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Anchorage area hospice organizations are teaming up to offer a grief workshop, “Navigating the Holidays,” Nov. 10 at First Congregational Church, on 2610 E. Northern Lights Blvd., just east of Lake Otis Pkwy., 7 to 9 p.m. Coping with grief during the holidays can be especially challenging. Relatives, friends, social gatherings, spiritual and family traditions, shopping, decorating—all can be overwhelming. Planning can help. This workshop, organized by Hospice of Anchorage and Providence Hospice, will offer suggestions for handling the holid...
Grab some ginger ale A new study is suggesting that oral perceptions of coldness and carbonation may help to reduce thirst. Because thirst and its cessation contribute to how much fluid a person drinks, the current findings could help guide sensory approaches to increase fluid intake in populations at risk for dehydration, such as older adults. Hopefully, this study will help lead to improved beverage choices for older adults. Drinking fluids helps protect against dehydration, which occurs when...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s focus is on hospice and palliative care, with presenters from Hospice of the Central Peninsula. Nov. 1, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 8, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 15, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Nov. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Anchor Point Senior Center, hosted by Paula Koch, 3 p.m. Nov. 29, Caregiver support meetin...
Soap makers now have to get their junk out because plain soap works just as well and without risk. Manufacturers were ordered by the FDA to pull out 19 different chemicals from their body wash, hand soap, dish soap and other soaps. Hallelujah, these chemicals are pesticides which go down the drain and into our ecosystem. We kind of got all bug-phobic when soap makers started adding antibacterials like triclosan and fluorosan into soap. Fluorosan has a fluorinated and brominated backbone, and fluorine and bromine compounds are known to...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc., continues their fall series of health fairs around the state this month, featuring free health screenings and education, low cost blood tests and more. These tests can help you learn about your health and detect potential problems early, when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45; with 27 different panels for conditions ranging from diabetes, kidney and liver function, to anemia and tissue health, thyroid,...
The open enrollment period for 2017 Medicare prescription drug plans is Oct. 15-Dec. 7. Plans change and people’s needs change, so it’s a good idea to review your options every year. A new plan may just save you money. You can read about them before Oct. 15 to be ready. To get more information, visit www.medicare.gov/part-d and click the button at left “Find health and drug plans”, or go to www.medicare.alaska.gov. As always, the staff at Alaska’s Medicare Information Office and their statewide volunteer network are primed to help you. June...
The Medicare Information Office has new materials in other languages. Contact office staff if you’d like rack card size brochures in English, Tagalog or Korean, or you can print out a flier on Extra Help, a prescription financial assistance program, off the office’s website. From medicare.alaska.gov, go to the ‘Publications & other resources’ link on the left side of the page, http://dhss.alaska.gov/dsds/Pages/medicare/medipublications.aspx....
Virtually reality may help prevent falls Researchers have found that combining virtual reality and treadmill training may be an ideal way to help prevent falls in older adults. The researchers report in the journal The Lancet that this type of intervention, which combines the physical and cognitive aspects of walking, could potentially be used in gyms, rehabilitation centers or nursing homes to improve safe walking and prevent falls in older adults. They said it may also help adults with...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s focus is “Managing Stress,” with a viewing of “Humor Your Stress,” presented by Loretta Roche, faculty member of Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston,” and discussion of how to reduce stress during the holidays. Oct. 4, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 11, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 18, Alaska Day holiday: Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Cent...
Shakespeare chronicled the seven ages of man from infancy to old age in “As You Like It.” Anyone with adult children knows the Bard of Avon left out a critical stage – the stage when you zip your lip around your adult child, fearful of your words pushing them away. You don’t have to be a poet or a researcher to understand that parents and adult children experience tension long after the child’s emancipation. Here are a few caveats from a University of Michigan Institute for Social Research study, which examined adult children over age 22 wh...
What’s the point of progress? It’s to improve our quality of life. This is a push-me, pull-you process, balancing the frustration of the inevitable glitches of new technology as compared with the comfort of the familiar. Sometimes the time is ripe for a new way of looking at things, and other times we find there are excellent old-fashioned solutions to be revisited. This yin and yang of new and old progress applies to two intriguing ideas I came across recently in the parallel laboratories of the university and the household. In the past few...
Do you prefer flavored water to slake your thirst? Many folks are repulsed by water – your temple’s most important nutrient. Today, grocery store shelves moan and groan from the weight of a constellation of flavor-enhanced water and juices. They might help us stay hydrated, but convenience has its cost. Water is more than hydrogen and oxygen; it’s the source of all life. Without fresh, clean, hydrating water and nutritious fresh fruit, we’d perish. Please, read labels. Avoid artificial colors, chemicals, flavors and preservatives because...
Alaska Health Fair, Inc., kicks off their fall series of health fairs around the state this month, featuring free health screenings and education, low cost blood tests and more. These tests can help you learn about your health and detect potential problems early, when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45; with 27 different panels for conditions ranging from diabetes, kidney and liver function, to anemia and tissue health, thyroid,...
September Morn, please stay for a while longer, for when you are gone it will be time for an introduction to snowflakes and a lonesome, cold winter. But for readers lucky enough to have a working fireplace, it will be nice to cozy up to it again. Please remember to get registered to vote, and I can’t stress enough the importance of voting this year. The next president will be selecting one or maybe two Supreme Court justices. Social Security Disability benefits Social Security pays disability b...
If someone is enrolled in a health plan (this can be a Marketplace plan through the Affordable Care Act, a private health insurance plan or an employer plan), when they become eligible for Medicare at 65 the plan they were in can seamlessly enroll them into one of their Medicare Advantage plans, if they have one. (A Medicare Advantage plan is one policy that covers Medicare Hospital Coverage A, Outpatient Medical Coverage B and Prescription Coverage D and sometimes vision or dental). Some people have health plans that have approval to...
Walking away from dementia Grab your walking shoes. Studies are continuing to show that the more physical exercise you get, the greater your chances of preventing dementia. Using the landmark Framingham Heart Study to assess how physical activity affects the size of the brain and one’s risk for developing dementia, UCLA researchers have found an association between low physical activity and a higher risk for dementia in older adults. The new findings suggest that regular physical activity could...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in September. This month’s focus is “Substance Use, Misuse and Abuse Among Older Adults,” in support of National Recovery Month. Sept. 6, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 13, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 20, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Sept. 27, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Support meetings allow you to share your...
Did you know that your medication can damage skin? Most of you don’t even think about that as a side effect. Photosensitivity is a fairly common skin reaction that is sparked by taking medicines which interact with ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun or tanning beds. It happened to me once and luckily the red burning rash and tingling only affected my hands. It took only two hours of sun exposure on a shady trail while hiking in California. Still, it rendered me out of writing commission for a few days. The big problem is that p...
We’ve lived long enough to see science lose and gain favor with eggs, fats, red wine, some fruits and vegetables, and chocolate. Perhaps more confusing than studies around those food items are the studies surrounding coffee. Slate magazine noted in 2010 that there were more than 500 studies on coffee and human health. Well, this senior is not human until I have that first cup of coffee in the morning. Both as a coffee drinker and a health writer, I’ve been following the coffee conundrum for three decades. (And just for the record, an old...
Injectable devices may allow for organ regeneration Injectable medical devices are now reaching a new level. Researchers at the University of Chicago are now reporting they have come up with a light-activated injectable device that could be used to stimulate nerve cells and manipulate the behavior of muscles and organs. The new material is soft and tiny and less than the width of a human hair. It degrades naturally inside the body after a few months. Each particle is built of two types of...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in August. This month’s focus is National Health Center Week, with presentations by Peninsula Community Health Services of Alaska. Aug. 2, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 9, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Aug. 30, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Support meetings allow you to share your e...
Orange juice holds a high position in the pantheon of American breakfast icons. Each year 620 million gallons of the orange ambrosial cure-all are consumed by Americans. However, is it truthfully fresh or are you getting jerked around? Ads tell us (wink, wink) it’s pure and natural so we obediently buy the orange au jus for the sentiment. Nevertheless, the majority of our American tradition is a year old and comes from, tell-me-it-ain’t-so, Brazil. The largest fabricators of “not from concentrate” or pasteurized orange juice keep juice in mill...
Mountain Pacific Quality Health will offer a free six-class educational series on diabetes self-management this month in Anchorage and on the Kenai Peninsula. The classes will meet twice a week over a three week period. The Anchorage classes will meet July 12-27, Tuesdays and Thursdays, at Cook Inlet Housing Authority’s Centennial Center, 9131 Centennial Circle. Classes will meet from 5 to 6:30 p.m. For information, contact Ann Lovejoy at alovejoy@mpqhf.org or 561-3202 ext. 105, or Cathy Colwell, 561-3202 ext. 103. The Kenai Peninsula c...
July and Independence Day is here. That may be good for some, but for others it is a sentence for loneliness. If you think that living into your near-nineties is always a blessing, I am here to tell you that for many it is not. Your contemporaries are no longer around – they’ve either just moved away or are deceased. You can no longer drive your car and have lost your independence and your eyesight is failing. You likely have no close relatives who live nearby and are willing and able to giv...
One of my peak experiences was attending a lecture by Dominic O’Brien, the World Memory Champion who demonstrated some of his amazing memory abilities. He believes that you should exercise the mind every day just like an athlete stretches his or her body regularly. To achieve the rank of World Memory Champion, you must be able to perform several superhuman feats. For example, you have to memorize 1,000 random digits in less than an hour, the exact order of 10 decks of shuffled playing cards, also in one hour, and one shuffled deck in less than...
