Sea Crest Health Care Center

By: Ruth Folger Weiss

My brother’s early morning email message was cryptic: “Bobbo, see Page 1 of The Wall St. Journal.” Not known for spouting endearments,and having received more than my share of ribbing for the moniker I chose when my children were delivering their’s,  I was curious to see what he was alluding to.

I still couldn’t understand why  friends and family had  seemed enormously tickled  by my creative appellation; winking at my proclivity for the ostensibly hip even when it came to my  morphing into grandparenthood.

So I indulged in what was a frisson of delight reading Anne Zimmerman’s Page 1 feature in the WSJ:
“A Grandma or Grandpa by Any Other Name is Just as Old”,  Boomers Want to Pick What Grandkids Call Them: Meet Glamma and Pap Doc

Here’s the affirmation I  needed that it wasn’t just a marketer’s need to brand myself, but a representative trend of Boomers to attempt to defy the gravitational pull of  aging and to put our imprimatur on everything related to our lives.  We’re deciding what fifty today looks like, and if that means being more physically fit and well-coiffed than anyone else in history, so be it.  We’re grateful and delighted our kids are having some more of the same, and love every moment of interaction with each amazing prodigy that is gifted our way  but we’ve  got to calibrate the perspective…and “Bobbo” is who’ve I’ve chosen to be to these wonderful children who happen to be our wonderful grandchildren.

Experts in the field of aging are not surprised that baby boomers are seeking creative ways to avoid wrinkly sounding labels. “That whole generation is reinventing old age,” says Tom Nelson, chief operating officer of AARP, formerly known as the American Association of Retired Persons.

AARP’s marketing department has had to devise new ways of talking to boomers so as not to alienate them by making them feel old. The association’s magazine was called Modern Maturity for decades and two years ago was renamed AARP The Magazine. “We have put some iconic boomers on the cover, and their take on aging and all the great work they are doing reflects how aging isn’t something that has to be dreaded,” Mr. Nelson says.

So not intentionally wishing to brand myself, this marketing executive was keenly aware that  cognitive association is deeply rooted in the names we choose and the mantles we wear.  Just didn’t realize that this Bobbo  was at the forefront of another revolution!

by Adele Weber

You knew it, and were just waiting for science to catch up. Coffee is good for you. For your brain. For your health. Overall, it’s the elixir of good health.

Scandinavian researchers followed the health of coffee consumers from middle to old age. The subjects were divided into three groups: low coffee drinker (0-2 cups), moderate (3-5), and heavy (more than 5 cups per day). 21 years later, 1,500 participants were examined for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. They found that “Moderate coffee drinkers had a 65%-70% decreased risk of dementia and a 62%-64% decreased risk of Alzheimer’s compared with low coffee drinkers.” Low coffee drinkers also scored higher for depression. Coffee drinking has also been associated with lower risk of Type 2 diabetes.

What is it about coffee that has such a salubrious effect on the health? Caffeine? Not quite. Tea, also a highly caffeinated beverage, didn’t produce a similar pattern of mental health in its drinkers. Perhaps it’s something else in the coffee that does it. Whatever it is, you now have a better reason to hang out at the coffee machine at work.

by Adele Weber

If it’s topical, the theory goes, it has fewer side effects than pills. Right?

Wrong.

Often overlooked, the side-effects of topical creams is more important than credited. Lidocaine is a topical numbing agent frequently used before mammograms. The cream is spread on the skin and allowed to absorb for 45 minutes. It is also used to dull pain from laser hair removal, or any other surgery covering a large amount of skin. Research studies found no side-effects; however, the clinical trial did not have enough of a sample size to account for rare and unusual side effects.

This became apparent when two women spread lidocaine and tetracaine on their legs, covered it in plastic, and left it for 45 minutes. They experiences seizures, fell into comas, and died.

Experts theorize that broken skin or elevated temperature might have raised the amount of the drug entering the bloodstream to toxic levels.

When using topical analgesic, use the minimum amount, and avoid broken skin.