11/19/2011 – Goodbye, Golden Years

Dr. B. Boomer — an unfortunate, but fictional, dentist — worked and saved for years, only to see her portfolio shrivel after a series of investments in orthodontia-related dot-coms a decade ago. She then put her money into seemingly safe financial firms, like A.I.G., and was hammered during the subsequent downturn. Her plan to retire by selling her Scottsdale McMansion isn’t going well either. So the poor woman is spending her 65th year, not in glorious retirement, but fixing fillings for screaming children and generally annoyed adults.

Read the full article at The New York Times.

11/18/2011 – Older, Suburban and Struggling, ‘Near Poor’ Startle the Census

When the Census Bureau this month released a new measure of poverty, meant to better count disposable income, it began altering the portrait of national need. Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line. That number of Americans is 76 percent higher than the official account, published in September. All told, that places 100 million people — one in three Americans — either in poverty or in the fretful zone just above it.

Read the full at The New York Times

11/17/2011 – Census Bureau Releases Comprehensive Analysis of Fast-Growing 90-and-Older Population

The nation’s 90-and-older population nearly tripled over the past three decades, reaching 1.9 million in 2010, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and supported by the National Institute on Aging. Over the next four decades, this population is projected to more than quadruple.

Read the full article at U.S. Census Bureau

11/16/2011 – New, less expensive, technique may help detect — or rule out — Alzheimer's

Hospitals around the country may already have the technology to inexpensively diagnose – or rule out – Alzheimer’s disease, two new studies suggest.

Read the full article at MSNBC.com

11/16/2011 – For Retirement, Is 80 the New 65?

The traditional retirement age of 65 is an outdated concept and middle-class Americans expect to continue working far longer, according to a survey released today by Wells Fargo & Co.

Read the full article at ABC News

11/02/2011 – Purging Cells in Mice Is Found to Combat Aging Ills

In a potentially fundamental advance, researchers have opened up a novel approach to combating the effects of aging with the discovery that a special category of cells, known as senescent cells, are bad actors that promote the aging of the tissues. Cleansing the body of the cells, they hope, could postpone many of the diseases of aging.

Read the full article at The New York Times

10/31/2011 – A Nursing Home Shrinks Until It Feels Like a Home

Toni Davis spent much of her childhood roaming the corridors of a nursing home in West Orange, N.J., where her mother was the director. Even now she recalls the pleas of the residents there: “ ‘Please help me, please take me home with you,’ they’d beg,” Ms. Davis said. “I remember asking my mom, ‘Why can’t we take them home for dinner for just one night?’”

Read the full article in The New York Times

10/31/2011 – Happiness Associated With Longer Life

Happy people don’t just enjoy life; they’re likely to live longer, too. A new study has found that those in better moods were 35% less likely to die in the next 5 years when taking their life situations into account.

Read the full article at Science

10/27/2011 – Overpopulation Isn't The Problem: It's Too Few Babies

Continued population increases, particularly in very poor countries,  threaten the world economy and environment — not to mention these countries’ own people. But overall the biggest demographic problem stems not from too many people but from too few babies.

Read the full article at Forbes

10/26/2011 – Aging Brain's Decline May Hinge on a Gene

But exercise can help counteract this deterioration, study suggests

Researchers have identified a gene variation that seems to have a major effect on the rate at which men experience an age-related decline in intellectual function.

Read the full article at US News and World Report