Last week 75 year old Pennsylvania Senator John Murtha said one of the presidential candidates is about his age and the job of President “is no old man’s job.” John McCain said “speak for yourself, I’m doing fine.” It is like most in-groups, I guess, where it’s ok to insult other members of the group, but other people can’t get away with it.
Living in LA County makes some people a little more aware of differences in culture. There are a million residents of African American ancestry here. In the US, LA County has the largest population of these groups: Urban Native Americans, Filipino, Roma, Mexican, Korean, Iranian, Samoan and Japanese.
There are long term relationships between many cultures that may be positive or may be historically negative. Wars, migrations and trade have melted many a pot before people came to the US. Many times at health fairs, like the one in Temple City Park this weekend, we see older adults who are of Japanese or Chinese ancestry but have lived in Latin America for so long they speak Spanish better than any other tongue. New neighbors cause us to acquire a different view of a culture, sometimes good, such as cooking smells of new spices and sometimes irritating, such as music our ears haven’t learned to appreciate.
Older adults of the generation that lived in the great depression may be more defensive and less open to strangeness than younger seniors. The influx of Asian culture following World War II and the expansion of international business has made later groups more accustomed to new characteristics.
But what about ageism and sexism? What experiences do we need to dismiss the qualifiers of candidates and attend to their qualities? We have an unique choice ahead, will we elect the first African American President? The first female President? The oldest President to enter office? Whatever happens, it will make history!

Older adults from the silent generation are often more resistive to mental health treatment than people of a previous or later generation. It once was a functional attitude. When the aerospace industry was a leading employer in the area a diagnosis of depression in a family member could spoil a worker’s security clearance. Medical treatment for other psychiatric diagnosis had side effects like involuntary movement disorders. Films would portray mentally ill people as maniacs and psychopaths. World War II veterans were among the first “normal” people to benefit from psychotherapy. Better treatments, both medical and psychological, have improved outcomes. Long term hospitalization and disability are no longer expected. But stigma continues. Shame, avoidance and denial are hard to release, but it can be done. NAMI is the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. It is a support organization for consumers of mental health services and their families. The have a stigma busters arm that identifies movies, TV shows and other media that demean or ostracize people with a mental illness and call for letter writing campaigns to the organization. They also support and recognize media like the film “A Beautiful Mind” that portray mentally ill people in a realistic and respectful manner. Dolores, a past National Association President and I will have some material to share on this topic at the Temple City Health Fair on April 26 at Temple City Park. Stop by the table and say “Hi.”

I have been working on how to introduce a study about older adults having an increase in escalator injuries. The injuries aren’t usually very serious and mostly happen just standing on the moving steps. The cause of the slips, trips and falls seems to be about visual balance cues increasing with age. Looking down at the steps makes folks dizzy. I was researching ways for seniors to improve balance, strength and agility to compensate. A while back I told you I called the physical therapy conference hotline and they sent me some brochures about balance and falls. There were some exercises and advice about taking Tai Chi but they really want you to see a Physical Therapist.
Ultimately, I found a lady named Joey who teaches people to use walking poles. These lightweight sticks used in both hands like cross country ski poles increase the cardio-conditioning of a simple walk by 20%. They help you burn 48% more calories and reduce joint impact on the lower limbs by 26%. She let me and my wife try them out and gave us a few pointers on adjusting the length and foot pads on the poles. They were easy to use and I think a better safety choice than a single cane or stick. Walking is great exercise and enjoying it is the biggest factor in keeping on an exercise plan.Joey is 73 yeas old herself and besides working and being a caretaker she is promoting the walking poles because of her own recovery using them. She’ll be at the Temple City Health Fair on April 26 at Temple City Park teaching a clinic on walking poles. Or you can email her at walking4fitness@charter.net. In the meantime, use the elevator.

I have been working on how to introduce a study about older adults having an increase in escalator injuries. The injuries aren’t usually very serious and mostly happen just standing on the moving steps. The cause of the slips, trips and falls seems to be about visual balance cues increasing with age. Looking down at the steps makes folks dizzy. I was researching ways for seniors to improve balance, strength and agility to compensate. A while back I told you I called the physical therapy conference hotline and they sent me some brochures about balance and falls. There were some exercises and advice about taking Tai Chi but they really want you to see a Physical Therapist.
Ultimately, I found a lady named Joey who teaches people to use walking poles. These lightweight sticks used in both hands like cross country ski poles increase the cardio-conditioning of a simple walk by 20%. They help you burn 48% more calories and reduce joint impact on the lower limbs by 26%. She let me and my wife try them out and gave us a few pointers on adjusting the length and foot pads on the poles. They were easy to use and I think a better safety choice than a single cane or stick. Walking is great exercise and enjoying it is the biggest factor in keeping on an exercise plan.Joey is 73 yeas old herself and besides working and being a caretaker she is promoting the walking poles because of her own recovery using them. She’ll be at the Temple City Health Fair on April 26 at Temple City Park teaching a clinic on walking poles. Or you can email her at walking4fitness@charter.net. In the meantime, use the elevator.

If you’re one of those types who read to the bottom of the page, you’ve seen that I lead a mental health team for older adults. You might have noticed that I write often about issues related to dementia. I don’t always see the two as connected because the folks who pay for treatment have categorized dementia as a medical problem, not a mental problem. I could explain why, but it wouldn’t make any more sense than it does without a rationale. In the papers there was a story about how a big belly in your forties is related to cognitive decline in your seventies. I can’t tell you how much that news meant to me personally. The photo doesn’t show me in full figure for a reason, we have to leave room for the column. Since I’m out of my forties, I guess I can plan well for about twenty years to minimize the damage. I can buy long-term care insurance. I can develop my support network. I can simplify my life so the number of things I need to remember are few. And I can read the studies with an informed eye. The facts are that when the risk for dementia doubled with a large belly, 16 out of 100 subjects were affected. That means 84 out of 100 were not. That’s better odds than you can get in Vegas. I probably will not get dementia. Anyone who can read this probably will not get dementia because education level is a huge protective factor. It is surely better to make healthy choices. It is wise to take good care yourself. I should do those things I listed earlier to prepare anyway, because that is the smart thing to do. I plan to talk a little more about the kinds of mental illness that seniors do report in the next few weeks but right now I have to try to do some sit-ups.

The power of the vote is only one of the ways our voice is heard in the world of politics and government. When an elected official acts on the promises and expectations that got him or her into office, re-election is the reward. But we can make our wishes known to the lawmakers and executives before, during and after the elections as well. I have made some statements in this space about seniors as a voting block not working together. Even when it is in the best interest of the age group. Even when it is in the best interest of society at large.
The governor is trying to figure out where the budget can be cut. He will cut the parts that are least likely to effect re-election. That is how we give feedback after the fact. He has proposed cutting $11.4 million in state and federal funding to the adult protective services program. Not every older adult will need APS. Every older adult knows someone who will need APS. Reports of elder abuse have increased by a third in the past five years. The elderly population will double in the next twenty years as the baby boomers graduate into seniority. But the thinking in Sacramento is basically that the people who will miss out on needed help won’t make a difference at the polls. APS helps seniors to age in place. Without their services hospitalization and nursing home placements increase. The cost of those services is ultimately higher. Want to work together?
Jack Scott is on the senate budget committee. So is Bob Margett. Ed Hernandez is on the assembly budget committee. They send mail to your home asking you to vote for them. Why don’t you send them some mail telling them what to do for your vote? Search www.legislature.ca.gov by zip code to get your representative’s address. Buy a stamp. Tell ‘em “Hi” for me.

Awhile back I wrote about weight loss surgery in Australia being reported as a cure for diabetes. It was right before election day and the other poll workers read it and told me they had no intentions of going under the knife to lose a few pounds. For older adults it is notoriously difficult to diet off weight, especially if there has been a life long pattern of dieting. The metabolism is a genius at conserving weight to prepare for periods of famine. There is a study about the people who regain their weight after gastric reduction surgery at the Geisinger Clinic in Pennsylvania. They found that twenty percent of the subjects who had bariatric surgery had a genetic variation and had a poor response in weight loss. One in five would continue to have weight problems after the surgery. They don’t know enough yet to use this factor to select patients for the surgery, but it may help explain why some folks remain obese after the procedure. They may respond to genetic therapy yet to be developed rather than surgical treatment.
The people in the study had BMI (Body Mass Index, a reliable estimate of body fat) that was over 40. The limit for obese instead of merely overweight is a BMI of 30. If you don’t know your BMI there are several ways to get it. Weight Watchers has an easy to use chart and the National Institutes of Health has a wonderful calculator on their weight control web site: www.nhlbi.nih.gov, The NIH website also has a “portion distortion” link that is fascinating. It shows how the size of food portions has grown over the past twenty years and contributes to the obesity epidemic in the US.
On election day we soothed our nerves on the topic in a time tested and traditional manner- Girl Scout Cookies!

There were a couple of stories on the news services this week about the D word. The D word is Dementia. Apparently there is a study coming out in a neurology journal that rates the risk of developing dementia if both your parents got it. It seems that if two parents got the disease, it increases the likelihood their children will get it. But even after age 70, more than half of the kids are free of dementia symptoms. Still the rate for the general population is much lower. There is about a six percent lifetime prevalence in the US, so if both parents get dementia the rate becomes about seven times higher. There were other D word stories too. One had to do with the worries patients have when they are diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. AD is only one form of dementia and does have several medications that are modestly helpful in slowing the progress of the disease. The worries patients have are about becoming dependant on others and burdensome to family. Doctors are often hesitant to tell a patient they have AD because of these fears. There is evidence from Washington University in St Louis that it relieves the patient to know and be able to make plans for long term care. The subjects in that study had no more depression or anxiety weeks after the diagnosis was announced than before they knew. Finally, the Alzheimer’s Association list of things to do if you have a diagnosis of early AD was published. They recommend hiring services like bill paying and transportation, writing notes to yourself about how to work appliances, and foremost- stay active physically and socially! If you know a person with dementia, you can help with the last suggestion- go for walks together, take them to church, invite them for a meal.