In Brief
By Andy Humm
Rock of Aging
Roger Daltrey of The Who believes that older people need more rock in their lives. “It’s always frustrated me that rock ’n’ roll is centered on the youth,” the 61-year-old Daltrey told FemaleFirst. Daltry and Pete Townshend, his bandmate, are working on a rock song for their generation. Daltrey said that Townshend “can drag rock ’n’ roll into its old age with purpose,” but will only release the song “if it is worthy.”
Slippers or Salsa?
Sixty percent of the over-50 crowd complain that they receive the same Christmas gifts from friends and relatives every year, and two-thirds feel they are obligated to act delighted with their presents, often limited to candles, slippers, and socks, a study from Saga Home Insurance has found. Twenty percent say they try to resell such gifts at tag sales. Others rewrap and re-give the stuff. Andrew Goodsell of Saga says that many people over 50 want more activity and challenge in their lives. He suggests salsa lessons instead of slippers as presents for older members of the family.
HIV Over 50
The British Columbia Center for Disease Control reports that people over 55 make up 8.7 percent of all new HIV infections in that venue, more than twice the percentage in 1995.
Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s health coordinator, is not certain what caused the increase, but he told the Vancouver Sun that the growth in use of drugs like Viagra may have led to an increase in sexual activity in that population, and consequently greater transmission of diseases. Doctors also tend to neglect the possibility that an older person has HIV-related symptoms, mistaking such symptoms for something else.
Marcie Summers of the Positive Women’s Network told the Sun that HIV is one of the last things on the minds of older women getting back into dating after divorce or the death of a spouse. “Most middle-aged men are going to say: ‘A condom? Are you kidding? I haven’t used one of those since I was 25.’ ” She noted that the percentage of women with AIDS who are over 50 has grown from five to 15 percent in the past five years.
A problem in preventing HIV in this age group is getting oldsters to overcome their discomfort talking about sexual matters.
More Years, More Vitamin D
The American Medical Women’s Association is now recommending that people over 50 take 800 to 1,000 international units of vitamin D daily, up from the 400 to 600 units recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
Vitamin D is produced naturally through exposure to ultraviolet-B rays from the sun, but older people are apt to miss this conduit because of sunscreens, covering up outdoors, and staying indoors more. The essential vitamin is also abundant in fatty fish and fortified milk and juice, but physicians say it’s better to get it through a supplement.
Recent studies credit vitamin D with contributing to bone strength in conjunction with calcium and exercise. It may also prevent some cancers and multiple sclerosis, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Green Rx From New Zealand
While we in the United States worry about how to pay for all our prescriptions with or without Medicare Part D, New Zealand doctors have come up with something called a “Green Prescription” that won’t cost money, but will require time and effort.
Green Prescriptions are for specific physical activities that will help older people raise their exercise levels and general well-being, Reuters Health reports.
Studies show that regular physical activity reduces risks of death from all causes, including heart disease, even if the patient is a smoker and drinker or has other chronic conditions.
In a study from the University of Auckland, reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, people over 65 who got the Green Prescriptions, and follow-up calls to nudge them, spent an average of 40 more minutes each week engaged in physical activity than non-active others in the control group, burned more calories, and had fewer hospitalizations.
The New Zealand doctors think their approach is transferable to the United States, possibly through the large managed-care programs.
Franco-Prussian Warning
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, headquartered in Paris, recently issued a report advising Germany that unless that nation raises its retirement age, it risks a slowing of economic growth.
At present, just two-fifths of 55-to-64-year-old Germans are working, compared with three-fifths in the United states and Britain and 70 percent in Sweden.
The new German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has a plan on the table to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67, but the OECD report called for the Germans to act sooner than the target date of 2008. It also urged Germany to make it tougher to retire by phasing out early-retirement offers and cutting down on disability pensions and unemployment benefits. And it recommended training older workers for new careers.
Medicare Part D Disliked, Not Understood
President Bush was determined to get a prescription-drug program for older people through before the last election, and did, but a survey of the potential recipients finds disfavor and confusion, as predicted by the mostly Democratic opponents.
Polling of older Americans by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health came up with 37 percent who viewed the Medicare Part D program unfavorably, 31 percent favorably, and 31 who said they did not know enough to say.
Ready or not, Medicare recipients must choose an insurance plan for prescriptions in their state under the program, or face penalties in the form of higher premiums if they sign up down the road.
People with existing private coverage are generally not enrolling in Part D, though some private insurers are looking to drop their prescription benefits and let Medicare pick them up.
The best way to see if the program would benefit you and which program to purchase is to go to Medicare’s Website at www.medicare.gov and plug your particulars into the online program.
John Rother, director of policy and strategy at AARP, said: “This was a program enacted as part of a very high-profile, partisan controversy. The benefit is not what people had hoped to see.” AARP, which back the controversial plan and lost members because of that, is one of the bodies offering insurance under the program.
To Fight Depression
A new study of mild depression among older people finds that antidepressants help more than counseling or placebos, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports. Researchers found that improvement was “modest” over an 11-week course of medication, as opposed to an intervention treatment called “problem-solving.”
