With hits like “The Closer I Get to You,” “Killing Me Softly,” “Where Is the Love,” and “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” Roberta Flack has captured the hearts of hopeless romantics since 1969. But her first success, as she remembers, was not in the recording studio but in the classroom. Born in 1937 in Black Mountain, North Carolina, Roberta...
The media coverage on nursing homes these days is disturbing to say the least. Directly or indirectly, the issue affects us all. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, more than half of Americans turning 65 will need long-term care and services. Whether it’s you or a family member who needs long-term care, it can be challenging to find the right facility. Discrepancies in...
“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify!” —Thoreau Over time, many of us have accumulated things we rarely, if ever, use. When we finally wise up, we come to see that all that stuff—along with the house in which it’s been collecting dust—no longer makes sense. Many experts are recommending that retirees sell their homes and rent instead. Typically, this...
Eyelid myokymia, or twitching, is caused by involuntary contractions triggered by tiny bundles of nerve fibers in the orbicularis oculi, the muscle that surrounds your eye socket and closes the lids. As irritating as twitching can get, let’s all be thankful that typically only one eye is affected, and the lower lid. A tic is different because you can suppress it. There’s not much you...
One of the perks of grandparenting is an education in how to smile. Babies are the experts. They smile in the womb and continue after they’re born. Smiling is innate, not learned; this we know because even blind babies smile. Children smile as many as 400 times a day. That’s a lot more than the general population, with 30% smiling more than 20 times a day and about 14% smiling...
When you think eye exam, do you wince at the inconvenience of those dilation drops that last 4-24 hours? Fortunately, most optometrists these days offer the option of imaging technology, which, while not covered by all insurance companies, is noninvasive, typically inexpensive and actually really cool. It’s not every day you get to see your own optic nerve on a full-color monitor. And...
Klipinger.com recently published two articles about RVs. One gives reasons to retire in an RV and the other gives reasons why you’ll regret it. Fair enough. What should you do? Here are some pros and cons to help you make up your own mind, or at least begin the process of doing so: Pros: • Lower cost of living • Great way to volunteer and see the country at the same time • You won’t...
While most of our fears are learned, there are only two we’re born with: loud noises and falling. Nobody wants to fall, and understandably so. There’s very little control, if any. We’re never sure how we’ll land, only that it’s going to hurt—not just our body but also our self-esteem. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one out of four older Americans falls...
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...
When you see your face in the mirror, you’re looking at four million years of dental evolution. A recent study by Arizona State University shows how changes in the jaw, teeth, and face are basically responses to dietary and feeding trends. The earliest humans ate tough plants that called for large jaw muscles and cheek teeth. As a result, their faces were broad and deep. Later, as we began...
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