“The only sensible person is my tailor. He measures me anew each time he sees me.” —George Bernard Shaw Medical coverage is not one size fits all. Your age, state of health, lifestyle, geographic location and financial situation are some of the factors involved in deciding which supplemental policies you might need to fill in the gaps, since Medicare doesn’t pay for premiums...
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 41.7% of men and 28.7% of women believe they have no need for eye care. As for the men, maybe it’s a guy thing, as in: I don’t need no stinkin’ eye care! Or maybe women are just plain smarter, which even the most macho of men might admit, at least silently to themselves. Actually, both of these...
If retirement is throwing you for a loop, you’re definitely not alone. Coleman Barks, a poet and translator, writes this about his last day of teaching at the University of Georgia: “I missed giving my final final exam. I slept through it. The alarm didn’t sound, or I turned it off in my sleep. I’m buying a new clock. But maybe it’s perfect this way. They wrote me such letters. I’ll...
The American Dental Association (ADA) recently became the first national health professional organization to agree to imposed limits on opioid prescriptions. In fact, dentists already have been writing nearly 500,000 fewer opioid prescriptions over the past five years. On a state level, the Georgia Dental Association (GDA) is urging its 3,500 members to consider non-steroidal anti...
Emergency medical personnel call it the golden hour: the first 60 minutes following a trauma, when it’s most possible to save your life. This explains why air ambulances aren’t just for residents or visitors of remote areas. In cities where traffic jams are routine, it might take a chopper or plane to get you there within the golden hour. Unfortunately, however, that one trip to the...
If you have intermediate or advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the AREDS 2 dietary supplement might help. In fact, many doctors are recommending it. AREDS stands for Age-Related Eye Disease Study, conducted by the National Eye Institute after scientists began noticing that diets high in certain vitamins and minerals appeared to stop AMD from worsening. “Observational studies...
“Happiness is only real when shared.” —Chris McCandless, from Into the Wild According to the Social Security Administration, nearly 80 million people are retiring at a rate of about 10,000 per day. Meanwhile, since 1990, divorces among the 65+ population have tripled. Coincidence? Probably not. Sociologist Stephanie Coontz, director of research at the Council on Contemporary...
Tess Simonetti, a retired elementary teacher in Massillon, Ohio, has seen it firsthand. “When I began teaching, there was little to no involvement by grandparents with the students,” she says. “By the end of my career, many more grandparents played a large role.” Grandparents today are more involved in their grandkid’s lives than ever before. And they’re being...
Rutgers School of Dental Medicine is proposing a new precedent: for dentists to screen their patients for diabetes. Each year, according to Dean Cecile A. Feldman, 27 million Americans see their dentist but not their primary physician. “Many patients seeking care here are either diabetic or prediabetic but haven’t been diagnosed and don’t know they’re at risk,” she reports. The two...
Most of us would prefer to stay healthy and injury-free throughout our retirement. Life, however, doesn’t always cooperate. Suddenly we’re housebound like Paul Sheldon in the Stephen King novel, Misery, with no choice but to surrender to medical professionals, caretakers and our body’s natural response to treatment and rest. For us type A personalities, recuperation—which...
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