Health, The Elderly | featured news

Growing old is not for sissies, as the bumper sticker says, and as anyone who has entered midlife can attest. But a new study finds that despite the physical and mental toll of time, people actually feel better as they age -- not worse.

I was living in comfortable retirement with my wife, Mathilde, when, at the age of 71, she received a diagnosis of Waldenstrom’s disease. The chief danger of this rare cancer of the bone marrow is that it impedes and eventually destroys the production of vital components of the blood supply.

For many baby boomers, former president Bill Clinton among them, vegetarian diets — including vegan ones, which eschew all animal products — have become a way of life. Much of the reason for that, doctors say, is that this demographic group is heading into prime time for health issues and sees vegetarianism as a way to protect their bodies. Yet for boomers these diets can carry some risks that don’t concern those in their 30s or 40s. As we age, our nutritional needs change and are harder to meet.

Centenarians sleep 8 hours a night, eat balanced meals. Also: Anti-smoking ads doubled help calls; breast cancer survivor can swim topless.

And what it took to get him the help he needed... It was early December 2010. That August, my father, who was 69, became abruptly and deeply paranoid. Convinced that nameless people were trying to kill him, he slept no more than an hour or two a night and started drinking after five years of sobriety. When his suspicions grew to include his immediate family, he became violent and threatened suicide.

The breast cancer drug Herceptin increases the risk of heart problems in elderly patients, especially those with a history of heart disease and/or ...

Keep working, have a sense of purpose—and don’t try to be happy. That’s the upshot of a couple of recent reports on several extensive studies.

Walking about 6 miles a week appears to protect against brain shrinkage in old age, which in turn helps stem the onset of memory problems and ...