June « 2009 « Silver Buzz Cafe

How To Get Help Faster in the Emergency Room

Did you know that average total waiting time in a United States emergency room in 2008 was four hours and three minutes? That’s twenty seven minutes worse than it was in 2002! Be polite, you need help, not a confrontation. The person who make it known that they are concerned and expect results are, more often than not, going to get faster service than ones who sit and wait. [...]

Preventive Health Screenings

Many health services around the World have increased their focus on screenings as they can save money and resources in addition to lives. Some risk factors can be tackled by lifestyle changes. However, there are some that we can do little to avoid. Early detection can often significantly increase the chance of survival or of living longer. [...]

Avoiding and Dealing With Falls

We all know that the danger of falling increases as we grow older. It’s not just environmental factors, such as rough sidewalks, slippery stairs and bad lighting, that cause the problem. As we age we grow weaker and our mobility suffers. Rather than try to be comprehensive here, we’ve added links to a set of authoritative checklists for identifying fall hazards on our Useful Sites page. [...]

Cancer Avoidance

A study published in 2003 by researchers at the Mayo Clinic failed to find conclusive proof that green tea can slow or halt prostate cancer. A new study, published in “Cancer Prevention Research” journal, conducted by researchers at the Feist-Weiller Cancer Center in Philadelphia, used a compound called Polyphenon E, which is found in green tea. They reached different conclusions. [...]

A New Way to Find a Place to Volunteer.

When President Obama called on Americans to serve as volunteers a group of individuals was inspired to start a new initiative called “All for Good” and to leverage Silicon Valley technology to make it work. All for Good gives you another way to find a way to volunteer your time and promises to be a very rich source for the community. [...]

Have a Happy and Healthy Father's Day!

Those grandkids get heavier every year. It’s Father’s Day today in the United States, so when grandfathers should be having a nice rest they’re usually out barbecuing, generally horsing around, forgetting to drink enough water and doing things they shouldn’t be at their age. Enjoy yourself, oversee the cooking, stay away from the dishwashing and spend quality time with your kids and grandkids. That’s what it’s all about. Then get a good night’s sleep. [...]

Don't Forget To Brush Your Teeth

Researchers have been telling us for years that dental hygiene is about much more than having bright white teeth. There is a known link between gum disease and severe dementia. A new study is looking at a possible link between gum disease and memory impairment. [...]

Traveling as a Senior – Part 2 – Health & Safety

This is the second article on the topic of traveling as a senior. If you haven’t read the first one, please start here. Here are some additional items that will help you have a safer and more enjoyable trip. [...]

Traveling as a Senior – Part 1 – Logistics

It used to be a lot of fun to travel, but with increased security concerns around the world, it’s becoming even more important to plan trips more carefully and to take extra precautions as we age. Have you ever run out of a medication on a trip abroad? Or caught a tummy bug [...]

What If We All Lived A Lot Longer?

Comments about an article in the November 2008, scientific journal “Cell” caught my eye this morning. The authors¹ have discovered that an aging mechanism discovered over ten years ago in single cell yeasts actually applies to multicellular organisms, such as mammals, as well. As always, practical application of this knowledge will probably take a long time to result in anything that can reliably slow down the aging process. At that point we have to ask ourselves how far we want to go with this. [...]

Working With a Geriatric Care Manager.

When you first realize that you or a loved one are having problems with the every tasks of living it may be time to talk to a professional Geriatric Care Manager (GCM). The role of a GCM is to help families who are caring for older relatives. It’s an extension of a role within [...]

Healthy Exercise for Seniors

We all know that exercise is good for us, but if you aren’t already taking care of yourself it’s hard to get started. If somebody told you that a few hours of exercise a week could increase your energy, self esteem, strength, stamina and mental focus would you be interested? What if they also told you that it would decrease the risk of heart attacks, breast cancer, osteoporosis and reduce depression? [...]

Things To Come

Did you know that nearly one in four U.S. households is involved in caring for a relative or friend aged 50 or older? In the next thirty years almost every home in the U.S. will be involved in some way. As the demands rise it’s debatable whether or not the supply of human helpers will be able to keep up. Telemedicine, televisiting, home care programs, such as PACE, and even robotics will become increasingly important. [...]

How To Become a Human Guinea Pig

A recent BBC News item contained some interesting facts about the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) that I hadn’t heard before. The BLSA celebrated its fiftieth year last year! There’s a great wealth of information on clinical trials on the Web, so we’ve added some links to the Resources for Seniors page. There’s also a link to a very interesting site that will help you understand the effect of genetics on health. That’s a particularly active field at the moment, as is research on cancer and Alzheimers. [...]

Alternative Medicine – Separating Fact from Fiction

More than a third of Americans use unconventional therapies or medicines to address health concerns. Congress created the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to study supplements and unconventional therapies. $2.5 billion of tax-financed research spread over ten years has not found any new cures or major treatment advances, though there have been limited success with acupuncture in some situations and ginger to treat chemotherapy-related nausea. [...]

President Obama signed the second part (reconciliation) of the health care reform bill on March 30, 2010. That's great, but the provisions that will cover the uninsured haven't clicked in yet.

Our elected officials started work on the proposed health insurance reform bill on July 30, 2009. Harvard researchers estimate that 122 Americans die every day as a result of not having health insurance.

So, the estimated number of uninsured Americans who have died while the politicians in the Senate and Congress played politics and delayed new benefits for the sake of the health care insurers is

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