Category Archives: Health

Age-Wise local activities

AgeWise King County has very useful newsletter about activities and presentations that are going on in our community. Click on any of the list if interested. Chair’s Corner: Refreshing News About the Aging Network Public Health: Increasing the Number of … Continue reading

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New Medicare cards are coming soon – things to know

Sent in by Barb Williams New Medicare cards are coming starting in April  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will start mailing redesigned Medicare cards to beneficiaries in Washington state after June 2018. The new card contains a … Continue reading

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The Slow Medicine Movement

What it you’re over 75 and seeing a doctor when a question about starting a statin comes up. She might note that your cholesterol is elevated. But is there a real benefit to starting a statin as a preventative?  The evidence … Continue reading

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Drugmakers want to overturn new law that lowers costs for beneficiaries

From http://www.agingkingcounty.org/ “Per our partners at the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4), next week we will know more about how the omnibus funding bill for FY2018 might impact aging programs and services.  As Congress continues to push up … Continue reading

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Lost for decades, the Alcoholics Anonymous original manuscript will be auctioned for millions

From the Washington Post: “The Alcoholics Anonymous book has stats most authors only dream of: more than 30 million copies sold. Translated into 67 languages. In 2012, the Library of Congress ranked it No. 10 in its top 25 “Books that Shaped America.” But … Continue reading

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Ezekiel Emanuel – “Are hospitals becoming obsolete?”

Ed Note: Ezekiel Emanuel (brother of Rahm), an academic Oncologist and Ethicist, writes in the NYT that our use of hospitals is declining.This may be so but costs seem to be ever rising as hospitals consolidate into mega-merges as is … Continue reading

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The industrialization of hospital care

Ed Note: The article below rang true to me. Our hospitals are where we are cared for by strangers in that our family physician seldom, if ever, visits. If we are readmitted, there’s a second group of strangers. None know … Continue reading

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Health Fair in Bellevue Saturday March 3rd

On Saturday March 3rd there will be a health fair for active seniors. Talks will include such things as vision, tremors, atrial fib and back pain. Also, there will be workshops on medications to avoid to prevents falls, tips for cooking … Continue reading

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New Shingles Vaccine Available

The new Shingles vaccine called Shingrix is now available in multiple pharmacies including Bartells. It is strongly recommended for us by the CDC. If you’ve known someone with complications of the Shingles, you’ll easily be convinced that the new vaccine … Continue reading

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Do microbes play an important role in Alzheimer’s?

Huge sums of money are being spent on developing drugs to prevent, delay or treat Alzheimer’s. The ones so far have very little if any benefit. So could this disease be linked to an infectious source? It took a long … Continue reading

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Rejection of the President’s 2019 budget proposal

Summary from AgingKingCounty: “The American Society on Aging (ASA) leadership firmly rejected President Trump’s 2019 budget proposal today, denouncing the bleak vision of the future envisioned by a budget that would mean even further erosion in standards of living for … Continue reading

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Fall prevention when on BP medications

Recently, you may have received an important message about the risk of falls and fractures  when adding new anti-hypertension medications. It importantly stresses the risk of falls and fractures in the first two weeks after adding additional anti-hypertensive therapy: see Antihypertension … Continue reading

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The end of sleep?

If we live to be 90, we may well have slept for 30 years. We really don’t know why we have to sleep, but we do know that sleep deprivation can cause all kinds of problems. Coffee and amphetamines can … Continue reading

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Would you encourage a kid to play football? Mike Ditka wouldn’t.

The Super Bowl today was a great game, no doubt about it. But 25 years from now, we might see this violent sport remembered as interesting but sad – an historical cultural oddity. “Mike Ditka, the head coach of the … Continue reading

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How (not) to talk to someone with advanced cancer

Kate Bowler is an assistant professor at Duke Divinity School, the author of “Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved.” She has been “terminal” (what does that mean any more?) with stage IV cancer but  her life … Continue reading

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“Doomsday Machine” by Daniel Ellsberg

Daniel Ellsberg narrowly escaped life imprisonment as a consequence of copying and leaking McNamara’s secret analysis of our long and failed efforts in Vietnam (as dramatized in “The Post” showing in theaters now). At 86, he’s still an activist – this time … Continue reading

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Is your CPAP on the shelf?

CPAP for moderate to severe sleep apnea can be life saving. You may need some help and coaching to make it work well. The biggest problem is the interface – how to connect the machine to your nose or mouth. … Continue reading

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Grief

Just as loss becomes more acute with aging, grief tags along affecting us all in waves varying over time depending on the circumstances. The New York Times has a worthwhile article stating: “Although many of us are able to speak … Continue reading

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“WeCroak”

I’m somewhat shocked about this one, an app for your phone reminding us 5 times a day that we’re going to die. Wow. I felt like death was my constant companion when I was in Critical Care Medicine where mortality was … Continue reading

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Note from American Society on Aging (ASA)

“ASA cheers last night’s passage in the U.S. Senate of the Recognize, Assist, Include, Support and Engage (RAISE) Family Caregivers Act, which aims to examine new strategies for supporting family caregivers throughout the country, where they make it possible for … Continue reading

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Skyline presentation: “Genetic Engineering – from virus to people”

 

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The Family That Built an Empire of Pain

The New Yorker has a lengthy feature article about the Sackler family. You might say, “Who are they?” Staying definitely under the radar, this wealthy dynasty (with fortunes greater than the Rockefellers) own and operate Purdue Pharma, the company largely responsible … Continue reading

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‘Sometimes inspiration for big ideas comes from really unexpected places’

 

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The Ethics of the DNR Tatoo

LINDSEY BEVER, THE WASHINGTON POST 1 DEC 2017 Doctors in Miami faced an unusual ethical dilemma when an unconscious, deteriorating patient was brought into the emergency room with the words “Do Not Resuscitate” across his chest. The 70-year-old man was taken earlier this … Continue reading

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When the cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are complete

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