Tag Archives: Aging

Video Profiles: 73-Year Old Legendary River Runner & Activist Herman Hoops

“A river trip in a boat is a magic carpet. It’s a ballet and you can feel in the oars what the river is saying. That’s the part that’s really hard for me to give up, that feeling of using all my knowledge and skills to dance on a river. If you’re a river runner, this is it, man…”

In the final chapter of his life, legendary river runner and activist Herm Hoops has the opportunity to take one last river trip through his treasured Desolation Canyon on the Green River. “Salad Days” gives us a rare glimpse of what it means when a person has the chance to reflect on a lifetime of passion and river running as they knowingly go through the stages of dying.

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Article on Herman Hoops

Aging: “Okinawa’s Secrets To Longevity” (Telegraph)

The Telegraph logoHundreds of miles south of Japan’s main islands, in the East China Sea, is a Jurassic Park of longevity, with a higher percentage of centenarians (people who live to 100 years old) than anywhere else on Earth.

Greg Dickinson visits the Japanese archipelago of Okinawa to discover the secret to long life.

Read the full article at: https://telegraph.co.uk/travel/destin…

Dementia: Cognitive Loss Is Greatest At “Slightest Level Of Hearing Loss”

From a New York Times online article:

Hearing Loss…the researchers demonstrated that the biggest drop in cognitive ability occurs at the slightest level of hearing loss — a decline from zero to the “normal” level of 25 decibels, with smaller cognitive losses occurring when hearing deficits rise from 25 to 50 decibels.

Hearing loss is now known to be the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation, according to an international analysis published in The Lancet in 2017.

the new findings on cognitive losses linked to subclinical hearing loss, gleaned from among 6,451 people age 50 or older, suggest that any degree of hearing loss can take a toll.

To read more

New Literary Books: “Aging, Duration, And The English Novel” (CUP)

From a Cambridge University Press (CUP) listing:

Aging, Duration, and the English Novel Growing Old from Dickens to Woolf Cambridge University Press New Release January 2020Aging, Duration, and the English Novel argues that the formal disappearance of aging from the novel parallels the ideological pressure to identify as being young by repressing the process of growing old. The construction of aging as a shameful event that should be hidden – to improve one’s chances on the job market or secure a successful marriage – corresponds to the rise of the long novel, which draws upon the temporality of the body to map progress and decline onto the plots of nineteenth-century British modernity.

The rapid onset of dementia after an illness, the development of gray hair after a traumatic loss, the sudden appearance of a wrinkle in the brow of a spurned lover. The realist novel uses these conventions to accelerate the process of aging into a descriptive moment, writing the passage of years on the body all at once.

Review and Purchase

Aging, Duration, and the English Novel Growing Old from Dickens to Woolf Cambridge University Press New Release January 2020

New Studies: Beneficial Effects Of “18-Hour Intermittent Fasting” On Health And Aging (NEJM)

From a New England Journal of Medicine online release:

In humans, intermittent-fasting interventions ameliorate obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and inflammation. Intermittent fasting seems to confer health benefits to a greater extent than can be attributed just to a reduction in caloric intake.

Evidence is accumulating that eating in a 6-hour period and fasting for 18 hours can trigger a metabolic switch from glucose-based to ketone-based energy, with increased stress resistance, increased longevity, and a decreased incidence of diseases, including cancer and obesity.

The New England Journal of Medicine Logo

Preclinical studies and clinical trials have shown that intermittent fasting has broad-spectrum benefits for many health conditions, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, cancers, and neurologic disorders. Animal models show that intermittent fasting improves health throughout the life span, whereas clinical studies have mainly involved relatively short-term interventions, over a period of months.

Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Health, Aging, and Disease New England Journal of Medicine December 26 2019

BOOMERS-DAILY.COM “18-HOUR INTERMITTENT FASTING DIET” STUDY

How much of the benefit of intermittent fasting is due to metabolic switching and how much is due to weight loss? Many studies have indicated that several of the benefits of intermittent fasting are dissociated from its effects on weight loss. These benefits include improvements in glucose regulation, blood pressure, and heart rate; the efficacy of endurance training; and abdominal fat loss.

To read more

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New Fiction Books In 2020: “The New Life Of Hugo Gardner” By Louis Begley

With an ominous oncologist’s report hanging over his head, Hugo decides to get away for a bit, to a conference in Paris. There, a new romance blooms and HugThe New Life of Hugo Gardner by Louis Begley March 2020 releaseo finds himself wondering if growing old in Paris might be the perfect antidote to the drama he left behind in New York. Unflinching, witty, and urbane as ever, Louis Begley delivers a spot-on satire of the world of New York’s aging elite, and uncovers the unexpected delights a late-in-life change can offer.

After four decades of what he believes to be a happy, healthy partnership, Hugo Gardner’s world is overturned when he learns that his wife, Valerie, is not only requesting a divorce but has left him for a younger, more vital man. Hugo, an octogenarian political writer and retired journalist for Time, must rethink the way he’s lived, and reassess how he’d like to spend his remaining years.

Reconsidering past relationships in his mind, with years of distance, Hugo begins to see things in a new light: Valerie, whose youth and ambition eventually came between them; his children, whose support might be more financially than emotionally motivated; and his friends, who, like him are rapidly aging before his very eyes.

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New Brain Health Books: “Successful Aging” By Daniel J. Levitin (Jan 7, 2020)

Successful Aging Daniel J. Levitin A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives January 2020 Cover‘Successful Aging’ uses research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences to show that sixty-plus years is a unique developmental stage that, like infancy or adolescence, has its own demands and distinct advantages. Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people’s wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age.

Author of the iconic bestsellers This Is Your Brain on Music and The Organized Mind, Daniel Levitin turns his keen insights to what happens in our brains as we age, why we should think about health span, not life span, and, based on a rigorous analysis of neuroscientific evidence, what you can do to make the most of your seventies, eighties, and nineties today no matter how old you are now.

To read more and/or purchase

Baby Boomer Economics: American 50+ Population Would Be World’s Third Largest Economy (AARP)

From an AARP.org online article:

AARP Real Possibilities logo“As the number of people over 50 grows, that age cohort is transforming markets and sparking new ideas, products and services across our economy,” AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins says. “And as people extend their work lives, they are fueling economic growth past the traditional retirement age.

AARP People 50+ are a growing economic engine that benefits society now and in the future December 20 2019

Americans age 50 and up contribute so much to the U.S. economy that they’d constitute the world’s third-largest economy if they were counted as their own country, a major new AARP study finds.

The economic contributions of 50-plus Americans totaled $8.3 trillion last year, which puts them just behind the U.S. and China when measured by gross domestic product.

And that economic impact will grow significantly in decades to come, tripling to more than $28 trillion by 2050 as millennials and Generation Z begin to turn 50 in 2031 and 2047, respectively, the report finds.

To read more: https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/advocacy/info-2019/older-americans-economic-impact-growth.html?cmp=EMC-DSO-NLC-RSS—CTRL-122019-P1-4245164&ET_CID=4245164&ET_RID=46870725&encparam=tVgeMOhoNxx%2bfrc9AGTzSoruA9hrsex1YvrQ7Ez59ks%3d

Retirement: Colleges Cater To Baby Boomers By Building On-Campus Living Facilities (WSJ)

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Mirabella Senior Living at Arizona State UniversityMirabella Senior Living at Arizona State UniversityMore schools are building or planning senior-living facilities on or near campus to cater to baby boomers who view college as a stimulating alternative to bingo at an archetypal retirement home. Some savor the pursuit of academic and cultural interests. Others are lured by the promise of interaction with younger students, for whom many hope to act as mentors.

It is the latest way for universities to profit from one of their greatest assets, land. Colleges have already taken advantage of this privilege by developing hotels and high-end student housing. Now, some see sales of upscale senior housing as the next step.

Lasell University, just west of Boston, built one of the first on-campus senior communities two decades ago. It requires members to take 450 hours of coursework or activities each year. Other programs have since sprouted up in places like the University of Michigan and Oberlin College in Ohio. Some communities are on campus; others are situated nearby and may have only a loose affiliation with the school. Many offer assisted living and nursing options.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/seniors-want-to-go-back-to-class-universities-want-to-sell-them-real-estate-11576751403

Film Actor Profiles: “An Essay On (64-Year Old) Willem Dafoe’s Face…” (Gentleman’s Journal)

From a Gentleman’s Journal online article:

Willem Dafoe Gentleman's Journal photo Dec 2019Thankfully, Willem Dafoe and Willem Dafoe’s face have used this innate recognisability to their joint advantage. To date, the actor has appeared in well over 100 films, and his prolific career can be charted through the cracks and comments — some nice, some not so nice — that those in the industry have made about his looks.

In fact, in the intervening decades, Hollywood has called many, many times — as have independent filmmakers, foreign studios, animation houses, video game developers and scores of theatres. On the big screen, Dafoe has taken roles in PlatoonMississippi BurningBorn on the Fourth of JulyThe English PatientAmerican Psycho and Shadow of the Vampire. He flew into The Aviator for a cameo, swung into the Spider-Man trilogy as the villainous Green Goblin and dipped his toe in voiceover work with Finding Nemo. He’s taken on John CarterJohn Wick and narrated films from Vox Lux to The Great Wall. He’s been Oscar-nominated several times, for playing characters as wild and disparate as hammy vampires, Floridian motel managers and Vincent van Gogh. The man is a chameleon — and has managed to become one despite having Willem Dafoe’s face.

To read entire article: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/willem-dafoe-interview-face-hollywood-cover/