Films
Last month’s 6th
Annual Legacy Film Festival on Aging at New People Cinema (which should have been renamed Old People Cinema J) featured diverse themes
centered around The Art of Living (including The Presence Project),
Who Cares? (A Letter From Fred), Deep
Learning (The Family Dog), Generations; Memory; Life, Death and Love; and Gotta Dance! (Hip Hop-eration; check out TEDx talk by this dance troupe’s manager Billie Jordan).
Legacy Film Festival Director
Sheila Malkind, with Board Member Arlene Reiff, announced that Bradford
(England), the world’s first UNESCO City of Film, will
host its inaugural 3-day Golden Years Film Festival – Celebrate Life through Film,
October 3-5, 2016, a free event featuring films from Sheila’s Legacy Film Series!
Panel discussion with Snow Day: Life, Death, and Skiing documentary filmmakers and director Erica Milsom’s parents,
and Wayne
For the past year, I
have joined my friend Jane at free Hollywood movie screenings hosted by AARP’s Movies for Grownups,
which have included Hello My Name Is Doris,
Miles Ahead, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, Florence Foster Jenkins,
and The Hollars.
As I prefer documentaries for greater
authenticity, these Hollywood films
featuring older adults seem to target audiences who want to escape reality.
Time
Whenever my employer stresses doing more assessments and
data entry (like bringing out my iPad to type during home visits with clients, which
can be more challenging to maintain eye contact—done more easily when using pen
to paper), I feel like a factory worker in a widget production line. But then my clients appreciatively remind me
that I actually spend more time with them than the average 15 minutes that doctors spend with patients. Administrative work can take more time than
being present for clients/patients. This is a scary thought since the complexity
of my clients’ lives (especially clients with dual diagnoses) demand more time. For example, shorter doctor visits increase the
likelihood that patients leave with a prescription for medication, rather than
for more sustainable behavioral change — like eating more healthy and
exercising. In my work, I help fill the gaps by referring
clients to health promotion resources like tips for home safety, fall
prevention, smoking cessation,
etc. And I am always eager to learn to
be a more effective advocate for my clients.
Food & Addiction
I was mesmerized by many presenters who were as engaging
as the topic of UCSF’s conference, Food & Addiction: Environment, Policy & Individual Factors. Fortunately, the busy doctors gave more than
15 minutes of their time J.
None of the presenting doctors were geriatricians,
but what they had to say applies throughout one’s life course and most of my
clients continue to see their internists.
Elissa Epel, PhD, noted for her research on the role of chronic stress on cellular aging and incorporating behavioral science into UCSF medical school curriculum,
introduced renowned addiction medicine expert Mark S. Gold, MD.
In his presentation, Food
Addiction: How did we get here and where are we going? Dr. Gold, a self-described
“itinerant food addict,” took a life review perspective of his academic
pursuits based on food, “I like French fries, pizza and frozen custard” –
attending Yale School of Medicine in New Haven for Pepe Pizzeria, and
Washington University in St. Louis for Ted Drewe’s frozen custard! Dr. Gold’s
30+ years of addiction research has demonstrated similarities in the effects of drugs (tobacco, cocaine,
opiates) and certain foods (fast food, sugar) on the brain and behavior. Based on successful treatment of addictions to
drugs, Dr. Gold is researching treatments for food addictions and hyperphagia.
Drs. Dean Schillinger and Robert Lustig,
sample paleo-friendly, gluten-free muffins from Muffin Revolution.
Laura Schmidt, PhD, chaired session on Preventing Food Addiction in Vulnerable Populations, with George W.
Albee’s prevention is better (than treatment) quote on screen: “No
epidemic has ever been resolved by
paying attention to the treatment of
the affected individual.” Schmidt’s view is that addictive substances,
like sugar, should be regulated through taxation and limits
on marketing and access.
Dr. Schillinger, founder of UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, talked
about his work with Youth Speaks through The Bigger Picture to combat the rising epidemic of type 2 diabetes (formerly known as adult-onset
diabetes, but increasing in younger people). He showed spoken word video, Death Recipe,
by San Francisco
We eat like we still slaves
Cause back in the days we got what whites didn’t want
And now we got something called freedom of eat
But granny still chooses salt covered pigs feet
And mama still chooses KFC
And I still choose whatever is given to me …
Cause back in the days we got what whites didn’t want
And now we got something called freedom of eat
But granny still chooses salt covered pigs feet
And mama still chooses KFC
And I still choose whatever is given to me …
(I thought about the 64-year-old grandmother who filed $20 million suit against KFC for false advertising because she paid $20 expecting
bucket overflowing with chicken to feed the whole family, but only got ½ bucket;
and KFC “helping” to fight breast cancer with pink buckets.)
Nancy Adler, PhD, founder of UCSF’s Center for Health and
Community,
and Robert Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics and President of the Institute for Responsible Nutrition, with power point summary of his What’s the real addiction? presentation
on screen: “The only items in 'junk' food that are addictive are sugar and
caffeine; but they are really food additives.”
[In Sugar: The Bitter Truth (2009),
Dr. Lustig talked about turning around 40
years of mainstream nutrition belief that blamed fat v. sugar for dis-ease. He declared sugar is toxic like alcohol and tobacco,
urging us to reduce sugar consumption for public health.]
Last
month, UCSF researchers Stanton Glantz, Cristin Kearns and Schmidt published an
article in JAMA Internal Medicine about the sugar
industry paying Harvard scientists to blame fat and cholesterol as dietary
causes of coronary heart disease, while downplaying evidence that sugar
consumption was a risk factor, about 50 years ago. This resulted in misleading a generation of
baby boomers who counted calories (though all calories aren’t equal, according
to Dr. Lustig), gave up eating saturated fats like butter (in favor of trans fat margarine or low-fat) and cholesterol-rich egg yolks (in favor of
whites only). Just as there should be more
geriatric training among doctors,
reliable and accurate nutrition science training is needed to promote healthy aging!
Communication
At Jewish Home, CPMC psychologist Jeremy Bornstein presented Effective Healthcare
Communication with Difficult Patients and Families. Key points:
- “Difficult” is subjective
assessment when one’s perceived skill is not up to challenge
- “Difficult” is manageable by
acknowledging level of challenge and looking for ways to increase skill
- Get behind “difficult”
behavior (e.g., aggressive, depressed, anxious) and address emotional
needs with support, education and mental health resources
- Develop rapport to understand
underlying values, beliefs, goals and expectations
He reminded us of the Talmudic quote, “We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
Eating for Health
UCSF rheumatologist Cristina Lanata, MD, presented Update in Lupus Research at Lupus of Northern California’s Fall Conference. Almost 2 million Americans suffer from
lupus—more prevalent than AIDS, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, sickle-cell
anemia and cystic fibrosis combined.
Lupus mostly affects women, and is more common among women of
African-American descent. (However, late-onset lupus after age 55 is more common among Caucasians.) While
40% of lupus is transmitted genetically, the actual expression of genes is
based on epigenetics or life-course exposures to external and internal stimuli.
Exposures to smoking, asbestos and nail polish were associated with higher risk
for lupus. Having a diagnosis of lupus is an opportunity for self-care.
After Jessica Goldman Foung was diagnosed with
lupus-related kidney failure 12 years ago, her doctors prescribed a low-sodium diet. As she let go of sodium, she began focusing
on all the healthier alternatives (replacing high sodium processed foods) and
taking control – motivating her to learn cooking, inspiring her to share her
adventures in her Sodium Girl blog, and rebranding low-sodium in her new book, Low-So Good: A Guide to Real Food, Big Flavor, and Less Sodium with 70 Amazing Recipes
(May 2016). Her zest for healthy living was apparent in
her schedule of back-to-back health events: she had attended National Kidney
Foundation’s Annual San Francisco Authors Luncheon prior to speaking at Lupus Conference!
At World Veg Festival, Shanta Nimbark Sacharoff introduced
her new book, Other Avenues Are Possible: Legacy of the People’s Food System of the San Francisco Bay Area (September
2016).
Shanta, an original member of Other Avenues Grocery, a worker-owned food co-op
started in 1974, documented the rise of the “Food for People, Not Profit”
movement that challenged agribusiness and supermarkets, and promoted healthy
foods to local communities. Long live SLOW (Seasonal, Local, Organic, Whole) food movement!
Speaking before an intergenerational audience at University of San Francisco, Filipino Food Movement Board Chairman PJ Quesada said that Filipinos need to get over tyranny of "authentic" food
like "no one cooks better than grandma," particularly since Filipino cuisine is “fusion” with influences from Spanish and Chinese.
SFSU History Professor Dawn Mabalon noted difference between fusion and whitewashing food, criticizing Bon Appetit’s “Ode
to Halo Halo” made with gummi bears
and popcorn. This was a very timely topic as I have been working with a client, first generation Filipino-American who may outlive her retirement savings if she continues paying $250 per month for her daily dish of authentically prepared Filipino food (which supplements her 2 home-delivered Western meals)--so we are exploring options like persuading her IHSS worker to cook authentic Filipino meals since my client can no longer cook for herself.
Pork tocino buns & arroz caldo from F.O.B. Kitchen Chef Janice Dulce
Senior Prom
The Village Project’s
A Senior Moment: Senior Prom for the 50+ featured entertainment by West Coast Blues Society and awards presentation by Bayview Senior Services Executive Director Cathy Davis.
Senior Prom honorees with Supervisor London Breed, who
said she preferred oldies but goodies music over her generation’s music with
“swear words”!
Aging Commission President Edna James got into the
picture!
Healthy plate of mostly plant foods.
AARP CEO: Ageism is Hollywood's Worst Villain
ReplyDeleteJo Ann Jenkins reminds studio execs to value veteran artists
by Jenny Peters, AARP, November 2, 2016
AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins headed west to Hollywood on Tuesday, taking AARP’s disrupt-aging message to Variety’s inaugural Inclusion Summit, a daylong symposium addressing the business of diversity within the entertainment industry. AARP was also a sponsor of the event.
... In an onstage conversation with Variety Co-Editor in Chief Andrew Wallenstein, Jenkins emphasized the new reality of American life.
“Today, here in the U.S., the 50+ market segment represents 111 million people,” she said. “And 10,000 people are turning 65 every day. That trend is going to continue for at least the next 14 years. We are living healthier and longer. It’s a huge opportunity for the entertainment industry, particularly in movies and television, to get more focused on the likes and dislikes of people 50 and over.”
Yet that reality isn’t reflected in what Americans see on screens both big and small — a state that Wallenstein attributed to “the last bias” in Hollywood — despite some basic facts that Jenkins laid out, citing AARP research to prove her points.
“The truth is that 70 percent of the disposable income in this country is in the possession of people 50 and older,” Jenkins said. “And 25 percent of people who are moviegoers are people over the age of 50. They are actually putting butts in the seats in the movie theaters.
“Yet we see across the board that the marketing industry is spending 75 to 80 percent of their dollars focusing on people who are under the age of 30, and mostly young males.”
That traditional Hollywood focus on youth, Jenkins said, is exactly what she wants to help disrupt. From a culture of ageism, the entertainment industry must shift to seeking “an ageless society” where all age groups can see themselves authentically reflected in the stories being told about them.
“There is a huge opportunity to reach this demographic,” she stressed. “The opportunity is there, especially considering the fact that people are going to live longer and longer. Our latest research shows that a 10-year-old today has a 50 percent chance of living to be 104 years old. That’s not in the future — that is today.
“This whole idea that at 50 you all of a sudden lose everything that you’ve acquired and experienced over the course of a lifetime, that it goes away, is a total myth. We are actually living 20 to 30 years longer than our parents and grandparents. And we are also living healthier. I often tell people that 50 is not the new 30 and 60 is not the new 40. The fact is, 50 is the new 50, and it looks good.
“It’s OK to be that age and to own and embrace your age,” Jenkins continued, to applause and cheers from the multigenerational audience, which included 94-year-old producer Norman Lear and 31-year-old American Horror Story actress Jamie Brewer.
Jenkins added that working to change ageist perceptions in Hollywood is only one part of AARP’s effort to reset attitudes throughout American society.
“As part of the disrupt-aging conversation, we are actually engaging in different segments of the community — with the technology community, the housing industry and the education community, along with Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Part of that effort is to get people to forget what they have learned because a lot of those attitudes and behaviors are self-inflicted. They’re societal. We all have our own ageist biases.”
Jenkins concluded by challenging the Hollywood power players in the audience to answer a question that could change the way entertainment content is made, and one that reverberates in the world at large, as well.
“How do we start looking through this disrupt-aging lens and thinking about what’s possible,” she asked, “rather than focusing on our fear?”
http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/movies-for-grownups/info-2016/ageism-is-hollywoods-worst-villain-jj.html
Lupita Nyong'o, Kate Winslet, and Julianne Moore Go Makeup Free for Pirelli 2017 Calendar
ReplyDeleteThey strip away the Hollywood glamour in front of Peter Lindbergh's lens.
BY KRISTINA RODULFO
NOV 29, 2016
Renowned photographer Peter Lindbergh is not interested in celebrities' roles as "ambassadors of perfection and youth." Vocal against retouching, he captured Hollywood royalty in raw, just-woke-up reality for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar, launched today in Paris. Titled "Emotional," it features 40 images of 14 award-winning actresses: Jessica Chastain, Penélope Cruz, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Helen Mirren, Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlotte Rampling, Léa Seydoux, Uma Thurman, Alicia Vikander, Kate Winslet, Robin Wright, and Zhang Ziyi.
Photographing them in black and white and barely in any makeup or styling, Lindbergh hopes to "remind everyone that there's a beauty that's more real and truthful and not manipulated by commercial or any other interests," he said at a press conference yesterday. "Beauty speaks about individuality, courage to be yourself, and your very own sensibility–that's my definition of a woman today," he continued, "That's the goal of the calendar–to the show the woman. And not this stretched, manipulated, emptied [person] you see in the magazines today."
"I think Peter's mission with everyone involved wanting to free women from oppressive and false standards is fantastic," Uma Thurman added at a press conference this morning. The calendar notably features actresses who, by Hollywood standards, are "older"–Charlotte Rampling is 70 and Helen Mirren is 71, Julianne Moore is 55 and Robin Wright is 50, Nicole Kidman is 49–and the photos show their age proudly. Fine lines are in focus. Kate Winslet, 41, even asked Lindbergh to capture the backs of her hands specifically.
"We are used to such spectacular images, aren't we?" Mirren said, referencing retouched photos and editorials, "Here, we're going away from that–let's find the 'amazing' in something that's human and real. It is dangerous. [We] need our eyes to be reeducated because we're so used to these spectacular, digitally enhanced pictures."
http://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/news/a41065/pirelli-2017-calendar-photos/
How the Pirelli Calendar Is Highlighting True Beauty & Exposing the Unfair Expectations Placed on Women in Hollywood
ReplyDeleteby NATALIE FINN | Tue, Nov 29, 2016 1:20 PM
Sometimes the most important conversations are started in the unlikeliest of arenas.
The unveiling of the 44th Pirelli Calendar occurred this morning and, once again, the creators have taken the temperature of the feminine landscape and delivered accordingly when it comes to encapsulating what's classic, current and on the horizon all at once.
Leave it to the tire company to roll with the times, right?
A year after breaking its own mold by featuring women of all ages who are famous for their cultural impact rather than how scantily clad they get on their Instagrams, the 2017 Pirelli Calendar is an all-actress (and one professor) edition—and none of the images by famed photographer Peter Lindbergh that made the final cut have been airbrushed or retouched in any way.
Now, Lindbergh wasn't exactly taking a huge risk by enlisting the likes of Lupita Nyong'o, Julianne Moore, Uma Thurman, Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Robin Wright and other world-class beauties to pose with only the faintest trace of makeup and forego the comfort of knowing that any "flaws" or "imperfections" will be cleaned up in post.
The aesthetic appeal was built in, after all.
But especially now—when brazen criticism of others seems to be at an all-time high, when models are getting body-shamed online for being too curvy and too thin, when the natural act of aging remains one of the biggest hurdles in Hollywood and almost every actress has a story about being asked to slim down for a role—a celebration of women in their natural state is a welcome addition to the conversation about the fact that beauty, as the entertainment and fashion industries spent the last century defining it anyway, is no longer slave to a certain set of parameters.
"The current system promotes only one kind of beauty that is very connected to youth and perfection because it is a system based on consumption, whose idea of beauty doesn't have anything to do with reality and with women," Lindbergh, the first of the who's-who of Pirelli photographers over the years to shoot the calendar for a third time, said in explaining his motivation for 2017.
"I think we need to take a step back and realize that this idea of beauty does not help women and on the contrary makes them unhappy. I want to use the Pirelli platform to send another message and the message is that beauty is much more than what we are used to seeing in commercials."…
Female actresses and artists of all ages are speaking out about the ongoing issues for women in Hollywood, from ageism to the gender pay gap. And just like when you feel that you're the only one with a certain problem until you speak up and find out that the boat is actually quite crowded, so these stars have learned that they're not alone.
http://www.eonline.com/news/812494/how-the-pirelli-calendar-is-highlighting-true-beauty-exposing-the-unfair-expectations-placed-on-women-in-hollywood
It's Never Too Late To Quit Smoking, Even In Your 60s
ReplyDeleteNovember 30, 201612:02 AM ET
KATHERINE HOBSON
Older people who smoke may think there's no reason to give up the habit. After all, hasn't the damage to their bodies already been done?
But it turns out there's a benefit to quitting even later in life. Research published Wednesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that older adults who quit smoking in their 60s had a lower chance of dying in the years that followed than contemporaries who kept smoking.
"It's never too late," says Sarah Nash, an epidemiologist and one of the study's authors.
The results are based on data from more than 160,000 participants older than 70 who were part of the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Participants completed questionnaires about their smoking history in 2004 or 2005 and were tracked until the end of 2011 to see who had died.
The study found that it's definitely best to avoid smoking entirely. During the follow-up period, 12 percent of participants who never smoked died, compared to 33 percent of current smokers. And the earlier people quit the better, but there was still a benefit even for late quitters. Of those who quit in their 30s, 16 percent died. In their 40s: 20 percent. In their 50s: 24 percent. And in their 60s: 28 percent.
Still, people who quit in their 60s had a 23 percent lower risk of death during the study than current smokers, says Nash, who conducted the research while she was a fellow at the National Cancer Institute.
One limitation of the study is that the "current smoker" category included anyone who was smoking when they completed the questionnaire, which means it likely included people who went on to quit during the follow-up period. But if that happened to a significant degree, the true mortality gap between people who smoke and those who quit would only be larger.
The researchers also looked at deaths from smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer, heart disease and respiratory infections, and saw similar trends.
The research also reinforces the well-known point that it's important to try to prevent people from picking up the habit in the first place. Most smokers start during their teenage years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And among current smokers, the earlier the study participants started, the higher their likelihood of dying during the follow-up period. Of those who started when they were younger than 15, 38 percent died, compared to 23 percent of those who started when they were 30 or older.
Until now there have been hints from other research, but no solid proof, that people in their 60s and 70s could benefit from quitting.
"Based on less substantial data, we've been telling the public that it's never too late to quit, because it will benefit health and prolong life," says Norman Edelman, a physician and senior scientific adviser to the American Lung Association who wasn't involved with the study. Now, he says, he'll have more concrete evidence to offer to patients, especially to older smokers who assume that the damage from years of tobacco use can't be reversed.
Edelman says he gives the same smoking cessation advice to older smokers as to younger ones: Use a program (the ALA has its own, as does the American Cancer Society) in conjunction with pharmaceutical help, such as nicotine replacement products or prescription medications (such as Chantix or Zyban). Your odds of success are greater if you use both, he says.
He says older smokers should be sure to speak with their physicians about potential side effects of tobacco cessation medications.
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/30/503757142/it-s-never-too-late-to-quit-smoking-even-in-your-60s
What Cookies and Meth Have in Common
ReplyDeleteRichard A. Friedman
JUNE 30, 2017
…stress makes people more likely to search for solace in drugs or food (it’s called “comfort food” for a reason). Yet the myth has persisted that addiction is either a moral failure or a hard-wired behavior,,,Now we have a body of research that makes the connection between stress and addiction definitive. More surprising, it shows that we can change the path to addiction by changing our environment.
Neuroscientists have found that food and recreational drugs have a common target in the “reward circuit” of the brain, and that the brains of humans and other animals who are stressed undergo biological changes that can make them more susceptible to addiction.
…more than 59,000 Americans had died of drug overdoses in 2016... Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton reported in a 2015 study that middle-class whites in particular have experienced an alarming increase in midlife mortality since the 1990s, driven largely by “deaths of despair” involving suicide, alcohol and drugs. These addicts did not suddenly lose their moral fiber. Instead, they faced poor job prospects, a steady erosion in their social status and, consequently, mounting stress.
In a 2010 study, Diana Martinez and colleagues at Columbia scanned the brains of a group of healthy controls and found that lower social status and a lower degree of perceived social support — both presumed to be proxies for stress — were correlated with fewer dopamine receptors, called D2s, in the brain’s reward circuit.
All rewards — sex, food, money and drugs — cause a release of dopamine, which conveys a sense of pleasure …more D2 receptors you have, the higher your natural level of stimulation and pleasure — and the less likely you are to seek out recreational drugs or comfort food to compensate.
Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse,…discovered that people addicted to cocaine, heroin, alcohol and methamphetamines experience a significant reduction in their D2 receptor levels that persists long after drug use has stopped. These people are far less sensitive to rewards, are less motivated and may find the world dull, once again making them prone to seek a chemical means to enhance their everyday life.
Drug exposure also contributes to a loss of self-control. Dr. Volkow found that low D2 was linked with lower activity in the prefrontal cortex, which would impair one’s ability to think critically and exercise restraint.
The same neuroscience helps us understand compulsive overeating. Food, like drugs, stimulates the brain’s reward circuit. Chronic exposure to high-fat and sugary foods is similarly linked with lower D2 levels, and people with lower D2 levels are also more likely to crave such foods. It’s a vicious cycle in which more exposure begets more craving.
Dr. Volkow and colleagues showed that morbidly obese individuals had reductions in their D2 receptors and that the reduction was proportional to their body mass index. … And just like drug addicts, obese people with fewer D2 receptors also show decreased activity in their prefrontal cortex, making it harder to exert self-control.
…Nothing in our evolution has prepared us for the double whammy of caloric modern food and potent recreational drugs. Their power to activate our reward circuit, rewire our brain and nudge us in the direction of compulsive consumption is unprecedented.
…Fortunately, our brains are remarkably plastic and sensitive to experience. Although it’s far easier said than done, just limiting exposure to high-calorie foods and recreational drugs would naturally reset our brains to find pleasure in healthier foods and life without drugs.
In the meantime it’s worth remembering that we can’t control our genes or the misfortunes that befall us, much less their impact on our brains. Even the most self-disciplined can fall prey to a food or drug addiction under the right mix of adversity and stress.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/opinion/sunday/what-cookies-and-meth-have-in-common.html
Alcohol Abuse Is Rising Among Older Adults
ReplyDeletePaula Span
THE NEW OLD AGE
SEPT. 14, 2017
…Epidemiologists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism last month reported a jarring trend: Problem drinking is rising fast among older Americans.
Their study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, compared data from a national survey taken in 2001 and 2002 and again in 2012 and 2013, each time with about 40,000 adults. Drinking had increased in every age group, the researchers found.
Those over 65 remained far less likely to drink than younger people — about 55 percent of older participants told interviewers they had imbibed in the past year. Still, that was a 22 percent increase over the two periods, the greatest rise in any age group.
More troubling, the proportion of older adults engaged in “high-risk drinking” jumped 65 percent, to 3.8 percent. The researchers’ definition: for a man, downing five or more standard drinks in a day (each containing 14 grams of alcohol) at least weekly during the past year; for a woman, four such drinks in a day.
And “alcohol use disorders” (we used to call it alcoholism), as defined in the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, more than doubled in a decade, afflicting over 3 percent of older people.
…Even if the rate of alcohol problems among older people doesn’t climb further, the sheer numbers will increase. “The growth in that population portends problems down the road,” said Bridget Grant, an epidemiologist at N.I.A.A.A. and the lead author of the study.
Why this spike in late-life drinking? Dr. Grant’s team didn’t investigate causes, but she speculates that anxiety caused by the recession, which hit right between the two surveys, may have played a part.
Other experts point to demographic differences. People in their 60s and early 70s are less frail than in previous generations — so they continue their drinking patterns. Moreover, baby boomers have been more exposed to, and are less disapproving of, drug and alcohol use.
“It’s a lot more acceptable,” said Dr. David Oslin, a psychiatrist specializing in addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. “We no longer have those folks who grew up with Prohibition, with abstinence as a value.”
Even if older people are healthier, they’re still prone to late-life physical changes that make drinking riskier. While two drinks a night at age 40 might not be an issue, two daily drinks at 70 is more complicated.
With each drink, an older person’s blood alcohol levels will rise higher than a younger drinker’s, Dr. Schuckit noted; older people have less muscle mass, and the liver metabolizes alcohol more slowly. Aging brains grow more sensitive to its sedative properties, too.
“It has a greater effect,” he said. “If I drink now the same way I did at 40, I’d better be careful.”
Most older people also have acquired common chronic diseases exacerbated by alcohol, like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Alcohol is also associated with a higher risk of stroke and several kinds of cancer.
And alcohol can play havoc with the medications people take to control those conditions…
Emergency room visits for alcohol-related falls, particularly disabling for seniors, have increased.
So have deaths from liver cirrhosis
…Though the United States Preventive Services Task Force has recommended screening all adults for alcohol misuse, “I don’t know how many do.”
…But with treatment, older adults have the same or better success rates as younger drinkers. In a study by Dr. Oslin and colleagues, seniors were far more likely to adhere to treatment. Although 40 percent relapsed during the 12-week trial, nearly two-thirds of younger patients did.
…At the New Jewish Home, which three years ago became the first nursing home to integrate addiction treatment into post-hospital rehab, the average age of patients in the substance abuse program is 65, but many are older…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/14/health/alcohol-abuse-elderly.html
There is no one-size-fits-all with addiction treatment. Your recovery. Your way. Your Power. This is an honest look into the lives of the addicted as well as those who have been affected by addicts in their normal lives...
ReplyDeleteAlcohol Detox
Alcohol Treatment
One interesting fact, With each drink, an older person’s blood alcohol levels will rise higher than a younger drinker’s. Most older people also have acquired common chronic diseases exacerbated by alcohol, like hypertension, diabetes and heart disease. Alcohol is also associated with a higher risk of stroke and several kinds of cancer... Addiction center Indy
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