June 2026 Edition
June 2026 Edition
There are moments in life when wellness does not look like green smoothies, exercise classes, or perfectly balanced schedules. Sometimes wellness looks like sitting at the kitchen table late at night, wondering how you are going to keep up with appointments, paperwork, caregiving responsibilities, and the emotional weight of watching someone you love change before your eyes. For many Alaskans affected by Alzheimer's disease, related dementias, or other disabilities, that feeling of being...
For two days in May, the arena of the Carlson Center in Fairbanks was alive with seniors. On May 7, more than 400 seniors attended the Senior Recognition Day luncheon hosted by the Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks & Recreation Department and the Senior Citizen Advisory Commission. On May 8, hundreds of seniors took part in the Healthy Living Summit, strolling from one vendor to another, gathering information about topics like safe, affordable housing; transportation and walkability; social...
After I recently I moved my riding lawnmower from its winter home to its summer home, I found myself thinking about lawn mowing in general and then more specifically about my dad's attitude about lawn mowing. There was no lawn at our home during my growing up years in Glennallen. Dad did clear acreage and plant timothy grass and oats, which he used to feed a horse that was acquired after I left home. When Dad and Mom retired to Homer in 1988, their house came with a lawn. Dad was not a...
Editor's Note: National Centenarian's Day is Sept. 22. The day honors those who've celebrated 100 birthdays or more. We're publishing profiles of people who have hit this milestone. The Alaska Commission on Aging is working with the Governor's Office, Pioneer Homes and Long Term Care Ombudsman to celebrate Alaska's centenarians. If you know someone who is 100 or older and would like us to profile them, contact editor@seniorvoicealaska.comeditor@seniorvoicealaska.com. Eileen Johnson, who just...
This is the third in a series about people finding or rediscovering creative pursuits later in life. The reporting project is funded by a grant from the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism. If you have a suggestion of a person who has explored their artistic or creative impulses upon retirement or when other life demands lessened, email editor@seniorvoicealaska.comeditor@seniorvoicealaska.com. A couple of tragedies have bracketed Laurie Murdock's craft of weaving, but she keeps going...
Alaskans are contacting the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline regularly to report suspicious activity, seek guidance, or recover from a scam. What they’ve experienced is not unique. In fact, it reflects trends we are seeing nationwide: Scammers are persistent, sophisticated, and constantly evolving their tactics. In recent months, we’ve heard from several callers who were contacted by scammers posing as law enforcement. The impostors told the victims that they had missed jury duty and...
There is a throughline in Madeline Holdorf's life. Holdorf, the former volunteer statewide AARP president, received the Ron Hammett from the Municipality of Anchorage Senior Citizens Advisory Commission on May 6. When she graduated from high school more than 60 years ago, she received the outstanding service award. "It takes my breath away, actually," said Holdorf in a conversation after the award ceremony, held at the Anchorage Senior Activities Center. "In my retirement and when I had a...
Family members, friends, and caregivers gathered on the morning of May 2 at the Anchorage Golf Course for the 2026 annual Alzheimer's Resource Alaska (ARA) "Amblin' for Alzheimer's" event. ARA hosts the event to raise awareness about the growing incidence of Alzheimer's and related dementias in Alaska. Alzheimer's is the most common type of dementia, but there are many others. https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/alzheimers-dementia Dementia causes issues with thinking, behavior, and memory....
A major component of both physical and psychological well-being is to have a happy, functioning digestive system. This means your appetite is good and you stop eating when about 80% full, to not over-eat, which prematurely ages our bodies over time. Also, you have a bowel movement every day (nothing better than pooping before having to get out the door!), and nothing hurts after eating. One component of having a happy belly (thus setting yourself up for living your best life) is to eat...
The average Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace deductible saw the steepest increase in history-growing by 37% or more than $1,000, from $2,759 in 2025 to $3,786 in 2026 as enhanced premium tax credits expired, according to an analysis by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization which also runs a health-related news service. The full analysis is available here. Between 2021 and 2025, Americans searching for healthcare coverage in the ACA Marketplace 2010 benefited from premium tax...
Medicare’s telehealth coverage has been expanded across Alaska to allow more people to access care at home. Let’s learn about what you can expect now and into the future with Medicare’s telehealth coverage. What is telehealth? Telehealth includes certain services that you receive from a healthcare provider outside of an in-person office visit. A telehealth service is a full visit with a provider using telephone or video technology that allows for both audio and video communication. It is...
If you're like me and walk more than drive, consider solidly built walking shoes to be your best to avoiding any injury or sores and blisters. You've seen the ads all over touting slip-on sneakers and shoes, but this seems counter-intuitive. If sustaining flexibility is a goal for later years, what does lifting your foot onto a chair to lace them do to you instead of bending over and lacing them? Makes you less flexible. Also, walking shoes or sneakers that must be laced add an additional solid...
New tools for combatting breast cancer Immunotherapy has become a standard of care in treating high-risk, early-stage breast cancers, yet it has had limited success in shrinking tumors, so new biomarkers that can improve outcomes for patients are urgently needed. Now, researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, have found that repeated blood sampling (liquid biopsy) can assess and predict the evolving antitumor immune response to therapy. This minimally invasive...
Living in Alaska means sharing our beautiful state with wildlife and the pets we love at home. Dogs and cats bring comfort and joy, but even gentle animals can cause accidental injuries. Knowing how to respond can prevent serious problems, especially when medical help may be far away. Animal bites and scratches happen more often than people think. A dog might nip during play. A cat might scratch while jumping off a lap. These injuries can lead to infection if they are not treated quickly and...
If you're a die-hard fan of old western movies, especially those featuring John Wayne, but have never made the pilgrimage to Monument Valley, it's definitely a trip to consider. Five of Wayne's movies contain scenes from the iconic location, including "Stagecoach" in 1939, "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon" 10 years later and, what many would argue was his best western, "The Searchers" in 1956. Dotted with towering sandstone buttes (steep-sided formations with broad, flat tops rising up to 1,000 feet),...
Mac Metcalfe was back in Juneau in the spring of 1969, after serving a tour in Vietnam. He was one of the fortunate ones, having served as a teletype operator in relative safety just south of Saigon. Despite experiencing shelling and a night attack by sappers, he returned unharmed to Juneau. He picked up a job at the Juneau Cold Storage, a fish processing plant, where he and his cousins Jeff Prather and Patrick Gullufsen and a group of friends spent the summer months as the "inside crew." They...
