The Cost Of Aging Is Outpacing Resources
Posted by Staff (04/15/2012 @ 9:30 pm)

As we are living longer the cost of aging increases.
A strain on private pensions, social security and on health services could prove problematic.
Raising the retirement age, increasing taxes to fund public pension plans and lower benefits could hep mitigate the strains of an aging population.
Educating citizens better on how to prepare for their retirements and by promoting retirement products that protect people against the risk that they outlive their assets.
Already the cost of caring for aging baby boomers is beginning to strain government budgets, particularly in advanced economies where by 2050 the elderly will match the numbers of workers almost one for one. The IMF study shows that the problem is global and that longevity is a bigger risk than thought.
“If everyone in 2050 lived just three years longer than now expected, in line with the average underestimation of longevity in the past, society would need extra resources equal to 1% to 2% of GDP per year,” it said in a study to be released in its World Economic Outlook next week.
Taking Care Of Your Body Takes Care Of Your Brain
Posted by Staff (04/10/2012 @ 4:43 pm)
If you make good decisions about your physical and your emotional health, you literally can slow down or even reverse the brain’s aging process, according to award-winning psychiatrist Dr. Daniel Amen, author of “Use Your Brain to Change Your Age.”
Lifestyle Changes Can Help To Prevent Dementia
Posted by Staff (03/14/2012 @ 9:29 pm)

The good news is that there are ways to prevent dementia.
Improving lifestyle choices including diet and exercise can help your brain function improve and stave off illness.
Unlike other structures in the brain, the hippocampus can increase in size in adults. Studies show moderate exercise, mental stimulation, meditation, and treatment for cardiovascular disease, clinical depression and obstructive sleep apnea all increase the size of the hippocampus.
Everyday you have a chance to improve your health with every choice you make.
The Brain Benefits of Exercise
Posted by Staff (12/02/2011 @ 11:26 pm)

Recent studies show the ways in which exercise benefits the brain.
Levels of a protein known as brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, which is known to promote the health of nerve cells is the measure of the effect exercise on the brain.
For some time, scientists have believed that BDNF helps explain why mental functioning appears to improve with exercise. However, they haven’t fully understood which parts of the brain are affected or how those effects influence thinking. The Irish study suggests that the increases in BDNF prompted by exercise may play a particular role in improving memory and recall.
So, it is not just vanity that will get you into the gym but the benefits to mind and body that will carry you into old age on your own two feet.
Aging Boomers Redesign Homes of the Future
Posted by Staff (11/30/2011 @ 4:01 am)

Baby boomers housing issues is a growing topic as the population ages and needs change.
“Unassisted Living: Ageless Homes for Later Life” (the Monacelli Press; $45) written by Wid Chapman and Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld not only offers ideas but designs as well.
Read the whole interview here.
The 72 million American baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, are turning 65 at the rate of roughly 10,000 a day, and many are considering not just how to age (with or without annuities? soy sauce? crow’s feet?), but also where. Wid Chapman, an architect, and Jeffrey P. Rosenfeld, a gerontologist who specializes in the relationship between aging and the built environment, collected 33 examples of residences that have been recently designed to bridge the distance between one’s vital and declining years.
Posted in: Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness
Tags: aging, architechture, baby boomeer housing, baby boomers, home design, homes of the future, retirement, retirement homes, retirement living, retirement plans