/aspirin-linked-to-rare-form-of-vision-loss/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 21:02:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drugs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Heart Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[age-related macular degeneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[AMD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aspirin]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eyesight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[macular degeneration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vision]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[vision loss]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=76369</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The wonder drug that relieves everything from headaches to joint pain, and lowers the risk of heart disease may come with risks for the eyes. Writing this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health at Madison say they&#8217;ve identified a &#8220;small but statistically significant association&#8221; between frequent aspirin use and a rare form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is a leading cause of vision loss among the elderly and limits a person&#8217;s ability to see what&#8217;s straight in front of them, making reading, for example, difficult. If the results are confirmed, researchers say it would be important to determine how regular aspirin use contributes to AMD, to better understand how the 20% of Americans who take low-dose aspirin daily to prevent heart attacks may be affected. MORE: Early Success in a Human Embryonic Stem Cell Trial to Treat Blindness &#8220;[Patients] should not be changing their aspirin usage based on this,&#8221; says lead study author Dr. Barbara Klein, a professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin. &#8220;Even if we’re right, the increased risk is relatively small,&#8221; she says, and AMD, unlike a heart attack, is not fatal. Klein and her colleagues analyzed data from the Beaver Dam Eye Study, a long-running project based in the small city of Beaver Dam, WI. Starting in the late 1980s, researchers followed almost 5,000 middle-aged and elderly adults, interviewing them every five years and providing full eye exams. At each interview, the study participants provided information about medications they were taking, including whether they used aspirin regularly, which the scientists defined as at least twice a week for more than three months. MORE: An Aspirin a Day May Still Lower Cancer Risk, But Not as Much as Previously Thought Klein and her co-authors found no relationship between new AMD cases and aspirin use after five years. But after a decade, they found a small correlation between new cases of advanced, or &#8220;late&#8221; AMD and regular<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=76369&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Drugs</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/drugs/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/72724395aspirinamdcrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
		</media:content>
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		<title>When It Comes to Longevity, It&#8217;s Not Years But Microlives that May Count</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/17/when-it-comes-to-longevity-its-not-years-but-microlives-that-may-count/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/17/when-it-comes-to-longevity-its-not-years-but-microlives-that-may-count/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 17 Dec 2012 23:50:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Olivia B. Waxman</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food & Drink]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Tobacco]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=76360</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[We know that overindulging in our favorite foods isn&#8217;t good for our health, but researchers propose a new way of quantifying just how harmful those treats can be. Now that we&#8217;re in the midst of the holiday season, calorie-laden foods seem to be ubiquitous — sugary cookies, sweet candies and juicy hams dripping with honey. But in the holiday issue of the BMJ, researchers report that making a habit of overindulging in rich fare can take years off your life. In fact, the scientists calculated exactly how much our favorite foods can shorten our life span; eating red meat every day, for example, is linked to a loss of at least 30 minutes off of your life. (MORE: How to Live 100 Years) Dr. David Spiegelhalter, a statistician at the University of Cambridge and author of the study, says that it&#8217;s not the occasional indulgence but consistent over-eating of certain foods that can impact your longevity. But for most people, weighing the immediate gratification of eating a steak sizzling on a plate in front of you against a far-off loss of a year or two of your life in your 70s or 80s, almost always ends with people favoring the steak. So he decided to frame daily diet choices in the more immediate terms of adding or losing hours to your day. Calculating that the average life spans about 80 years, he divided that time up for adults 35 and older into nearly a million half hours, and assigned each 30 minute period to be 1 microlife. Each microlife is about one millionth of life expectancy after age 35. He then assessed how unhealthy eating habits would impact a person&#8217;s total microlives. Smoking, for example, eats up approximately 10 microlives for every 20 cigarettes smoked — or about 15 fewer minutes of life expectancy per cigarette. &#8220;Smoking 20 cigarettes a day (10 microlives) is as if you are rushing towards your death at 29 hours a day instead of 24,&#8221; he says. Averaged over a lifetime, the following habits are<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=76360&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Longevity</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/longevity/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/999430-011microlivescrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">timeolivia</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Faster, Stronger, Longer: Olympians Live Longer than the Rest of Us</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/14/fast-stronger-longer-olympians-outlive-the-rest-of-us/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/14/fast-stronger-longer-olympians-outlive-the-rest-of-us/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 14 Dec 2012 13:00:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Diet & Fitness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sport]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=76000</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[All that training, regardless of the sport, my pay off in extra years, according to two recent studies. Both studies, published in the BMJ, confirm the fact that the best athletes in the world are indeed among the healthiest as well, thanks to their rigorous training regimens. And now it seems that fitness translates into a survival advantage as well. The first study looked at the life expectancy of 15,174 Olympians from the top medal-earning countries including the U.S., Germany, Nordic nations, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The athletes all received at least one medal during Games between 1896 and 2010 and were compared to general population groups matched by age, country and gender. Overall, the Olympic medalists lived an average of 2.8 years longer than the public in eight of the nine countries in a 30-year followup. (MORE: Study: Genes May Predict Who Lives to 100) The color of the medal, it seems, did not matter. Gold, silver and bronze medalists all enjoyed the same survival advantage over non-Olympians. The longevity benefit also occurred across all sports, including events such as soccer, basketball, jumping in track and field, endurance activities and even power sports like wrestling and weightlifting, which provided a smaller, but still significant survival benefit. &#8220;To put this survival advantage into some perspective, it is almost as large as the difference in life expectancy between men and women, so male Olympic medalists can expect to live almost as long as the average woman in the general population,&#8221; says lead study author Philip Clarke of the University of Melbourne in Australia. (MORE: Q&#38;A: How a Little Exercise Brings Big Benefits) Although the authors did not investigate the reasons for the Olympic longevity, they provided a few theories. Athletes in general are healthier than the average person, and Olympic athletes are among the fittest specimens of healthy eating and physical fitness. Part of that fitness could be due to genetics, but their training environments likely amplify any potential genetic advantages, especially if they join more intensive national  training<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=76000&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Longevity</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/longevity/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/hl-olympians-1214.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: Michael Phelpsompetes in the Final of the Men&#039;s 400m Individual Medley on Day One of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre, July 28, 2012.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Caregiving for an Aging Parent From Afar: Six Ways to Help</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/06/caregiving-for-an-aging-parent-from-afar-six-ways-to-help/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/12/06/caregiving-for-an-aging-parent-from-afar-six-ways-to-help/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Dec 2012 15:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanna de Baca</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=75093</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[For my mother and my Aunt Lois, providing care to my elderly grandparents was a difficult and emotionally distressing experience for many reasons, but it was especially hard because of the geographical distance separating them. They both lived far from the southern Indiana farm where my beloved grandparents resided, and only one other aunt lived nearby. Grandpa was the first to experience serious health issues and sank gradually into dementia. And though Grandma’s mind remained sharp until the end, her vision failed in her early 90s and she became homebound and frail, eventually succumbing to cancer. In the course of a decade, my mother and aunts managed the shifting stages of care for my grandparents. The heaviest burden of the day-to-day care fell on my Aunt Emily who lived nearby, while Mom and Aunt Lois visited often and helped with financial and legal matters. As distance caregivers, Mom and Aunt Lois often felt frustrated, constrained and helpless. (MORE: The 12 Hidden College Expenses) The National Institute on Aging estimates that there may be as many as seven million people providing long-distance care in the United States. Caregiving for aging parents from afar iscomplicated. In addition to the emotional aspects that come with the aging process and deteriorating health of a loved one, the financial aspects can also be complex. If you are living far from your elderly parent and he or she is in decline, what can you do to make it easier financially for you and your family? Consider moving Mom or Dad in with you. Depending on your parent’s desire to stay in their home or community,  their health situation and the configuration of your house, moving them home may not be realistic. However, if your aging parent is open to the idea and can be accommodated in your home, it will likely beless expensive than carrying the costs of two houses or funding a room at anursing home. Discuss this with your parents and the other members of your household, and do the math to determine the cost<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=75093&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Family</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/family/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wheel-chair.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Wheel Chair</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/88840acf343699fe6f4619803daf4b90?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">suzannadebaca</media:title>
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		<title>iPads to the Rescue! Tablets Help Low-Vision Patients Read More Comfortably</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/13/ipads-to-the-rescue-tablets-help-low-vision-patients-read-more-comfortably/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/11/13/ipads-to-the-rescue-tablets-help-low-vision-patients-read-more-comfortably/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:30:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=73712</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not that we need another reason to covet iPads, but the tablets may provide a new way to help patients with eye diseases. Researchers at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School report at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in Chicago that digital tablets like iPads and Kindles improved reading speeds in patients with low vision. MORE: Do E-Books Make It Harder to Remember What You Just Read? Conditions such as macular degeneration and vision problems due to diabetes can damage light-sensitive cells in the eye&#8217;s retina, which in turn compromises central vision. The retina, located in the back of the eye, processes light and images into nerve signals that are sent to the brain. Damage to the retina, and in particular to the macular, or central portion, makes it difficult to decipher details and distinguish words on a page, and in most cases, ophthalmologists suggested that these patients use reading aids like expensive and bulky magnifiers with attached lights to ease reading tasks. (MORE: How To Avoid Computer Eye Strain) But in the new study, 100 participants each read a chapter from a book in three formats: in its traditional printed form, on an iPad and on a Kindle. On the iPad and Kindle, the participants read the chapter twice; once at 12 point font, and another time using 18 point font. When using the iPad, participants increased their reading speed by 42 words-per-minute (WPM) on the 18-point font setting, compared to reading the printed book. On the Kindle, the participants increased their speed by 12 WPM. Overall, people with modest vision loss improved their speed by 15 words-per-minute on average. The researchers believe it&#8217;s the back-lit screens on the tables that are responsible for the reading improvements, since they provide greater contrast and allow the words to appear crisper. People with poor vision often struggle with distinguishing objects or words from their backgrounds. Although the original Kindle used in study did not have a back-lit screen (current models do), even its word and background contrast most likely made it easier for<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=73712&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/146627824.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">146627824</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Exercise Trumps Brain Games in Keeping Our Minds Intact</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/23/exercise-trumps-brain-games-in-keeping-our-minds-intact/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/23/exercise-trumps-brain-games-in-keeping-our-minds-intact/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:00:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alzheimer's Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Memory]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=72112</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s inevitable that as we age, our brains get smaller. Nerves die off, losing their connections, and that leads to a thinned out network feeding our thinking functions. But brain shrinkage isn&#8217;t inevitable, according to the latest study of elderly adults. In recent years, as more research reveals the benefits of staying both physically and mentally active into the golden years, health officials have been urging older people to exercise more and stay mentally engaged by maintaining a rich network of friends and family connections and by learning new skills to keep their brains sharp. Crossword puzzles, learning a new language, playing board games — anything that requires some thought can do the trick. VIDEO: A Faster Stride Predicts a Longer Life But researchers wanted to know whether physical activity or mental activity was better at keeping cognitive functions intact, or whether there was something about the combination that helped elderly stay sharp. So in the new study, researchers examined the medical records of 638 people from Scotland born in 1936. At age 70, the participants filled out questionnaires detailing their exercise habits as well as how often they engaged in stimulating mental and social activities. When they turned 73, the scientists took MRIs of their brains and matched their size, as well as any changes in the volume of white matter, which makes up the web of nerves that connect various brain regions, to the volunteers&#8217; questionnaire answers. (MORE: Mind Your Reps: Exercise, Especially Weight Lifting, Helps Keep the Brain Sharp) The participants reported a range of physical activity, from household chores to heavy exercise or playing competitive sports several times a week. Over the three years, those who exercised the most had the largest brains, and showed the least shrinkage in white matter compared to those who were the least active, suggesting regular exercise in old age could protect the brain from age-related decline. Those who reported engaging in more intellectual pursuits didn&#8217;t show the same benefit. &#8220;People in their seventies who participated in more physical exercise, including walking several<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=72112&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/121111609.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">121111609</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Can Caring for Your Aging Parents Hurt Your Career — or Your Paycheck?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/26/can-caring-for-your-aging-parents-hurt-your-career-or-your-paycheck/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/26/can-caring-for-your-aging-parents-hurt-your-career-or-your-paycheck/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanna de Baca</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=70039</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When my father was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1998, I flew from my home in New York City back to my parents&#8217; farm in Iowa one weekend every month for more than a year to help my mother care for him. It was a tough time. I was exhausted from traveling, juggling responsibilities with my own family and worrying about my mother — and, on top of that, I was concerned that the time and energy I was spending to help my parents would have a detrimental effect on my work performance, my career and ultimately, my finances. Fortunately, I had a flexible job and a supportive boss, but that’s not the case for everyone — and more and more people may be finding themselves in a similar predicament. Studies project that between now and 2050, the 65-and-over population will more than double in the U.S., and as the boomer generation and their parents age, more of their family members will have eldercare responsibilities that will require them to take some time off of work. A new report released by AARP shows that over the last five years, 42% of U.S. workers provided unpaid eldercare for a family member or friend, and 49% expect to do so in the coming five years. (MORE: 6 Steps for Building a Financial Plan for Aging Parents) Eldercare may require an afternoon, a day, a week, or much more to be there for loved ones, to arrange for nursing care, to help with recovery or to handle Mom or Dad’s finances and paperwork. Balancing these responsibilities while caring for yourself and your own family can be challenging enough — but what about maintaining your duties at work? Can your commitment to give care to your aging parent(s) actually hurt your career or jeopardize your financial future? According to new research, the answer is yes — especially if you’re a woman. The same AARP report finds that the average caregiver is a 49-year-old woman who works outside the home and spends nearly 20 hours<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=70039&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/138345651.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/138345651.jpg?w=240" />
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			<media:title type="html">Daughter and Elderly mother checking medicine</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/88840acf343699fe6f4619803daf4b90?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">suzannadebaca</media:title>
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		<title>Do Eunuchs Really Live Longer?</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/25/do-eunuchs-really-live-longer/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/25/do-eunuchs-really-live-longer/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 12:00:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[castrated men]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chosun dynasty]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[eunuch]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=69881</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Talk about a longevity strategy no man wants to pursue. A recent study published in the journal Current Biology finds that Korean eunuchs — castrated men — lived 14 to 19 years longer than other men, suggesting that male sex hormones play a role in life span. In the study, the researchers used a genealogy record called the Yang-Se-Gye-Bo that tracked eunuchs who worked in the Korean imperial court during the Chosun Dynasty, which ruled from the 14th to early 20th centuries. Researchers were able to identify 81 eunuchs, who were castrated as boys, and determined that they lived to an average age of 70, significantly longer than other men of similar social status. Even kings didn&#8217;t typically make it to age 50. Three of the 81 eunuchs lived to 100, a centenarian rate that&#8217;s far higher than would be expected in modern society. The current incidence of centenarians is 1 per 3,500 people in Japan, and 1 per 4,400 people in the United States, for instance; thus, the incidence of centenarians among Korean eunuchs was at least 130 times higher than that of present-day developed countries, according to the paper. (MORE: Want to Live Longer? Don’t Try Caloric Restriction) &#8220;Our study supports the idea that male sex hormones decrease the lifespan of men,&#8221; the authors write. Based on earlier research, the authors argue that one explanation for this could be that male sex hormones may negatively influence the immune system and &#8220;predispose men to adverse cardiovascular attacks.&#8221; They note further that the theory helps explain why females — in many species — live longer than males. But while animal studies have suggested that castration (which removes the testes, the source of male hormones) results in longer lives, studies in humans have been spotty. In one study of castrati singers, there was no difference in lifespan between them and non-castrated singers; in another study of institutionalized, mentally ill men, however, those who were castrated lived some 14 years longer than those who weren&#8217;t. And there are other reasons that women may outlive men, including for example the presence<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=69881&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/143050888.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/143050888.jpg?w=240" />
		<media:content url="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/143050888.jpg?w=240" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Eunuchs</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>Is Your Elderly Parent Moving In? It Might Cost You</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/08/is-your-elderly-parent-moving-in-it-might-cost-you/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/08/is-your-elderly-parent-moving-in-it-might-cost-you/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Aug 2012 12:00:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanna de Baca</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aging parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assisted living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[caring for a parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[elderly parent]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nursing home]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=65878</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many people my age struggle with the best way to care for their aging parents — and my husband and I are no exception. My friends, colleagues and I all agonize as we debate whether our parent(s) should move in with us or enter an assisted-living facility or nursing home. These are complex decisions that have emotional, physical and financial costs — and no easy answers. My mother is healthy now, but one fact is clear: if she moves into our three-story home someday, we’ll need to make some changes to our house. And while we would welcome her company, making our home easy for her to get around in could be very expensive. Recently, my husband and I decided to speak candidly with my mom about her own plans for the future. We were motivated to broach the issue after talking to my friend Victoria, who went through a similar experience with her mother. Victoria&#8217;s elderly mom moved in with her after her father&#8217;s death, but in order to care for her — Victoria&#8217;s mom was wheelchair bound and needed assistance with some daily activities — Victoria had to remodel her home. (MORE: When Dementia Derails Your Parent&#8217;s Finances) Victoria made the smart decision to do some advance planning together with her parents, talking about options and putting a plan in place, even before her father died. That made the financial aspects of remodeling her home and caring for her mother a lot easier. After Victoria&#8217;s father died, she and her mom sold her parents&#8217; home as they had decided. They then used the proceeds to add a bedroom and a bathroom to the main floor of Victoria&#8217;s house. Victoria’s mother lived with her family for six years before she passed away, and they treasure the experience. Victoria reflects that “one of the nicest things we could offer our son was to have time with his grandmother — and it was a joy to her.” She says remodeling their home to make a room for her mother was one<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=65878&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Family</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/family/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/106897585.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">106897585</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">suzannadebaca</media:title>
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		<title>Improving Vision with Cataract Surgery Has Another Benefit: Fewer Broken Hips in Elderly</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/01/improving-vision-with-cataract-surgery-has-another-benefit-fewer-broken-hips-in-elderly/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/08/01/improving-vision-with-cataract-surgery-has-another-benefit-fewer-broken-hips-in-elderly/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:34:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cataract surgery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cataracts]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[falling]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[falls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hip fractures]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=65287</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It stands to reason that better vision could help people lower their risk of falling and breaking a hip. That&#8217;s what a new study of more than a million Medicare patients found: those who had surgery to remove vision-impairing cataracts were significantly less likely to suffer hip fractures afterward, particularly those who were older and very sick. The finding may impact a wide swath of the population, given that more than half of Americans will develop cataracts by age 80, according to the National Eye Institute. Previous research also finds that cataract surgery not only improves vision, but also boosts elderly patients&#8217; quality of life, allowing them to engage socially and take part in their community more. Without clear vision, people may have trouble performing day-to-day activities or other pursuits, and may be more likely to succumb to low self-esteem and depression. Hip fractures, too, are a major health concern among the elderly: a study last fall found that elderly women who broke a hip were at least twice as likely to die in the year following injury than uninjured women. Fall-related injuries are pricey as well, costing the U.S. more than $10 billion in 2000. (MORE: Exercise Keeps Muscles Young, Even in Elderly Heart Patients) Dr. Victoria Tseng and her colleagues at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University looked at a random sample of 1.1 million Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 or older who were diagnosed with cataracts between 2002 and 2009. They compared the rates of hip fractures in 410,809 patients who underwent surgery to remove cataracts with rates in patients who did not. Overall, the researchers found, patients who received cataract surgery were 16% less likely to break a hip in the year after the procedure, but the benefit was most pronounced in older patients. The oldest patients in the study, those aged 80 to 84, enjoyed the greatest benefits, with 28% fewer fractures. Those with chronic illnesses like heart disease or diabetes were also 26% to 28% less likely to experience a hip fracture after cataract surgery,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=65287&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/ls001448.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">LS001448</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/dd9dc95ff828efb70c16a5a509a75150?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>To Boost Memory, Shut Your Eyes and Relax</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/25/to-boost-memory-shut-your-eyes-and-relax/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/07/25/to-boost-memory-shut-your-eyes-and-relax/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 25 Jul 2012 13:45:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Laura Blue</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Memory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=64563</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Forget brain-training exercises, 12-hour shifts and those long, uninterrupted, caffeine-fueled study binges. When you really need new information to sink in, you can&#8217;t skimp on taking breaks, new research suggests. That&#8217;s the message from a soon-to-be-published study by psychologists and neuroscientists at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, who asked a small group of normally aging elderly men and women to recall as many details as possible from two stories they were told. Following one of the stories (but not always the same one for all the participants), the men and women were instructed to relax, take a brief break and close their eyes for 10 minutes in a dark room. Following the other story, those same participants were instead distracted with a new task, spotting the differences between pairs of nearly identical images. Overall, the study participants remembered many more details of whichever story they heard before they were told to rest — and their striking memory boost persisted even a full week out after the story-telling. Take heed, students, doctors and anyone else who has to process large amounts of information: the elderly may worry most about memory, but given what we know about how memories form, these new findings have implications for people of all ages. (MORE: Quizzes — but Not Pop Quizzes — Help the Brain Learn) Previous research has already shown that both the young and the old have better recall of, say, a list of words if they&#8217;re allowed to rest for a few minutes in between learning the words and then regurgitating them. What this latest study adds, however, is evidence that a few minutes of wakeful rest may have an effect even on long-term memory consolidation. In fact, when we first encounter new information, it seems, we are probably &#8220;just at a very early stage of memory formation,&#8221; according to Michaela Dewar, the research fellow who is first author on the new study. &#8220;Further neural processes have to occur after this stage for us to be able to remember this information at<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=64563&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Memory</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/memory/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/rest.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">rest</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://1.gravatar.com/avatar/a069e8b4ff0dc386def0882f71bbfee6?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Laura Blue</media:title>
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		<title>Kids of Older Fathers and Grandfathers May Inherit Longevity</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/12/kids-of-older-fathers-and-grandfathers-may-inherit-longevity/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/12/kids-of-older-fathers-and-grandfathers-may-inherit-longevity/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 12 Jun 2012 15:06:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fathers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grandfathers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[long life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[older fathers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telomeres]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=61745</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If your grandfather was old when he had your father, and your father in turn waited before having you, you may have inherited some life-extending perks. According to a recent study by researchers at Northwestern University, the children and grandchildren of older fathers — in their late 30s to early 50s — have longer telomeres, the tips of chromosomes that may have something to do with good health and longevity. As people age, telomeres get shorter. So, each time a cell divides, its telomeres shorten — until the cell eventually dies off. But previous studies have shown that children of older fathers have longer telomeres. Lead study author Dan Eisenberg, a doctoral candidate in anthropology at Northwestern, explains that it&#8217;s probably because as a man ages, telomeres in his sperm actually get longer. &#8220;Our study shows for the first time that this happens across at least two generations: older fathers not only have offspring with longer telomeres, but their sons also have offspring with longer telomeres,&#8221; Eisenberg says. (MORE: Why Fathers Have Lower Levels of Testosterone) The research team analyzed data from the Philippines’ Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, which involved 3,327 women who were pregnant in 1983-84, then followed their children. The researchers examined telomeres in DNA collected from the mothers&#8217; and their children&#8217;s blood. They then compared children&#8217;s telomere lengths to the ages of their fathers and grandfathers when each successive generation was born. The older the children&#8217;s dads were when they were born, the longer their telomeres, the researchers discovered. The finding held true even when the researchers looked back another generation: the older the kids&#8217; grandfathers were when the children&#8217;s fathers were born, the longer the kids&#8217; telomeres. The lengthening effect was compounded from one generation to the next. The researchers found no similar effect from the maternal grandfathers&#8217; side. The thinking is that generations with longer telomeres may live longer and healthier. The current study didn&#8217;t look at health outcomes, but other research has associated telomere length with longevity and diseases like cancer. The authors<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=61745&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/129622292.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>When Dementia Derails Your Parent’s Finances</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/06/when-dementia-derails-your-parents-finances/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/06/when-dementia-derails-your-parents-finances/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2012 10:45:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Suzanna de Baca</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Alzheimer's Disease]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brain]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Death & Dying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Longevity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Memory]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mental Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dementia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[parents]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal finance]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[power of attorney]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=61146</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Not long ago, I had coffee with my friend Jill whose father had recently passed away. He had suffered from dementia for more than a year, but no one picked up on it until the disease had progressed and her dad had stopped tending to household finances. Bills were unpaid, investments were in disarray and random payments had been made to charities he’d never supported before. Jill had spent long hours trying to unravel and correct the financial chaos he’d inadvertently created in the months before he died. According to a recent report by the Alzheimer’s Association, 1 in 8 elderly Americans currently suffer from some form of dementia, and more than 15 million Americans provide some sort of care to affected individuals. As Time’s cover story details this week, many baby boomers are finding themselves responsible for making health care decisions for their parents. But boomers are also stepping in to help with financial matters. In many cases, this means taking over money management duties or paying for expenses out of their own pockets. The time and money involved can be significant. (MORE: Five Tips for Families Facing End-of-Life Care) With some proactive planning, you can help your parents stay on track financially and ensure that their desires for their financial legacy are respected and carried out. Taking the following steps while your aging parents are still healthy can help protect their finances and lay the groundwork for a transition in financial management should your parent develop dementia or other illness. 1. Talk about finances now. While your parents may hesitate to talk about money, or tell you to butt out of their business, it’s important to broach the topic. If you’re worried about having this conversation, consider coming at it by bringing up the national health care debate or discussing a friend’s situation like Jill’s. Then gently inquire whether your parents have made arrangements for long term care or if they have sufficient retirement income and respectfully offer assistance with managing their finances. 2. Set up automatic bill payments.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=61146&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Family</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/family-parenting/family/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/hl_dementia_0605_blog.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">suzannadebaca</media:title>
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		<title>Alternatives to the Nursing Home for Aging or Ailing Parents</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/01/alternatives-to-the-nursing-home-for-aging-or-ailing-parents/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/01/alternatives-to-the-nursing-home-for-aging-or-ailing-parents/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 01 Jun 2012 12:00:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assisted living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CCRCs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[community living]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Continuing Care Retirement Communities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[home care]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hospice]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[medicaid]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nursing home alternatives]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palliative]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[subsidized senior housing]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=60720</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In this week&#8217;s TIME cover story, &#8220;The Long Goodbye&#8221; (available to subscribers here), journalist Joe Klein writes about managing the care of his ailing parents, both of whom suffered from dementia, until their deaths last winter eight weeks apart. He spent &#8220;five months as a death panel for both my mother and my father,&#8221; Klein writes. For many families facing the same journey at the end of life, the medical decisions that must be made can be overwhelming. On Thursday, we offered readers guidance on how best to prepare for end-of-life care. Below, we offer information on the various housing options available for aging or ill parents and loved ones; there are many alternatives to the standard nursing home. &#8220;What is best for one person’s parent might be utterly wrong for another,&#8221; says Dr. Ira Byock, director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and author of The Best Care Possible. &#8220;But it is possible to discern what treatments and elements of care best fit each individual at each point in time.&#8221; (MORE: The Long Goodbye: A Journalist Becomes His Parents&#8217; Death Panel) Here are some housing and care options to consider: Home and community care. &#8220;Most people really want to be at home. They enjoy hearing their dog barking outiside, smelling food from the kitchen, having the familiar quilt on their bed,&#8221; says Malene Smith Davis, CEO of Capital Caring, which provides palliative care and guidance for families. Home care services can involve nurses, physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and social workers, depending on the patient&#8217;s need. Some home services include adult day care, daily check-ups and Meals on Wheels programs. Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance may pay some home care costs related to medical needs. Medicare may pay for the home care services of family members needing short-term home care — usually just a few weeks Medicaid covers long-term home care services, but each state determines who is eligible and which services are covered Palliative or hospice care. For people needing end-of-life care, palliative and hospice care are two options that should be considered.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=60720&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/102410513.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>&#8216;Old-Person Smell&#8217; Really Exists, Scientists Say</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/31/old-person-smell-really-exists-scientists-say/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/05/31/old-person-smell-really-exists-scientists-say/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 31 May 2012 15:00:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alexandra Sifferlin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[body odor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[old-people smell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[old-person smell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[smell]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://healthland.time.com/?p=60604</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[&#8216;Old-person smell&#8217; is a real thing — and it&#8217;s not just due to mothballs or a musty house. Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia confirmed that elderly people really do have a distinct scent, so recognizable in fact that people can identify them by body odor alone. The researchers speculate that the human ability to discern age through scent might be an evolutionary skill related to the way other animals are able to sniff out young, virile mates and avoid those that are older or sick. Both human and non-human animal body odors are rich with chemical components that can transmit useful social information, the scientists say. And many animals, including mice, rabbits, owls and monkeys, are known to undergo changes to the chemical composition of their body odor as they age. &#8220;Similar to other animals, humans can extract signals from body odors that allow us to identify biological age, avoid sick individuals, pick a suitable partner and distinguish kin from non-kin,&#8221; said senior author Johan Lundström, a sensory neuroscientist at Monell, in a statement. (VIDEO: A Faster Stride Predicts a Longer Life) Lundström became interested in studying the effect of age on human body odor when he noticed that old people in the U.S. seemed to smell just the way did back home in Sweden. One day, when walked into an elderly care center near Philadelphia to give a lecture, he realized that the smell of the place was familiar — it was the exact same scent of the nursing home in Sweden where his mother worked when he was a boy. For Lundström&#8217;s study, researchers collected body odor samples from 44 volunteers of three different age groups: 20 to 30 years old (young), 45 to 55 (middle-aged), and 75 to 95 (old). Researchers acquired the samples by sewing nursing pads into the armpits of unscented T-shirts and asking each body odor donor to sleep in the same shirt for five consecutive nights. The pads were then removed, cut into quadrants and placed into individual glass jars. Next, 41 young<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=60604&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Aging</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/medicine/aging/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/200317387-001.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">asifferlin</media:title>
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		<title>How Bullying and Abuse May Age Children Prematurely</title>
		<link>http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/24/how-bullying-and-abuse-may-age-children-prematurely/</link>
		<comments>http://healthland.time.com/2012/04/24/how-bullying-and-abuse-may-age-children-prematurely/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alice Park</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Aging]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Child Development]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Family & Parenting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Medicine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[abuse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bullying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DNA]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[telomeres]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[violence]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[A hard life can age you, literally, researchers say. In fact, children who are exposed to violence at a young age show changes in their DNA equivalent to several years of premature aging. That’s the finding of an international group of scientists who analyzed data from the Environmental Risk Study (E-Risk), which tracked 2,232 children born between 1994 and 1995 in England and Wales. The researchers focused on 236 children whom they followed from age 5 to 10. Nearly half of the children had had some exposure to violence, either in the form of observing violent acts against their mother, being bullied themselves, or being the victim of aggressive acts by an adult. The study’s lead author, Idan Shalev, in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, says that he and his colleagues were interested in seeing whether the long-term negative effect of violence on children’s later health and behavior might be related to the early aging of their cells. So they took DNA samples from each child at age 5 and again at age 10 and studied their telomeres, the repetitive sequence of DNA that caps chromosomes at each end. Over time, telomeres get shorter, since each time a cell divides, a bit of the telomere is lost. Once the telomeres reach a certain length, the cell starts to die, leading some experts to believe that telomeres are a master regulator, or chronological clock, that documents a cell’s aging. (MORE: What if My Son Is a Bully? — What You Need to Know About Bullying) In recent years, studies have shown that stress can whittle away at telomeres, aging cells before their time. Indeed, the current study showed that children who were exposed to two or more kinds of violence showed more erosion of their telomeres between ages 5 and 10 than those who led less stressful lives. What’s more, each of the types of violence Shalev and his group studied had an effect on shortening telomeres, but exposure to multiple types of violence had a cumulative effect.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=healthland.time.com&#038;blog=8684427&#038;post=58138&#038;subd=timewellness&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Child Development</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://healthland.time.com/category/mental-health/child-development/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/108437781violencednacrop.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Bullying</media:title>
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